The third of his… siblings was standing apart from the others with her arms crossed, leaning against the porch pillar on the opposite side.
“Well, Sawyer, might as well get this over with.”
Stepping out of his car and closing the door behind him, he made his way up the walkway, stopping at the bottom of the stairs.
“Mr. Lancaster,” the woman said as she removed her hand from the little boy’s and held it out to him. “I’m Madison Walker. It’s so nice to finally meet you.”
Sawyer shook her hand while replying, “It’s nice to meet you as well. Are the foster parents coming out soon? I’d like to thank them for taking in my siblings.”
Ms. Walker hesitated a moment before answering him. “They… had me come over to get the children ready first thing this morning, but wanted to sleep in since it was so early.”
Sawyer stood silent as he processed this, then looked over the children and back up at the social worker. Early? How could someone who was a foster parent not want to see off the children they took in?
“Okay… Well then, I guess there’s no need to stay on the porch any longer.
Madison laughed. “No, not really. The sooner we get them settled in the car and the paperwork signed, the better. With that, she began to introduce the children. “This little one in my arms is Callum, this young man is Gavin, and here is Savanna—”
“Savie,” the young girl standing off to the other side of the stairs interrupted, rolling her eyes and then turning away.
This is going to be interesting. Sawyer couldn’t help thinking, deflating a bit as he grabbed the other bags of luggage and they all made their way back down to his car, where the two older kids piled into the back.
He already had second, third, and fourth thoughts, so why not add a sister that hated him on sight?
“You sure I can do this?” Sawyer asked Madison, his eyes on the kids in the back of his car. He had forgotten to get a car seat for Callum, but Madison, a step ahead, had brought one with her for him to use.
She smiled at him and patted his arm. “They’re good kids, but I won’t lie to you. They’ll be a lot of work.” Her eyes wandered to the kids, then returned to his. “Their mother is a drug addict, and she took off rather frequently. She’s in rehab right now, court ordered, but she’s also been to rehab four times in as many years. By all accounts, your father tried to do well by them.”
Sawyer had to bite his tongue to stop him from saying that man was not his father.
“He was there for them, but…” Madison seemed to be considering her words carefully. “Kids like this, there’s no way their mother’s behavior hasn’t affected them. The woman hasn’t been back since little Callum was born.”
She held his gaze, and Sawyer felt like he was being assessed, and he started to fidget under the intense scrutiny.
“Can I be frank with you, Mr. Lancaster?” Her look was pointed as she spoke.
Sawyer nodded. It wasn’t like he could say no.
“Your siblings need stability in their life, and we know they’re not going to get that from their mother. She once left them with a male stranger for two days. Your father was out of town, and they were scared to death. They need you.”
“But I’m not a parent,” Sawyer argued.
“So don’t start at being their parent. Just be someone that they can count on and go from there.” She sighed before going on. “It’s not going to be easy, and I’m not telling you it will, but frankly, this beats the alternative. And your father entrusted them to you, so that has to mean something.”
Even though several days had passed since he last spoke to Ms. Walker, Sawyer still couldn’t believe this had become his life now. And boy, was there a learning curve.
He’d known each time his life was about to change. The day he’d started Columbia, and again when he got into Harvard. The day he got the call that his mom had passed away… and the day he realized Ford wasn’t just another soon-to-be ex. Still, this was by far the craziest and most surreal of them all. Even now, he still didn’t know how to feel about it.
He knocked on the bedroom door where fifteen-year-old Savanna spent most of her time barely acknowledging his presence. He was greeted with silence, so Sawyer knocked again, but when there was still no answer, he opened the door and peeked inside.
“I’m warming lunch. Are you okay with lasagna?”
That was one of the changes in his life. He’d had to get the catering company to add some kid-friendly food to his orders. And, of course, instead of food for one, it had become food for four.
Savanna didn’t say a word. She didn’t even spare him a glance, and her eyes never left her phone.
Sawyer didn’t know how to help her. Savanna seemed to hate him, immediately locking herself away once he’d shown her which room was hers. That was another thing that had also changed. He no longer had a home office since the boys needed a room too.
Sawyer took a step into the room and looked around. Nothing had changed in there. The only addition was the small suitcase and backpack that Savanna had had when he’d picked her up.
Sawyer had opened accounts on some websites Theresa had suggested for girls’ clothes, but his sister had yet to order anything. He wasn’t quite ready to take them to malls or stores, especially not with his sister acting the way she was.
“Please talk to me.” Sawyer had gotten good at begging Savanna to talk to him and to get Callum to stop crying at night and sleep. The only one who seemed to kind of
