Rebuild My Heart

by Ariel Tachna

  Thane didn’t have stepbrother syndrome, but Derek didn’t want to argue about it anymore. He was already feeling bad enough as it was. When he didn’t answer, though, Brian pressed a little harder. “How long have you known Owen?”

  “About a month,” Derek replied.

  “And you’re already this serious about him.”

  It wasn’t a question, but Derek nodded anyway. “Sometimes you just know.”

  “If you know—and I’m not saying you don’t—isn’t it worth fighting for, even if that means compromising a little?”

  WITH Brian’s comment firmly in the front of his mind, Derek showed up a little early at Thane’s on Monday morning. Kit and Phillip grumbled when he walked in, but Derek waved them off. “I’m not here to rush you. I’m here to talk to you before we head over to the bookstore.”

  “Talking to them this early in the morning is a hit-or-miss proposition,” Blake said as he sipped his coffee. “But you’re welcome to try.”

  “Actually I want to talk to you too,” Derek said. “You may have some suggestions.”

  “Of course. I have to go to school today, but I don’t have any meetings until after lunch. What’s up?”

  “Owen got a bit of a surprise over the weekend. His nephew showed up at his place.”

  “I take it this isn’t a good thing?” Blake asked.

  Derek didn’t have an answer to that, not a real one, but he shrugged. “I suppose that depends on who you ask. Owen’s family situation isn’t the best, so on the one hand, getting the kid out is a good thing, but it opens up a whole shitload of problems for Owen, not to mention the kid himself doesn’t know anyone.”

  “How old is he?” Blake asked.

  “Seventeen, almost eighteen. Owen said he has one year of high school left.”

  “Is he staying with Owen?” Kit asked.

  “Yeah, for the time being anyway.”

  “Cool. We can show him around. We know lots of people.”

  That was exactly what Derek had been hoping Kit would say. “Thanks, Kit. I appreciate it, and I know Owen will too.”

  “We know what it’s like to be new and not know anyone,” Phillip said. “We’ll look out for him. Don’t worry.”

  Derek ruffled both boys’ hair to hide the swell of affection he felt for them. They pulled away with identical scowls, but Derek could see the pleasure behind their expressions. “Grab your gear so we can go.”

  They stuck their dishes in the dishwasher and left the kitchen.

  “What didn’t you want to say in front of them?” Blake asked.

  “Owen’s going to need help with this, Blake. I don’t know a whole lot, but I know Ephah ran away, and I know Owen’s going to fight to keep him from going back. I’m not sure how much he’s going to have in the way of official documents to get him in school and all that.”

  Blake pursed his lips. “That does complicate things, but the school district gives principals a certain amount of leeway. I don’t want to butt in where I’m not wanted, so ask Owen if he wants my help, but if he does, I’ll sit down with him and figure out what he does have so I can make a case to Mr. Williams. We’ve worked with kids in unusual situations before, and I can vouch for the support Ephah will get from home, which is a point in his favor.”

  “Thanks, Blake. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m going to try my best to be supportive.”

  Blake smiled. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from you. Raising teenagers is hard work, especially ones from troubled or difficult backgrounds. Owen will need all the support he can get.”

  Fuck. Derek wanted to say “No problem,” but he was all too aware of his own issues to toss that out blithely. He settled on “Yeah, I know” instead.

  “You know Thane and I are here if you need us.”

  “I do, and I can’t tell you how much that means,” Derek replied. “This wasn’t in my plans.”

  “I don’t imagine it was in any of Owen’s either.”

  Derek took a deep breath and told his issues to go fuck themselves. This wasn’t about him. This was about a kid who needed the adults in his life to do the right thing for once. Whatever that took.

  RATHER than sending the boys downstairs to get started while he let Owen know they were there, Derek brought Kit and Phillip with him to the side door when they got to the bookstore. Owen answered promptly. Derek leaned in to kiss Owen quickly, even with their audience. He would do his best to compromise where necessary, but kissing Owen wasn’t something he was willing to give up.

