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He drove home thinking again how lucky he was to have his mom and the rest of the family supporting him. Whatever she’d made for dinner smelled incredible, and he couldn’t wait to taste it. Nine days out of ten, she had dinner ready for them when he went to pick up Caden, another thing that made life so much easier for him than it would be otherwise.
“Can we play with my new toys tonight, Dad?”
“Yep. And this week, we’re making a pile to donate, okay?”
“Okay.”
Years ago, he’d begun teaching him that not all boys and girls were as lucky as he was, and he needed to share the toys he didn’t play with anymore with other kids. It was important to Max that Caden always know how fortunate he was and to pay it forward by giving back to others. With as many aunts and uncles as Caden had buying him gifts for every occasion, that was a lesson Max felt was important, and he knew his siblings felt the same way.
When they got home, he let Caden and Daisy run around outside for a little bit before he brought them in to wash up and eat.
Over dinner, which was rigatoni with sausage and his mom’s homemade sauce, Max waited for an opportunity to talk to him about Chloe.
“Hey, Dad?”
“What’s up?”
“Are you going to marry that girl Lexi who was at my party?”
“Uh, I don’t know. We’re just kind of talking and maybe dating a bit now. She lives in Texas.”
“Oh, good.”
“Why?”
Caden wrinkled his nose. “I don’t like her.”
Max was shocked to hear him say that. “What? Why? You like everyone.”
“Not everyone. I don’t like her.”
“Caden… Come on. Be nice. I like her.”
He shrugged. “That doesn’t mean I hafta.”
“It would mean a lot to me if you’d give her a chance. She’s been nothing but nice to you. She hadn’t even met you and she got you a birthday present.”
“She did that so you would like her more.”
“That’s not true. She wanted to give you something you’d really like.”
“I guess.”
“I want you to be nice to her. I mean it. I’d be very disappointed if you were rude to any of my friends. You got me?”
“Yeah, okay.”
Jeez, Max hadn’t seen that coming, especially when he had something else he needed to talk to Caden about. He forced himself to press on with that, even though he was still shocked by what Caden had said about Lexi. “So there’s one more gift you need to open.”
Caden had sauce on his cheeks, which only made him cuter than he already was. “Who’s it from?”
Here goes, Max thought. “Your mother.”
Caden gave him a curious look. “I thought I didn’t have a mother.”
“Everyone has a mother. Yours decided a long time ago that it would be better for you if she wasn’t in your life. Do you remember us talking about that before?”
He nodded. “You said it wasn’t because she doesn’t love me.”
