“It smells like a chemical factory in here,” Hamlin muttered under his breath as he entered the house. Tightening his hold on Romper’s leash, he paused at the stairs leading up to the living room, trying to figure out why the place smelled the way it did.
“Well now, return the conquering hero,” Gebhard said, stepping from the gym into the entryway. “And you can blame the stink on Manny. He’s teaching Jakie how to do graffiti.”
“Manny’s back?”
“He is. Has been for over a week now. We hired him on as a counselor for the boys.”
“Oh,” Hamlin said softly, at a loss for words at the moment.
“So who’s your friend?” Gebhard asked, bending to scratch behind Romper’s ears.
Hamlin told him, explaining that he’d gotten him while he was out west. “Actually, he found me,” he added. “Someone dumped his on the beach. We sort of adopted each other.”
“Well, I guess as long as he behaves you can take him upstairs with you.”
“He will,” Hamlin told him as he started up the stairs, the puppy bounding ahead of him.
It didn’t take long to figure out where to go next. The smell and the sound of voices led him up to the third floor and Jakie’s room. Hamlin paused at the open door, watching in fascination as Manny showed Jakie how to do the next section of what it seemed was going to be a large mural on one wall. A second boy, Hamlin figured it had to be Jakie’s roommate, was drawing outlines further down the wall, consulting a sketchpad as he did. It wasn’t until Romper started yipping to get free of the leash that any of them noticed they had an audience.
Jakie immediately set down the can he was holding and dashed over, first greeting Hamlin with an “You’re back!” and then scooping up Romper, laughing when the puppy began washing his face with its tongue.
When the second boy came over to get his share of Romper’s attention, Jakie introduced him as Sandy, which given the color of the boy’s hair seemed like a natural nickname to Hamlin.
Manny was the only one who remained where he was. He watched the boys, a slight smile on his face for a moment until he looked directly at Hamlin. The smile broadened, and then faded when Hamlin didn’t return it. “Welcome back,” he said quietly.
“Thanks,” was all that Hamlin said in reply. He wanted to say more, but something stopped him. Maybe the boys’ presence, maybe everything he’d been thinking about on the long journey home, maybe—He wasn’t certain, but any words he might have said died before they were spoken.
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