Page 25 of Lick

“Liar!” Ryder yells as he gets up and charges towards Lick. “She’s just gone! She’s not dead.” I think he’s going to try to take a swing, but once his hand comes around, Lick grabs it and uses Ryder’s momentum to wrap his arm around him, pinning his back to Lick’s chest. “She’s just gone.” Angry sobs leave his chest. As tears roll down his face. Roxy throws herself into me, wrapping her arms around my neck. Ryder grunts and fights Lick for control, but it’s no use. Ryder’s no match for his uncle.

“It’s true.”

“No,” Ryder spits.

“You need to settle down, boy. I don’t want to hurt you, but you need to settle that ass. Now.” I can tell Lick tightens his grip until Ryder calms down. His chest is still heaving, but the fight is leaving his body. Emotions rip through him, leaving him still. Broken.

Fucking shit.

This kid is wild and angry. So fucking angry. He tosses his body against mine, acting like his skinny ass is gonna break away from me. Fuck no. When I apply more pressure around his rib cage, he relaxes a bit and his temper begins to simmer. I can feel his chest swell with each deep breath and that’s what I want. I need this kid to slow his breathing so he can get his emotions under control.

“You good?” I ask quietly. He nods his head slowly. I’m not reassured, but I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt. I loosen my hold, and he does nothing to retaliate.

“I know this is hard,” Jenni says as she continues to soothe a crying Roxy. “I know this is a lot for you two to take in. This isn’t something any child should have to deal with, but you aren’t alone.”

“Aren’t we?” Ryder asks. “We’ve never met him before.” He throws his thumb in Lick’s direction. “Mom’s never tried to reach out to anyone. It’s always been the three of us. So how are we not alone?”

“Because you have family now,” Jenni tells him.

Lies. She’s spouting lies, and I can’t stand it. She seriously needs to take a fucking hint and stop this nonsense about family bullshit.

I swallow the guilt. Just a few days ago, I was standing in front of my father, promising to find his grandchildren and now that I have, the first thing that’s on my mind is how to ‘un-find’ them. I don’t have time for this shit. I wasn’t fucking joking when I told my sister all those year ago I wasn’t up to having kids, and I’m not gonna start now.

“Thank you for informing the children about their mother. We like that sort of news to be given to them by their family and not by a stranger, though the news is hard either way,” Maggie says as she sets a milk crate on the table in front of her.

There wasn’t much more to say to the kids once I told them what they needed to hear. I wasn’t gonna sugar coat shit. I don’t believe in covering up the darkness with some sunshine shit. What’s the fucking point to that? Why try to shine the shit because even after all your hard work, it’s still shit. People gotta take the hand they’re dealt and deal with it. Accept it and push past it. Move the fuck on.

My sister is dead. Their mother is dead.

No need to make it look pretty.

“I wish it was said a little bit different.” Jenni cuts her eyes to me. I know she doesn’t like how I handled it, but fuck that. It needed to be said.

“There’s no reason for it to be said any different. It doesn’t change the meaning, so I did what I thought needed to be done. Now it’s over and we can move the fuck on.”

“Yes, speaking of that,” Maggie starts, “I’m not sure if you’re aware or not, but once the children were brought in, we had a court liaison go over to the apartment building where they were staying with their mother. We like to be able to gather anything the kids might want like stuffed animals and photos, but the apartment manager had already cleaned the place out. Evidently, your sister was behind on rent.”

“Shocker,” I tell her.

“We were able to gather a few pieces of clothing and a couple of toys, but not much. The children didn’t really have much of anything.” She points to the plastic crate on the table. “This is the last of your sister’s personal belongings that were collected by the apartment manager. I thought you’d like to take it with you.”

“You thought wrong–”

“Thank you, Maggie.” Jenni grabs the crate and sets it next to her.

“Okay, that’s done. We’re going to need you to sign a few forms. I’m going to need proof of residence, and income.” She set down a stack of papers. “Once these are filled out, I’m going to need to run a background check.” She briefly regards me. “That won’t be a problem, right? This can be temporary or permanent. We don’t need to make any decisions now, but we do like to see all children placed permanently with family.”

“Wait a second.”

She continues to lay white sheet after white sheet on the table in front of me.

“I said wait the fucking second,” I growl, causing her to pull her hand back and give me a hardened glare.

“Tylan–” Jenni scoots up in her chair.

“No.” I point my finger towards her. “Don’t Tylan me.”

“What’s the problem?” Maggie asks.