Yeah, he just might be happy about this after all.
…
Thomas handed Cody the transformed truck. “Here you go.”
“I knew you could do it.” Cody grabbed the truck and took off for the stairs at high speed. “Thank you, Thomas!”
“You’re welcome,” he called, but Cody was already gone, calling Katelyn’s name at the top of his lungs. Shaking his head, he rose to his feet, wiping his hands on his pants.
Zach came down the stairs with a scowl. “You’re here again? Aren’t you going back to California yet?”
“As you can see, I am not gone yet.” Thomas picked up the instructions and folded them. “How are you?”
“I was fine.” He looked Thomas up and down, his upper lip curled. “Not so much now.”
Thomas took a deep breath. This again. He couldn’t let this go on. “It doesn’t have to be like this, Zach. We don’t have to be enemies.”
Brianna leaned out of the kitchen. “Thomas, we need sauce for dinner. Could you run to the store and—” She froze. “Oh. Zach. Hey.”
Zach sneered. “Yeah, go get some sauce. And don’t come back.”
“Zach, knock it off.” Brianna scowled. “I’ve had enough of your—”
“If you think you’re going to chase me off, you’re wrong,” Thomas said.
Brianna shot him an incredulous look, opened her mouth, then caught his eye and closed it again. Trust me, he pleaded silently. After a moment, she nodded subtly and looked away. She’d give him a chance, at least. A chance to smooth the ground between himself and Zach.
Now he just hoped he wouldn’t screw it up.
If he could show her he was trustworthy enough to be with her kids, then hopefully she would say yes to him tomorrow when he laid his heart bare. Hopefully she wouldn’t laugh in his face and walk away like everyone else had in his life. He’d lived in plenty of houses over the years, but for the first time in his life…he’d found a home.
Now he just needed to be accepted into it.
Thomas returned his gaze to Zach. “You can be as nasty as you like. I’m not going anywhere. So I think you and I need to figure out what we’re going to do about that.”
“I’ll tell you what you can do. You can shove it up your—”
“Swear jar,” Cody said from the head of the stairs. He sat on the top step, hugging Optimus to his chest. “I think Thomas should move in. Then he can help me work on Optimus whenever we want.”
Zach paled. “Move in? He’s not moving in, is he? He’d better not be or I’m leaving. I’m leaving right now.”
Thomas ignored the sting of the boy’s words. “Where would you go? You’re thirteen. You might be able to stay with a friend for a few days but what happens once his parents find out your mother’s looking for you and she’s frantic and terrified? Because that’s what you’d be doing. Frightening your mother for no good reason.”
Zach snarled and looked away. “If it gets rid of you…”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“I don’t know!” Zach exploded, then sank down and sat on the bottom step. He buried his face in his hands. “I don’t know.”
Thomas let out the breath he’d been holding. He’d cracked the tough-guy shell and got down to the boy hidden underneath. That’s who he needed to talk to. “Brianna, I’m going to head out to the store. Zach is going with me, if you don’t mind.”
Please, God, let her not mind. He needed her to be on his side, or Zach would never believe he wasn’t the bad guy. Wasn’t the enemy.
Brianna nodded. “That’s fine.”
“I don’t want to go with him.” He raised his head and shot his mother a desperate look. “Mom, I’m not going with him.”
“You’ll go because I told you to.” Brianna slipped back into the kitchen, calling over her shoulder, “See you two soon. Pick out a dessert, too.”
“Thomas, can we play more when you come back?” Cody asked.
“Sure thing, kiddo.” Thomas smiled, then offered a hand to Zach. “Let’s go.”
Zach ignored his hand and thrust himself to his feet. With a seething glance, he stalked to the front door. Thomas shook his head and followed.
At least it was progress.
In the truck, they buckled up in tense silence. Zach glared mutinously out the window. Thomas waited until they were on the highway to speak.
“Look, I know I’m not your dad, and I don’t want to be.”
“No, you just want her.” What Thomas could see of Zach’s profile was stiff, his jaw a hard line. “You’ll probably get rid of us. Send us all to boarding school or something. Have your own kids. We’ll end up sleeping in the basement. Or in the cupboard under the stairs.”
Was that what this was all about? Zach was afraid of being replaced?
“You watch too much TV,” Thomas said gently. “I’m not going to send you away. First of all, your mother would never do that to you, and she’d never allow someone in your lives who would. She loves you too much for that. And second of all? You’re not Harry Potter. You have a perfectly good room upstairs.”
“You don’t know that she wouldn’t send us away if you asked.” Zach curled his fingers around his seat-belt strap, his knuckles white. “I never thought she’d replace Dad, either, but she did. You’re here all the time. In his house. Sitting on his couch. With his wife.”
“Do you think your dad would want your mom to be alone? Or do you think he’d want her to be happy? Think about that.” He turned into the parking lot at Meijer and killed the engine. “She has a good man taking care of her already. You. I’m not there to take her away from you or from Cody or Katelyn. I’m not trying to pull her away from your family. I…I’d just like to be a part of it.”
Zach’s shoulders straightened. “But she doesn’t need you. You’re right. She has me.”
“No, she doesn’t need me. But I like her, Zach. I want to make her smile and laugh. And I like you guys, too.”
“Us?” The boy blinked. “Why?”
“Why not?”
“Because we don’t like you.” Zach’s eyes narrowed. “At least…I don’t like you.”
“Well, I like you. You remind me a lot of myself at your age.”