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"I don't know what I'm going to do. I just want to be with you."
"You got me one-hundred percent." He grins down at me and reaches down for a mechanical lighter with a long metal point. He sticks it deep into the kindling and clicks it. "Thisis your second chance. Have you ever done something just because you want to do it?"
"I came out here."
He chuckles. "Glad you did." The tiniest ember turns orange in the pit. He blows on it and bits of ash fly around the pit. "I think you should go for it."
God, that would be wonderful if it really happens. It warms my heart he's thinking of me and my fulfilment.
"Henry left me plenty of money. It's not an issue."
"How about you?" I ask him. "What would you do with a new shot at life?"
The fire flares up and the wood crackles. The pungent smell of the lighter fluid hits my nose. "I was going to give up and grow old in the mountains." His mouth smashes into an ironic smirk.
"Now you're not."
"No. Now I got three boys out there building me a climbing wall and a thirteen-year-old girl who is fragile as a leaf standing there staring up at her brother like he's going to give her all the answers she needs."
"Yeah."
He sits down next to me and takes my hand. His gaze is on my fingernails as he talks. "I know how they're feeling right now. Insecure. Alone. Unwanted."
I nod. Foster will always have immense compassion for kids who are in the position he once was in.
"Why don't we ask them to stay the night?" It came to me spontaneously, but now it seems like a good idea.
"Thought about it," he says casually, but if Foster thinks about something, he's usually serious.
"Ask them to stay." I'm whispering but saying something loudly to him.
He hangs his head. I've triggered something deep inside him. He's remembering Henry and being a teenager.
"There's plenty of room here. One night and we'll talk again tomorrow night. They can keep working on the wall."
He nods and looks up at me, but his eyes have darkened and simmer with warmth. "Let's go talk to them. See what they think."
"Sounds good to me."
Chapter 27 Choices
Two weeks later, we're all sitting around the fire pit after dinner, which has become part of our routine. Work all day on the obstacle course, breaks for lunch and dinner, then relax at the fire and share stories.
"Obstacle course is pretty much done," Foster says.
"You happy with it?" Knox asks.
The kids have helped Foster build a complicated obstacle course and set up a full security system around the property.
"It's awesome," Foster replies and Knox grins, taking pride in his work. As the oldest, he's the unspoken leader of his friends and he takes charge whenever Foster's not there to guide them.
"Feels good to get a compliment. I don't think my dad ever once did that," Knox says.
I share a look with Foster because Knox relates a lot of things back to his biological father, and we're pretty sure he's the one who caused the scars on Knox's back.
"You gotta let the past go, Knox." Easy for me to say to him while I'm still dealing with a lot of guilt and regret about my family and the time I lost.
"Not like I'm going back to Hawaii to get revenge. Leave the past in the past, dude." Mace hasn't told us his whole story. Just that he came to California from Hawaii as a kid and his adopted parents died a few years ago.