  “Hi,” Owen said with the special, soft smile he reserved for Derek.

  “Hi. I brought the boys up so they could meet Ephah. If you think he’s up to the full Parkins experience.”

  Owen laughed. “I’m sure he is. He’s just getting dressed. He was hoping he could help out a bit today, depending on what you’re doing downstairs.”

  “Just painting today,” Derek replied. “He can definitely help with that.”

  “Hi, Mr. Jackson.”

  Derek turned to see Ephah standing at the door to the kitchen. Before he could reply, Kit stuck out his hand. “Hi, I’m Kit Parkins. And call him Derek. Calling him Mr. Jackson will just give him a big head.”

  “Hi, Kit. I’m Ephah.”

  “That’s a really cool name,” Kit said. “Derek said you just arrived in Lexington, but he didn’t tell us where you’re from. You’ll have to fill us in while we work. Painting is mindless work. Plenty of time to talk.”

  Derek met Owen’s gaze and grinned. Trust Kit to defuse what could have been a tense situation.

  “You know where everything is, boys. Why don’t you take Ephah downstairs and get started in the bedroom? I’ll be down in a minute.”

  “Sure thing, Derek,” Phillip said, herding Kit and Ephah toward the stairs.

  “They just want time alone to make kissy faces at each other,” Kit said in a stage whisper.

  “Kit, go easy on him. Not everyone is used to your brand of blunt,” Derek scolded.

  “It’s okay, Mr. Jackson,” Ephah said. “I know it’s one of those things I’ll have to get used to.”

  “Kit was right about you calling me Derek. And there’s a difference between getting used to something and Kit’s version of trial by fire. Tell him to lay off if he gets overwhelming.”

  “I’ll keep him in line,” Phillip promised.

  Derek snorted. That’d be the day. When all three boys had gone downstairs, with Kit pointedly closing the door behind them, Derek turned back to Owen. “How are you doing?”

  “Okay,” Owen said. “We did some shopping yesterday. He didn’t arrive with much more than the clothes on his back. At some point the reality of what he’s done is going to catch up with him, but right now he’s holding it together pretty well. I’m sorry again about missing dinner last night.”

  “Brian and I got a chance to catch up, which was nice. Usually it’s either quick chats or texts or else we’re at Dad and Marlene’s house, and we never get a chance to talk to each other there,” Derek said. “We’ll just have to plan another time for you to meet him. I also talked to Blake a little this morning when I picked Kit and Phillip up. He said he could probably help you out with some of the school-related issues if you want him to.”

  “Really?” Owen said, looking incredibly relieved. “That would be fantastic. I looked up some stuff on the Fayette County website last night, and I don’t have any of what it says I need for Ephah. Transcripts, shot records, nothing.”

  Derek pulled out his phone and shared Blake’s contact information with Owen. “There, that has his school and cell numbers on it, so you can try to reach him both ways. He said something about meetings after lunch, but it sounded like his morning was free.”

  “Then I should call him now, before he gets busy and we open.” Owen leaned up and gave Derek a quick kiss. “Thank you. This means so much to me.” He disappeared toward his office before Derek could even say you’re welcome.

&nbs
p; It’s just temporary, Derek reminded himself, but he could feel the worries from the weekend rushing back at him full force. He shook himself and headed downstairs to ride herd on the boys. And if he took solace in hammering in the baseboards in the living room they’d already painted, that was no one’s business but his own.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  DEREK came upstairs around noon, leaving Ephah and the boys to figure out their own lunch. Ephah had grabbed a roller and helped paint like he’d always been part of the crew, which reassured Derek. He was sure the transition wouldn’t be this seamless in all aspects, but he’d take what he could get, for both Owen’s and Ephah’s sakes. And hopefully with all three of them occupied downstairs, Derek would get more than a minute or two with Owen.

  The door to Owen’s office was partially open, so Derek tapped gently and stuck his head inside. Owen was on the phone, but he motioned for Derek to come in anyway.

