“And, tell me if I’m overstepping, please,” Del had said, and put a book into Justin’s hands.
It was a book about kids. About what they needed at different stages, and what to expect. The thing was thick as a brick, but Justin had devoured it over the next few days, reading through it faster than he had any GED study guide. He even took it to work with him and read it on his breaks. A lot of the stuff in it was common sense, Justin guessed, but it helped to have it all written down in black and white. It helped to read through it all so that he’d be a little more prepared for whatever the next crisis was, because Justin had learned on that fraught night with the trip to the hospital that common sense was the first thing that up and vanished when everyone was stressed out.