“Last I checked. Unless Mackenzi has a twenty-something kid you don’t know about.”
Mackenzi shifts immediately, shaking her head at him. “You should take it.”
Gabriel rarely calls me, so I know it must be important. Still, I hesitate, because leaving her feels wrong. I press a quick kiss to her temple and pull myself up from the pool’s edge, water dripping from my legs onto the stone. “I’ll come find you when I’m done.”
Mackenzi nods softly. “I’ll be here.”
I squeeze her shoulder once before heading inside.
Jagger falls into step beside me. “You’re smiling.” He nudges me with his elbow.
“I’m literally not.”
He grins. “That’s the same face I had.” I glance over at him, unsure whether I want him to continue his thought. “Yup, right before I wound up with a houseful of kids and a woman I never saw coming.”
“Shut up.” I flip him off without slowing, a smile pulling at my lips at how right he is.
When I reach the office, I take a seat behind the desk and answer on speaker. “Gabriel?”
A pause crackles through the speaker. “Uh… hey.”
My chest tightens unexpectedly. Every time I hear his voice, I realize exactly how much I’ve missed. It’s not a little boy on the other end of the phone anymore.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Yeah, everything’s fine.” He clears his throat awkwardly. “Mom told me to call and invite you to parents’ weekend.”
Surprise flickers through me.
“Parents’ weekend?”
“At school,” he says quickly. “Next month.”
I lean back against the chair. “When exactly?”
He tells me the dates before clearing his throat again. “But I figure you probably won’t make it.”
His words hurt. Not because he said them cruelly, but because he genuinely expects me not to come. Because Itaughthim not to expect me.
I close my eyes briefly. “I’ll do everything I can to be there.”
The phone falls silent for a moment.
“Really?” The hope in his voice hits harder than any bullet I’ve ever taken.
“Really,” I confirm, suddenly realizing this might be the first conversation we’ve had in years that isn’t tense from the start.
“I know I’ve been a shitty father,” I say before I can stop myself, the line falling silent again. “But it was never because I didn’t want to be around, Gabriel.” I stare out theoffice windows at the courtyard where Mackenzi still sits beside the pool. “It’s because I wanted to give you a better life than I had. Because I wanted you to have opportunities I couldn’t have dreamed of.”
My son exhales slowly through the speaker. “I know.”
Those two simple words hit me like a freight train. “You do?”
“Mom explained some stuff after you came to campus.” He hesitates. “About your jobs.”
I rub a hand across the back of my neck. “Well… it still doesn’t excuse missing things.”
“No,” he admits. “But I get it more.”
