A small smile touched his face. Five beautiful reasons that make every day worth getting up for. The children stopped eating. They stared at him with the kind of love only children can give. Open, honest, without calculation.
Then Kea spoke. We love you, Papa Ryland. The room went still. No one had ever called him Papa before. Ryland felt something inside his chest break open and mend itself at the same time.
He blinked hard, fighting the tears. "And I love all of you," he said quietly. "With everything I've got." After supper, Ryland figured out where everyone would sleep. "The five children would share one bedroom with mattresses spread across the floor.
Yara would take the second room. Ryland would sleep in the parlor on his old sofa. He helped settle each child beneath a clean blanket. Then, one by one, he leaned down and kissed each forehead. The gesture was awkward at first.
He had never tucked a child into bed, never kissed anyone good night, never had anyone depending on him for comfort. But by the fifth child, the awkwardness no longer mattered. Every movement came from the heart. "Sleep well, little ones," he whispered as he lowered the lamp. "Tomorrow we start our new life."
"Good night, Papa." All five answered together. Ryland stepped into the hall and gently pulled the door closed. For a long moment, he stood there in the darkness, listening to the quiet rhythm of their breathing on the other side. A smile spread across his face.
For the first time in 23 years, Ryland Voss was not alone. He had a family. He had a home. He had love. And he knew with a certainty deeper than anything he had ever felt that he would fight to keep all three.
By morning, sunlight spilled through the windows of Ryland's house in long golden bands, warming the floorboards and announcing the beginning of a life none of them had imagined only a day before. The five children woke almost at the same moment, as if some invisible clock inside them had struck the hour all at once. They sat up on their mattresses and looked around with wide, sleepy smiles. It was real, Sonnie whispered. We really have a house.
Of course it was real. Reco shouted, bouncing on his mattress. We've got Papa Ryland. That was all it took. The five of them scrambled to their feet and raced toward the kitchen where Ryland was already trying to make breakfast.
"Trying was the important word. He had never cooked for seven people in his life." Morning, little ones," Ryland said, wrestling with a pancake that refused to flip cleanly in the skillet. "Sleep well." "Better than ever," all five answered at once.
Yara stepped into the kitchen and stopped at the sight before her. It was chaos. Ryland had flour in his hair. Half the pancakes were burned at the edges. Two eggs had somehow ended up broken on the floor.
And still, he was grinning like a man who had finally found something worth waking up for. "Move over," Yara said with a soft laugh, taking the skillet from his hand. "Let me help before you burn the whole house down." Together, they managed to put together a simple breakfast. Pancakes drizzled with honey, scrambled eggs, and fresh milk.