Sometimes there was no way out of a predicament. Wes Douglas knew that because he’d been stuck in his tug-of-war life for far too long. There were things he didn’t want to know, like where his brother, Trey, had been the day before. It was best if he didn’t ask those questions. Trey supported his dad and mom and helped keep a roof over all their heads. Wes was smart enough to know that his dad working in maintenance and his mother as a server at the Carlisle Diner wasn’t going to pay the rent and keep the car running. There was extra money coming in from somewhere, and Trey had to be the source.

A whimper from the crib in the corner of his room pulled his attention to other important matters.

“It’s okay, Greyson.” Wes lifted the eleven-month-old out and held him, rocking slowly back and forth. “You hungry?” Wes swayed from side to side and opened the bedroom door. Soft but strident conversation drifted to his ears, and he continued to the kitchen, made up a bottle, and sat in one of the kitchen chairs to feed Trey’s son.

Trey had gotten his girlfriend, Annie, pregnant, and she had elected to have the baby. But after three months, she’d left Greyson with Wes’s parents and then disappeared completely. Wes wondered what had happened to her sometimes, but he had his hands full. His parents could barely hold life and limb together, and Trey was about as paternal as a porcupine, so raising Greyson had fallen to him, and he’d been happy to do it. One look from those huge blue eyes and he had fallen in love. Thankfully, one of his clients, Dickinson College, offered day care, and the college had even worked out a reduced rate for him so he could afford it. Trey hadn’t been interested in parenting, so he had signed guardianship of Greyson over to Wes, and Wes had stepped into the parenting role. He hoped he could convince Trey to give up his parental rights and let Wes have custody of him, but Trey didn’t seem ready to do that, and Wes figured he needed some time.

“Is he okay?” his mother asked as she came into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and pulled out a six-pack of Bud.

“Just hungry after his nap,” he answered.

She smiled, caressing Greyson’s head before returning to the living room, where undoubtedly she and his father would kill the six-pack and maybe another before the night was over.

Greyson finished his bottle, and Wes held him for a while. “Do you want to go for a walk before dinner?” He got up and returned to his bedroom, where he changed Greyson’s diaper and put on a jacket because there would be a nip in the early fall air. On his way out, he told his parents where he was going, not that they paid much attention from in front of the television. He put a jacketed Greyson in the stroller for their walk through town.

 

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Andrew grew up in western Michigan with a father who loved to tell stories and a mother who loved to read them. Since then he has lived throughout the country and traveled throughout the world. He has a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and works in information systems for a large corporation.