“You?” Wyn finally said.
“I know it’s not practical. I’m not a certified foster parent or anything. But these are unique circumstances. These boys lost their father, who gave his life serving our country. We have an obligation to take care of them, don’t we? Surely this case merits an exception to the rules.”
She gripped the phone tighter. She was out of her mind. She had to be. This made no sense, yet here she was arguing her cause like a seasoned attorney. “I have a huge house with plenty of room. I can provide a safe, warm, comfortable place for them to stay for a few weeks, where they can continue on with their friends and school, until you can find something more permanent.”
“It definitely is an intriguing idea, one I hadn’t even considered. Are you sure about this, Julia?”
Far from it. She hadn’t been less sure about anything in a long time. But she couldn’t shake the sense of obligation she felt for those two lost little boys. She wasn’t responsible for their predicament; she was only the one who had discovered and reported it. She understood that intellectually, but she couldn’t shake the image of Clint the night before.
This is your fault, he had snarled, accusation in his eyes and his fists balled.
It wasn’t. She knew that. Like it or not, though, she had a connection to them now. Besides, they were alone in the world right now, something she understood too well.
“I wouldn’t have suggested it if I didn’t mean it,” she said briskly. “I have the room and I want to help. I’m involved in this and have been since they started using my library as their safe haven. I don’t feel right about standing by and doing nothing while they are split up, especially if I have the ability to help. No matter how good the separate placements might be, I feel strongly that these boys need each other.”
“These are two young boys who have already had a rough time. It’s not like taking on a couple of stray puppies.”
“I understand.”
“I hope you do. I can’t even guarantee how long it might take until we can find the mother or the uncle and aunt they’ve talked about—or until we can locate a different foster placement. It could be weeks.”
“That’s fine,” she said. “Do you think it’s even possible, considering I’m not a relative or a certified foster parent?”
“It’s possible. It’s definitely possible.” From her initial shock, Wyn’s tone began to take on a growing enthusiasm. “I would have to pull some strings. It won’t be easy, but maybe, just maybe, we can swing it—at least on a temporary basis through the holidays. Because you work with children at the library, you already would have gone through the necessary background checks, security clearances, fingerprints, etc. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes. My background check was just renewed a few months ago.”
“Perfect. That definitely will stand in our favor. Give me an hour or so to talk to the powers that be and see what we can work out.”
“Okay.”
Now that the option was out there on the table, her hands were shaking, she realized, and her stomach jumped with nerves. Even so, she was also aware of a bubbling sense of anticipation that had been missing from her world for a long time.
“I can’t believe you’re willing to do this, but I have to tell you, I like this idea so much better than the alternative,” Wyn said. Julia could hear audible relief in her friend’s voice. “I always knew you were an angel. This just proves it.”
Julia wasn’t so sure of that. After she and Wynona severed the connection, with Wyn’s promise to call her as soon as she knew anything, Julia gazed off into space, unable to find comfort from the stacks of books that surrounded her.
Now that the adrenaline rush of taking such a huge chance had begun to fade, all her doubts rushed back.
What did she know about making a home for two little boys? And right before Thanksgiving, too!
She had to be crazy. This was the stupidest thing she had ever done, and was destined to end in disaster. The boys would hate her. She was sure to screw up, would probably scar them for life...
She caught herself before the wheel of negative self-talk could totally carry her away. She couldn’t lose sight of two boys who needed help, who needed a home. She had the ability to make a real difference in their lives. This wasn’t some token effort. Serving at the nursing home or making crafts with the Helping Hands was all for the good. This was something real—opening her home, her life, to two boys who needed her.
As long as she kept that in mind, she could handle anything.
* * *
THIS WAS GOING to be an utter nightmare.
Davy and Clinton were staring at her as if she were a Dementor, a Heffalump and an orc rolled into one.
“No!” Clinton exclaimed. “You didn’t tell us we were coming to her house. We don’t want to stay with her! You can’t make us.”
He turned back to the door, but Wynona placed a hand on his shoulder. “Why would you say that? This is a beautiful house, and Julia is one of the nicest people I know. And look! She has cats!”
That might not have been the most effective argument, since all three cats were perched on the back of the sofa, watching the proceedings with various expressions of disinterest.
“I like cats,” Davy said. He looked at his brother uncertainly. Julia hadn’t missed the smile that lit up the younger boy’s expression when he walked into her house and spotted her, but that smile had quickly dripped away in the face of his brother’s objections.
“So what if she has cats? She tricked us, Davy! If she hadn’t stuck her sneaky nose in our business, we would still be at home. She made us think she was nice, but then she called child welfare and now they’re trying to split us up.”
“Not unless we have to,” Wyn said. “That’s the whole reason you’re here. Miss Winston has agreed to take you in temporarily so you can stay together. We don’t have a lot of other options here, kiddo.”
“I didn’t want you to have to move away from Haven Point either,” Julia said. “You told me how well you are doing in school, and I hated the idea that you would have to start over with new teachers and classrooms.”
Davy gave her a half smile, then quickly hid it when Clinton glared. “You should have minded your business. We were doing fine. I was taking care of Davy. He wasn’t going hungry, was he?”
“You’re a wonderful brother, Clint,” she said softly. “Nobody is saying otherwise. I can’t believe how well you watched out for Davy, all on your own.”
Though she might not ever have proof, Julia sensed that while their mother had been missing for less than a week, the older boy had been watching out for his brother far longer than that.
“Here’s the thing,” she went on. “You’re only eight years old. It shouldn’t be your job to make sandwiches and tuck him in and help him get ready for school. Right now your job is to go to school and play with your friends and have fun being eight years old.”
He opened his mouth to answer but apparently couldn’t think of anything to say, because he clamped his jaws closed again and looked down at the ground.
“If you and Davy want to stick together, you need to give Julia a chance,” Wynona said.
“I want to go home,” Clint muttered.
“That’s not an option right now,” Wyn said gently. “You understand that, don’t you?”
Clinton crossed his arms across his chest and stuck out his chin, plainly not happy with that answer.
Wyn’s phone rang, and she glanced down at the caller ID with a harried expression. “This