by Janice Lynn
Riley stared at him, amazed by the empathy in his voice, the affection she could hear for the boys. He truly cared about them and he was willing to do something to make their lives better. She didn’t know anything about Stan’s finances, but she’d bet Justin funded the group’s activities without even thinking twice.
Because he was a giver rather than a taker.
Because he was so much better a man than her own father had been.
Her father hadn’t thought twice about abandoning Riley and her mother, much less tried to do anything to lessen their financial burden. Thank goodness Riley’s mother had loved her so much and had been able to take on extra work to provide for them.
Reaching up to tug on her necklace, Riley let her hand fall away in disappointment as she recalled her missing necklace.
What would her mother think of Justin?
Now, where had that thought come from? What her mother would have thought of Justin didn’t matter any more than it mattered that Riley’s father had skipped out. He’d just been preparing her for life—for men like Johnny who’d come along and then leave her, too.
Was Justin even for real? And, if so, how was it that he wanted to date a slightly plump, jaded about love, nurse like her?
“Captain Brothers!” Kyle shrieked, just as a loud cry of pain filled the air.
Riley’s throat tightened as she glanced toward the boys.
“Man down! Man down!” Kyle motioned for them to hurry.
Justin leapt from the log and took off toward where the boys were now huddled around Stephen, who was lying on the ground and holding his bent leg against his belly. Blood covered his hands.
Heart racing, Riley ran to where Stephen lay. Blood gushed down his leg from a jagged gash on his knee.
“Get the first aid kit out of my kayak,” said Justin.
Riley rushed to the kayak and grabbed the first aid kit from inside the supplies box. When she got back to the boys, Justin had taken off his lifejacket and his shirt. He’d torn a strip from the bottom of his T-shirt, exposing a sliver of tanned belly, then made a makeshift tourniquet and was now tying it to Stephen’s leg to slow the bleeding.
Riley opened the kit, grabbed some gloves for Justin, handed them to him.
Hoping to help, Riley gloved up, too, and opened a packet of gauze and disinfectant.
“Thanks,” Justin told her as she bent down beside him and began applying pressure to the wound with the gauze.
“Stan, will you get the boys to pack everything back into the kayaks?”
With one last glance at his son, Stan nodded, knowing Justin was trying to occupy the other kids rather than have them surrounding Stephen. “Come on, guys, let’s give the doc some room while we make sure we leave this place the way we found it.”
The guide, realizing something had happened, had ended his phone call and come over to check on them. His face paled at the sight of the blood oozing down Stephen’s leg. It had slowed significantly with the makeshift tourniquet but hadn’t completely stopped.
Wondering if the guide was going to pass out, Riley looked at him and gestured to the boys. “Maybe you could help the others?”
With one last look at the bleeding leg, the young guide nodded, then went over to where Stan had the boys searching for stray bits of trash in a game of seeing who could find the most.
Justin and Riley worked to clean Stephen’s gaping cut, rinsing it with saline to make sure there was no stray debris or germs.
“Needs sutures,” Riley observed, hating the pain that showed on Stephen’s contorted face. Still, the boy was being a trouper.
Justin nodded, called Stan over. “Looks like we’re going to be upping the scar count.”
“Does that mean you’re sewing me?” Stephen asked, tears streaking his face.
Giving the boy an empathetic look, Justin nodded. “I think so, buddy.”
“I figured you’d need to when I saw how much he was bleeding.” Stan sighed, then bent next to his son to kiss the top of his head. “It’ll be all right. The doc is going to take care of you.”
Not looking thrilled at the prospect, Stephen nodded nonetheless, as if he had already had this done repeatedly and knew the drill.
“I appreciate it,” Stan told Justin, shaking his head. “Saves us from another run to the emergency room.” Turning to Riley, he added, “Dr. Brothers has sutured this kid on three different occasions. He thought I’d asked him to help with the group because I needed another adult, but really it was just to have an on-site physician for my kid.”
Stan patted his son’s shoulder. Stephen had stopped crying, but his poor face was tear-stained and dirt-streaked.
His eyes were puffy and red as he told Riley, “I’m accident-prone.”
“Just a little,” Justin teased. “You ready for this, big guy?”
Wincing, and appearing to brace himself for what was to come, Stephen took his dad’s hand and then nodded.
Doing one last thorough wash and inspection of the gash, Justin turned to Riley. “There’s a vial of anesthetic and a syringe in there. Will you draw me up three milliliters?”
Riley did so, then changed the needle over to a small gauge and handed it to Justin.
He squirted some of the numbing liquid into the open wound, waited a few seconds and then, moving through the wound, began anesthetizing the area.
Dabbing the gash every so often, Riley kept the blood from obscuring the wound so that Justin could see it.
“Grab that suture kit and open it for me, please.”
Riley got the kit, opened it, and held out the small packet while trying to maintain a sterile field the best she could on a riverbank, while also dabbing the wound to clear away the blood.
