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Maybe, but I didn’t have time to worry about that this morning. I had managed, through the help of my kind new friend, to find a safe place for Luca and I to stay. I needed to focus on making sure he was okay, and if that meant being a little overly cautious, then so be it. I spent the rest of the morning pushing away intrusive thoughts about Aleks, fears over him showing up at the room and pounding on the door. Thankfully, making cookies with my little boy was a pretty good way to distract myself, seeing as he was always spilling something or mixing the wrong two ingredients, so I had to watch him like a hawk. Still, when we got to the end stage of the process, I let him take over. He was pretty cute with his furrowed brows deep in the concentration of correct chip placement.
Once the cookies were ready, I let him try one fresh out of the oven, and he announced that they were the world’s “chocolatiest chocolate chip cookies”. We wrapped up a plate and headed down to Zane’s room. Luca was skipping which was a refreshing site. I knocked on the door and waited for Zane to answer, but instead, he yelled, “Come in.”
I opened the door nervously and saw Zane standing at the ironing board attempting to iron a shirt.
“Did we come at a bad time?” I asked.
“Not at all,” he said. Looking at the shirt, he shrugged and said, “Eh, good enough.”
“Going somewhere special?” I asked, wanting to make small talk.
“I have a work gala to attend tonight with stuffy financial people if you want to know the truth of it,” he said with a slight smirk. I was curious what that meant since he had told me when he was setting up my bank account that he owned a stock brokerage firm.Is he a stuffy finance person too?I wondered. But that didn’t matter at all after everything he had done for Luca and me last night.
“Actually, since you are here, I have a favor to ask.”
Looking at him curiously, I said, “Zane, you literally saved my son and me last night. I doubt there is anything you could ask that I would say no to.”
He smiled. “In that case, would you mind babysitting Kenlee? It should only be a couple of hours, and I left her with Sloan last night so I hate to ask her again.”
“Of course, I will. Luca and I would love to,” I told him as Luca started pulling on my sleeve. I could tell he was bursting with excitement.
Laughing at how 24 hours has made such a difference in my son’s personality, I asked him, “Luca, would you like to give Mr. Zane his present?”
“Yes!” he squealed, grabbing the plate from me.
Bouncing up and down as he handed it to Zane, he could barely contain his excitement.
“Mommy and me made you some super-duper chocolatey chip cookies! Here, try one,” he said, holding the plate up for Zane to take.
Zane laughed. “Wow! For me? You shouldn’t have. How did you know that chocolate chip is my favorite?”
“See Mommy, I told you he liked chocolate chip!” he screamed with four-year-old excitement.
“Yes, my angel, you did.” He ran back to my side and I bent down to kiss him on the cheek. “You are just so smart.”
Zane smiled at us mischievously. “The only problem is… I can’t possibly eat all these cookies by myself. Oh hey, I know a solution. Luca, do you want one? You would really be helping me out if you ate one.”
Looking at me with pleading and hopeful eyes that I could never say no to, Luca begged, “Please, Mommy. Can I have one? Pleeeeassseee?”
I laughed and said, “Yes, you can have one. But that’s the last cookie until after dinner, okay? I don’t need you bouncing off the walls all day from all that sugar.”
“Yes!” he yelled, grabbing a cookie from Zane.
When Luca sat down to eat his cookie, Zane poured him a glass of milk and walked back to the ironing board motioning for me to follow.
“So, about the morning sugar rush, sorry, not sorry,” he said, trying not to laugh.
I wasn’t mad. Luca deserved some happiness and to feel like a normal kid. “It’s okay. It’s nice to see him happy for once. I still don’t know how to thank you for last night.” I looked away from him, feeling guilty because I never seemed to have the right words to express myself when I was around Zane.
He reached out and gently touched my arm, and waited to respond until I was looking back at him.
“There is nothing to thank me for, Katya. I did what any decent man would do, and I would do it again. So, I don’t want you dwelling on it. Okay?” he said softly.
“Okay,” I said, fighting back the tears that were threatening to fall.
Luca finished his cookie and milk and wiped his tiny face with his sleeve, then looked over at Zane and me and said, “That was good! What are we going to do now?”
Embarrassed that he assumed Zane wanted to spend the day with us, I tried to quickly redirect him. “Now Luca, Mr. Zane is a busy man. We have taken enough of his time this morning. We should go. You and I will find something fun to do. Okay?”
