Huntington Family Series

by Rachel Ann Nunes

“Hmm. We’ll have to ask.” Blake stopped the first adult he saw and requested directions to Amanda’s classroom.

  When they walked into the room, she was standing by a student who sat in a desk. She leaned down, her blonde hair spilling forward, as she pointed at something in a book. The child nodded and smiled before marking the place and slamming the book shut. “See you tomorrow,” Amanda called. At that moment she saw Blake and froze for a fraction of a second before her smile widened, dimpling her right cheek. She came over to meet them.

  “So,” she said. “You decided to come in and see the bugs.”

  “Where are they!” Kevin asked, his eyes searching the room.

  “Along the windows there.”

  Kevin gave a whoop of excitement and hurried over to the several dozen cages.

  “Hello, Mara.” Amanda held out a finger to the baby, who grabbed it eagerly. “I see you have on a cute little coat today.” She chuckled. “She’s adorable.”

  “My sister-in-law got the coat,” he admitted. “I forgot about the weather when I was shopping. I was focused on clothes and blankets, I guess.”

  “Well, you’ve had a lot on your mind.”

  “You can say that again.” Blake didn’t want to take his eyes from her. She looked so beautiful in the emerald skirt and jacket that exactly matched her eyes. Yet there was something more than just her looks. He felt another connection, a familiarity. Mentally, he shook his head, bemoaning the fact that the only woman beside Rhonda with whom he seemed to have any meaningful contact was also a woman who thought he was completely incapable of taking care of children. Or had he convinced her yet? Thinking of the approaching visit with the social worker, he hoped so.

  By the window, Kevin was making loud noises of appreciation. Amanda walked toward him. “We can’t stay long,” Blake told her. “I have an appointment.”

  “Okay.” Amanda opened the first cage. “These are ants,” she said, catching one on her finger. “It won’t bite you.” She gave Blake a meaningful glance that told him there were ants that most definitely did bite, but she wasn’t about to explain that to Kevin. “Hold out your hand. It may tickle a bit.”

  Next, they stood in front of several jars and cages holding crickets, grasshoppers, a spider, and even a praying mantis. Some insects, like the mosquitoes and the flies, they just looked at in their jars, but most they were able to hold. Blake had never seen such a variety. “My brother’s studying biology at the Y,” Amanda told him. “Half of these are his or belong to his professors.”

  “Is he going to take them back then?” Kevin asked.

  “Yep. Tomorrow morning, bright and early.”

  Time flew as it always seemed to when he was with Amanda. When Blake checked his watch, he was startled to see that it was five minutes to four. “Oh, no.”

  “What is it?”

  He stared at her in horror. “My appointment with the social worker—it’s at four-thirty, and my apartment’s a wreck!”

  “Your appointment is with the social worker?”

  “Yes.” Laying Mara down on a table, he began to change her diaper as he explained about the impending visit. “I only hope she overlooks the mess,” he finished, pushing Mara’s arm into her coat. “Come on, Kevin. We’ve got to run.”

  Amanda grabbed her purse and coat, shut off the light, and followed him out. “I can help,” she said. “It might be good to have someone to take the children into another room in case you need to talk to her alone.”

  A part of Blake wanted to demand why she would do this for him, but he was almost afraid of the answer. For the children, of course. Yet his heart didn’t want to hear that. Besides, he wanted her company—and not only because he didn’t want to face the social worker alone.

  “Thanks, I’d appreciate your help,” he accepted. “I don’t want to lose—” He broke off, catching Kevin’s intent stare. “What I mean is, I need things to go smoothly.”

  Amanda nodded, her eyes sympathetic. “I’ll follow you over.”

  At home, Blake parked in the garage, and before he had Mara out of the car seat, Amanda was standing by his truck. A door in the garage led to both the upstairs and the downstairs apartments. “I didn’t have any time to wash the dishes,” he explained on the way inside. “And I don’t have a dishwasher in this place.”

  “You, an appliance repairman, don’t have a dishwasher?” A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

  “Hey, I had one in the last place. I haven’t really needed one here.” He grimaced. “But now I guess I’d better put in an order.”

