“Want to go shopping with me, Short Stuff?” Lou Ellen asked Layla who was sitting on the sofa channel surfing. “I need your input on gifts for Griff and your brother.”

“My suggestion for Griff is a muzzle,” Layla said with a laugh. “The way he’s acting, he might bite someone.”

“Where’s Jayden?” she asked, frowning when she didn’t see him in his usual spot—her recliner.

“He went in to see Griff. I think they’re entertaining each other, which is a good thing. Griff taught him to play poker. Great skill for a homeless guy to be passing on to a homeless kid. Might get him a meal one day. Maybe I should be in there learning too.”

Lou Ellen’s heart shattered in a million tiny pieces and ripped up her insides. How could a child be so jaded, so hopeless? She could be that way because until now, she’d lived a hopeless life. Tears burned Lou Ellen’s eyes as she sucked in a sharp breath. Layla glanced over her shoulder and smiled at her.

“You okay?” she asked, as if what she just said wasn’t heartbreaking.

“No, I’m not okay,” Lou Ellen said as she walked around the sofa to sit beside Layla.

The girl frowned as her eyes skimmed Lou Ellen’s face, then skated down her body. “You feeling bad? I’ll go get Griff,” she said, putting her fists down to get up.

A shuddering sigh escaped when the knot in her throat cleared. “I’m feeling bad for you and Jayden. No kids should have to live like you have, or worry about where your next meal will come from. It’s just despicable and your parents should be in jail forever.”

She snorted. “Michael probably will be, he was dealing. I think Glenda gets out in a year or two. At least before they went to jail, we weren’t homeless.”

Michael and Glenda Smith—her no-account parents who should never have had children. Ronnie had compiled a whole dossier on these kids and given her a copy. There was no way in hell she was handing them back over to the foster care system. Ronnie had gotten the temporary emergency custody order, but Lou Ellen wanted more now.

“Don’t worry about us, Queenie. We’re survivors.” Her smile faded and she looked back at the TV, but Lou Ellen didn’t miss her lower lip quivering. “Now that we found each other again, we’ll be fine. Thanks for helping us do that and for taking us in for a little while.”

“What if I wanted it to be for more than a little while?” Lou Ellen asked, the words tumbling out without her permission. Her plan was to get them to trust her, then ask if they were interested in making it permanent.

Layla gasped as her head whipped around. Her green eyes narrowed in that “I don’t trust a thing you say” mode. “We’ll stick around until you’re tired of us, which usually happens at about three months.”

“I’m not talking months, Layla,” she said, laying her hand over the girl’s. “I’d be honored if you’d agree to let me adopt you.”

“Why in the hell would you want to do that?” she asked with a sniff. “You’ve got it good here in your palace, and don’t need troubled kids disrupting your life. Your friends at the country club would hate us and shun you.”

Anger simmered inside Lou Ellen as she pulled her hand back to cross her arms over her chest. She needed to correct some misconceptions all of them seemed to have about her.

“First of all, I’m not a member of any country club. Those people are not my friends. Secondly, I don’t give a damn what anyone thinks about my decisions, and last, I haven’t always lived in a palace. I was Cinderella at one time, scrubbing floors and toilets to survive, just like you, until my friends offered me help. I was smart enough to take it.”

“Griff is leaving so you won’t have help. It will be too much,” Layla said, pitching her second excuse. Lou Ellen was ready to hit that out of the park, too.

“Griff has nothing to do with my proposal. If he chooses to be a dumbass and leave here, I can’t stop him, but we will be okay regardless. I have friends who will help, if needed. You and your brother will have a whole extended family of beefy, big-hearted meatheads to have your back.”

“Logan and Slade?” she asked, her eyes widening a little.

“And Caleb, and Levi. Dex and Gray—you haven’t met them yet. They are less beef and meathead, but just as protective.”

“Cade?” she asked, looking back at the television. “He’s a pretty cool cat and handsome as hell. I’ll take that beef any day.”

“There will be rules you probably won’t like. The first is no cussing or talking like that. You are a young lady, or will be when I finish with you. You have to act respectful to earn respect and I will teach you how that’s done.”

“Would you make us go to school?” she asked, her lip curling.

“Yes, and I’ll make you do your homework. If you need help, I’ll be here to help,” Lou Ellen replied, the tension in her chest loosening a little.

