In the Cards (Road Trip Romance #8) - A.K. Evans Page 0,2
follow them. Her blood-alcohol has got to be sky high.”
I shook my head and muttered, “With the kids in the car. Unbelievable.”
“Yeah. Any word on the father?”
“No. I haven’t had a chance yet to chat with the kids, but the dispatcher who talked to Cooper said that they told her they didn’t know their father.”
“Cooper?”
“The boy,” I clarified. “His sister is Corinne.”
Nodding, Tucker offered, “I’ll pull the car seat out of their car if you want to see what you can find out about next of kin.”
“Yeah. The dispatcher mentioned their aunt. I’ll talk to them and see what they say.”
Tucker took off to get Corinne’s car seat while I took a deep breath and prepared to have what I believed would be a difficult conversation for these children.
Still not feeling ready for it but knowing I needed to do it, I opened the door and sat back down beside them.
“Is our mom going to go to jail?” Cooper asked. His worry was evident, and I didn’t want to add any stress to his plate.
I shook my head. “Right now, your mom is going to take a ride in the ambulance and go to the hospital so the doctors can check her out and make her feel better.”
“What about us?” he pressed. “What’s going to happen to us?”
I smiled at him and assured him, “Well, neither one of you is going to jail either. That’s for sure.”
“Where are we going to go?” he wondered.
My eyes shifted back and forth between the pair of siblings, my heart breaking over what they were going through.
Eight and six.
It was just unfair.
“Well, you just live at home with your mom, right?” I asked.
Cooper nodded. “Yeah, it’s just us. Sometimes, she has friends who sleepover, but they don’t live with us all the time.”
“What about your grandparents?” I asked.
Disappointment washed over their faces before Cooper explained, “We visit them sometimes. Grandma forgets things, though.”
“Aunt Zoe.”
Blinking in surprise at the first words Corinne had spoken since I’d arrived, I shifted my attention to her. “What’s that, sweetheart?”
Her eyes came to mine, and with more determination than I ever thought was possible for a six-year-old to possess, she demanded, “I want Aunt Zoe.”
“Okay. Can you two tell me about Aunt Zoe?” I asked them.
Cooper didn’t wait for his sister to respond. He dove right in and shared, “She’s the best aunt in the world. We were supposed to be sleeping over her house tonight, but Mom came here before dropping us off over there.”
“Alright. Do you know your Aunt Zoe’s address?” I questioned him.
Cooper shook his head, indicating that he didn’t.
“What about work? Do you know where she works?”
“The bank,” Corinne replied.
“Sagebrush Bank and Trust,” Cooper added.
This was excellent news. Not only was I thrilled to hear that their aunt was someone they clearly liked being around, but also the fact that she had a job was a huge bonus.
“It’s movie night,” Corinne shared.
“Bouncing up and down in his seat, seemingly no longer affected by having been locked in a hot car, Cooper said, “Yeah. And tomorrow is game night. Our clothes are in the trunk.”
“Do you know Aunt Zoe’s phone number?” I asked.
“It’s in my mom’s phone,” Cooper started. “I tried to call her before I called 911, but she didn’t answer.”
My guess was that she was at work and could not answer the call when it came in. In fact, I was willing to bet that she didn’t even know that she’d received the call.
“Alright. I’ll get your mom’s phone and we’ll look up your Aunt Zoe’s number. I can always call the bank directly to contact her, but it’s getting late, so they’ll probably be closing soon anyway. I’m also going to get your clothes out of the trunk so you’ll have them at your aunt’s house. In the meantime, I’m going to have one of the paramedics come over and check you out. Okay?”
Cooper and Corinne both nodded their agreement.
For the next little while, I worked on doing what I had to do to get these kids back to a familiar face.
On the bright side, while I’d been speaking with Cooper and Corinne, their mother had woken momentarily. At one point, she did ask about her children. Then, she told the officers to call her sister, Zoe, to come for them. While I had serious concerns about her lack of judgment, at least their mother asked for them to be put with someone they clearly liked being around.