Page 56 of For the Love of the Lawyer

"Hi, Angel.” Jon grinned when he saw a bit of jam on her chin after she climbed up on the bed to sit next to him.

"Terry made me toast. I like your jelly. There's a man in there who came in with a key. He talks funny.” Jon knew it could only be Mickey. He'd given him the key before he left on Sunday night, begging him to use it anytime he could get away.

Jon hopped up from his bed adjusting his sleep pants and T-shirt, in dire need of the bathroom before his bladder ruptured. As he headed toward the ensuite bathroom, he turned to the girl. "Stay there, Meggie. I'll be right back."

After he quickly did his morning business, he walked out of the bathroom to see the child still sitting on the bed with a shy smile on her face. She was the most beautiful little girl he'd ever seen in his life.

"Let's go see who the man is.” He picked her up and carried her downstairs, not surprised to see his boyfriend sitting at the counter with Terrence giving him the evil eye. When Mickey caught Jon’s gaze, he laughed.

"Finally. I was afraid this kid was gonna kick my aaa…rear. Thank ya for comin' around, counselor. You called, and I'm here. Who's this pretty girl?" Jon placed Megan on the counter.

"This is Megan, a client, and this is Terry, another client. I truly appreciate you coming to help me out, my love.” Jon kissed Mickey gently on his lips.

"Oh, fuck, no," Terrence muttered. Jon exhaled, knowing he'd have to call Cece because he wasn't about to dismiss his boyfriend because the kid was homophobic.

Mickey pulled away and looked at the boy. "What exactly has you pissed off, young man, if I can ask?"

Megan crawled over the counter to Terry and pulled on his T-shirt until he picked her up. He held her on his lap, but Jon could see the boy was itching for a fight. "You know, right, we're not gonna hurt either one of you. We love each other, and we onlywant to help the two of you.” Maybe Jon’s assurance that they weren’t in danger would defuse the situation a bit.

Megan turned Terry's face to hers, and she smiled that smile Jon had seen at the courthouse the previous day. It was the one that sucked him in. "They're not bad, Terry. They want to take care of us, and we need somebody to take care of us, right?" The little girl tilted her curl-covered head and batted her eyes at the boy. Jon couldn’t tell if she knew the power the look held or if it was just luck.

Mickey's low chuckle brought Jon comfort. "Why, we wouldn't hurt a fly, Little Bit. I'm a cowboy, so it's not in my nature to hurt anything or anybody.” Mickey response as he stared at the little girl with his lopsided grin gave Jon’s heart wings.

Later, Mickey settled his things into Jon's room, and after the cowboy made pancakes and bacon for the group, Jon knew for a fact Mickey had won over the pair. He'd promised them a trip to the Circle C to meet Ryan and Rocky, along with riding lessons and baby calves to bottle feed, which brought a great laugh from Megan.

The next weekend was the weekend of the wedding, but Mickey promised they'd have a great time, and Jon knew in his heart the man he loved meant exactly what he'd promised.

Having two new people in his life who were now his responsibility was totally unexpected, but like he'd told Mickey when he'd mentioned tracking down his parents, life went by much too fast. Living every day to the fullest was the only way to ensure a life wasn't wasted.

Jon was ready for anything that came his way—more or less. He loved Mickey, and he knew they'd have a wonderful life together. He'd fight for it every single day, and if it included a beautiful little girl and a teenage boy, then all the better.

Chapter Twenty-one

On the drive out to Holloway, Jon thought about the previous week, and while everything hadn't been perfect, it was a very good start. The new, quasi-family was on its way to the ranch for the wedding, and Jon was excited for the kids to meet the people he considered to be his new family.

Meeting his parents would come next week because they'd been out of town when everything went down, but they were expected to be back from Italy on Wednesday. His mother wanted to cut the vacation short when he'd phoned to explain about Terrence and Megan, but he'd put his foot down and told her there would be plenty of time for Ally to get to know the kids when she and Ham returned home. He couldn't help but feel maybe he needed more time with the kids on his own before his parents—his mother, namely—came steamrolling into their lives. She could be a handful.

As he pulled up the long driveway, Jon knew he needed to say something to the kids, so he cleared his throat, feeling nervous again. "Okay, there will be a lot of people here even I don't know, but Mickey's here so we'll be okay, right?"

Jon hoped he was conveying comfort and not making them as nervous as he was feeling. When Mickey was with him, he had a lot of confidence regarding the kids and their well-being, but on his own, he was a babbling mess.

Mickey had stayed with them most of the week so Jon could arrange to take some time off work to help settle the kids, which was a problem because apparently, Audrey had decided it was a good time to take off to Mexico for a vacation without any prior notice. Jon was covering both of their dockets and trying to keep things on an even keel at home.

It was a lot to juggle, and if he didn't have Karen Stubbs, he wasn't sure what he'd have done. She'd redirected projects to other associates when she could and only bothered Jon when it was absolutely necessary. He'd be eternally grateful for her kindness.

Between fielding phone calls for his docket and Audrey's, Jon and Mickey had taken the kids shopping. Megan needed bedding for her new room, and after she picked it out and told Jon purple was the only choice, the two men promised to get some paint andpaint the room for her, which seemed to please her. The purple walls would match her new Little Mermaid bedding, and she was anxious to get the painting underway.

Terrence, however, was another story. He didn't want anything to do with Jon or Mickey, really. The teen definitely had compassion inside him, because he was proving to be protective of Megan, but when Jon or Mickey had asked his opinion on bedding and clothes for himself, he simply grunted and looked anywhere other than at the two older men. Jon wasn't sure if it was the gay thing or if it was just too much change, too soon, for a young man who hadn’t had a guiding hand in his life.

Cece had explained some things about Terrence to Jon at the courthouse while they waited to appear before Judge Mattucik the afternoon Jon was granted temporary custody of Megan.

"Terrence is hard-hearted. He was picked up as a runaway, and to date, he hasn't been reported missing. He wouldn't tell us anything more about himself than his name. We’re not even sure if it's real because we can't find a record of his birth in any of the databases. I'm not sure what happened to him before he came to Richmond, but I know you'll be able to be a good role model for him, Jon.” He knew she was bullshitting him to get him to take the boy, but he didn't take her encouragement lightly.

Cece went on to explain to him about Terrence's previous arrests on several charges of vandalism, the last being tagging a cop car parked on the lot of a strip mall while the police officers were inside a small café getting coffee. The large donut he painted on the hood of the cop car didn't win the policemen's affection—even with the blue sprinkles the boy had added—and since it wasn't Terrence’s first arrest for vandalism, he'd been taken into custody from the group home and housed at a juvenile facility.

Cece had been able to work the system to have the boy released into Jon's temporary custody, though Jon prayed he was never questioned under oath about her methods. Jon agreed to get the boy into counseling and enroll him in an intensive deterrent program developed with inmates at the local corrections facility to scare the delinquents straight. Jon was pretty sure it wouldn't impress Terrence, but he planned to set up the counselor as soon as the wedding weekend was over.

"Sure, Mr. Jon. We'll be fine, won't we Terry?" Megan asked from her new booster seat in the cramped back seat of the Mercedes coupe. It was one of many new things which had suddenly invaded Jon's life.

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