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“See, I told you you’d be the one saving me,” he says, giving me a wink.
I can’t help the way my stomach swoops at that.
***
That night, I leave my bedroom door open, wanting to help Colton with this new phase of returning Teddy to his bed. He told me Teddy usually crawls into bed with him around three, so I set an alarm for two forty-five and then sit in the hallway, waiting for Teddy so I can try to redirect him without waking his father.
Sure enough, right around three, I see a small face emerge from the darkness of his room, though Teddy’s eyes widen when he sees me.
“Whatcha doin, little man?” I ask him.
Teddy looks down the hall at his father’s closed bedroom door then back at me.
“I want daddy.”
I nod. “I know, buddy. But remember? Your dad said it’s time for you to have a big boy bed, and big boys sleep in their room all night.”
Teddy’s eyes well with tears, and he walks over to me and slumps into my arms. I pat his back and rub it softly then get up off the floor still holding him and walk him back into his room.
Once I have him settled in his bed, I rub his back for a few minutes, until his tears have mostly subsided.
“Your dad is right down the hall in one direction, and I’m in the other. We’re both here, and you’re safe.”
“But what if you leave like mommy?”
I swallow thickly, not expecting the swell of emotion I get at that.
Shaking my head, I reach out and squeeze his hand.
“I’m not going anywhere, okay? And if I do, I promise to tell you.”
“You promise?”
I nod. “Yeah.
That seems to calm him down a bit, so I lean in and kiss his head then back out of his room, closing the door as I go.
I doubt that will be the one solution. Teddy will definitely get out of bed again, either tonight or another night. But I have to say, for my first time dealing with nighttime issues, I’m feeling kind of proud of myself. I do a tired little dance as I head back to my room.
***
Colton heads out extra early the next morning for his weekly Monday morning staff meeting at the school, so I don’t get a chance to talk with him about Teddy, which is a bummer, but I make a mental note to review the night with him once he gets home.
When Teddy goes down for his late-morning nap, I plan to take a few minutes to set up some shelving I got at the Salvation Army for my closet and then do some more research on nighttime issues in toddlers.
But when I open my closet doors and shove my hangers all the way to the side, ready to tuck my small shelf in the corner, I find a few unfamiliar boxes that must belong to Colton.
When I peek inside, sitting right at the top is a photo of Colton, Teddy, and the woman I can only assume is his deceased wife, Melody.
There aren’t any photos of her around the house, not that I’ve seen anyway, and I don’t remember really seeing her around town at all before she passed, which makes sense if she was a super intense doctor in Santa Barbara. So my curiosity is definitely piqued at the sight of her.
Lifting it out of the box, I look at the photo more closely.
Melody looks a bit like me. Same dark hair, similar type of large smile, tiny nose. But that’s where the similarities end. Her eyes are smaller and a seductive shade of blue where mine are large and dark brown. She’s tall and willowy where I’m petite and curvy.
Teddy is adorable and probably around a year old in this picture, his big cheesy smile aimed right at the camera as he stands in between his parents. His light brown hair matches his dad’s, but he has the same blue eyes as his mom. He’s already wearing his glasses, here, and it’s just…so precious.
Then there’s Colton. It’s him who surprises me in the photo, mostly because everything about him feels like a completely different person than the man I’ve been getting to know. In this picture, he looks open, engaging, happy. And he’s looking at Melody with a massive smile, one clearly filled with love and devotion, while she’s looking at the camera, laughing.
