A Family For Daniel

“I’m sorry for raising my voice,” he said. “And I don’t like invading your privacy. But we have to come to some kind of compromise on stuff like this.”

The man’s patience had never pissed Daniel off more.

“Cut it out, okay?” He stormed toward the front of the huge house he still couldn’t believe his mother had grown up in. “Knock off the we’re going be a happy family or else stuff. I don’t belong here. You and my grandmother never wanted my mom here. And you don’t want me.”

“That’s not true.” His uncle dogged him all the way to the front door. His hand flattened on the dark wood at the same time that Daniel turned the doorknob. “Where are you going?”

Where he always went when things got too real.

“Out.”

Daniel yanked with all his might, pitting his strength against his uncle’s. Closing his eyes, he shut out the man’s concern. He didn’t know why he’d lost it so completely about a stupid pair of shoes. Why he was always picking fights over nothing. Only it wasn’t nothing.

He could handle his uncle angry. And when he finally pushed him too far, he’d be able to handle whatever the guy dished out. Daniel had taken worse.

But this wanting to let his uncle get closer, the sick feeling that rushed over him every time he tried… Surrounding him, suffocating him, just like the memories did….

He couldn’t take it.

His uncle stepped back, allowing the door to swing wide. Giving Daniel his freedom. The muscles that bunched beneath the rolled sleeves of his dress shirt made it clear just how easily he could have stopped Daniel if he’d chosen to.

“Okay. You’re free to head out to wherever you go every afternoon. But your social worker’s due here any minute for her home visit. I need you to stay until she’s gone. She wants to talk with you about how things are going here.”

“How things are going?” Daniel sputtered. “They’re not!”

He shoved his uncle farther away and waited for him to finally snap. But instead of exploding, the man just stood there.

What a loser. Why wouldn’t he do them both a favor and give up already?

“Whatever.” Daniel snorted and sprinted away.

Let his uncle try to come after him. He could outrun anybody.

Daniel loped down the sloping front lawn, past the weathered brick pillars that flanked the driveway. The stone lions sitting atop the arched entrance growled silently, looking back at him with empty, lonely eyes.

His uncle was nuts if he thought family ties, and money and this moldy old estate would make Daniel feel like he belonged here. The man had been a creep to Daniel’s mother, and now he wanted to play happy family?

Besides, hadn’t he been paying attention?

Daniel didn’t want to belong anywhere.

JOSH WAS SHOVING the worst of the comics and discarded clothes back into his nephew’s already bulging closet when the doorbell rang.

Barbara Thomas, Daniel’s Family Services caseworker, was early. The doorbell rang again. Barbara didn’t like being kept waiting.

Josh gave the fallout from Daniel’s shoe meltdown a final glance and threw in the towel. He usually had the house straightened for one of these visits. But his nephew was getting more proficient by the day at trashing the place.

Josh pulled the bedroom door shut as he walked to greet the caseworker. Everywhere he looked, there were piles of books and toys, socks and shoes. Typical kid clutter that should have reassured him that things were getting back to normal, but he knew better. Daniel wasn’t adjusting to either Melanie’s death or living here with him.

He tugged at his rolled-up sleeves, reaching the front door as he shoved his dress shirt’s wrinkled tail into his khaki pants. He kicked aside the backpack his nephew had dumped on the foyer floor. Pressing his palms to his eyes as the bell pealed again, he counted to five and opened the mahogany doors.

“Hello,” Barbara said.

Her nod of greeting was as efficient as the rest of her. She wore a brown suit this afternoon. The black one must be at the cleaners. Same conservative white shirt as always, though. Narrow collar. Very no-nonsense. Not even a hint of jewelry.

Josh had worked closely with her for years, helping the kids in his school who’d needed more than a simple education. He and Barbara were colleagues, maybe even friends. But at this particular moment, she was the last person he wanted to see.

“Aren’t you going to ask me in?” She peered around his shoulder. “I rang so many times, I thought perhaps you’d forgotten our meeting.”

“No, of course not.” He stepped to the side and gestured for her to enter. “I was just—” She tripped on the backpack that hadn’t quite come to rest against the wall. He picked it up and out of her way. “I was just cleaning up a bit.”

Her razorlike gaze touched on the furniture and piles of kid debris she’d already seen dozens of times.

“Have you given any more thought to my suggestion about a live-in housekeeper?” she asked. “Finances can’t be the reason you haven’t.”

“Yeah, I could afford a full-time maid.” He dug his hands into his pockets, rocking back on his heels. “And I know things look a little crazy around here, but I’ll get a handle on it. Theresa Cooper has been my parents’ housekeeper for over thirty years. We’re a little more than she can handle right now, and she only works a few hours a day, but she’s family. I can’t just replace her.”

Barbara’s expression revealed nothing as she digested his answer. She was good at that—keeping her opinions to herself until her input would do the most good.

“Is Daniel ready?” She pulled a folder from the briefcase that passed for her purse, and began leafing through it.

“Well, he was. But…”

“But?”

“He’s not here. At least not now.” Josh felt ridiculous. Inept and ridiculous.

“Didn’t he know I was coming for a review?” She checked her watch.

“I think that played a big part in his decision to be somewhere else.” Josh crossed arms. “That and the fact that he knew him staying here was important to me.”

Her eyebrow jerked up. Her expression bordered on amusement.

“He didn’t appreciate me telling him to get cleaned up and change into shoes that weren’t falling apart,” Josh explained. “He—”

“He resents you polishing him up so you can show him off to me?”

“Yeah. I guess that about covers it.”

“So he told you what you could do with your meeting, and stormed off.”

Josh shrugged. “He lights out of here almost every afternoon. Turns up again for dinner. I don’t know where he goes, but it’s somewhere he wants to be a hell of a lot more than he wants to be here.”

“Good.” Another one of her nods. She consulted her folder once more.

“Good?” He had just about had it. “You come here once a month and tell me to take things slow. That a boy abused the way my sister claims she and Daniel were needs time and space to settle in. But when I tell you that he can’t bear to be in the same house as me, you’re finally encouraged?”

“He stood up to you, Josh.” She fingered through her notes. “And from the sketchy details we have of his past before his mother brought him to Sweetbrook, I can only imagine how much courage that took. You’ve remarked about how wary he is around you.”