Chapter 38

38

Archer

" I f Dakota finds out we met, she will kill me. Or worse, she'll give me one of those ‘You're supposed to be my best friend' lectures," Chelsea mutters as she takes a seat across the table from me.

I drove all the way up from San Francisco to talk to her. It took Chelsea a while to respond to my text messages. I've been trying for days. At least she has her priorities straight as Dakota's closest friend.

"Thank you for doing this," I reply.

The waitress comes over and fills our mugs with freshly brewed coffee, then leaves a plate of chocolate chip cookies.

"Where's the bed & breakfast?" I ask.

"A couple of miles north of here."

"How are they?"

Chelsea shrugs softly. "As well as they can be under these circumstances. I think Dakota is finally coming around. The shock from the events on your wedding day is starting to wear off." She leans forward. "We shouldn't be meeting like this…"

"Yet you're here," I shoot back with a smile. "Dakota won't talk to any of us. She shut us out completely."

"I know. I'm sorry," she sighs. "It's how she copes. It was so awful and humiliating seeing herself on video. My God, the pastor saw her on video. Your mom saw her on video like that. Come on, Archer, I'm sure you understand."

I nod slowly. "I do. It was horrifying."

"So why are you here?" she asks, scanning me with her inquisitive eyes.

"Christmas is tomorrow," I reply. "I know she was hopeful for that inheritance. I'm worried about her." I narrow my eyes at her. "Why are you here, Chelsea?"

She gets fidgety as she chomps on a cookie. "She might kill me for this, but under the circumstances, I'm not sure I can trust her to make the best choices at the moment."

"What do you mean?"

"She's pregnant, Archer."

The words hit me like a ton of bricks. My stomach tightens, and I find myself staring at Chelsea, my eyes widening with every passing second. My blood cools to a near-freezing temperature, but then my heart rate spikes up until fire shoots through my veins. I'm experiencing a full emotional spectrum as I try to process the news and its implications.

"She is terrified with everything that's been happening. Her first instinct is to keep it to herself, to power through on her own, even if it sounds counterproductive," Chelsea continues. "It's the only thing she knows. She's been let down before, and I know you guys weren't at fault, but what happened with Reed, Callie, and Keith was a sobering reminder of sorts."

"Nothing happened between Reed and Callie."

"I know," Chelsea groans with frustration. "Dakota's way to function is to try and do it all herself, and I know the pregnancy hormones are probably doing her an even bigger disservice right now. I worry that she will self-sabotage unless you guys jump in like right now."

She's pregnant. She's about to lose her home, her inheritance, and any chance to get Maisie enrolled in Prescott Academy. She's worried about the camera footage on top of that. And now a custody war and her name and face being plastered across the tabloids if word gets out about us.

She has no idea that we stopped that train in its tracks.

We've been patient and respectful of her wishes thus far, but something needs to change.

And I think I know what I have to do, what my brothers and I have to do. One last push. We almost got it the first time around.

"You were insanely brave to tell me about it," I say to Chelsea. "Thank you. It might not feel like it, but you are the friend she needs right now."

"Yeah, maybe not the friend she wants—"

"You're a good friend, Chelsea, the best. Don't ever doubt it."

She gives me a curious look. "So, what are you going to do about this?"

"Actually, I'm going to need your help."

A smile tests the corners of my mouth, and it soon evolves into a full-blown grin. Chelsea frowns with understandable confusion, and I reach across the table, grabbing one of the cookies from the plate.

"What do you need?" she sighs, her shoulders dropping slightly.

"I need to make a few calls first," I say to Chelsea. "But I'll need you to bring Dakota up to the beach first thing tomorrow morning. I'll text you the details."

I meet my brothers at home later that evening.

"Did you get it?" I ask Reed as soon as I walk through the door.

He holds up a large manila envelope, a smile lighting him up from the inside. I snatch the envelope from his hand and rip it open, eagerly flipping and ripping through the pages until I see the judge's official signature and the courtroom stamp with today's date. My heart leaps with joy, but then fear quickly takes over, tightening around my throat like a noose from hell.

"It's now or never," Reed says.

I give him and Maddox a worried look. "What do you guys think? Are we really ready for this?"

"You're asking now, after we got the decision?" Maddox raises an irritated eyebrow. "We've been ready for this since the kid first walked through the door."

"We're ready," Reed states. "We've been doubting ourselves for long enough, Archer. Personally, I'm tired of this limbo. And the girls need us to come through for them."

"You're right," I mutter. "Trevor!"

The three of us stay silent as we hear a door open upstairs. "Yeah?" Trevor tentatively replies. My heart's pounding.

"Want to come downstairs for a minute? We need to talk," I say. He doesn't reply, instead making his way down the stairs with slow, cautious footsteps. I give him a big, reassuring smile as he reaches us. "Hey, buddy."

