Dad showed up after we got settled in our seats around the kitchen table.
"Cookies before dinner?!" He said in mocked surprise. "Are you really their mother?"
Mom, who was holding a cookie herself looked a little guilty. "It's been a quiet week with all of them gone. Dessert before dinner is fun every once in awhile."
"We should have dessert as an appetizer every day!" Noah grinned as he bit into his second cookie already.
Mom glared at him.
"Ha. Ha. Just kidding..." Noah looked down at his cookie and mumbled.
Dad looked at me. "How was it? Did you boys have fun?"
I nodded.
"Did you show off your batting skills?" Dave asked.
I nodded again.
He laughed. "I bet they all hated you."
"That's not true!" Noah exclaimed. He looked at me and assured me that they didn't hate me. "Don't listen to him. The guys didn't hate you."
I hesitated. "Well...I think some of the guys on my team hated me."
"And Rhys didn't help you?" Noah frowned.
I shrugged. "There wasn't much he could do. They were mostly just jealous of my playing time." I sighed. "I even had to play in the outfield for part of a game because someone was mad that I got to play second base the whole time."
Dave laughed. "Oh man, I'm sad I couldn't see that. Did you trip at all?"
My lips twitched. "Not during the game."
"But during drills?" He laughed again.
I blushed.
"You're so annoying." Noah told Dave while reaching for another cookie. "I can't wait until Kyle gets back. How do you think it'll feel to be the crappy twin?"
"Noah James." Mom scolded. "Don't let me hear you say something like that again."
Noah shrugged. "What? There's bound to be a twin which isn't as good as the other."
"Each person, twin or not, have their own set of skills." Dad spoke up. "We don't compare you to your brothers so you shouldn't compare them either. Everyone is their own person."
"Yea, yea, I was just joking." Noah mumbled.
The conversation mellowed out for a few minutes after Noah was scolded by Mom and Dad, but it soon picked up as Noah told them all about our week with more detail. When he got to the part where Rhys took me out to play against some minor leaguers, Dave was shocked.
"You got to play against the pros??!" His jaw hung open.
I nodded.
"How'd you do?!" He leaned forward, eager to hear about my experience.
"Crushed. Defeated. Thrashed." I used the first three adjectives that came to mind.
"What! No way! You?!" Dave couldn't believe it.
"Three different pitchers and I couldn't get one good hit." I elaborated.
Dave couldn't wrap his head around what we were saying. "Isn't San Jose Giants a single A team?? How could you not just beat them up?"
I sighed, helpless. "It's not like I didn't want to. I lack...something."
"Experience." Zeke said. He glanced at Dave. "If you were paired with an outstanding catcher, you could probably strike Jake out too."
"I can do that now!" Dave declared. He grinned like a Cheshire cat. "I put my summer to good use."
"Yea...right..." Noah rolled his eyes.
Dave pointed at me. "What do you say, Jake? Want to face the new and improved me?"
I cracked a smile. Dave and Noah were a lot alike.
"You kids can play tomorrow." Dad said. He looked at Zeke. "Didn't you already plan to go to the park tomorrow and then invite everyone over for dinner?"
Noah dropped his cookie and looked at Zeke, excited. "You've already scheduled the game?"
"Game?" Dave asked. "What game?"
Zeke nodded at Noah. "I sent a text to a few of the guys to see if any of them were free and wanted to play. Quite a few replied so it won't be as small as we thought."
"What game? Are we playing over-the-line?" Dave interjected again.
"We were going to play when you guys got back." Noah told him. "Me, Jake, and Andy on Kyle's team. While you were with Zeke, Julian, and maybe Mahki. But now..." He looked to Zeke. "How many people are coming?"
"Enough to play a real game." Zeke answered.
Noah pumped his fists. "Yes!"
I looked up at Dad. "They're coming over after?"
Dad smiled and nodded. "Zeke told us he would invite them over for dinner. We plan on just ordering pizza and setting it out before going out ourselves."
I frowned. "Where are you going to go?"
"Probably on a date." Noah laughed as my face turned red. "Mom and Dad used to go out on dates all the time before you came."
Oh. I was taken aback by that statement.
"It has nothing to do with you specifically." Mom told me, looking a little apologetic. "We just go on less outings when we have a foster kid with us because we like to make sure they're comfortable with their surroundings. Seeing you go off with Noah and Zeke to the camp made us realize that you're growing up. You don't need us to accompany you all the time."
I relaxed. "Oh, okay." I looked at Noah. "It's like I'm one of you guys now."
Noah grinned. "You were always one of us." He looked to his mom. "Did we officially adopt Jake yet?"
I looked to her too, eager.
Mom looked at us, then to her husband. "Wayne..."
Dad laughed. "Go ahead and tell them."
Mom looked excited as she looked around the table. "We were going to wait until you were all back, but, we have a court date!"
"When?" Zeke asked.
"Really??" Dave asked.
"What does that mean?" Noah questioned.
"It's to finalize the adoption process." Mom grinned. "As you boys know, we had to submit our paperwork to the agency and attend some classes. Mr. Duncan and Dr. Moore did a lot to help us out and move along the process. It helped that-" She abruptly stopped.
"What helped?" Noah poked her.
She looked to Dad for help.
Dad reached out and put his hand on my shoulder. "It helped that Jake's biological mom lost her parental rights and his dad has passed away. The foster system likes to reunite families over adoption."
"Why? That would be awful!" Noah was stunned.
"Sometimes...parents just need a little help. It's not always the best decision. But, in our case, it won't matter much." Dad explained. "We also got a statement from Jeremy, to present to the court. Our path is free of anymore obstacles."
"A statement?" I asked. "What did it say?"
Dad gave my shoulder a squeeze. "He requested that it be read aloud during our hearing. He doesn't want you to see it just yet."
"It's not...bad, is it?" I asked.
"How could it be bad?" Noah laughed. "Dad just said no obstacles. Jeremy probably wrote something very helpful."
The tension left my shoulders as I smiled, relieved.
"When is it?" Zeke repeated.
"Friday, August 23rd." Mom replied. "So three weeks from now, Jake can change his last name to Atkins."
"Jake Atkins!" Noah laughed. "That has a good sound to it."
"Atkins goes with almost every name." Dave pointed out.
"You're so annoying." Noah rolled his eyes.
I smiled as I watched them bicker. Three weeks from now, this will be permanent. No one will be able to take this away from me.