Page 8 of Subtracting the Heart

The boy dried his eyes and looked up at them, glaring from one to the other. “Wait, I thought you were my brother’s boyfriend. You two-timin’ him with this big baboon?”

Ford laughed, which made Jax want to slap him in the head, but there was something the kid needed to know. He wasn’t sure it was their place to tell the boy, but it was likely more dangerous if he was left in the dark until Cade got to their place when he finished work that evening.

“Thanks for the compliment, kid, but nobody’s two-timin’ anybody. We both love Kincade, and I believe he still loves both of us. We had a misunderstanding a few months ago, but I think,” Jax turned and Ford nodded, “that’s been explained. We’re hoping to get him to move in here with us. Now, that’s enough talk. Let’s go get some cookies and milk from Miss Winnie, and I’ll challenge you to a game of your choosing.” The boy wiped his eyes and placed the handkerchief on the coffee table staring at both men. Jax smirked.

“You’re not perverts, are you? I’ve heard about guys who try to lure kids into basements and shit where they make ’em have sex and sell videos of it on the internet. Unless you got a kid, I don’t get why you got video games and shit in a media room.” Ash was skeptical, which wasn’t a bad thing.

“We don’t have a kid, and we’re not trafficking kids or making kiddie porn. Jax is more like a kid than anyone I know, which is why we have the media room and all the gaming equipment.” Ford was pissed.

“Hey!I study game film in there while you’re at work.” Jax smirked.

When Ford laughed, he gently punched him in the shoulder. The only marks he’d leave on his two loves were the sucking, biting kind, and they wouldn’t be where others could see them.

“Game film? What kind of game?” Ash was an inquisitive guy.

Ford got a laugh out of that one. “Seems you’re not famous with the middle-school set, Cajun. Awe… there goes that ego down a notch.”

Jax laughed as he walked toward the kitchen. Yeah, he liked the kid, too. For not having been raised with Kincade, the boy had that fire about him. Unfortunately, the only parent they had in common was Hudson Hayes, but one shouldn’t be judged on their family alone. Jackson knew that lesson from experience.

Chapter Four

Cade

Cade had Roberta Stubbe set up in the office behind the front desk. She was going to hang around while he called his father to see what was going on regarding Ashton.

Roberta also wanted to check on a couple of kids who were currently at the shelter. She didn’t want to put them into the system yet, “…hoping to take advantage of the fact it’s Christmastime and maybe I can get them to call home. I’ll never stop trying to reunite families, Kincade. The love of family is a hard thing to give up,” she’d told him. He knew how right she was on that count.

As Cade went down the back hallway to gather the two sixteen-year-olds, Jake and Benny, he considered the social worker’s words on reuniting families. It was then he decided not to contact his father, but Ashton’s mother instead. Surely, she loved her son and wanted to know his whereabouts. Ash had been gone overnight, after all.

Cade went into the huge common room to find Jake with a dust cloth as Benny swept the old Masonite floor with a broom. They’d moved furniture around, which was a surprise.

“Hey, guys, what’s going on?” He slipped his hands into the front pockets of his jeans.

“Hi, Cade. Sammy said he was going to bring a tree with him tonight, along with some ornaments. We’re gonna make popcorn and string it to hang, along with cranberries,” Benny told him.

“So, you guys plan to stick around then?” Both boys nodded.

“Okay, well, I need you to go out to the reception area to talk to Mrs. Stubbe. She’ll have to approve it for you to be here through the holidays. If she says okay, we’ll arrange to move you into the attic room, which has a private bathroom. You two were kicked out because you’re together, right?” Cade knew by the looks on their faces, he’d guessed right.

Jake lowered his head and blushed, but Benny, being the more outgoing of the two, walked over to him and wrapped an arm around Jake’s shoulders. “One year on New Year’s Eve.” Benny made the declaration with pride.

Cade chuckled. “Well, we’ll have a little party, okay? I’ll be here full-time over the holidays, and we’ll celebrate. Anyway, go talk to Mrs. Stubbe. She’s nice, so don’t give her any trouble, and hear her out, okay?”

They nodded as they quickly finished their tasks and put away their tools. Cade proceeded to the kitchen to see Bev, the cook, and assistant day monitor.

The woman was admirable—more than nearly any other person Cade had ever met, his mother aside. Bev had two adopted sons, along with her partner, Regina. He’d met her family at Thanksgiving.

In Cade’s mind, he’d never be able to have children of his own, nor would he be able to adopt if he was in a relationship with two men, but the kids he met through Clark Street needed him. Keeping them in mind, it didn’t seem his future would be as bleak as he’d imagined a week before…only if he went along with being adopted by Jax and Ford as they’d suggested.

He’d need to do his own research into adult adoption, but that was for another time. Currently, he had a little brother he was worried about.

After lunch, Roberta left, and Cade went to his office to research Ashton’s mother, Cheryl. He didn’t remember her last name, so he simply looked for his father’s home address which wasn’t as hard to find as he’d expected.

When he called the number, a young girl answered. “Hello?” It was his little sister, Amy.

If Ashton was thirteen, then Amy must be eleven or twelve. Cade didn’t remember how old she was when they’d first met, but he figured her to be four or five back then… seven years ago.

Amy and Ashton had stayed away from him that weekend, only coming out of their rooms for food. Cade hadn’t been interested in getting to know them either.

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