  “I guess so.” Amanda took off her coat and with difficulty packed it into the already full closet next to his and Kevin’s. “Look, I’ll do the dishes while you get started on the rest since I don’t know where anything goes.”

  Blake glanced around, seeing the small apartment as she must see it—a pigsty. Toys and empty popcorn bags were strewn over the carpet. Various packages of new diapers littered the love seat. The entertainment center he was usually proud to tell people he had made now had numerous videos and books out of place, lying haphazardly where he’d left them. Even from where they stood, he could see dust on the TV. The connecting kitchen was every bit as disastrous. The linoleum was littered with bits of cereal, and several used diapers, rolled up into tiny bundles, sat outside the cupboard under the sink, waiting for him to throw them away. The stacks of dishes in the sink and on the counter were bigger than he remembered.

  The bedrooms weren’t likely any better. He seemed to remember plastic hangers from Kevin’s and Mara’s new clothes in a corner and more of Kevin’s old toys that he’d unpacked for Mara. The beds definitely weren’t made. He’d been too tired last night even to put away his own clothes. And the kitchen . . . well, it was too late now to hide the apartment from her.

  Amanda didn’t seem too shocked to realize he lived in a pigsty. He wanted to tell her it was only because his life was so hectic, but she was already filling one of the stainless steel sinks with water. “Kevin,” she called. “If you pick up your toys really fast, I’ll let you help with the dishes.”

  Blake blinked as Kevin filled his arms in record time. “I thought you didn’t have any children,” Blake said to Amanda.

  She turned around and grinned. “I’m a schoolteacher, remember? And I have a niece and two nephews.”

  “Just put the toys in a stack by the entertainment center,” Blake told Kevin.

  They worked steadily for the next half hour. Blake gathered up the unused diapers from the couch and stuffed them in the top shelf of the coat closet. His backpack of textbooks barely fit under the coats. Since Kevin was making progress on the toys, Blake headed for his bedroom. He didn’t figure the social worker would look in his dresser drawers, so he shoved everything on the floor inside them, including several empty baby bottles and a stack of books. Then he made a quick job on the bed. Not bad. In the children’s room, he threw all the toys in the crib before deciding that might be seen as hazardous and instead stacked them in the corner where they just covered the plastic hangers from the new clothes. He had to get a proper toy box soon. The last one he had taken down to Cedar City to Kevin’s grandmother.

  Next, he gathered up the children’s dirty clothes and stuffed them into the washer, making a mental note to go back and divide the lights from the darks before turning it on. He should probably remove the spoons and the scraps of paper he had seen among the clothes as well. Grabbing the vacuum from the hall closet, he made a quick tour around the apartment.

  In the kitchen, Amanda had finished the dishes and was sweeping the floor. Kevin stood on a chair and was drying the cups, stacking them in the cupboard when finished. “Good job, bud,” Blake said. “I didn’t know you were such a great help. Now I know who can help me do the dishes every day.”

  “Me.” Kevin grinned ear-to-ear. The cup in his hand slipped, but Amanda let go of her broom and caught it before it hit the ground. “Whew!” Kevin breathed a sigh of relief. “Her cau
ght it!”

  “She caught it,” Amanda corrected him.

  Kevin looked at her adoringly. “She caught it,” he repeated.

  “Hey, why don’t you believe me when I tell you it’s she.” Blake put his hands on his hips.

  “Amanda’s a teacher, ya know,” Kevin said seriously. “I have to listen to teachers.”

  Blake fought the urge to smile. “Oh, you do, huh?”

  “Yep. Teachers are smart.”

  Amanda shot Blake a triumphant glance before handing Kevin back the cup. While she resumed sweeping, Blake found a rag and began removing layers of dust from the entertainment center and the television. As he cleaned, he mused that he couldn’t even remember having turned it on this week except to put on a video for Kevin.

  “I think we did it,” he said a few minutes later, looking around the apartment with satisfaction. “Oh, wait!”

  “What?” Amanda stared at him. “You just went totally white.”

  “The bathroom! I forgot the bathroom!”

  “I can do it.”