When Justin had the needle held in the needle holder Riley patted the area. Then, balancing the kit on her thigh, she pushed the edges of the cut together as best as she possibly could to make Justin’s work easier.
“Thanks,” he said as he pushed the needle through one side of the cut and then curved it around to come out on the other. He pulled it through, then began tying knots, wrapping the Ethilon in opposite directions with each loop. When he’d made several ties, he snipped the thread, then put in the next suture.
The cut was jagged and ended up requiring seven sutures to close it. When he’d finished the last one, Riley wet a piece of clean gauze and began cleaning dried blood from around the laceration.
“Nice work, Dr. Brothers.” Despite his crude work area the sutures were perfectly placed, and the wound should heal nicely.
“Thanks. Stephen keeps me in practice—don’t you, bud?”
Not that he didn’t get plenty of practice in surgery, Riley thought, but kept her mouth closed.
“He’s a trouper, for sure,” the boy’s father praised.
“’Cause I know the drill,” Stephen informed them, looking up at them. “Do pirates have lots of scars, Captain Brothers?”
“Usually three or four, so you’re good,” Justin assured him as he removed the T-shirt strip from the boy’s leg, watching the closed wound to make sure the bleeding didn’t restart.
When it didn’t, he turned to Riley. “Thanks for the assistance, Nurse Riley. We’re going to have to either set you free or officially have you join the crew as an honorary medic. Which is it going to be?”
“Hmm...” She pretended to be considering his offer. “I may have to think on this one. Captive or honorary medic... Decisions, decisions...”
Having finished gathering the trash and stored all their belongings properly in their kayaks, the boys had come over to make sure Stephen was okay.
Kyle patted Riley’s leg. “Being a pirate is a lot of fun.”
“Says the kid with no ulterior motive!” Justin teased.
“Kyle just likes Daisy, right?” She smiled at the boy as she pic
ked up all the pieces of dirty gauze, then turned her gloves inside out as she took them off, capturing the gauze inside.
“Daisy is pretty cool. When I grow up I’m going to have a dog, too.”
Not as a child, though—unless one of his foster families happened to have one, and then he’d have to say goodbye to it whenever his time was up with that particular family.
Riley’s heart squeezed at that reality. How many homes had Kyle been in over the years?
She fought the desire to hug the boy to her. Although he seemed a bit smitten with her, she didn’t think he’d appreciate any show of affection in front of his friends.
That she even wanted to hug him surprised her. She’d never been around kids much—mostly felt uncomfortable when she was. The fact that she’d come today, was enjoying being with the boys and felt a connection to them was shocking.
Perhaps it was because she felt a kind of affinity with them? Because she understood what it felt like to have a parent abandon you.
“Is Stephen going to be okay?” the guide asked.
“He’ll be fine. He has a lot of accidents and Captain Brothers always fixes him,” Kyle piped up, before any of the adults could answer. “When I grow up I’m going to be a pirate captain doctor who has a dog!” the boy announced, and then, carefully holding on to the dog’s leash, told Daisy to come on.
Riley watched him skip off, happy as could be and unfazed by what had happened to Stephen. Unfazed by anything that had happened to him up to that point in his life, or giving a good impression of it.
In the meantime Stan had helped his son up off the ground and was holding his hand as Stephen tried walking. The boy limped a bit, with a few grimaces, but had no real difficulties. Father and son went off to get ice from the cooler to put on the area.
“What’s his story?” Riley asked as they walked away.
“Kyle’s or Stephen’s?”
She’d meant Kyle, but realizing Stephen must have a story, too, she felt her heart quicken. “Both.”
“Stan and his wife adopted Stephen when he was four. He’d been in a dozen or so foster homes, but no one wanted to keep him because of all his accidents.”
“That sounds ominous. Just how many accidents has he had?”
“During his lifetime?” Justin shrugged. “Hundreds, I imagine, based on what I know from the past few years.”
“Why?”
“He has poor balance and he trips easily. His pediatrician isn’t sure if it’s from the drugs his mother stayed on while she was pregnant with him or if he suffered shaken baby syndrome or some other ailment. They haven’t been able to pinpoint any specific abnormality that’s causing the issue—they just know that he has balance and coordination issues, which leads to a lot of accidents for an active kid.”
Watching Stan check on Stephen’s gashed knee, his eyes full of love and concern for the boy, Riley mused, “I didn’t realize Stephen was adopted.”
“Stan and his wife fell in love with him during his stay with them as a foster kid. Fortunately they have great medical insurance, and the courts agreed Stephen was better off with them than in state custody.”
“Thank goodness.”
Justin nodded. “Stephen got lucky. Most of these kids aren’t ever released from their birth parents long enough to be available for adoption. The ones who are released are often too old to be wanted by the time their birth parents sign over their rights. Most end up going from one foster family to another, with occasional time spent with their birth mother or father in between until they lose custody again.”
Riley grimaced. “That’s terrible.”
Justin nodded.
“I wish I could bring them all home with me,” Riley mused, not sure what she’d do with a bunch of boys, but knowing she’d smother them with love.