  “Yes, I understand, Ms. Bauer. It’s a highly irregular situation, but that’s why Mr. Barnes recommended I call you instead of accepting whichever caseworker would be assigned to us. He assured me you wouldn’t just rubber-stamp the dossier without considering all the angles.”

  Derek stifled a sigh. Owen had been busy if he’d already called Blake and gotten far enough into things to be on the phone with a social worker of some kind. That was good. The sooner Owen got things settled with Ephah, the sooner things could find their new normal. He just had to remind himself the chaos of getting Ephah safely in Owen’s custody and enrolled in school wouldn’t last forever. They’d get all the bureaucratic issues resolved.

  He cocked an eyebrow at Owen to ask if he should leave, but Owen shook his head and gestured to the chair Derek usually sat in if they ate lunch in his office rather than in the kitchen. Owen smiled at him, but his attention was on the social worker on the other end of the line. Derek unpacked his lunch and began eating, hoping Owen would finish before he had consumed his meal.

  Owen listened intently to whatever the social worker was saying, occasionally jotting down notes on the pad in front of him, although at one point he met Derek’s gaze and rolled his eyes, so whatever she was saying must have gotten repetitive or annoying.

  “Yes, he’s seventeen. He’ll be eighteen in September.”

  Another pause while the social worker said something.

  “I notified his father that he was here,” Owen said. “The response was… not positive.” Another pause. “His exact words were, ‘To hell with you both. You’re dead to me,’ and then he hung up on me. I don’t expect any cooperation from him, but I also don’t expect him to put up a fight, although I could be wrong. I certainly don’t claim to understand him.”

  Derek winced. He’d known Owen’s brother had washed his hands of the situation, but he hadn’t realized it was that nasty.

  “Yes, thank you, Ms. Bauer. This is the best number to reach me, and feel free to leave a message if I don’t answer…. Good, I’ll look forward to hearing from you in a few days.”

  Owen disconnected the call and slumped back in his chair.

  “Rough morning?” Derek asked.

  “Like you wouldn’t believe, but let’s talk about something else. How are the boys getting along?”

  “Like a house afire,” Derek said. “Ephah jumped right in with helping. Kit and Phillip didn’t need to do anything more than point him in the direction of the right paint. They were chattering away over lunch when I came upstairs. Well, Kit was chattering away. Phillip and Ephah were exchanging empathetic smiles.”

  Owen laughed. “Kit is a force unto himself, isn’t he?”

  “He is. I’ve never met a more outgoing kid, but he also knows what it feels like to be alone. He was bullied pretty badly when he first got to Henry Clay. He won’t let that happen to Ephah, and neither will Phillip. At this point pretty much everyone knows they’re Mr. Barnes’s nephews, and no one is really stupid enough to mess with them or anyone in their circle.”

  “Thank you. You didn’t have to introduce them or ask Blake for help or any of this. I know this wasn’t what you signed up for, getting involved with me. I wouldn’t blame you if you ran for the hills right now.”

  “You’re doing the right thing. I admire you for that, because not everyone would,” Derek replied, ignoring how close to home Owen’s words hit. He wasn’t that petty. He refused to be.

  A WEEK later, Derek was reconsidering his refusal when once again Owen didn’t have time for the routine of their morning coffee.

  “Hi,” Owen said as Derek walked in the door. “I’m glad you got here before I had to leave.”

  “Where are you off to today?” Derek asked, pushing down the annoyance at Owen rushing out the door. Even without Ephah, Owen was a busy man, a business owner who had things to do. He couldn’t drop everything because Derek arrived.

  Except that until recently, he always had.

  “I have to meet with the school this morning to see what they need to enroll Ephah and what we can get around not having. Then I have a meeting with the social worker. I don’t know how long either one will take, so I may not be back until tonight. Mel’s minding the shop, so I’m not worried about that, and I told Ephah you’d be keeping an eye on him while I was gone.”

  He gave Derek a quick kiss on the cheek as he rushed toward the door. “Thank you!” he called over his shoulder, leaving Derek standing alone in the middle of the kitchen.

