Just a Kiss: The Bradfords, Book 5 Read Online Free Page A

Christianity hadn’t been easy but it had been, and still was, the most important decision he’d ever made. To have his dad recognize that and be proud of it was…something.
    But he was far from perfect.
    “What about Heather? What does she say? Have you even talked to her?”
    He nodded. “The cops showed up to question all of us and said she wouldn’t talk to them until she talked to me so they brought her in. I told her about you. She agreed.”
    “She hasn’t seen me since high school.”
    Steve shrugged. “She doesn’t have a lot of choices.”
    “That’s kind of crappy, don’t you think? She’s going to turn her son over to me because she doesn’t have a lot of choices?”
    Steve’s expression hardened. “Look, she should have thought of that before she drove drunk. If he was going to foster care, she wouldn’t know those people either. She’s lucky the judge gave her a few days to try to get things arranged for him.”
    Kevin couldn’t really argue with that. She’d made some bad choices and these were the consequences. But Drew was still an innocent victim.
    He scrubbed a hand over his tired eyes. He knew about guardianships and custody issues because of the things he’d seen in the ER. Abuse cases, neglect, parents killed in accidents leaving children behind, all kinds of messes. This was temporary. And this was his brother.
    Kevin felt a sudden warmth fill his chest.
    Like a switch had been turned on that said yes .
    Yes?
    Yes to what, exactly?
    Drew needed someone. Drew needed him . A little boy he’d never met, never even heard of, needed him.
    Stepping in to help with little notice and no more motive than someone needing help wasn’t uncommon for Kevin. Still, this felt different. This was a lot more personal.
    Yes .
    It was all he could think.
    His dad was essentially telling him that he believed in him, believed he could do this. His dad had always believed he could make the tackle, hit the home run, score the points, stop the play, but he’d never believed Kevin could do anything else. At least not that he’d ever said. Now he was telling him he could do something big, something really important.
    His faith had actually made an impression on someone he cared about. Wow.
    The Christianity thing shouldn’t be new after eight years but it felt new. He mostly felt like he wasn’t getting it quite right.
    Now, though, it was part of the reason his dad was trusting him to help with the biggest mess his family had ever been in.
    That had to mean something.
    “Okay, I’ll take Drew.”
    “You’ll move back to Grover, right?” Steve asked. “You can stay in our house. Heather lives in a dumpy house with two other girls.”
    Kevin frowned. “Grover? No, I…”
    “He’s in school, Kev. You have to keep him there, keep his routine as normal as possible. He’ll need to be with his friends.”
    Kevin tried to quickly wrap his mind around the fact that his father seemed genuinely concerned about the boy. “You’re acting very fatherly,” he commented.
    Steve blew out a long breath. “I feel like shit about all of this. This whole situation sucks. I knew it in the back of my mind, but I could ignore it. That doesn’t make me a good guy, I know, but I didn’t let myself spend a lot of time thinking about everything. Now that it’s right here in my face I want to be sure I do what I can.”
    “He needs a father, Dad,” Kevin said quietly. “He needs a house and school and stuff too, but he needs a father.”
    Steve looked seriously pained. “I know. I… How can I do that to your mother?”
    Kevin didn’t know. He certainly didn’t want his parents to break up, but what about the ten-year-old in the other room? Didn’t he matter?
    Kevin could only hope that his mom would come around, would see that Drew wasn’t a threat, but for now it seemed the only person who could really do anything for Drew was him.
    “Fine. I’ll figure it out.”
    “I’m paying for everything,”