“Jayden won’t like that,” Layla said with a snicker. “He’s used to doing his own thing. I liked school, it was the kids in my hood I had problems with.”

“There won’t be any more doing your own thing, Layla. I’ll expect you to tell me where you’re at, who you’re with and when you’ll be home. Otherwise, I’d be worried sick about you.”

“Are you sure about this? Because if I say yes and three months from now you change your mind, it won’t be pretty,” she said, her head bobbing. “We’ve been jacked around enough. We’re not stray dogs to be thrown out or hit when we mess up, or fed scraps so you can get your check from the state. If that’s the plan, I’d rather live on the streets.”

“Everyone messes up, kiddo. I don’t expect either of you to be perfect.” Lou Ellen unfolded her arms to cover her hand again. “I do expect you to respect me, try to follow the rules and admit when you’ve messed up.”

“Do you really think this will work?” she asked, not sounding one bit like she believed it would.

These two had no reason to believe anything would work out for them. That is the part Lou Ellen would have to take time to prove to them. They could be happy and live a nice, normal, productive life.

“I know it will.” Layla gave her a tentative smile as she patted her hand. “Now get your coat so we can go shopping. We need to be back early so we can start baking for the office Christmas party on Friday.”

“As much as I like sweets, you might be taking a single cookie to that party, so you may not want my help.”

“I love sweets too, so that last cookie is mine,” Lou said with a grin. “We’ll just have to double the recipes to make sure we have enough for the crew or they’ll be gripey.”

“Logan is already gripey, but he’s hot, too.” Layla wiggled her eyebrows and Lou pinched her cheeks, then leaned in to hug her. Warmth and hope spread through her when Layla hugged her back this time.

---

Griff stopped in the hallway when he heard Layla’s and Lou Ellen’s voices in the living room. Instead of limping to the bathroom, he edged his way to the end of the hallway to listen to their conversation. As he watched them leave to go shopping, he was glad he had eavesdropped.

His leg wasn’t healed by a long shot, but it was better thanks to the antibiotics Cade gave him and the pain pills Lou Ellen provided. He could finish those three days of pills anywhere. In a couple of weeks, he’d remove the stitches himself with tweezers. He wasn’t sure his heart would ever recover, but the memories he had of his time with this special woman would keep him forever.

What he’d just heard told him that the kids would be fine and so would Lou Ellen. It was time for him to go. Sticking around to watch them bake cookies and going to that Christmas party like he belonged there would just make it that much harder to leave them. Wasting his time pretending this could be real wasn’t doing himself, or them, any favors either.

It was better for all of them to make a clean break now, rather than weaving himself into the little family she was planning. That would only hurt them more, and potentially put them in danger. He turned back toward the bedroom and bumped into Jayden.

“You ready to get your ass kicked again? I thought you were going to the bathroom, but it looks like you’re trying to sneak out. Come take your beating like a man,” he said with a laugh, and Griff flinched.

“No, I was going to tell them to bring me back some ibuprofen, but I guess I’ll have to go out and get some myself.” Ibuprofen worked as well as the proverbial pack of cigarettes men used to go out for and never come back.

“You got pain pills, right?” Jayden asked frowning.

“Yeah, but I don’t do drugs and don’t want to get hooked on them,” he replied. “I’m tough—ibuprofen works.”

“You can hardly walk. How are you going to walk all the way to the store? You want me to go for you?” he asked, sounding suspicious.

Griff reached down to massage his thigh. “I need the exercise. It will work the kinks out of my muscle,” he lied. He didn’t know how he was going to get back to the bridge to get his stuff. Walking all that way was out of the question. He probably had enough for bus fare if he could find a bus stop in this hoity-toity neck of the woods.

“You’re not coming back are you?” Jayden asked, and Griff’s eyes flew back to his.

Griff chewed the inside of his cheek and contemplated lying. “No, I’m not coming back so it’s up to you to take care of your sister and Lou Ellen.”

He harrumphed and his lip curled. “The way my sister talked about you, I thought you were different. She bet on the wrong horse, didn’t she?” he asked.

She certainly did. They all did. Because he was lame. He was throwing them off his back before they all crashed into the fence and died with him.

It had been a nice fantasy, but it was time to wake up.