Page 47 of Can't Get Over You
Wyatt.
And his dad.
The knot in his chest eased. He didn’t have to do any of this alone. He had his family.
Damn, he’d missed them.
As soon as he entered the kitchen, his dad said, “Meeting called. Let’s go.”
As they trooped toward the pantry, Jude said, “Cody said she was talking to a guy. Did her ex stop by?”
His dad shook his head. “That was Wyatt.”
But as they filed into the pantry, he got that weird tug again to see her. “Give me a second. I want to check on them.”
“They’re fine,” Boone said.
“I have to let her know what I’m doing.”Cody’s my responsibility. He couldn’t just foist him on Finlay. Hurrying across the living room, he opened the door to a blast of cold air and stepped out onto the porch.
They’d built a big snowman, complete with a carrot nose and beets for eyes.
“Let’s give him hair,” Finlay said.
“But how?” Cody asked. “Where do we get hair?”
“See those pine needles over there?” She pointed to the woods on the other side of the driveway.
“Yeah.”
“Wouldn’t it be funny if we stuck them straight up out of his head?”
Cody’s eyes lit up. “I’ll get ’em.” He took off, but his boots sank, and he tripped, landing face-first.
Jude leaped off the porch, landed on the snow, and took off.
But Finlay didn’t budge. “Okay?” she called to the boy in a calm voice.
Before Jude could reach him, the boy stood. “I’m okay.” He wiped crystals off his face, blinking back a sheen of tears.
Clarity hit. Up until this moment, he’d viewed the boy as a responsibility. A task he had to manage.
But for the first time, he saw a person with complex emotions and thoughts. A little boy with big feelings. Cody wasn’t crying because he got hurt. He was crying because he was overwhelmed. He was in a new place with strange, scary people. He couldn’t begin to understand that his mom didn’t want him, his dad had died, and his grandpa couldn’t look after him anymore.
There was no getting around it. Jude could make himself feel better thinking in terms of “six weeks” or “until Carlo recovers,” but the truth was, this boy needed a guardian for the rest of his life, and if Jude didn’t step up, he’d go into the system.
Softening, he let out a frosty breath and reached for the boy’s hand. “Come on. Let’s get those pine needles.”
Cody’s gloves were way too big for his little hand. Jude would have to buy him clothes. Some toys and books. He’d have to do more than feed and water him.
They gathered pine needles. “Did you have breakfast?” Jude asked.
“Yeah.” The boy moved around the tree to grab a few more.
Of course. Because Finlay had seen to it. “When you’re ready to come in, we’ll warm up with some cocoa. Sound good?”
The boy looked at him warily. “What’s cocoa?”
“You’ve never had hot chocolate before?”
