Page 105 of The Foul Out

“This is so cool.” Sam darted for the red candy dispenser. It looked just like the kind of machines lined up at a grocery store.

“You bought that for them?” I asked, frowning.

Kyle was pretty careful with sweets. Although he indulged Sam a little, he kept to Piper’s diet strictly, so it seemed so odd.

Stuffing his hands into his pockets, he chuckled uncomfortably. “Actually, I already had those. I just had them moved.”

I shook my head. I should have guessed. The man did have a sweet tooth, and clearly, he had too much money to spend on frivolous things.

“One is filled with baseball M&M’s, but I swear it’s not all candy.” He tapped one compartment. “This one is gumballs.” He tapped a second. “And this one is full of those cool sticky hands that always get stuck on the ceiling.”

“I love those,” Sam announced, peeking through the machine’s glass. “Look. A blue one. Blue’s my favorite.”

“Me too,” Kyle agreed, his lips quirking up on one side. “And this one is light-up bouncy balls. When I did my practicum,” he said, “the, uh, internship before I got my master’s degree”—he ducked his head when he caught me watching him—“the woman I trained under had one for the kids she saw. She’d give them quarters on good days, and they could use them for prizes. They loved it, so I thought I’d get one when I open up my practice.”

“But rather than wait until then, you bought it right away,” I teased.

That sounded like Kyle. One hundred percent in on an idea once he decided he wanted to do it. It was one of many traits that made him so reliable.

“Where do I get quarters?” Sam asked, jumping up and down.

Kyle was watching Piper, who was rapidly blinking in the unfamiliar space, his hands still in his pockets, his face a mask of apprehension.

“We can grab some in a minute,” he said, making a point to focus solely on Sam for a moment. “I want to show you guys therest of my place first.” Then he took a step closer to Piper. “Hey, Pipe, let me show you this area.” He walked down the hallway toward his room, but instead of going to the end, where the master was, he stopped at the first door. “Sam, you can check out the room across from this one.”

He opened the door and flipped on the light.

When the sight registered, I gasped. One quarter of the room was a replica of Piper’s bedroom at home. The bins at the end of her bed. The dresser with the flower drawer pulls. Even the white headboard with his poster above it, the baseball sheets, and the Boston Revs weighted blanket. The beanbag chair she loved was next to a bookshelf and a table.

“You set up a room here for her?” I asked, my chest so tight the words were barely audible.

Unlike me, Piper wasn’t shocked. No, she happily shuffled to her big beanbag and plopped onto it. Then she reached for the blue headphones that sat on the small table beside it. Once they were over her ears, she closed her eyes, and I swore she almost smiled. The rest of the space was set up like an occupational therapy room. A ball pit, a mini trampoline, mats in a variety of shapes, a big exercise ball, a marble wall, and some kind of rollers big enough for a child to crawl between. As well as a table and chairs that sat in the far corner.

“I want her to feel comfortable here.” He sighed. “I knew the differences between your place and mine would overwhelm her. This way.” He pointed to her in her beanbag chair. “She can ease her way into being at my house.”

I pressed my hand over my heart. “You’re?—”

“The lunatic you’ve been waiting for?” he asked with a hopeful lift to his lips.

Giggling, I kissed his cheek. “Something like that.”

“Mom, this is so cool,” Sam shouted. “Come here.”

Swallowing back my emotion, I stepped across the hall, where Sam was rushing down a slide from a bunked fort. This room was every boy’s dream. A full-on jungle gym, including a swing mounted to one wall. And the fort with the slide was actually a bed. He had a gaming area with chairs and another play zone with a rock-climbing wall.

“Jeez, Kyle. They’ll never want to leave now.”

He came up behind me and pulled me against his chest. “That’s what I’m hoping for. I want you all here as often as I can have you. Hell, if you moved in, I’d be thrilled.”

“Stop messing around.” Head lowered, I gave it a shake. “You can’t mean that.”

The main door slammed, interrupting our conversation. “I got food,” Cam called.

“Uncle Cam,” Sam shouted. “You gots to come see this.”

Cam appeared in the hall and peered around us.

“Did you know this was here?” Sam asked.

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