Page 44 of Archer
“The best. I can’t say often enough how wonderful she is. She changed my life, Daddy.”
“I’m glad you found her then.”
“Me, too. And speaking of finding people. Have you heard anything from Cort?”
“I talked to him yesterday. He got the name of the woman who’s in charge of the soup kitchen. Her name is Monica Danvers. He was able to meet with her and show her a picture of Jordy.”
“Really? What did she say?”
“She recognized him. She told him that he comes to the soup kitchen a couple times a month with a group of teenagers. The group is always together, although sometimes the kids change. She thinks they’re probably squatting somewhere together, but she doesn’t know for sure.”
“Squatting. That’s like staying in an abandoned house or something, right?”
“Right. The church’s policy is no preaching, no questions. They’re happy to listen if someone wants to share, but their mission is simply to feed hungry people.”
“I love that.” My sweet boy looked up at me with glistening eyes. “I can’t imagine being hungry like that. Or not having a safe place to live.”
“It’s sad, that’s for sure. She did say the teens were there last week, so she didn’t know if they’d show this week or not. Cort said she grilled him really hard to make sure he had good intentions. She was very clear with him that if she thought he meant the kids any harm, she’d warn them the second they showed up.”
“I think I like this woman, and I haven’t even met her,” he said with a grin.
“I think Cort felt the same way. He said he’s planning on staking it out this weekend, but who knows if they’ll be there.”
Crispin took the last bite of his omelet and took his plate to the sink. He rinsed it off, put it in the dishwasher, and then turned to look at me. “That was really good, but if I’m going to make my class, I need to hustle.”
“Before you go, I want to go take some pictures of the moon tonight. It should be full, and I love to take pictures when it is. Do you want to go? You know, since you don’t have to work a second job now, and you can have a life.”
“I would love that, but I won’t be able to have lunch with you if we do that because I’ll need to go get a change of clothes. Well, mostly a change of shoes. I don’t think my soft-sided yoga shoes would be appropriate for an outing like that.”
“Probably not. Why don’t you go ahead and do that. While you’re there, pick up some extra changes of clothes. I’ll make room in my closet for you so it’ll be easier for you to sleep over.”
“You’d do that?” He looked at me wide-eyed, and I had no idea why it would surprise him that I wanted him here.
“Sweet boy, if I had my way, you’d never leave. So to answer your question, yes, I’d happily clean out some space for you in my closet.”
He practically skipped around the bar to get to me and threw his arms around me for a hug.
“You’re the very best Daddy. I take back all the mean things I said when I was slangry.”
“Slangry? I’ve heard hangry, but never slangry.”
“I think I just made it up.” He grinned at me and then popped a quick kiss on my lips. “Gotta go get ready.”
Crispin
“Are you sure about this, Crispin?” my brother asked as he shoved the last box into my car.
I nodded. “It’s going to be great.”
“I don’t know. I haven’t even met the guy,” he said, nervously.
My poor brother. I couldn’t blame him for being worried. Hell, I was the one who’d basically intruded on his life, moving in and putting him in a position where he felt like he had to watch out for me. I thought about Archer saying he wanted to meet my family and sighed. Time to suck it up.
“I know you haven’t, but Archer suggested we all get together for dinner. Let me find out what he has going on in the next week, and I’ll call you and set something up. Is that good?”
Ben eyed me. “Including Mom and Dad?”
“Unfortunately. Archer says he wants to meet all three of you.” I must’ve sounded whiney because I saw Elton snickering as he climbed into the passenger seat of my car.