Logan chuckled.
“I’m serious. I may look like a damn good catch, but some ladies really want you to work for it.”
“Did you work for it with her?”
“Yes. I did.”
She looked up in time to see him staring across the bench at her.
Her mouth went dry, and her pussy grew slick at the heat and promise within his gaze.
“Thank you for coming, Xavier,” Logan said.
“You know I wouldn’t miss this for the world, buddy.” Xavier ruffled his hair again.
Once Logan finished his pancakes, and Xavier finished hers, she took Logan to go and win some prizes. First one was throwing balls into a hoop in order to win a bear. Logan won a small bear while she sucked at it, coming away with nothing.
“Here,” Logan said, holding out his prize.
“Don’t you want it?”
“No. I want you to have it.”
Bending down, she looked into Logan’s eyes, and saw the pain there. The pain and the loneliness, and it broke her heart. “You deserve to have this, Logan. No one is ever going to take this away from you.”
He wrapped his arms around her, and she held on tightly to him.
For the next hour, she held his hand, and took him from one game to another. Xavier came and spent time with her in between acting like a big kid. They stood on the sidelines watching the games they played. Slowly, Logan started to let loose, and several kids came up to take him to play. She watched to make sure Logan was okay.
Shannon, the woman in charge of Logan’s fostering, came up to her. “It just breaks your heart, doesn’t it?”
“They all do.” All the kids deserved a home. She would have given a home to all of them, but that wasn’t possible.
“Most of these kids won’t get a home. Some are too old, and people don’t want the trouble that comes with taking on a troubled kid. Logan, though. He’s ten years old, and he was dumped in foster care because his mother liked the high life, and her boyfriend hated him. She was given an ultimatum. The boyfriend, or the kid.”
“She picked the boyfriend.”
“The same night. She packed Logan up, a few of his things, and dumped him.”
Anya shook her head, angry at the woman that she didn’t know. “That is cruel.”
“I know. We can’t do anything about it. People drop their kids into foster care all the time. Sometimes it’s because they’re going through a bad patch, and at least in care they’re given food, security, and a roof over their head. When they’re back in a comfortable situation, they’re back to collect them.”
“Everyone is different.”
“I wanted to offer you my congratulations. Xavier, he’s amazing, and a true inspiration for the boys.”
“Thank you. He’s really something.”
A something I’m falling in love with.
****
“Xavier, this is my mom and dad, Emma and Harold Miller,” Anya said.
The two people were a lot older than Xavier imagined, but he saw that they were loving, caring people. The kindness in their eyes showed through. While he’d been participating in this yearly event of torture, “taste the food”, he’d noticed her parents arrive. The care they gave to each child was something he admired.
“Hello, it’s great to meet you,” he said.
“It’s about damn time we met you. Been married for what? A month or so, and we’re only getting to meet you now. It’s a disgrace.”
“Dad, stop it,” Anya said, chuckling. “We’ve been busy, and we both know you’d have needed to calm down before you could even accept him into your life.”
“Yeah, well, a father is still allowed to be … annoyed.”
Xavier smiled as he noticed Harold hesitated before saying something, making sure kids didn’t hear any cussing words. According to Shannon, the event was a roaring success. Xavier would double, maybe even triple, his donation this year. Every now and then, he noticed that Logan would go off, and sit on a bench. His mother leaving him had really cut him deep.
Several of the kids had asked if he would be willing to foster Logan. It was insane. Most of the time kids were desperate to get noticed, to get the attention from willing parents. These kids, they saw how broken Logan was, and they had banded together like a brotherhood, hoping that Logan got picked first. When Xavier said it wasn’t fair for him to take Logan, the kids had thought it was stupid of him. None of them expected him to take them all on. Logan was special. He needed this chance, and Xavier agreed with all of them. It was breaking the little guy. The other kids were more than happy with him, desperate for him to take Logan.