He just wanted to leave Enterprise and all of this behind him. He wanted to have a new beginning somewhere else.
“Do you really think we can get a fresh start together?” Justin asked, hope swelling inside his chest.
“Yes,” Del said softly. “I think we can do anything we want.”
Justin smiled and drew Del in for another gentle kiss.
* * * *
Justin fought with his nerves the entire day Emily and her husband were due over for a cookout. He knew that Del knew Emily from school, but he was finding it difficult to imagine that she wouldn’t somehow be the bearer of bad news. That she’d suddenly tell him that no, he couldn’t have the kids after all since he couldn’t look after them on his own. It wasn’t even fair to Emily, he knew, because she’d been nothing but helpful and supportive. It was just that she represented the system, and Justin had been raised to never trust the system to begin with, and to know that he was totally powerless against it as well.
He kept busy by helping Del in the kitchen, working awkwardly with only one good hand and looking longingly at the sweet desserts Del had made.
Del caught his look. “I’ve made some for you as well, don’t worry.”
Getting used to being diabetic was hard. Sometimes Justin got dizzy, sometimes he got mood swings, and sometimes he felt as sick as a dog, but he and Del were keeping charts of what he ate, and what times throughout the day his blood sugar spiked or dropped, and they were getting better at it. Justin didn’t even flinch when he gave himself insulin shots anymore, though he hated the fact his fingertips felt permanently bruised from checking his blood sugar. And at least Del made sure that Justin didn’t miss out. He was constantly testing out recipes Justin could eat as well, and he was planning to add episodes to his channel that included recipes for people with special dietary requirements.
Wyatt was working alongside them, carefully sawing away at tomatoes with his kid-safe knife. Scarlett was outside in the yard, wobbling along between Harper and Abigail. Justin smiled as he watched them from the window.
“You gonna be a chef like Del when you grow up, Wyatt?” Justin asked him.
Wyatt looked up from his chopping board, and grinned and nodded.
Justin wondered if he would, and was suddenly overwhelmed with how big and how full of possibilities the future was for all of them. The kids could be anything they wanted, and…and so could Justin. He didn’t know what that was yet, but for the first time in his life it didn’t seem impossible to dream.
“The feed store had a gardening section,” he said, and Del looked at him expectantly. “Nothing much, you know, just some seedlings and stuff for people’s home gardens. Like beets and squash and pumpkins. And this one time a whole bunch of them got dropped when the pallet was getting unloaded, and I had to sweep up the mess. Lloyd said I could take them home if I could salvage them, so I did.” He shrugged. “I mean, they’re probably dead now, but I planted them out back and I was going to see if I could make them grow.”
Del smiled softly.
“Maybe I could do that again,” Justin said. “When we get a new place. You like fresh produce, right? What’s fresher than straight from our own garden?”
“I’ve always wanted to do that,” Del said, knocking their shoulders together gently as they worked. “But with the hours I worked when I had the restaurant, it was impossible. And I never got around to planting anything out when I moved here. If you wanted to try it, that would be amazing.”
Bernie bustled into the kitchen. “Now, what say I make some lemonade?”
Justin still felt a little awkward around Del’s sister. He liked her—she was bubblier than Del, and had this sort of forceful energy about her that was impossible to resist—but he was worried that she’d look at him and find him lacking. Too young, too broken, too needy, too whatever. Except as far as he could tell all those insecurities were his, and nothing to do with Bernie at all.
“How are you feeling, Justin?” she asked him, like she asked him at least three times a day. “Should you be standing up, honey? Let me get you a chair.”
“I’m okay,” he said, flushing.
“I don’t want you popping your stitches!” she said.
“Bernice,” Del said fondly, rolling his eyes. “He’s okay.”
“Oh, I know his sort, Delbert,” Bernie said in a put out sister voice. “Johnny’s the same. You remember that time he fell off the roof when he was putting up Christmas decorations? He tried to tell me he could walk it off, and I said, ‘Johnny, I can see the bone poking out of your leg.’”
“Gross,” Del said, just as fondly. “I’m going to fire up the grill.”
“Wait,” Justin said. “What did you just call him?”
“What? Oh, Delbert?” Bernie blinked at him, then a wicked expression crossed her face just as Del groaned. “He hasn’t told you his full name?”
“Bernie…” Del whined.