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27. Take For Granted

27

TAKE FOR GRANTED

“ W hat do you like to eat?” Sloane asked Shiloh when they were in their hotel room.

Shiloh shrugged.

Dane found it odd that the young girl had hugged a woman she’d never met before but then got quiet when it was time to talk.

But if there was one thing he’d learned about children, it was that they were resilient.

“We can get whatever you want,” Dane said. “I’ve got a son your age and a daughter two years older. When they are nervous or maybe scared they like to eat pizza. I’m not sure why, but they say it makes them feel better.”

“I’ve never had pizza,” Shiloh said.

“How about grilled cheese?” he asked.

She nodded her head yes. “I bet we can find a diner or restaurant around here with grilled cheese,” Sloane said.

The little girl was tall for her age. If he hadn’t seen the birth certificate he might have guessed her a few years older. She was probably Tiffani’s height and his daughter was right in the middle of the growth chart for her age .

“What is your daughter’s name?” Shiloh asked. “Will I meet her tonight?”

“Her name is Tiffani,” he said. “My son is Tyler. They aren’t with us now.”

“So they are my siblings too?” Shiloh asked.

“No,” Sloane said. “Dane is my boyfriend. They are his kids.”

“You don’t live here,” Shiloh said. “Mom said you live far away.”

He saw Sloane smile. “About five hours. We are going to go to my house tomorrow, but we’ll stay here tonight and go back to your house tomorrow before we leave.”

“Will I have my own room?” Shiloh asked. “I sleep on the couch now. I always wanted my own room.”

Sloane let out a breath. “You will have your own room. We can decorate it any way you want. It’s kind of plain right now because I didn’t know about you. I wish I had.”

“Mom said that you were mad at her,” Sloane said. “How come?”

His heart broke for Sloane to hear that. He had no advice on how she should answer either.

“I wasn’t mad at her like you might think. My life was a lot different than yours. When you’re older maybe I’ll tell you more. But Mom knew she could reach out to me at any point. She knew enough to leave you with me if anything happened. We couldn’t have been too mad at each other for that, right?”

“No,” Shiloh said. “I wish she’d come home.”

“I know,” she said. “I wish I could talk to her again too. Maybe we can help each other though. What do you think of that?”

Shiloh put her head down while she sat on the bed.

Dane pulled his phone out and was looking for a place to get food while there was silence in the room.

“There is a diner not that far from here and it has grilled cheese on the menu,” he said. “Do you want to get some food?”

Shiloh nodded and the three of them left.

He’d kept the car seats in the back knowing they’d need them and Sloane had panicked when that was asked during the interview.

He was happy enough to say they were covered.

He couldn’t believe the things asked of her in that meeting. He’d never wanted to judge, but he was positive Sloane had a more stable life than everyone in that waiting room together and yet they grilled her worse than if she was some criminal on trial.

He was glad that Trent was on the call because he was slowly losing his patience and even had to answer or jump in a few times when Sloane was asked some ridiculous hypothetical parenting question.

It barely took five minutes before they were pulling into the restaurant.

They sat at a booth and menus were put in front of them. A piece of paper and some crayons were set down in front of Shiloh and she immediately started to work on that.

He kept an eye on her to see her motor skills. So far nothing was standing out as a flag to him.

They’d been told Shiloh was in kindergarten. She lived in a small town with a tiny school district. Durham was going to be a shock in more ways than one to the little girl. There were more elementary schools than he could count. More than half a dozen middle and high schools too. She was going to be thrown into more chaos than she was used to .

But since it was kindergarten and most kids were shy and trying to find their way, she’d fit in well enough.

The server came over to get their drink orders. He and Sloane got water. No reason to get a shocked look over his unsweetened iced tea here. “Do you want milk, sweetie?” the server asked Shiloh.

He’d been told she had no allergies and he’d have to go by their word.

Shiloh was sitting next to Sloane and tugged on her shirt and then leaned up and whispered something in Sloane’s ear.

“She’ll have water,” Sloane said.

When the server left, he asked, “Have you been to a restaurant before?”

Shiloh shook her head no.

“It’s fun,” Sloane said. “I didn’t go to a restaurant until I was eighteen for the first time. You’re much younger than me.”

He shouldn’t have been surprised to hear that but was.

His kids had no idea how lucky they were in their life. The things they might take for granted.

“I don’t know what to do,” Shiloh said.

“Eat,” he said. “That’s all you’ve got to do. They will ask what you want to eat, but I know you can’t read yet, right?”

“No,” Shiloh said. “But this has pictures on it.”

“What do you see you want on it?” Sloane asked.

Shiloh pointed to the French fries. “Did you still want grilled cheese or something else on that?”

Shiloh pointed to everything and they said what they were and the little girl still got her grilled cheese but fries with it.

“If you tell me the food you like to eat,” Sloane said. “I can make sure you have it in the house when we get there. ”

“I don’t eat much,” Shiloh said.

She looked thin to him, but so was Sloane. There was no reason for him to think she was starving, but he’d see when she ate.

“Are you a fussy eater?” he asked. “My daughter is. She gets it in her head that she likes one thing and that is all she will eat.” He rolled his eyes and had her giggling. “I told her one day she was going to turn into a bowl of spaghetti if she ate one more.”

“I like spaghetti but with butter and not sauce.”

“I ate that a lot,” Sloane said. “Did Mom sprinkle some cheese on it for you? Or put strips of cheese slices?”

“It’s good,” Shiloh said. “I like cheese.”

“Do you like milk?” he asked.

“It’s okay,” Shiloh said. “We don’t get a lot and have to make it last so I don’t drink it all the time.”

Public assistance only went so far.

