Page 40 of Together Is Where We Belong

Why did she have to know me so well?

“It’s been fine. I’m fine with it as long as Luke is happy. We haven’t discussed the past yet, only that I’d sent him letters. He says he only got the first one, but I’m not sure that’s true. I’m not focusing on the past. I’m focused on the future and Luke’s happiness. It’s all I can focus on right now,” I explained. I purposefully avoided her statement about me never getting over Leo. I was not having that conversation with him on the other side of the house, potentially hearing what I said.

“Have you gotten any more messages?” she asked, her voice laced with even more concern than before.

“No, I haven’t. Not since I blocked the last number.”

“Any news from the police?”

I let out a frustrated sigh, because no I hadn’t heard from them. While they say no news was good news, it angered me that they hadn’t had any added information to provide on my case.

“Nope.”

“That sucks. Hopefully, they will call you soon with an update. If they don’t, call them.”

“I will. Listen, I need to go and check on Luke and Leo. It was so good talking to you. Thank you and Neil for packing up my things. You donated the stuff I told you to, right?” I wanted her to donate all of our furniture to the women’s shelter.

“Yeah, they came and picked up the stuff today. Call me if you need anything, and I’ll let you know when we ship the few boxes of things that you told me you wanted to keep. Please be safe out there. Love you,” she said.

“I will. I still remember those self-defense moves I learned. Love you back,” I said with a chuckle as I ended the call. Throwing my arm over my eyes, I closed them and laid on my bed to try and clear my mind after talking about the situation that caused me to leave South Carolina.

What felt like minutes later, I sat up on the bed and rubbed my eyes. I looked over at the clock on the nightstand and realized I’d fallen asleep for almost an hour.

Hurriedly, I got off the bed and changed out of my scrubs and into a pair of comfortable sweats and an oversized T-shirt before I grabbed my phone and went back into the kitchen.

“Sorry, that took so long,” I said as I walked in the kitchen to find it completely cleaned up, no evidence in sight of dirty dishes or even a half-eaten box of pizza.

Luke’s giggle caused me to turn and find him and Leo sitting on the floor putting together his car. Luke wasn’t in the clothes I’d put him in, but a matching pajama set with trucks on them.

I walked into the room unsteadily, choked full of emotion that he’d cleaned the kitchen and bathed Luke.

“You didn’t have to do all that,” I told him as I sat on the couch. I put my legs off to the side and rested my head on the arm of the couch, as I watched Leo and Luke play together.

“You looked tired. I hope I didn’t overstep, but Luke helped me clean the kitchen and showed me where everything was,” Leo eyed me warily over Luke’s head.

“I took a shower, Mom,” Luke said as he held a few pieces of blocks in his hand.

“You did?” I said with a yawn. He’d fight with me if I ever tried to get him to take showers. I wondered how Leo had gotten him to agree.

“Yeah. I asked Dad if he took baths or showers. And he said he took showers, so I wanted to take one too,” Luke explained.

“That sounds great, buddy. I’m proud of you,” I told him with another yawn. I picked up the remote off the floor in front of the couch, the spot it always managed to end up, even though I sat it on the arm of the couch time and time again and turned Rio on just to have some background noise.

My eyes grew heavy as I watched Leo show Luke the next step in the instruction book for the Legos.

The next thing I knew, I felt a soft tap on my arm.

I sat up quickly, causing my head to spin and looked up to find Leo standing over me.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep,” I told him, as my eyes searched the room for Luke only to come up empty.

“You must’ve been tired. I put him to bed. We read a couple of books he picked out before he fell asleep. I made sure his blanket was tucked in just the way you showed me,” Leo assured, as he put his hands in the back pockets of his jeans and rocked back on his heels. He looked nervous as to how I’d react, but I was just thankful that he’d helped me tonight when I was too exhausted to think.

“Yeah, I felt a migraine coming on. My body finally gave in, and I fell asleep. Thank you for doing that, and cleaning the kitchen,” I told him as I looked up at him.

Leo was a better father than I’d ever imagined he’d be. He stepped right into the role and was doing all the right things.

“You still get those?” he asked, the first time he’d asked anything about me that was personal aside from my job.