Kaden was certainly clinging to Blueberry like she was the only solid piece of driftwood in a tumultuous ocean, and Cathal felt a pang of something familiar, to also being a teenage boy desperate for stability and love.
Cathal had to remind himself that Kaden's family had been stripped from him, while Cathal had chosen to remove himself from his own. There was pain in both ways, but they were very different things. Cathal had gotten to make that choice.
"Jesse," Cathal said with a conspiratorial whisper, "last I heard, is out on a date. They're sure to come home late and wow me with tales. But until then we can just all eat some pizza, and maybe break out a board game or somethin'."