10. Amos
AMOS
" M oving into position." Marcus speaks quietly as he lowers his end of the single bed frame to the floor. I drop the other end onto the carpet and he taps his ear, pretending to speak into a comms set.
"Bed is in position for the HVT."
I shake my head slowly. "Why did you leave the SEALs again?"
Marcus straightens up. "Not my choice, mate. Bloody doctors won't let me back in."
"That's why you don't go to the doctor," chimes in Hudson from the doorway.
"Can you give me some space in here?" Avery sits cross-legged on the floor with decals spread out around her. "And what is a HVT?"
"High value target," we all say at once.
She rolls her eyes. "Is that how you're referring to our nephew? Poor kid's going to think he's living in a military school."
Marcus helps me shuffle the bed against the wall, and then he and Hudson file out into the living room.
"Do you think he's too old for dinosaurs?" Avery holds up a realistic-looking T-Rex with its jaws open showing razor-sharp teeth. "Or would cars be better?" In her other hand she holds a red sports car decal.
"Are six year olds into dinosaurs?" I rack my brain, trying to remember what me and Jake were into at that age, and come up a blank.
"I'll ask Alana."
I slide me phone out of my pocket and fire off a quick text.
Are six year olds into dinosaurs or cars?
I tap my phone impatiently, waiting for the reply.
"It's Saturday, Amos. I'm sure Alana doesn't want to be bothered over the weekend with all your questions."
I frown at the phone screen which remains stubbornly blank.
"I'll put them both up," Avery decides.
In the past few days, I've cleared the junk out of my spare room and painted it. Today everyone's here helping me build furniture and put the finishing touches on what will be Sam's room.
The living room is full of flatpack furniture.
We've made the bed, and I've got the dresser and bookcase to go.
Avery insisted on decorating the room, and I have to admit the touches she's brought to it make it more of a kid’s room.
I would have left the walls white and plain, but Avery suggested a green feature wall, a reading lamp, and wall decals.
She went shopping with Paige, her best friend and Hudson's sister, and picked out a comforter cover, cuddly toys, which I thought a six-year-old boy was too big for, and fairy lights to string around the room.
I wouldn't have chosen them for a boy, but she assures me he'll love it.
I went along with her suggestions, because the more I've gotten into this, the more I've realized I know nothing about kids, and boys, and six-year-olds.
Alana is coming over at my request to make sure my place is suitable for a kid. She told me all he needs is a dry place to sleep, but I want him to have more than that. I want this to be his home.
So I called in my friends, and in the last three days we've transformed my two-bedroom apartment that I've lived in when not deployed for the past five years into a home fit for Jake's son.
My phone buzzes, and I grin when I see it's a message from Alana.
Both
My smile widens. She's a woman of few words, or maybe it's because it's the hundredth text I've sent this week. But I figure she's the expert on kids and knows Sam better than any of us.
Another text comes through.
Sam likes cars
"Put the cars up," I tell Avery. "Scrap the dinosaurs."
"Thank you.”
I owe you dinner
She messages back immediately.
It's still a no
I grin at her message. It's a no now, but one day it will be a yes. I'm sure of it.
"Are you texting Sam's caseworker again?" Hudson peers up at me from one end of the mattress that him and Marcus are carrying into the bedroom.
"Her name's Alana."
He shakes his head. "Dude, it's tacky to hit on Sam's caseworker. Isn't that against the rules?"
Trust Hudson to want to play by the rules. The guy’s as straight as they come. He should have been a cop, not a SEAL.
"I'm not hitting on her," I lie, slipping my phone into my pocket. "I just have a lot of questions."
They put the mattress on top of the bed, and for the first time it's starting to look less like the dumping ground that was my spare room and more like a kid’s bedroom.
The apartment door buzzes, saving me from answering any more questions about Alana. Not that I need to explain myself to my friends. I like her, I want her, but she doesn't want to go out with me. Not much more to it than that.
I check the door camera, and when I see it's Paige, Hudson's sister, I buzz her up. She's carrying her kid, Noah, in a baby sling around her middle, and her hands are full of pizza boxes.
I open the door and meet her at the elevator to take the boxes off her.
"Thought you could all do with some lunch."
The smell of pizza wafts from the boxes as I plunk them down on the kitchen counter. Hudson and Marcus fall on the pizza, and I snag a slice.
"Pizza's here," I call to Avery.
Paige unbuckles the baby sling, and Noah squirms in her arms. I look around at the boxes of flatpack furniture and the screws and bolts strewn about on the floor.
"Whoa, it's not safe for him. There's bits everywhere."
"It's alright," she says. "I'm not going to put him down yet."
She holds out the wiggling baby and looks at me expectantly.
"What are you doing?"
"You need experience with kids."
Noah holds his hands out to me and giggles. He's cute, but he's a baby. A big baby who's squirming in her hands.
