Page 6 of Guardian Daddy

“Who can’t come? Your guy? I look forward to meeting him,” Seth said cheerfully.

They all gave him alarmed looks.

“Argh, that likely won’t happen. He’s private,” Brody said.

“One could say shy.” Ink grinned.

“Oh. You know, I don’t even know his name,” Seth mused.

Yeah. There was a reason for that.

“You don’t, well, um, huh. It’s Fred,” Brody blurted out. Then he closed his eyes for a moment. It was obvious he didn’t mean to say that.

Ethan felt a pang of discomfort for the poor guy.

“Fred? Okay. Cool.” Seth looked a bit confused. Probably because Brody was the shade of an overly-ripe tomato.

“He said that you won’t even know he’s there,” Brody told Ink. “He’ll bring Autumn and make it a holiday.” Brody rubbed at his chest. “It’s that or it’s a no.”

“How will he even get there?” Ethan asked, guessing that the Fox wouldn’t be flying economy.

Ink sighed. “I’m sure he has his ways.”

“You’re talking about this guy like he’s . . . I don’t know, Batman or something,” Seth said.

“Close,” Brody said. Then he grinned as he read something on his phone.

“So you’re coming too?” Ethan asked Ink.

“I can only spare a few days. With Royal and Baron at college, I don’t like leaving Betsy on her own for too long. But also, uh, we’ve decided to become foster parents.”

Wow.

“Really, man? That’s awesome!” Brody said with a huge grin.

Ink smiled. “Thanks. We’ve had all the assessments done and we’ve been approved. We even know that our first foster child is going to be a little girl.”

Ink looked slightly ill at that, and Ethan had to grin. “A girl? That’s going to be different from the boys.”

“Tell me about it. Baron and Royal are already discussing all the ways they’re going to be the best big brothers. Poor kid. That’s if she wants to stay with us. She didn’t work out with her last family. She threatened to cut her foster father with a knife.”

“Uhhh, I don’t know what to say to that,” Seth said.

“The Fo . . . I mean, he said that she sounds like his kind of kid and where can he get one?” Brody blinked at his phone as though just processing what he’d said. “Holy heck balls. He wants a kid?”

“Wait. Can he hear us?” Ink demanded, leaning forward and putting his hands on the table.

Brody blinked up at him. “You know he’s got cameras here.”

“In the meeting room?” Ink asked, running his hand down his face.

Brody glanced at his phone as it buzzed. “He said, yes. Also, he wants to know why she threatened to cut her foster dad.”

Ink’s face grew serious. “I don’t know. But I want to find out what happened.”

“He wants the name of the foster father, so he can do some research.”

“Tell him that he needs to stay out of this. She’s my kid!” Ink glanced around. “Stay out.”

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