  Derek didn’t quite know where to start with the ways the conversation rubbed him wrong. Ephah was seventeen and a senior in high school. Derek had worked with him most days since his arrival, enough to see Ephah had more common sense than a lot of thirty-year-olds Derek knew. He didn’t need someone to “keep an eye on him” like he was a toddler without the sense not to play with matches or swallow the parts to his toys. And while Derek didn’t mind having him around—not at all, he’d proven to be a hard worker and eager to learn—it would have been nice if Owen had asked rather than assumed Derek would be around today. What if he’d been coming in to tell Owen he’d be out most of the day getting the kitchen cabinets or the fixtures for the bathroom?

  If Derek had gotten there even five minutes later, he wouldn’t have known what was going on at all. Derek took a deep breath and reminded himself this was what partners did. They took up the slack for each other. He just wished Owen seemed to realize what he was doing.

  “This too will pass,” Derek muttered as he walked downstairs, trying to find comfort in his mother’s favorite saying. It didn’t help any more as an adult than it had as a child.

  “I’VE hardly seen you since Ephah got here,” Owen said when Derek arrived for work the week after. “I was thinking we could have dinner like we did before, here at the house. If you don’t mind making your mom’s spaghetti again?”

  Having dinner with Owen and Ephah was definitely better than going home to his empty house. “I don’t mind. We could even do it tonight if you wanted. I’d have to run out to the store, but the boys can handle putting in the baseboards in the living room while I do that, and then we can start putting in the tile in the kitchen when I get back.”

  “That sounds wonderful,” Owen said. “Thank you.”

  Derek breathed a sigh of relief as he went back downstairs to give the boys instructions for the morning. Owen still wanted to spend time with him, even if Ephah would be there too. That wouldn’t be a bad thing necessarily. He could get to know Ephah a bit more while they ate, and maybe after dinner, he could convince Owen to send Ephah upstairs for a while. They might not be able to make love the way Derek longed to do since Ephah was still in the house, but even if all they could do was make out a bit, it would be an improvement over what they’d been able to do the past week. He might go home with blue balls, but he’d go home that way because Owen had wanted to spend time with him, not because Owen didn’t have time for him, and that was enough of a difference to put a smile on his face as he walked down the stairs to find Kit, Phillip, and Ephah alread
y measuring the baseboards.

  “Good,” he said. “Get the rest of the boards measured and cut. I have a couple of errands to run. I shouldn’t be more than an hour.”

  “Somebody’s got plans,” Kit said in a stage whisper.

  Derek hid a grin as he cuffed Kit lightly on the back of the head as he walked out to the garage, but he didn’t bother to contradict him. He did indeed have plans.

  OWEN waved as Mel and Ephah left the shop. He had no idea having a teenager around would be quite so much work. Ephah had rolled his eyes when Owen suggested he spend the evening with Mel, telling Owen he was perfectly capable of making himself scarce without someone keeping an eye on him, but Mel had just laughed and told him she’d take him to the movies, anything he wanted to see and all the popcorn he could eat. Owen remembered what a treat that had been growing up, and Ephah seemed to feel the same because all his objections disappeared as soon as she said movie. He’d texted Blake, who had replied he’d be there to pick Kit and Phillip up at quitting time so Derek wouldn’t have to leave to bring them home. Now all that remained was for Derek to come upstairs.

  Owen set the table for two and dimmed the kitchen lights. He thought about lighting candles, but the little improvised table in the kitchen didn’t really have space for that with the plates and everything. Once Derek had finished with the remodel, the new kitchen would have room for an actual kitchen table and they could have candlelit dinners down there. For tonight lowered lighting would have to suffice.

  “Just two plates?” Derek asked when he came into the kitchen.

  “Mel took Ephah to the movies. They’ll be gone for several hours at least,” Owen replied.

  Derek’s smile widened. “You mean we actually have a few hours to ourselves?”

  “We do,” Owen confirmed. “I’m sorry. I know things have been crazy the past couple of weeks. I keep thinking the worst is over, and then something new pops up.”