Page 22 of Back To Our Beginning

“It started out great. I suppose that’s why when it turned out so awful, it seemed really, really awful. Ya know?”

He nodded slowly. “I know exactly what you’re saying.”

Just looking at him, I could tell he did. I’d looked up Marine Raiders and realized he was in Special Operations. Kind of like a Navy SEAL. They did the really tough stuff. My guess was, he’d seen and done some really harrowing things. It probably made my stuff seem like small potatoes.

“Beau, you’ve been in war, right?”

His expression changed. Turned harder and a little bit cautious. He nodded.

“I don’t intend to ask anything. I’m just saying, my shitty day doesn’t probably even come close to your easiest day. So why should I vent?”

He reached over and covered my hand with his. “You matter, Maddie. What you do matters. The kids you work with matter, and I want to hear about your day.”

Aw hell, he’s making me melt.

“The good news? I started out with a quick visit to check on Eli.”

“He’s with those good foster parents you told me about, right? Nate and Fran Patterson.”

I looked at him in awe. “You remember their names?”

“I remember what’s important.” Beau nodded. “So that was the good part of the day, then what?”

“I had to do some follow-ups. Those are where I see if a parent has cleaned up their act. Is the house dirty? Is there food? Sometimes I’ll check in with the child’s school. Things like that. I had five of those calls.”

“Isn’t that a lot?”

“No. The system is overloaded. Five follow-ups are normal. Then I had to check in on two foster families who were fostering some of my kids. One wasn’t there, even though they were supposed to be. The yard had two cars up on blocks.”

“The yard?”

“Yep, the yard. Not the driveway. The driveway was all torn up. Don’t ask me why. All in all, this did not look good. I took pictures so I could ask the person who had originally certified this foster family, if this is how the house originally looked.”

“Eat,” Beau said. He pushed my plate closer.

I shook my head at him, but reluctantly grinned. I figured I better eat before I started talking about the Hollister kids.

When I’d finish a bite, he’d push my soda toward me.

I could get used to this.

When I was finished, he looked at me. “Now tell me.”

“There are three kids. Bobby is ten, his two younger siblings are seven and six. They got placed with the Farleys three months ago. I just got assigned to them two days ago. I went for my first site visit today. Mrs. Farley didn’t want to let me inside. She said that the children were at school.”

“What time were you visiting?”

I scowled. “Six PM.”

“So, she’s a bright one.”

“Yep. Anyway, I pointed that out to her, and she explained they were at a school function, but she couldn’t remember what. I said I still needed to come in and inspect the place. I explained that was part of my job.”

“The kids were there?”

“Boy, you’re smart.”

“I have my moments,” Beau said bashfully.