Deserted - Auctioned

“Of course, of course.” Adeline returned to her desk and searched through a stack of papers. “I won’t keep you, but I think you wanna see this before you head upstairs.”

Gray trailed over to the desk as Adeline extended a piece of paper.

He furrowed his brow and read it, unsure of what it was until he saw…

Carol Chapman—deceased.

Gray’s heart jumped up into his throat, and his gaze flashed to a smiling Adeline. “This is Jayden’s mom, isn’t it?”

She nodded. “She died of a drug overdose, and I know I shouldn’t find any pleasure in it, but fuck it. It means she can’t contest the foster care procedures once we get you an application. Which should be soon, for the record. Jayden should get back into the system so he can begin catching up with his peers. He needs to be in school.”

Gray nodded and pinched his lips, grinning. This was the best goddamn news.

He couldn’t remember if Jonas had told him about their mother’s fate, but now it didn’t matter. They knew the truth.

This was gonna be a good day.

It was a feeling he brought with him upstairs a minute later. He stopped in the doorway to the boys’ room and saw that they were playing on the floor. They had a bunch of action figures, dinosaurs, and LEGO pieces out.

Gray’s heart felt like it was gonna explode. They were still in pajamas—at this hour. And he happened to know that after breakfast, the staff told the children to get ready for the day.

“I’m gonna destroy you,” Jayden said in a whispered growl, holding his action figure over Justin’s two raptors.

“No, you won’t! We will eat you up!” Justin hissed.

Gray grinned.

Jayden was about to respond, but he must’ve caught some movement. He glanced up, and his eyes went wide. “You’re here! You’re not sick no more!” He scrambled up to his feet, and then he flew right into Gray.

“Oomph.” Gray laughed and gave no fucks about boundaries for affection. He picked Jayden up with a grunt and hugged him tightly. “I missed you so damn much.”

“Yeah.” Jayden sniffled and buried his face in the crook of Gray’s neck. “Good. You gotta miss me.”

Wanting some room for one more boy, Gray walked over to Justin’s bed and sat down. “Come here, sweetheart. We can’t have a family hug if you’re not here.”

Justin was tense with anxiousness but wasted no time crawling up in his bed.

“Much better. You belong with us too, you know.” Gray pulled him close and kissed the top of his curly bed head. “We have so much catching up to do. I wanna know what you’ve been up to while Darius and I were sick and couldn’t get out of bed.”

“We got into trouble—not yesterday but the day before,” Jayden admitted sheepishly.

“Uh-oh.” Gray pretended to look like he was bracing himself. “What did you do?”

Justin giggled behind his hands.

“We got pudding after dinner and brought them up here, and we hid them under our pillows,” Jayden said. “We forgot them! So we had pudding in our hair when we woke up.”

“Oh no,” Gray laughed.

“Adeline was mad but not really,” Jayden went on. “I could tell. She tried not to smile. But then we had to help clean in the garden. That was not fun. There are leaves everywhere!”

“I hope you learned your lesson, then,” Gray chuckled. “No pudding in bed.”

He had a feeling these two would keep their life up in the cabin very interesting.“Why are you sad?” Jayden asked, sticking a French fry into his mouth. “Do you want more ketchup?”

Gray smiled and scratched Justin’s scalp lightly. “He’s not sad. It’s just been a lot today.”

It’d taken Justin a few hours and three conversations to understand that Gray and Darius wanted to give him a home too, and now, at the restaurant, Justin was clingy in the best ways. They shared the same corner of the bar as last time, and Darius had served them fried fish sliders, a shrimp sandwich for Gray, and all the fries they could eat. Justin ate a little, but mostly he was content to just sit sideways across Gray’s lap and rest his head on Gray’s chest.

The restaurant was far from packed at three in the afternoon, though it still kept Darius and his staff busy.

Two women had moved their lunch from the seating area to the bar and were flirting wildly with Darius. He took it in stride and humored them a little, while keeping his distance and looking slightly perturbed. Gray was enjoying watching him. Darius seriously wasn’t a social person, and it was easy to tell he’d much rather be in the cabin or surrounded by friends and family. He didn’t willingly venture outside of that bubble.

Gray grinned into Justin’s hair as he heard Darius say, “Nah, I’m batting for the other team these days.”