"Is everything okay?" he asks. "Did you find Dakota? Is Maisie all right?"

"Yeah, they're fine. We just want to talk to you about something," I say, urging him to join us in the living room. My brothers and I take the couch, letting Trevor sit in the armchair to our left as I take the papers out and leave them on the coffee table for him to read. "This came from the judge today."

"What is it?" he mumbles, suspiciously eyeing the first page as he picks up the small stack of papers.

"The court's approval to file for your adoption," Reed says.

Trevor stills with the front page under his nose, fingers tightening their grip on the paper. Slowly, he looks up at us, and I can see the caramel shade of his eyes twinkle with something I'm not sure of. Is he excited? Scared? Angry? This kid can be so hard to read sometimes.

"Trevor, we've been so happy and so proud to be your temporary dads," I say. "It broke our hearts to lose your mom and dad, but we got you. And we promised, from the moment we picked you up from Social Services, that you would always have a home with us."

He nods once. "Thank you."

"We're ready, kid. We're ready to officially be your dads from now on," I add. "Of course, only one of us will be listed as the adoptive parent in the official documents, but you know you're getting three for the price of one, right?"

Trevor doesn't react. He just stares at us. I'm starting to think this wasn't the greatest idea. Or maybe that's just the panic testing me. I look at Maddox and Reed. They both give me slight nods of approval, quietly urging me to keep going.

I had a whole speech prepared for this moment, but I can't find the words.

"We love you like a son and raising you has been an honor and a joy. Sure, we've had our bumps in the road along the way. We have a lot to learn still, but we're doing our best. And we would like the opportunity to keep doing our best, to keep learning how to be the best dads, to give you everything that you need. If you want us."

"Do you want us, Trevor?" Reed asks, shooting straight for the bull's-eye.

It feels like the longest and most agonizing forever before Trevor sets the papers down and lets a heavy sigh roll from his chest. Finally, I understand the twinkle in his eyes. Tears, tiny tears of love and relief as he quivers like a willow in the wind.

"You're the only family I have now. The best family I'll ever have," the kid says, choking up a bit. "I thought you were calling me downstairs to tell me I'm being put up for adoption or something."

"Hell, no," Maddox cuts in, downright offended. "Are you kidding me? Who am I going to make banana and blueberry pancakes with every Sunday morning?" He nods to Reed and me. "These two have no understanding of the culinary finesse that goes into those perfectly fluffy cakes."

Trevor chuckles softly, tears now streaming down his cheeks. "Okay. Yeah. I mean, if you want to adopt me, yeah."

"We want to," I say. "With all our hearts, buddy."

"Then I guess I'm the luckiest kid in the world. I get three dads." He shoots up from his chair and runs into my arms.

As soon as I hug him, he starts crying, letting months' worth of grief fall off him like snow drifts from a cedar in winter. Maddox and Reed join in, wrapping their arms around us. Our group hug tightens as we reassure him, over and over, while he sobs and releases every worry and fear that has kept him under constant pressure.

"Not once did we consider letting you go back into the system," Reed tells him.

"Even all those times I got detention?"

"Dude, we did so much worse when we were kids," I laugh. "Our mom set us straight, obviously, but she loved us. A parent never abandons their child."

A bitter-tasting statement if I think about Keith Ellis or Michael Monroe. They both did precisely that, albeit for different reasons. Sometimes, there's no other choice. Yet I can't see myself doing that to Trevor. He's a part of us, a part of our family.

"You're one of us now, kiddo," Maddox says.

"But I'm not really your son. I mean, you could've put me up for adoption."

I give him a stern look. "No way, Trevor. You're a chick magnet. We'd never let our golden goose run off to somebody else like that."

He laughs, and I love the sound of it. I love the way it reverberates through the entire house. I love the way it lights up his face. My God, this kid has been living with the constant fear that we might grow tired of him and give him up. Deep down, Trevor has been dreading the possibility that we may send him away. That alone is reason enough for him to close himself off and act out.

"And speaking of chicks," I say, pulling back so I can look at him. "What do you say we get you a mom and a little sister while we're at it?"

Trevor's brow furrows with momentary confusion as he searches our faces. "Are you serious?"

"Definitely," Reed replies.

"How? I mean, how are you going to do that?"

"It's better if we show you," I say, smiling with newfound excitement. "But first, let's grab some dinner and get a good night's sleep. We're going to be up early in the morning."

"For what?"

"We don't want to spoil the surprise," I insist.

Maddox gives the kid a heartfelt high five. "Let's whip up those badass pancakes."

"Pancakes for dinner?"

"Yep. Come on, kid," I chime in. "We ride at dawn."