Page 140 of Finding Hayes
“She wants to buy an old house here in town and fix it up, which means King and Nash and Savvy will be donating a shit-ton of time.” River barked out a laugh. “Give these kids a place to go after they leave juvenile detention. They don’t all have families waiting for them. She wants to offer another option outside of foster care.”
“We’ve already told her we’re all in. Whatever she needs,” Kingston said.
“And you two will be offering up big muscles to help out,” Nash said, looking at me and Romeo, and we nodded.
Hell, she wouldn’t even need to ask.
“I’d be happy to contribute,” Easton said. “I could talk to myfirm, see if they’d make a donation.”
“That would be great, man. Thank you. She’s getting all the paperwork filled out now. Savvy offered to decorate the place, and she thought she could get a lot of the furniture donated from local stores,” River said. “And Emerson offered free medical evaluations when they first arrive at the house. Saylor is going to reach out to a bunch of bookstores to see if they’d donate age-appropriate books. And Demi said she’d do a weekly breakfast at the house donated by Magnolia Beans.”
“Damn. You guys don’t mess around here. You’re all so quick to jump on board. I love it,” Easton said.
“You’ve got a lot going on back home, too.” Nash stretched his legs out in front of him, crossing them at the ankles. “You’ve expanded the office in Rosewood River, and you’re running the show, right? You think that’s your final hoop to jump through to make partner at the firm?”
Easton was a badass lawyer. Nash had told us stories about the way he’d made a name for himself in the courtroom.
“Yeah. I commute to the city for trials, but it’s nice having an office outside of the city. The partners wanted to downsize the huge office space we had downtown, as a lot of people who work for the firm live outside the city anyway, so in reality, it was fiscally a good move to expand the office there.”
“And this was your idea, right?” Nash smirked. “That has to earn you brownie points.”
“We’ll see. Charles Holloway’s father founded the firm, and he likes to dangle the carrot over my head. Most of the partners are getting older now and will be retiring soon, so he needs to bring in some new blood.” Easton shrugged.
“Sounds like you’ve got it in the bag,” River said.
“We’ll see. He just dropped some bullshit bomb on me this week that I’m not thrilled about.”
“Yeah, Em told me that he’s making you mentor his daughter?” Nash said, and he quickly covered his laugh with a cough.
“It’s not fucking funny, dude. I’ve won more cases for our firm than any of the partners there, and now he wants to make me a babysitter?” Easton shook his head in disgust. “She just graduated from law school, so she has zero experience. He’s clearly testing my patience. But I’ve got a high tolerance for bullshit.”
“What will you do?” I asked.
“I will not be going easy on her just because her daddy is a founding partner. I’ll make her work just like anyone else would have to. My guess is she’ll be running for the door within a few weeks.” He smirked. “If you can’t handle the heat, get the fuck out of the kitchen, right?”
“Sounds like you’ve got a good plan in place,” Kingston said.
“Always do.” Easton pushed to his feet and asked who needed another beer before jogging into the house for refills.
We sat there shooting the shit for another hour before Kingston got the fireworks show up and ready. We all pulled our chairs down by the water, and Nash got the music going, and we watched the best light display we’d seen to date.
“Uncle Hayes, do you think the twins will like chocolate milk like I do?” Cutler asked, as he stood next to my chair where Savannah sat on my lap.
“I think they’ll look up to you to tell them what’s good and what’s bad.” I ran my hand over the top of his hair.
The kid who had truly taught all of us how to be a father. How to love fiercely. How to show up for the people you cared about.
This kid is all of ours.
And the thought that Emerson would officially get to be his mother was the way it should be. I knew he’d wanted it. Craved that maternal person in his life.
“I’m going to tell them everything. I’ll teach baby Hayes and Uncle King and Aunt Saylor’s little boy how to swim and play baseball. I’ll teach the twins how to make unicorn Krispies like my mama does.”
He’d started calling Emerson mama on Mother’s Day, and every time he said it, I saw the way it affected her. She loved him as her own, and he felt that.
We all felt it.
“These kids are going to be lucky to have you to look up to,” Kingston said, as he kissed Saylor’s cheek where she sat on his lap.