“If you like it we can get as much as you like,” Sloane said. “I drink milk too. When I was a kid we drank it right from the cow. Sometimes from a goat.”

The look on Shiloh’s face might have mirrored his. “Did you live on a farm?” Shiloh asked.

“Kind of,” she said.

He didn’t even know these things about Sloane. “You could have gotten a glass of milk with dinner,” he said.

“I like water. I like juice too but only get that at school for special things. I have milk with lunch at school.”

“That’s good,” he said. “What kind of juice do you like? Apple? Fruit punch? Something else?”

“Both,” Shiloh said.

The server came back and they placed their orders.

“Do you have a lot of clothes at your apartment to get tomorrow?” Sloane asked .

“I have most of everything with me,” Shiloh said.

There were two duffel bags in the back of his SUV. He saw Sloane look at him, but there wasn’t much he could say.

When Shiloh started to squirm in the seat, he asked. “Do you need to go to the bathroom?”

She nodded her head yes really fast.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Sloane asked and moved out quickly. “I’ll take you.”

He smiled. She’d learn that you’d have to get good at looking at the signs more than anything.

When they returned five minutes later he wondered if there was a problem but noticed that Shiloh was walking funny.

He wondered if there was an accident and didn’t know how to broach it.

He pulled his phone out and texted Sloane if everything was okay in the bathroom.

She grabbed her phone and replied back that someone had a bellyache and must have been holding it for a week with the way she was grunting.

He held back his laugh, then typed back to get used to it. She’ll have to monitor those things as kids hold it.

He put his phone away. “Does anything hurt on you?” he asked Shiloh. “I noticed you had a little limp when you walked back.”

It was the first time he’d had a chance to see her walking.

“My toes hurt.”

“All of them or just one?” he asked. “I’m a doctor, remember. I only see kids. They are my specialty.”

He was smiling when he said it.

“All my toes.”

“Switch seats with her,” he told Sloane .

Shiloh was on the end now and he had her put her foot on his leg. He pulled her shoes off and noticed her toes were all red with marks on them, then turned the shoe around and held the soles of the cheap sneakers to her foot. She wasn’t even wearing socks but not all sneakers required them now.

“What’s wrong?” Sloane asked.

“ At least a size too small,” he said, letting out a sigh. Kid's feet grew fast and it was hard to monitor if someone wasn’t watching or if a child didn’t say.

“Do you want to go shopping when we are done eating?” she asked her sister.

“For what?” Shiloh asked.

“New sneakers,” he said. “We’ll make sure your feet don’t hurt anymore. Do you have any other shoes or sandals?”

“No,” Shiloh said.

“Then we’ll have some fun shopping and get you sneakers right away,” he said. “Your sister loves to shop, right, Sloane?”

He was only guessing but trying to be encouraging. “That’s right,” she said. “I love it. We are going to have some fun at the mall.”

“What’s a mall?” Shiloh asked.

“It’s a place with a lot of stores,” Sloane said. “I’m sure Mom takes you to other places for clothing and shoes.”

He could guess it was second-hand shops.

Their food came out right after and Shiloh wasn’t shy at all eating.

She cleaned her plate fast and he started to wonder how hungry she might be for a kid who said she didn’t eat much.

“Do you want some more?” he asked. “Or maybe a dessert? They’ve got ice cream. ”

“I like ice cream. I’ve had it at birthday parties at daycare.”

“I love ice cream,” he said. “I could go for a big bowl of it. How about you, Sloane?”

“Ice cream happens to be one of my favorite treats.”

Hours later they opened the door to the hotel room.

Shiloh was a bit more talkative and walked better with her new sneakers on her feet, along with socks. Sloane had gotten her sister some sandals at the same time.

When they were leaving the mall he’d seen a store with stuffed animals in it and mentioned that his daughter loved farm animals.

He wanted to see if Shiloh knew some of the animals and when she kept touching a stuffed lamb, he picked it up to buy for her along with a pig for Tyler and a horse for Tiffani. He figured if Sloane saw that she wouldn’t tell him no.

Shiloh was sleeping in the extra bed and they’d shut all the lights off but one by their bed. He nodded for her to go into the hall so they could talk privately.

“I’m so out of my element here,” she said. “I don’t know what I would have done without you. The minute she had that animal she all but fell asleep in the car. I wanted to bathe her. She stinks a little, but that might be from her bathroom episode. I thought I was going to gag.”

He laughed. “Stress will do those things. She needs a bath and her hair washed. You can do that in the morning. She’s on the thin side, but she ate well.”

“She ate more than me. Do you think she hasn’t eaten in a while?”

“Hard to say,” he said. “It could just be she didn’t have a lot to eat or she is fussy. We don’t know and I doubt Deb did either. ”

Too many times those things got pushed aside with kids in foster care. He’d seen it before. Whatever food was put in front of them was what they got, and if they didn’t like it, they didn’t eat it.

“I don’t know that I would have realized she even had to go to the bathroom and might have pooped in her pants if you didn’t notice.”

“Tyler is a pro at holding it until he might explode. You’ll figure it out.”

He wished he could be with her more to help, but there was only so much he could do.

He had his family and children to take care of. A job to do. So did she.

“I’ll have to figure it out faster,” she said. “I didn’t even realize she was limping, but I would have noticed her toes. I can’t believe no one else did.”

“Probably not even looking,” he said.

“She’ll get better care with me, but it’s going to be interesting. I guess the next step is some sleep and then getting whatever else she might have at my mother’s apartment. I’m thinking not much.”

“Probably not,” he said. “But it might help you to go through their place. You could find some things of your mother’s that you want.”

“I doubt it,” she said. “I had even less than Shiloh, so be prepared for a pretty barren apartment.”

Sloane turned and returned to their room and he knew the conversation was done.

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