I flashed him a broad grin. Eric loved to give me shit for letting Cody worm his way under my skin, but it seemed I wasn’t the only one who gave a shit what happened to the kid.
I took the keys from Eric and headed out to warm up the car while he got dressed. No matter how much I stared at my phone or flipped it over in my hands, it still didn’t ring. The time on the display showed just before eleven in the morning, meaning it was almost nine in Portland. I felt helpless waiting for Bryce to call me, so I decided to try him one more time.
“Hey, I was just thinking about you,” Bryce answered on the third ring. That was great, but I’d rather he called than tried to somehow communicate telepathically. My skills in that department were seriously lacking.
“You know, it’s the damndest thing. When you’re thinking about someone, you could check your voicemail and know they’re waiting for you to call them,” I chided.
The noise in the background grew louder as Bryce sarcastically tried to apologize for not calling the moment he got out of his meeting.
“It’s fine,” I told him. I debated telling him about our morning, but decided I wanted to give him a chance to explain what he knew first. If it turned out that this was a hoax, there was no sense in upsetting him when he couldn’t do anything about it. Apparently, Eric’s levelheadedness was rubbing off on me. Either that or I was losing my mind. Either were real possibilities. “So, how was the meeting?”
“It sucked,” he responded bluntly. The background noise faded before being replaced by music blasting through the speakers. That seemed out of character for Bryce since he was always bitching at me to turn down the music in my own car. “Is Eric there? I’d really rather only have to talk about this once.”
“That good, huh?” I asked. When Eric stepped outside the building, I leaned over and honked the horn so he’d hurry the hell up.
“Worse, if you can believe it,” he admitted. A pit formed in my stomach because I had a bad feeling the call to Cody’s school this morning was no hoax. Like Eric had said, the timing was too coincidental now that I knew Bryce wasn’t happy about the outcome of his meeting.
I hit the button to connect the Bluetooth. “Okay, we’re both here now.”
“There’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to do it,” Bryce started. I reached over for Eric’s hand, needing to feel a physical connection to at least one of my guys. “The center’s closing at the end of the month. The founder is unwilling to keep solely funding the daily operations and he sees this as his only option.”
“They can’t fucking do that!” I yelled. “Doesn’t he give a damn that he’s kicking those kids right back out on the streets? He’s the one who gave them a place to go. He’s the one who gave them a sense of security. And it’s all bullshit! Now, they’re going to be thrown out with nothing. Did you fucking explain that shit to him?”
“Drew, you need to calm down,” Eric warned me. I glared at him because there was no fucking way I was going to sit back and let this happen. Someone had to fight for those kids. I’d have thought that someone would’ve been Bryce, but he’d just taken the bad news and walked out. “Bryce, did you ask him if he could give you some more time to either get the funding necessary to keep the doors open or find Cody and the rest of the guys another solution?”
“He wasn’t exactly receptive to anything I had to say,” Bryce admitted.
“So make him listen to you,” I demanded. “You can’t just give up without a fight.”
Eric slid his hand down to my knee and squeezed hard. When I looked over at him, he shook his head as if silently scolding me for my outburst. Well, that was too fucking bad because if Bryce wanted to get pissed at me for calling him out, it’d be because I wasn’t saying anything that didn’t need to be said.
“Drew, there’s nothing more I can do.” I’d never heard Bryce sound so defeated. Good. At least that showed that he wasn’t unaffected by the fact that his boss had no problem completely fucking a bunch of guys who had nowhere else to turn. Guys who’d been softened by a rich fuck with too much money to throw around and would now have to fend for themselves again. They’d have been better off if that asshole had just left them to their own devices. “Pot of Gold needs money. A lot of it. And I’m not sure if you know this or not, but working for a non-profit isn’t something you do to get rich.”
I opened my mouth to say something I’d likely regret, but Eric interrupted me before I could start spewing more shit. “Tell us what we can do to help,” Eric requested.
“Like I said, there’s not much that can be done,” Bryce repeated. “Right now, the main concern is going to be finding the guys a place to go so they’re not trying to live on the streets or waiting in line for a bed at the shelter every night.”
“Cody’s coming to stay with us,” I blurted. Eric gaped at me but didn’t argue. Given our earlier conversation, I thought that’s what Eric would want as well, but I wasn’t so sure. “So how many others does that leave?”
If I had to, I’d call everyone I knew to find those guys warm beds to sleep in. Hell, if any of them were up for it, I’d ask my parents to come and pick them up. They could work on the farm when they weren’t in school. It was hard, back breaking work, but I knew firsthand that it was also invaluable experience. And since none of them spoke to their families any longer, it’d be good for them to have a doting mother who’d never gotten used to her empty nest.
“Seven,” Bryce responded. “And before you mention it, no, you can’t take them all home. I know you want to help, Drew, but it’s not a realistic option.”
“Well, I sure as fuck can’t do nothing,” I grumbled. “If it comes down to them sleeping on the streets or in our basement, I’ll fight for it.”
“Drew, slow the fuck down,” Eric warned me. “No one’s going to be living on the streets. I still agree that Cody should come with us, but the rest of the guys won’t have to worry. Bryce, are they all aware of what’s going on?”
“I honestly don’t know,” Bryce responded. “After Borgwardt and I had our argument, I stormed out of there. Probably not my finest moment, if I’m being honest.”
Eric laughed. “No, probably not, but it’s understandable. Look, I’m going to sit down with my accountant this afternoon. Whatever it takes to keep the center open, consider it done.”
Bryce huffed out a ragged sigh. “That’s great, but he made it abundantly clear he’s not interested in funding. He wants out.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that I’m willing to put money into the center to keep it open,” Eric responded.
“You don’t get how much it’s going to take, do you?” I stared, open-mouthed, at the speaker. I couldn’t fucking believe Bryce was trying to talk Eric out of this.
“Whatever it takes, I’ll write the fucking check. We’d already talked about me coming down to work for the center so I wouldn’t be bored off my ass. I made that offer because I saw how much good you were doing there,” Eric told Bryce. He then looked at me intently so I’d know he included me in that statement. “I’ve been drawing one hell of a salary for years. My agent has made some investments which will likely help dig us out of the hole the founder created. Plus, I have the inheritance from my grandfather just sitting there waiting for me to do something with it. I think he’d be pleased to know his money will go to helping kids.”