Dream Keeper (Dream Team 4)

Though, this could wait until after we salvaged Thanksgiving.

I watched the road and Auggie gave her space too as he drove us toward home.

We were halfway there when he said to Juno, “It’s all good, sweetheart. Your mom and I did some stuff, but you and I have some cooking to do and the turkey won’t be finished for at least an hour.”

“Okay, Aug,” she mumbled.

He glanced at me.

I made a yikes face.

His mouth got tight.

And his phone rang again.

He looked down at it, sighed, and this time, took the call.

It came up on his dash and it was Tod.

Which I thought might be a good distraction for us all, because if Tod wasn’t being hilarious, he was just being awesome.

“Hey, Tod. Happy Thanksgiving,” Auggie greeted.

“Um, kind of, though I’ve been calling and texting because, with your mom having broken the front window of your house to get in, I’m thinking for you it won’t be.”

Auggie hit some buttons to take Tod off speaker and put the phone to his ear.

“What?” he barked into it. Pause and, “Right. Thanks. I’ll take care of it. Sorry for this disruption.” Another pause and, “Okay, no. Don’t. Don’t go over there. I’ll take care of it.” One last pause and, “Right. Thanks again. Later.”

He ended the call, the air in the cab was stifling, and Juno asked, “Your mom broke into your house?”

Fabulous.

“I’m gonna take you two home,” Auggie gritted out. “Then I’ll go deal with that. I’ll be back by dinner.”

“No way!” Juno exclaimed. “Thanksgiving is about being together.”

It was.

But not being together with his mother involved.

I didn’t want him to go by himself (like, really didn’t), but I didn’t think I had the choice. He couldn’t let his mother break into his house. He couldn’t have his window like that when he wasn’t there.

He had to deal with this.

But Juno couldn’t be there when he did.

I mean, seriously.

What in the fuck was the matter with that woman?

I kept a tight rein on my anger and looked around the seat again to my girl.

“We can get some things sorted Auggie won’t want to do while he’s away. Then you two can hit it when he gets back.”

“No!” she shouted, and I blinked, because she hadn’t shouted when she wasn’t getting her way since she was a little kid. Or a littler one. “Family sticks together!”

“Juno,” I said mollifyingly.

“I know what you meant, Mom, when you said Auggie’s family isn’t normal.”

I didn’t say not normal.

I said not traditional.

Though I meant not normal, of course.

Still.

I didn’t correct her and not only because she kept going so I didn’t have the opportunity.

“It means his family is like our family and when it’s like that, the good parts of it have to stick together. Like you and me stick together. We gotta stick together with Auggie.”

I loved that she thought that.

However.

“I don’t think—” I tried.

“We’re going with him,” she declared.

“Juno, really—”

“We’re going with him!” she shrieked.

Right.

I was not a fan of that.

Then again, I’d missed that she was clearly suffering as much as she was with what was going on with her dad. That was fresh for her, so maybe…

“You can stay out in the car,” Auggie murmured.

“No, your mom gets to know you have people,” Juno refuted.

Auggie’s lips thinned.

As much as it sucked—because even if my girl was being a bit of a brat, she was still being sweet—it was time to nip this in the bud.

I looked around my seat again. “I know you’ve just had a rough go of it, honey, but whatever is happening, Auggie gets to make the call with how it’s dealt with.”

“Is Auggie ours?” she demanded to know.

Ummmmm…

“He is,” she answered her own question (correctly, I’d add). “And we take care of what’s ours, don’t we, Mom? You take care of me. I take care of you. We take care of what’s ours.”

Shit.

Now I felt like crying.

“It’ll be fine,” Auggie said in a weird, strangled voice that was tight, but also rough, and I knew by that how much it meant that Juno had just claimed him.

I wasn’t certain we should give in to this behavior, but the feel of the cab hadn’t gotten any better, Juno just laid out her dad, Auggie’s mom had broken into his freaking house, and I had two people I loved on my hands who were dealing with some heavy shit.

Two people I loved.

Oh man.

Okay, I had three people I loved, because I loved me, and I was now dealing with the fact I just figured out I was in love with Auggie.

Holy hell.

I decided to remain quiet.

But while I did that, I reached for Auggie’s hand, and he gave it to me.

Auggie drove to his house.

He parked in one of his two spaces in the back.

We all then trooped through his back gate, his backyard, and he let us in through his back door.