"Sam's six. I don't need baby experience"
Paige shoves him toward me. "It's not that long ago that Sam was this small, and he couldn’t do a thing for himself. You need to know how vulnerable he was. That's where he's coming from."
I stare at Paige as she thrusts her baby at me.
"Just take him, will you? So I can have some pizza."
I stuff the last of the pizza in my mouth and take Noah in my arms. He smells like milk, and he's soft and chubby. I perch on the stool and bounce him on my knee. Noah squirms, wanting to be put down.
"Whoa there, buddy. Let's make this safe for you first."
I sling him onto my hip and secure him with one hand.
I move around the living room, using my other hand to pick up small screws and parts and gather up the wrapping that the bed parts came in.
"Room is secure," Marcus says as if he's on a mission and not stuffing pizza in his mouth surrounded by flat pack furniture.
I let Noah down, and he shoots out of my arms like a rocket. "Jesus, he can move."
"Yeah," Paige says with a mouthful of pizza. She chews as she moves to block his path into the bedroom. "You have to be fast. He'll be walking soon. But your six-year-old, he'll run around the house."
"Not inside he won't."
Paige raises her eyebrows. "You can have all the rules you like, but kids run everywhere. It's a fact."
She gathers up Noah and turns him around to face me. "Go on, go back to Uncle Amos."
I'm not Noah's blood uncle, but we're all like family around here.
Noah heads straight for me, and his face lights up when I open my arms to him. I crouch on the ground, and he crawls onto my lap.
"Aww, he likes you." Paige beams.
I smile down at the little guy. "I like him too."
I glance up to find Hudson frowning at me, and I know what he's thinking. "Relax, Hudson. He's not mine."
Hudson's frown deepens. "You sure about that? You look pretty cozy together."
Paige has never told anyone who the father of her baby is, and it drives Hudson wild.
Paige laughs hard. "He's not Amos's. Oh my god, have you looked at your nephew?"
Noah chooses that moment to launch himself off my lap and crawl across the floor. He must know something's up, because he goes right up to his Uncle Hudson and sits on his foot as he grabs a piece of pizza that dropped to the floor.
"Uh-no." Hudson grabs the pizza out of his pudgy hand, but not before Noah's stuffed it in his mouth. "Buddy, don't eat food from the floor. You can have a piece, but not off the floor."
He hoists his nephew into his arms. Noah's dark hair falls across his face, and his chocolate-colored eyes turn wide as Hudson pries the pizza out of his fingers.
The happy expression from a moment ago disappears, and he lets loose an earsplitting wail. I wince and cover my ears as Noah howls over the loss of his pizza.
"Fucking hell," I say under my breath. "I'm glad I've skipped his part."
It takes a full two minutes for the crying to stop. I faced imposed torture during BUD/s SEAL training, but the cries of a baby are something else.
Finally he's placated with a piece of pizza of his own and tucked into Paige's lap as she sits cross-legged on the floor.
"Did any of you guys know Jake had a son?" Paige asks.
"I don't think Jake knew he had a son," I say.
"What makes you so sure?" She eyes me suspiciously. "Avery mentioned there were letters in his belongings. Could they have been to Sam's mother?"
Avery shakes her head. "Different name. We still don't know who the letters are to. Does the name Sofia Eaves mean anything to any of you?"
She looks hopefully around the group, but everyone shakes their heads.
"Not a name I know," says Marcus. "But I can do some digging for you."
"I've already looked online; there are hundreds of Sofia Eaves, but none of them makes sense in how they would relate to Jake."
"Leave it to me," says Marcus. "I might turn something up."
I glance at him, and we share a look. Marcus is making light of it, but he has his ways of finding information, and they're not all legit. If anyone can track down the mysterious Sofia Eaves, it's Marcus.
"What makes you so sure Jake didn't know about Sam?" asks Paige.
"Because he would have done the right thing," I say. "Jake would have owned up to his..." I was about to say mistake, but I stop myself when I catch Noah giggling at me. Paige wouldn't think Noah was a mistake, and I certainly don't think of Sam that way.
"Not all men own up," growls Hudson.
He's staring at Noah, and Paige scoops him into her arms and plants a kiss on the top of his head.
"Not all men know," she says softly.
"Then they should be told," Hudson counters.
Paige lets out a long sigh. "I'm sorry you don't understand, Huds, but there's no point telling you who the father is because he's not going to be around anyway."
She looks around the group. "I can understand Sam's mother's thinking. Not all women want the father in their kid's life."
"But who wouldn't want Jake?" Avery says quietly. She's sitting with her legs pulled up to her chest, and she blinks quickly.
My sister took Jake's death hard. But I know what she means. Jake was a good guy; he would have done the right thing. If she didn't want him in the kid’s life, he could have at least contributed financially. None of it makes sense. But then what in life does?
All I know is my nephew arrives in three days, and I need to get this place ready for him.
"Come on." I get up off the floor. "We've got a set of drawers to build."