Uniting the Souls (Souls of Chicago #6)(3)

I’d finally agreed and then I’d spent hours learning all the things my new phone could do. I’d been surprised when I’d seen the reading app already loaded with a full library of books, but when I’d questioned Matt about it, he’d just shrugged his shoulders and said that he knew I liked reading and that the phone didn’t have to be used strictly for business. I still remembered the way my eyes had stung. It was the most thoughtful thing anyone had ever done for me.

I let the book I was reading transport me far away from the noise and the smells of the train until an announcement rang out over the speaker system, alerting me that my stop was coming up. I closed the app and shoved the phone back in my pocket and then stood, holding onto the metal bar until the train came to a complete stop.

The sidewalks were crowded as I walked the three blocks to work and neared the area of the city that used to be nothing but old abandoned textile factories, and was quickly being revitalized as the warehouses were sold for office and housing use. I smiled when I saw the building stretched out in front of me, the sign above the door reading Agape House—A safe place to call home. I had been running the front desk at the center ever since I graduated from high school and I couldn’t imagine ever wanting to work anywhere else.

I opened the front door and was greeted with the sounds of laughter and lively conversation. Some of the teens that came to the center only needed us for a few hours a day. For them, we offered a safe environment where they could hang out with kids their own age that were part of the LGBTQA community. We also helped them with tutoring, mentoring, and applying for colleges or jobs to get them started out on the right path.

For some kids though, Agape House was their home. Many of the teens that came through our doors had been kicked out of their homes or had run away in order to avoid abusive situations. Matt worked closely with the police and children’s services in those situations, making sure he went through all the proper legal channels so that the teens could remain in his care until everything could be resolved. Often times, the parents chose to sign custody over to the state rather than work on fixing themselves. When that happened, the teens either went into foster care or stayed at Agape House until they could be adopted out. Unfortunately, the chances of them being adopted once they were teenagers were very slim.

That was one of the reasons that Matt and I had been so excited to move to the new facility. The previous building only had space for thirty-five residents, but the number of kids needing help had been growing each year. It had torn us up to do it, but we had gotten to the point where we were going to have to start turning kids away. When the building’s contractor, Morgan Greene, developed the plans for the new center and told us that we would have enough room to house over one hundred kids, it was like a dream come true.

A month after opening the doors of the new facility, there were nearly sixty-five LGBTQA teens that called Agape House home and from the sounds of it, every single one of them were in the kitchen. I made my way down the hallway and opened the large set of double doors to the kitchen, the noise level reaching a fever pitch as I stepped inside. I thought it was a beautiful sound though, because it was the sound of kids enjoying themselves as they ate a healthy breakfast before they left for school. I wondered how many of them had ever had that before they came to the center; probably very few, if any.

I waved to several of them that called out my name as I made a beeline towards the cooking area of the kitchen in search of coffee. I gave Gladys a quick kiss on the cheek as I stepped behind where she was standing at the stove. Gladys had been in charge of the kitchen since before I showed up all those years ago and I’d taken to her right away.

She had a no-nonsense attitude when it came to how she expected things to be done in her kitchen and she had a list of rules that were to be followed by the kids that ate there. They all were expected to be kind to each other, use their manners, and clean up after themselves as if it were their home. Those rules went right along with Matt’s list of chores that each kid was given on their first day at the center. There was rarely any argument about it because most of the kids were just happy to be able to stay there. I know I had been anyway, and the rules they had set in place for me had made me feel safe and secure. As if by being able to contribute something, I could safeguard my spot at the center.

“I saved you a bowl of oatmeal,” Gladys said as I filled a large mug with coffee and doctored it with cream and sugar.

“With brown sugar?” I asked, smiling at her hopefully.

“Of course, I know what you like, sweet pea,” she answered back, an indulgent grin on her face.

My heart warmed at the endearment. I knew that she loved each and every one of the kids that came through her kitchen, but it never failed to make me feel special when she called me that or set food aside for me, adding something extra that she knew I liked. She was the mother I’d always wished I’d had.

I chatted with her for a while as I warmed my breakfast in the microwave and then I thanked her for the food and made my way out of the kitchen and sat down with a group of kids as I ate. I was just finishing up when I heard some of the kids calling out Matt’s name. My head whipped up and my heart leapt in my chest when I saw my boss walking through the maze of tables.

Matt stopped to talk to a table full of kids and I took the time to admire him. He looked very handsome in his khaki dress pants and light-blue button-down shirt which showed off his broad shoulders and narrow waist. His dark curls looked soft and silky, but they also looked longer than usual which surprised me because he was always meticulous with his appearance and never let his hair get too long without scheduling a trim. It just went to show how preoccupied he’d been. In fact, he’d been acting strangely ever since the night of the center’s grand opening.