Raging Love(50)

He wiped my tears away with his thumbs. “Of course Colt. I will do whatever I have to do for our family.”

He held me tight again and I could feel his body trembling. Colt was crying, which was something I had only seen a couple of times. He sniffled into my shoulder. “I can’t believe this is happenin’. Thank you Darlin’, thank you so much.”

Once Colt and I finally calmed down from our dual emotional breakdown, we remained on the porch swing in each other’s arms. We could hear Noah inside talking to his new grandmother about everything under the sun. Colt and I were also taking it all in, considering we knew nothing about the child.

When we finally went inside, my mother in law insisted that we were going to have a huge welcome dinner for Noah. The kid was ecstatic.

Soon Aunt Karen, Lucy and Conner showed up and we had a house full of people. Sheriff John showed up later and the older women went into the kitchen to start dinner. Noah was having a great time with all of the attention he was getting.

The most interesting part of the whole day was the way that Noah wanted to be around me. Colt hadn’t left his side, but he continued to favor my attention over everyone else’s.

At one point he tugged on my leg and I crouched down in front of him. “Can I have trains in my room?”

“You sure can. Would you like to go shopping with me tomorrow?” I asked.

“I want to go too.” Colt’s mother interrupted.

We were interrupted by a sudden knock at the door. Colt walked over and opened the door, revealing the two agents assigned to Noah’s case. “Sorry to barge in again. We have the temporary papers all signed and approved. When the documents are filed and the tests come back, we can get everything finalized and then you won’t hear from us anymore.”

“So, Noah can stay? Like..he can stay with us from now on?” Colt was beside himself.

“Our job is to find a home that is in the child’s best interest. You and Mrs. Mitchell can provide this child with a home and a stable environment. The courts will always side with the biological family first before they even consider putting the child into foster care. It will still be a few days before the papers are filed with the court system, but Noah is all yours.” He handed Colt a file. “This is all of Noah’s medical history, as well as a copy of his birth certificate and social security card. As you can see, he was given your name at birth.”

“How come I never found out about him? Why didn’t the state require child support?”

“The mother has to file for that. From what we gathered from the deceased woman’s father, she was involved and living a few towns over with her fiancée. There is no way you could have known unless the mother or someone told you.”

Colt reached out and shook the agents hand as they exited the house. He followed behind them and came back with a few suitcases full of Noah’s things. I watched the agents pull away from the house and turned back to Colt and Noah. They were opening up the bags to look through them. Colt got this look on his face and started fanning the bags. “These bags stink. I guess your Mommy started smokin’ again huh?”

Noah looked up at Colt. “Do you smoke?”

“Nope.”

I walked over and grabbed the bag, noticing the smell myself. “How about we wash everything so that when we get your furniture tomorrow we can fill your drawers with clean clothes?”

“That sounds good.” Colt agreed.

“I get all new things…and a new room too?” The little guy seemed shocked.

Colt patted him on the head. “Buddy, you can have whatever you want.”

Probably not the best thing to tell a little boy, but he was very overwhelmed.

The family stayed and had a huge spaghetti dinner for Noah. The child seemed to really fit right in. Colt made it a point to hug and kiss me even more than normal. I appreciated it so much that he was making an effort to be by my side during the transition. He had come so far from the man who used to shut everyone out. I never wanted to lose that.

As our family began to clear out, the three of us were left in the house all alone. I still couldn’t believe that we had just acquired a child in just one day. I had a feeling that maybe Sheriff John had made some calls on our behalf. I could hardly believe it was protocol to leave the child with strangers after one day. John knew the judge in town, and since he had been sheriff for so long, it made sense that people probably owed him a bunch of favors by now. It didn’t hurt that Colt’s family was the richest in the county and donated a bunch of money every year to different events and organizations.

It didn’t even matter how it all came to be. Noah was here with us and he didn’t have to leave. Colt was so happy and it made me happy too.