One of a Kind Dad
Nick's screams jolted Daniel into action before he was entirely awake. Barefooted, with his pajama bottoms flapping around his ankles, he raced down the hall, pausing outside Nick's room to take a deep breath and will his heartbeat to settle down. Not until he'd accomplished that did he step into the room.
"Nick," Daniel said softly. "It's okay. I'm here." He switched on the bedside lamp, a figure of a baseball player in a Red Sox uniform. In the subdued glow of the light, he saw the boy sitting up in bed, eyes wild and face drained of color, his screams still bouncing off the walls.
Daniel sat on the edge of the bed and smoothed Nick's tousled red hair. It was wet with perspiration. "It's okay," he said again. "I won't let anything hurt you."
Gradually, the screams faded into sobs, then to gasps for air. Nick didn't reach out his arms to be hugged until his terror passed. He'd been one of Daniel's foster boys for almost two months now, and still didn't trust him enough to seek him out for comfort. What could have happened to a boy so young to make him close his heart so completely?
No one knew. A woman in a larger town nearby had found Nick, all alone and unable ... read full excerpt from: One of a Kind Dad ebook
