Hadn’t he said that in his dream too?
“I’ll give you what you need.”
Del smiled at him, and knocked their shoulders together gently. “Come on back inside and eat, and we can figure out what we need to do so you can take this job, okay?”
Yeah, Del was just what Justin needed. He just couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe he already needed him too much.
* * * *
When Justin woke up, he didn’t know where he was at first. He blinked around the dim room, his eyes taking a moment to adjust to the moonlight. Del’s living room. He was lying on the couch in Del’s living room.
The house was quiet, and Justin pulled his phone out of his pocket to check the time. It was past midnight. He couldn’t remember falling asleep here. He’d just been sitting down after dinner, intending to relax for a moment before getting the kids together to go home. So much for that.
Where were the kids?
Justin stood up from the couch and headed down the moonlit hallway.
This house was bigger than his. Nicer. Justin trailed his fingers along the wall as he climbed the stairs. There was a room on one side of the corridor that looked to be an office or something, just on the other side of the bathroom. That was probably the main bedroom at the end of the hall, so…
Justin peered into a room opposite the bathroom.
It was a guest room, with two twin beds in it.
Two little figures were curled up together in one bed with a comforter pulled up over them. Harper and Wyatt. Wyatt was still clutching the doll he’d earlier beheaded, that Del had “fixed” with some Sellotape.
Scarlett, in the other bed, looked like a tiny little island in a massive sea. She’d been put to bed with a wall of pillows down either side of her to stop her from rolling off the mattress, and she was splayed out like a starfish as she slept.
Justin hesitated in the doorway, wishing he had the courage to continue on to the main bedroom, but the door to it was closed and to open it would be a massive invasion of Del’s privacy, however much Justin wanted to see him, or to maybe crawl into bed next to him just to be close.
He stepped into the guest room instead, and crouched down to take his shoes off. Then, carefully moving one line of pillows from Scarlett’s bed, he lifted the comforter and climbed in beside her.
Within minutes he was asleep again, this time even more deeply than before. 8
Del woke up with a start, blinking in confusion until he heard the sound again. A fussing baby. He untangled himself from the covers and poked at his phone to wake it up to check the time. Just past five. Probably not the time for anyone else to really wake up yet.
He made his way to the guest room and saw a sleepy and adorable Justin about to roll out of bed to change Scarlett.
“Let me,” Del whispered, making Justin jerk back. “Sorry, sorry…” Del waited until Justin went back to his spot and easily picked up the fussing toddler. “Go back to sleep. I’ll bring her back in a bit.”
Justin settled back down, obviously trying to decide if it was worth insisting on changing Scarlett himself. In the end, he made a cute huffing sound and pulled the covers over his shoulder.
Del took Scarlett to the bathroom and changed the diaper on the floor on top of a blanket. She looked annoyed but luckily still tired, so he took her back to the guest room and tucked her in next to Justin.
Half asleep, Justin put his hand over her little belly, and Del left the O’Dwyers to sleep
Sadly, he couldn’t fall asleep again, so he gave up just before six, and made his way into the kitchen.
He wasn’t sure if it was the excitement of the previous night or if maybe the whole family upstairs felt safe in Del’s house. Either way, he’d made coffee, scrambled eggs, put some bacon in the oven, and was making sure the breakfast buns he’d put together were ready to be put in the second oven as soon as he heard someone wake up.
He didn’t hear anyone in a while, so he put everything in the warming drawers. Those were a godsend when he needed the food to not go cold. In Del’s opinion, some things weren’t meant to be reheated.
Del finally gave in to his own hunger and put the buns in the oven around seven. He peered at them through the glass and saw something from the corner of his eye.