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“And then it did.” It wasn’t said in accusation. There was pain in Casey’s words, but it was matter-of-factly.
“Yes,” I said, still feeling the sting of it. “But I never hurt her intentionally. I swear.”
He glanced at me closely as though he was trying to figure me out. There was a glint of moisture in his eyes, but I didn’t bring attention to it. I didn’t want him to feel bad about crying in front of me.
“They said you abandoned me,” he said. “Why didn’t you ever come for me this entire time?”
“I didn’t know you existed,” I said. “I literally just found out not long ago. The day you saw me and Charlotte arguing, that was what we were talking about. I made her bring you over every Friday because I wanted a relationship with you, but I didn’t want to cause a rift in the family.”
“Then why did you cancel on me last Friday?”
That was complicated to explain, but I gave him as much honesty as I could manage. “My friend, the one who died….” I paused, thinking about how to explain it. “Someone sent me a picture of him, and it messed with me emotionally in a big way. Friday was a bad day."
“Wow.” He wiped his eyes and blinked at me. “It’s fucked up that someone would do that to you.”
“You shouldn’t swear,” I said but mussed his hair to soften the correction.
He smirked at me. “You do it all the time, though.”
“I’m a lot older and dumber. But you can do better.”
He nodded, and I ruffled his hair again. The fact that he let me do it meant a lot.
“That day, I wasn’t in the right mindstate to see you,” I told him. “And I didn’t want you or Charlotte to see me like that.”
“But Charlie went to you anyway?”
I smirked. “Yeah. I don’t know if you noticed, but your aunt is very stubborn.”
“Yeah, Charlie can be pretty hardheaded.” Then, he sighed as though in tiredness, and I smiled. “So, you and Charlie…you guys are really dating?”
“Yeah,” I said with a nod. “And she’s pregnant.”
Casey’s eyes widened as though they were going to bug out of his eyes. “For real?”
I nodded again.
“So I’m going to have a little nephew or niece slash brother or sister.”
I laughed at the lightness on his face. He was taking it a lot better than I thought. “Something like that.”
He paused in thought. “I’ve always wanted a sister, so I guess it should be alright.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I plan to marry Charlotte too, hopefully with your grandparents’ blessing.”
He nodded and then seemed to realize something because he frowned. “Wait, did all this stuff start with my mom?”
“No,” I said, disgusted at the idea. “Charlie was a kid when I married your mom. Everything between us happened very recently and accidentally.”
He nodded, clearly satisfied with the answer. “So what happens now? Do I call you Dad?” He seemed a little freaked out by the idea, and I couldn’t help but smile.
“How about we pace ourselves?” I said. “And take it one step at a time.”
He frowned. “But I don’t know how to have a dad.”
“And I don’t know how to be a dad,” I admitted. “But I’m going to try my hardest to be someone you can always rely on and someone who will be around.”
At my words, Casey gave me a hesitant smile with a touch of cheekiness. “Well, I think the first step to being a dad is not swearing so much.”
