Page 59 of Sterling Clay

I don’t know what she might mean, but the only thought that comes to mind is her not leaving this bed. I just want to hold her, but more selfishly, I want her to hold me. I want her to tell me she won’t leave.

Instead, I shake my head. “Good night, butterfly.”

“Good night, honey.” She presses off the bed, and I close my eyes at the sting suddenly burning them. Hearing defeat in her voice and feeling the distance between us.

I only last five minutes before I’m hoisting myself off my bed and opening her bedroom door. She’s curled around Dutton, protecting him as best she can from the evils of this world. Violence. Ignorance. Hatred.

Saving the world starts with loving your child.

Mavis lifts her head and watches me round the bed until I’m behind her on her side. Climbing onto the mattress, I cuddle up behind her, wrapping my arm over her and around Dutton, who is nestled into her chest with his back.

Mama bear and her cub in one bed.

Dutton asked me earlier if I could be his dad. He must have heard me call him my kid by mistake.

But somehow, it doesn’t feel entirely wrong. He’s never had a positive father figure in his life, and my desire to be papa bear returns.

I close my eyes and squeeze mama and her baby tighter to me.

Because this feels just right.

Chapter 20

[Clay]

“Weekly family dinner today,” I announce during breakfast the next morning.

Mavis has been with me for more than a month, and I’ve only been to one Sylver Sunday meal in all that time. I missed the rest because I was sick, she was present, and the festival happened.

Stone will surely have words for me after last night, and Vale’s been harping on me in the family group text about my absence. She only met Mavis for a few seconds at the festival and then again last night, and my sister wants to give her stamp of approval on the woman in my life, as she calls Mavis.

“I don’t know,” Mavis hedges, adding another pile of pancakes to the stack already on my plate. I pick up her plate which hasn’t been filled yet and dump half my pile onto the dish.

“Mavis. Sit.” I catch her wrist as she turns back to the griddle on the stove.

“I still have more batter.”

“Eat these while they’re hot.”

Dutton has a stack of pancakes large enough for a lumberjack, and I’m sensing Mavis is cooking because she’s still upset and anxious. Holding her breath on Dutton’s emotions today.

“Will Winnie be there?” he quietly asks, his personality somber this morning as he pokes at the pancakes with his fork.

“She will. And I bet she’d like to see you.” I don’t know what my niece witnessed last night. I still don’t know all the particulars of what happened, but my imagination holds visions that will haunt me for the rest of my days. A grown ass man holding a child’s head face down in the water of an apple-bobbing barrel.

My phone blew up overnight with apologies from Halle and messages from Knox. Sebastian checked in, and I checked on Ford and the girls. Judd was his quiet self, not explaining where he came from or where he learned to punch like that. Out of all of us, he might have taken the insults from our dad to heart the most.

“So. Sylver Sunday around noon,” I confirm, not letting either Mavis or Dutton out of today.

My family wants to know more about this family, and I’m looking to bring Mavis and Dutton into the Sylver fold.

+ + +

When we arrive at the house I grew up in, Winnie rushes Dutton, hugging him gleefully, as if relieved to see her new friend. She coos over him, asking if he’s okay, and then quickly distracts him from last night’s incident by tugging him to a low table covered with coloring sheets.

In a household of mostly men, Vale is thrilled to have another woman around in addition to Enya and Halle. Soon enough Cadence, Ford’s girlfriend will be home. For now, Vale loops her arm through Mavis’s and leads her toward the kitchen.

Typically, these Sunday meals are a cookout, hosting the family in the backyard as long as the weather holds out, especially as the family expands. But today is gloomy and dull, kind of like my mood, so we gather inside the house that’s had a huge makeover since I lived here.