Making small talk with Ryan on the ride home was easy enough, though Reynard wished he had a bit more energy to engage. He’d spent all morning prepping the kitchen for the Friday rush, though, and he was ready for a nap.

“Daddy, why’s there a dead body on the porch?” Ryan asked.

Reynard did a double take with his heart dropping into his stomach for a moment. Then he realized it wasn’t a ‘dead body’. “That’s just Eugene,” Reynard sighed. “He wasn’t feeling well. He must have decided to come over and visit.” After parking the car and letting Ryan out, they both walked up to the front door. Reynard nudged Eugene with his boot while Ryan poked the drunk man in the cheek. “Come on, Euge,” Reynard grumbled. “It’s freezing out. You shouldn’t be sitting outside in the snow. I haven’t even cleaned the porch yet.”

Eugene looked up, his eyes filled with tears, and Reynard helped haul him to his feet. “Dinner is chicken with mac and cheese, and everyone has to eat their broccoli. Including you. So up you get.”

Reynard helped Ryan get cleaned up first, then set him up with crayons and coloring ‘homework’ in the living room. Eugene was still slumped over the kitchen table when they finished, and Reynard bullied him into going into the bathroom, rinsing off with warm water, and changing into the pajamas he’d left three years ago that seemed to be needed at least once a week now. “If you aren’t going to fall over and kill yourself, I need to get the chicken in the oven,” Reynard said. “You gonna be okay?”

Eugene shrugged. “No one cares anyways.”

“Don’t be such a drama queen,” Reynard laughed. “Plenty of people care about you. You just seem to care about all the ones who don’t.”

“My mom said she can’t send me any more money. I won’t be able to make rent.”

“Screw her, and pick up more hours.”

“My boss won’t schedule me for any of the good shifts.”

“Who cares about your boss? Get a job somewhere else and tell him to suck it.”

“My boyfriend dumped me right before Christmas.”

“That was last year, and he was a prick anyways. Probably had a tiny thing to go with his flat butt.”

That, finally, got Eugene to burst out laughing. “He did. Barely got it up half the time too.”

“See? He’s not worth the fuss.”

“Am I a lot of fuss?”

Reynard sighed. “You make a lot of fuss. Now finish getting dressed and come set the table. Ryan’s started calling you papa, so you better start acting like one.”

“I’m going to ruin his Christmas, too, aren’t I?”

“It’s not Christmas yet, so you better not be making any plans like that. You can stay the night and we’ll sort out your rent issue in the morning,” Reynard said. “I need to go fix dinner. Don’t take too long.”

Reynard was getting Ryan settled in his booster seat at the table when Eugene wandered in for breakfast looking like five kinds of death.

Ryan picked up his spoon while staring at the very slowly moving man. “Daddy?” he finally asked. “Is papa Euge a zombie?”

“Close,” Reynard laughed. “He’s a friendly zombie, though. He only eats oatmeal for breakfast.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely positive.” As if to prove his point, Reynard set a bowl of oatmeal down right where Eugene was about to lay his head on the table. “And if he wants my help, he’ll eat up quickly so we can talk while you’re getting ready for school.”

It took several minutes for the words to sink in and for Eugene to slowly start eating the meal. Only once Ryan had rushed off to get dressed did Reynard sit down next to Eugene for a serious conversation. “I can’t afford to pay your rent and mine, you know that,” Reynard said gently, “but I do need a babysitter for Ryan sometimes. I’m always late picking him up from school, and I could get more hours if I had a reliable caretaker to help out. I can’t pay you much. We’d just have to work out a schedule so your shifts and mine didn’t overlap.”

“I - I think I could do that,” Eugene said with a sniffle. “I’m not an absolute failure. I could take care of him.”

“No one’s calling you a failure,” Reynard sighed. “But there’s a pretty big condition that comes with this.”

“I can handle it. For sure,” Eugene emphasized with his hands clenched on the table.

“You can’t drink, be drunk, or be hungover around Ryan.”