  “No!” He knew he’d left not only his clothes but the children’s lying about, not to mention his deodorant and shaving supplies. “I’ll get it. But could you change Mara?” He looked to where Mara sat on the floor in the living room, playing with her shoes.

  “You just changed her at the school.”

  He sighed. “I know, but believe me, she needs a diaper change. She always needs one. She’s been going through at least ten dirty diapers a day. I’m beginning to think she has some sort of a virus. In fact, I’m taking her to the doctor on Monday. To tell you the truth, if I have to change another diaper right now, I think I’ll—” Blake looked at Kevin’s interested face and decided not to say “sell her to the gypsies.”

  “You’ll what?” Amanda’s green eyes danced.

  He grinned. “We’ll . . . I’ll . . . I’ll have to buy some more hand lotion. My hands are getting a little chapped from washing them so much.” He held them up for her inspection.

  “Yeah, right.” Amanda went over to Mara. “Let’s get you changed, shall we?”

  Blake gathered everything in the bathroom, shoved it into the dryer, and went back to wipe off the sink. The doorbell rang as he was considering the dirty ring in the bathtub. He opted for closing the curtain. At least the toilet itself didn’t look too bad. On his way out, he picked up bits of toilet paper Kevin had used as a tent for his Lego dinosaurs and stuffed them in his pocket. Belatedly, he looked down at himself. No time to change from his work clothes.

  Oh, well, he thought. She’ll ask what I do anyway.

  Amanda and Kevin had opened the kitchen door that was the only other entrance to the apartment besides the garage door that led into the living room. One part of Blake noticed that Kevin’s hair was way too long. He should have asked Amanda if she knew how to cut it. But when would they have had time?

  His muscles tensed as the social worker stepped into the kitchen.

  Chapter Eight

  I’m Erika Solos from the Division of Child and Family Services. DCFS for short,” the woman said to Amanda. She was a tall, graceful-looking woman, with a thick waist, a rather large nose, and beautiful almond-shaped eyes. Cut in the latest style, her short black hair framed her face becomingly. The stylish cut made Amanda wish she had done something with her straight hair.

  “Hello. I’m Amanda Huntington,” she said, stepping back. “I’m a—a friend of Blake’s. This is Mara, and Kevin is this big boy right here.” She was rewarded by a wide grin from Kevin. “Please come in. Blake’s just in the other room.”

  “Actually, I’m right here,” Blake said, coming from behind her.

  Amanda could tell he was nervous, and for some reason this weakness endeared him to her. One more plus to add to the expanding list of items in his favor, at the top of which was how good he was with children. Not even the disarray of his apartment had dimmed her growing opinion of him. Hadn’t her own house been much worse after an evening alone with her niece and nephews? Well, minus the hordes of diapers, of course. Blake hadn’t been kidding when he said he’d tried everything to stop Mara’s leaks.

  “Nice to meet you,” Blake said to the social worker, offering his hand. “Won’t you come into the living room and have a seat?”

  “Thank you.” When Erika moved across the kitchen, the appearance of grace vanished. Her elbows stuck out at right angles from her body, and her feet stumbled briefly where the carpet met the linoleum.

  “I can take the kids into the other room,” Amanda offered as Blake led the social worker to the love seat and then brought a chair from the kitchen for himself.

  “I’d like to talk to them a minute first, if you don’t mind.” Erika slapped her briefcase on her lap and opened it. Once again, she was the picture of grace. “Plus, I have some forms for you to fill out, Mr. Simmons.”

  “Please, call me Blake.”

  As Amanda passed Blake to sit on the love seat with the social worker, Mara kicked her legs and held out her arms to him. Smiling, he reached for her, checking her diaper before placing her on his lap. Kevin stood next to Blake’s chair, watching the social worker with wary interest.

  “Have you heard from Paula?” Blake asked, accepting several papers from Erika.

  Erika nodded. “I talked with her this morning for quite some time.” She shook her head and frowned so Amanda assumed it had not been a good conversation.

  “Is my mommy still in jail?” asked Kevin. “Because I want to stay here. I don’t like my grandma’s house so much. It’s boring.”

