Bless the Broken Road that Lead Me Straight to You

Chapter 3

Erin looked away first, and she ran her fingers through her hair, suddenly embarrassed by the heat rising in her chest. Reading her cues, Jay leaned back as well, and poured himself a cup of coffee. He didn't want it, but he really needed to find something to do with his hands. He had an overwhelming urge to run his fingers through her hair like she had just done.

This time he leaned against the countertop at a safe distance, far away from Erin, and her hair, and her eyes, and her smile. "Ask away."

She knew she was blushing. Her heart was racing and her cheeks were definitely rosy and her hands were unsteady. She hated that she couldn't keep her hands steady. She could always keep her hands steady. She was sure she was just imagining the whole connection between the two of them, blowing it out of proportion in her head. But for some reason, that thought wasn't helping. She was still looking down at her coffee, but finally she found the courage to speak. "Before I start asking you questions, I just want to walk you through the normal process of child placement." Erin moved the coffee aside, and began rifling through her purse for her files. This gave her the chance to hide her face somewhat and hopefully giving the redness in her cheeks time to disappear. "Generally speaking, people apply to become foster parents and go through a lengthy approval process, which involves a significant amount of paperwork, employment verification, tax and income information, background checks, extensive interviews, and then we do the home visits."

"Wow," Jay answered, watching Erin look through her stack of papers, clearly searching for some form she was going to ask him to complete.

"And that is all done before a child is put into their care. It's important for us to learn everything about the prospective foster parents, but more than that the long and tedious process usually weans out the foster parents who aren't really serious about taking care of a child." She found the form she was looking for and removed it from the file. "You would be surprised how many people try to foster a child thinking they can take the kid and cash government checks for their own benefit."

She couldn't hide the disgust from her voice, and he could relate. He had seen some terrible things in his job, and while the thought of someone taking a child just for the money didn't actually surprise him. "That makes sense then," he said as he watched her searching her purse for something else.

She was searching for a pen as she continued to speak, "Then, when a child is placed in the temporary custody of the foster parents, the home visits continue. Generally speaking, I like to visit the home at least three to four times in the first week. Then I'll space my visits out." Erin finally found a pen and looked up at Jay, who was still leaning against the kitchen counter staring at her. She paused, giving him a chance to speak or ask any questions.

"Okay," was all he came up with, so she continued. As he listened, he found himself being impressed by how invested she was in this process. Three or four visits a week was a lot, depending on how many children she had to check in on. He wondered if she had kids of her own.

"Because Hank vouched for you, I feel comfortable leaving Grace in your care. And because he has relayed to me that Grace is potentially in danger and that you are providing protective custody, I plan to keep it out of the system for now. That being said, I am going to need you to fill out all of this information for you and your wife, so that I can-"

"Oh, I'm not married." Jay interrupted her instructions. He could have let her continue, but for some reason he really needed her to know that he wasn't married.

Erin's heart rate picked up slightly at his words. She had hoped he wasn't. She had felt something before, first when their knees bumped and a second time when he leaned over the counter to give her her coffee. That and he was so hot. "Um..." she knew she needed to say something, but she had completely lost her train of thought. "Ok, well then I need you to fill out this paperwork." She paused, and then had another thought. "And Grace can only stay with you, in this apartment."