“Besides, I don’t want him to feel like he needs to feel something out of gratitude.”
She giggle-snorted. “You’re not ready to be his sugar daddy?”
Del groaned again. “I’m going to hang up now. Good night. Let me know what Jayla and the others say?”
“Will do, I’ll email you!”
“Night, sweetheart.”
“Good night!”
It hit Del then, how lonely Justin must’ve felt. He didn’t have family to rely on. Not like Del, who could pick up the phone literally at any point of his day and get someone’s opinion, help, or just a dose of love immediately.
Del wasn’t sure if it was his job, but he decided then and there, he could provide at least some of those things for Justin and his siblings, because someone had to.
* * * *
The next day, Del was frowning at his notes spread on the island. He was really trying to work on the cookbook, but none of his old recipes sparked his interest.
The idea he’d originally had was to modernize good old recipes or to maybe come up with completely new ones while he was at it. He grunted in disgust at himself. Yeah, maybe he needed to pick something and stick with the goal instead of faffing about like an imbecile, damn it.
Just as he was about to rip his hair off, his doorbell rang, jolting his out of his misery.
He pulled the hair tie out of his bun and walked to the door, picking individual hairs out of the damned thing. He really needed to buy the ones that didn’t stick to and rip out his hair.
He opened the door and stared at Justin, Scarlett, and Wyatt.
“Oh, hi!” Del smiled at them as he finger-combed his hair and put it back into a bun. “What can I do for you?”
Justin snapped his mouth shut and blushed. “Uh, you said you’d help…?”
“Yeah, absolutely, come on in,” Del said immediately. It didn’t matter what it was Justin needed, Del was there for it.
The fact that he could sort of feel the ghost of Justin’s lips against his now that he was faced with the man again, but he couldn’t dwell on that.
Justin was dressed in nicer clothes, but the kids looked like they were wearing their everyday ones. Then again, maybe they didn’t have anything nicer?
“So, I have to go deal with the stuff at Eriksen’s,” Justin started, looking at Del pointedly.
It took him a few seconds to remember that the funeral home in town was owned by the Eriksen family.
“Right, yeah. I’ll look after them for you. When should Harper be home?”
“In an hour and a half, I think. If you’d flag down the school bus or get her from ours. I did leave a note on the door for her, just in case.” Justin held Scarlett to him, and the toddler snuggled right into his arms, as if they’d been best friends all her life. “I don’t know how long it’ll take. I might have to take care of other stuff in town, too, so…” Justin frowned apologetically.
“No, that’s okay,” Del said quickly. “Wait, your car is still dead, right?”
“Yeah, I was going to walk to the bus stop—”
“Just take mine.” Before Justin could object, Del got the keys and handed them over. “I won’t need it today, and this way you don’t have to wait for the bus.”
Justin’s face did something very complicated then. Eventually he said, “People will notice I’m driving your car.”
“And?” Del frowned. “I’m allowed to lend my car to anyone I like.”
Justin was about to say something more, probably the same stuff he’d said the night before about how being an O’Dwyer stigmatized you, but Del shook his head. “No. Take it. I’ll make sure the munchkins are happy and fed.” Then, because Scarlett was staying, he asked, “Diapers?”
“Oh, right.” Justin looked around, and Wyatt thrust up a plastic bag filled with baby things. “Thanks, buddy.” Justin ruffled his hair. Then he knelt to his brother’s level. “I’m going to go to town for a little bit. Del will look after you, okay?”
Wyatt looked from Justin to Del and back, then nodded solemnly.
“We’ll be fine. I think there are some old toys here somewhere. We can do some treasure hunting!” Del made his voice excited, and Wyatt’s eyes lit up.
Then the little boy looked tense for a few moments, before opening his mouth. A sound close to “yarrr!” came out, and Del grinned. “Yes, like pirates!”
Justin got to his feet then, seemingly overwhelmed again. “Okay, I-I’m just gonna go. I’ll be back as soon as possible.”
“We’ll be fine,” Del repeated.