  Erika smiled. “Actually, your mother is not in jail right now, but that’s what I’m here for—to make it so you can stay here with your . . .” She looked at Blake for help.

  “Uncle,” he supplied. “Paula and I are cousins, but we were as close as siblings when we were young. Uh, if you’ll excuse me a minute, I’ll get a pen so I can start on these papers.” He went into the kitchen and opened a drawer. Then he shut the drawer and went to the front closet. Amanda knew that wasn’t a good idea.

  “Wait, I have a p—” she started to say.

  Too late. The diapers stuffed in the closet came tumbling down from the top shelf where she’d shoved them after they’d fallen on her when she’d changed Mara’s diaper earlier. With an embarrassed exclamation, he began stuffing them back up with one hand, the other still holding Mara.

  “I have a pen,” Amanda said again. She darted a look at the social worker and was relieved to see she was watching Blake’s attempts with amusement.

  “Attack of the diapers!” Blake exclaimed when more diapers showered over him. He set Mara down on the floor and began putting them back again.

  Amanda giggled. At least he’d kept his sense of humor. Reaching for her purse next to the love seat, she found a pen and also a small book about babies that she had read to her niece and nephew the night before. “Look, Kevin,” she said, proffering the book. To Erika she added, “He likes books.” To her surprise, Kevin took the book, climbed into her lap, and began looking at the pictures. Amanda put her arms around him loosely and then freed one hand to stroke his hair. He really did need a haircut, but he was adorable.

  “For starters,” Erika began when Blake was back in his chair, with Mara playing on the carpet in front of him, “Paula knows the children are here and you are her choice—if anyone is to have temporary care of them. The necessity of anyone keeping them is something, however, that she is disputing. But we’ll discuss that in a minute. First, I’d like to talk to Kevin about his life with his mother and with you.”

  “Okay, but . . .” Blake glanced at Kevin pointedly.

  Erika smiled. “I understand. Don’t worry, I’ve done this before.”

  “Of course.” Blake began filling out the papers.

  “Kevin, you were staying at your grandmother’s before you came here, weren’t you?” Erika asked.

  Kevin looked up from his book. “No. We were at Shaunda’s and Barb’s. And
sometimes at Loony’s. I didn’t like it there at all.”

  “Did you have your own room at these places?”

  He nodded. “We slept on the couch. Mara slept in her car seat. We brought it in the house.”

  “What did you eat?”

  He shrugged.

  “Were you hungry or full?”

  Everyone waited for his answers, but Kevin was suddenly shy. He turned around and whispered to Amanda, “I was hungry sometimes. My stomach hurt. Mara cried a lot, but I let her suck on my fingers. It was yucky. I told Mommy I wanted to go back to Grandma’s. Then her got me some crackers with peanut butter. I love those a lot.” The whisper carried across the room. The social worker’s lips tightened, and Blake, his pen no longer moving over the papers, looked ready to explode.

  “Let’s talk about your grandma,” Erika said gently. “Did you like staying with her?”

  “Yes, but it was boring.” Kevin was no longer whispering.

  “Why is that?”

  “There’s nothing to do. Grandma doesn’t like me to go outside ’cause her doesn’t have a fence.”

  “Oh, and you go outside here?”

  Kevin shook his head. “It’s too cold now, but I will when it’s warm. We have a fence.”

  Amanda noticed Blake staring at the window in the kitchen. There wasn’t much to see but a metal-lined window well. He looked about to speak but then clamped his lips shut. Amanda wondered what was out there that worried him.

  “Did you see your mom a lot when you were at your grandma’s?”

  Kevin shrugged. “Yeah. Sometimes. Her sleeps a lot.”

  “Did she wake up when you went to bed?”

  “No. Her wasn’t home.”

  Wasn’t home? Wasn’t home when? One night, two? More? Amanda didn’t like the picture she was beginning to form of Kevin and Mara’s mother. What mother could bear to be away enough at night that a four-year-old child would consider it a way of life? From the tight expression on Blake’s face, she knew he was thinking along the same lines.

  “So do I get to stay here?” Kevin asked hopefully.

  “Do you like it here?”