DONOVAN (Gray Wolf Security, #1)(83)

“Do you remember when you were little and dad explained to you what it means to be adopted?”

JT rolled his eyes. “You mean the whole forever family thing?”

I tilted my head just slightly. “I mean the whole ‘your biological parents gave you up for reasons we don’t know, but it was a loving act that meant they wanted what was best for you’ thing.”

He nodded. “Dad said my biological mother was very young and she probably gave me up because she couldn’t take care of me alone. But they didn’t know anything about my bio-dad.”

“Yeah. Well, it turns out that when the adoption lawyer went to get a signature from the biological father—the signature that said he agreed to give up all parental rights to you—she didn’t actually get his signature. Someone else forged it.”

JT set his burger down and began picking at his tots. “What does that mean?”

“It means that while your biological mother gave you up, your biological father didn’t.”

“Really?”

“He claims he didn’t even know about you until a few months ago.”

“How could he not know about me?”

I shrugged, picking the cheese off of my tots. “I don’t know.”

“So what does that mean now?”

“He wants you, JT. He wants to take you away from here and back to where he lives.”

JT was quiet for a long couple of minutes. I didn’t look at him at first, afraid that I would cry if I saw what I expected would be fear and confusion on his face. Instead, when I finally looked at him, I saw excitement and wonder.

“My father wants me?”

“We went to court today. The judge ruled that you would stay with me for right now, but that he can spend time with you and that we have to go back to court next week.”

“I get see him?”

“Yes. But next week, when we go to court, the judge wants to talk to you.”

“Who is he?”

JT was completely missing everything I was trying to tell him. All he wanted to know was about Harrison. I didn’t understand. I mean, I suppose I did, to a certain extent. He’d lived all his life wondering who his biological parents were and why they gave him up. But didn’t he care that he might have to leave me, leave his friends? What about football and school and everything else?

What about me?

“When do I get to see him? Can I see him now?”

I studied the eagerness in his eyes and sighed. “It’s Mr. James, JT. But he lied to us. His name is really Harrison Philips. He’s some sort of—“

“Mr. James?”

“Yes. He came here and got a job at the school so he could get to know you.”

JT sat back in his seat, dragging his greasy fingers through his hair.

“Mr. James is my father.”

“He is.”

“Can I see him now?”

“JT—“

I wanted to argue with him. But I could see by the expression on his face that anything I said now he wouldn’t hear. He didn’t want to hear anything other than what he’d asked. His head was spinning with thoughts that I could only imagine.

I sighed, put the car into gear and tossed my practically untouched meal into the trash on the way out of the parking lot. Harrison’s car was in the driveway outside of his rented house and the man himself appeared at the door seconds after I pulled my car to a stop at the curb.

JT didn’t even say goodbye as he jumped out of the car. But Harrison—he lifted his hand in a grateful wave.

Or maybe it was triumphant. Either way, I felt as though I’d just lost everything that ever mattered.





Chapter 12


Harrison

“It’s so weird, being inside a teacher’s house.”

“I’m not really your teacher anymore.”

JT looked up from the magazine he’d picked up from the coffee table. “Yeah, I keep forgetting,” he said, his eyes refusing to rest on my face.

“I know this must be pretty confusing for you.”

“Not really,” he said, dropping the magazine back onto the table and moving over to the bookshelves that held a collection of bells left by the last occupant of this house. He touched one or two before moving to the small collection of DVDs I had sitting on the television stand. “You like these?”

“Yeah. You?”

He shrugged, once again moving on. He was so restless, it was like watching a puppy checking out new surroundings. I leaned against the archway between the kitchen and living room to watch, not sure there was anything else I could do.

I hadn’t expected her to bring him by tonight. When I heard the car pull up outside through the exceedingly thin walls of this house, I wasn’t sure what to expect when he jumped out of the car. When she didn’t get out…I hated that this was so hard for her. I wished again and again that there was another way.

“I guess you have a lot of questions for me.”

JT hesitated, once again picking up the magazine from the coffee table.

“I used to wonder about my birth mother a lot. What she looked liked. What she did for a living. That kind of thing.”

“She’s kind of tall,” I said, holding a hand out just above my shoulder to show him how tall. “Blond. Blue eyes.”