The knowledge stunned her. Johnny hadn’t wanted kids and she’d agreed. Having been a child put through the agony of losing a parent had left her thinking she’d rather not, so going along with him had been easy.
Maybe because she’d never trusted that Johnny wouldn’t leave.
Justin’s gaze cut to her and he grinned at what she’d said. “Better not let Kyle hear you say that. He might offer to grant your wish. Rumor has it that his birth mother plans to sign away her rights and he’ll be available for adoption.”
How could someone not want a kid as precious as Kyle? “She’s giving him away?”
“Honestly, since she’s unable to take care of him, it’s the best thing she could do for him. I can’t imagine it’s an easy decision for her or any parent, though.” Justin’s face tightened a little. “Kyle’s not been back with her for over a year and has only seen her once during that time.”
Riley couldn’t imagine that giving up parental rights would be an easy decision. Nor could she imagine not seeing her own child more than once during a year’s time. But maybe it wasn’t nearly as difficult as she thought, since her own father had had no issue with walking away andnever looking back.
Kyle had no stability and apparently he never had. And he had a mother who didn’t want him or wanted him but couldn’t provide care for him.
Riley preferred to think it was the latter. Maybe because it was what she’d always wanted to believe of her father. That he hadn’t left because he hadn’t wanted her, but that he hadn’t been able to take care of her and her mother.
She’d never believed it. Maybe in Kyle’s case it was true, though...
“Is his foster family planning to adopt him?” She hoped that, like Stephen, Kyle would find a family to love him.
Justin’s eyes darkened a little and he started to say something, then changed his mind. “Not that I’m aware of. They’re nice people, with two grown kids of their own, and have been taking in foster children for about ten years now.”
Riley had grown up without her father, but her mother had always been there, had always wanted and loved her. Not once had she ever felt alone or unloved as a child.
Just as an adult.
Now, where had that come from? She was not unloved as an adult. But the truth was since her mother’s death she hadn’t felt connected to any other person than her friend Cassie.
She’d wanted to be—acknowledged that her engagement to Johnny, and her unwillingness to see what had been so obvious, had mostly been about that desire to love and be loved. But she’d looked in all the wrong places.
Maybe, despite knowing how much her mother had loved her, the fact that her father hadn’t stung more than she’d ever admitted.
Maybe she had more in common with the boys than she’d thought.
“I want to be a pirate.”
At her blurted comment, Justin raised his brows. “Really?”
“Can I join your club?”
Because the more she thought about it, the more she knew she needed to be a part of these kids’ lives. On the surface, it was for them, but the reality was she needed to be involved for her—to make a difference in their lives the way her mother had in hers.
“Are women allowed?”
“Allowed and welcomed,” he assured her, looking pleased. “The more the merrier. And you wouldn’t be the sole female. Stan’s wife would have been here today except something came up last-minute with one of their other foster children. You took her place.”
“They still foster children even after adopting Stephen?” She wasn’t sure why that surprised her—maybe because of all his accidents—but the fact that they did made her happy. “How many do they have?”
“Currently they have one birth child and two foster children in addition to Stephen.”
Looking around at the group, already seemingly completely recovered after Stephen’s accident, probably because it was par for the course, Riley felt warmth fill her.
“Thank you for inviting me. Today has been a very good day.”<
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“It has, hasn’t it?” Justin grinned as he reached out and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “And the best part is that it’s not over.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
JUSTIN WISHED RILEY had let him pick her up from her place that morning. That way he’d have had an excuse to spend more time with her. As it was, she’d driven herself, and he needed to wait at Three Rivers Park, where they’d turned in their kayaks, until all the boys had been picked up by their foster parents or birth parents, whatever the case might currently be.
Knowing he’d be there a while, he’d expected Riley to leave soon after they’d unloaded from the old bus that had driven them back to their drop-off spot. But rather than rush off, she’d stuck around, talking to the boys and their parents as Justin and the guide unloaded the bus.
Kyle still stuck close to her and Daisy, showing the dog to his foster family and telling them about how Daisy had loved sitting on the bow of the kayak and how she liked him so much.
Justin wasn’t surprised when the boy threw his arms around Riley’s waist and hugged her goodbye. Nor was he surprised when she hugged him right back in a hug full of emotion that was easy for anyone to see.
Easy for him to feel because it hit him right in the gut.
Riley might not have spent much time around kids, but she was good with them, full of compassion and patience.
He liked that about her.
He liked a lot of things about her.
But then, he already knew that.
She’d liked the boys, too.
Ashley had never connected with them, never bonded with them. No matter how much Justin had tried to involve Ashley in this special part of his life she’d resisted, claiming to be too busy with her residency, and then with work.
It hadn’t been until the end that Justin had understood why.
His little charity, she’d called it.
Maybe because he’d been adopted, and viewed “family” as not just being bound by blood, he felt things she never had. Either way, the boys were so much more than his “little charity,” and having them in his life had been a deal-breaker. He knew firsthand what a group like his could make in a foster child’s life.