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“Can we swing?” Cooper asks with a bubbly bounce to his feet, and I turn, thinking he’s asking me. Instead, he’s dragging True away, grinning like a mad child.
There’s a pinch in my chest I have to shove aside, swallowing down the pain and locking it up in its box.
Seeing my son running carefree and full of life with a woman makes something inside me… ache. His mother should be here.
I shake that thought from my head when I think of Tiffany. Fuck her, and the man she rode off with. Cooper deserves better, clearly.
I watch as the woman with unnaturally reddish pink hair pushes my squealing son on the swing. She looks almost as happy as he does.
“Look, True, my car has wings just like you!” Coop shouts, making True smile. Brightly. Warmly.
Fuck. Better call my idiot best friend and brother. They need to know True is off-limits.
Later that night, after I get Cooper in bed, I open a beer and drop onto the couch between my brother and my best friend of 20 years.
“Her name is True. Neither of you is to touch her. Ever,” I tell them sternly. “Think of Coop. How devastated he’ll be to lose his new fairy friend.” I roll my eyes, but honestly, it warms my heart to see him happy. I don’t care if he thinks she’s the queen of the fairies.
I turn my head, staring Bellamy down. “I’m specifically talking to you. She’s young and full of energy. She was great with Coop. You guys should have heard some of the freaks calling me to apply. True is a miracle. Don’t fuck it up,” I accuse, pointing my beer at him, and he smirks.
“Don’t worry. I’ll keep my hands to myself. But uh, who’s going to tell you not to scare her off?” Bellamy lifts his brow, and I glare.
“How would I scare her off?” I huff, and he scoffs. His words nag at the back of my mind, because I know he’s right.
“Well, let's see, you scared off Rachel. Made her cry, in fact.”
“She was trying to fuck me. She cared more about getting laid than taking care of my son!” I snap, and Bell chuckles.
“If you say so, man,” he snorts. “Then there was Annette. I thought you were going to murder her, and I’d have to hide the body.”
I shoot him a scathing look. “She tried to teach Cooper how to separate pills for her fucked up druggy shit she was doing on the side! If she hadn’t run out of here before I could call the cops, I would have. She’s serving ten years in prison right now, I might add.”
Bellamy holds his hands up in surrender. “Okay, fair. I’ll give you that one, although you're the one that hired her. Hmm, what about Sandra? She was a sweet old lady.”
“She was also forgetting Cooper at school and fell asleep on the couch every day instead of watching him,” I say flatly.
“I’ll just stay away,” my brother Clay interrupts, and I nod. He’s not a heartbreaker like my best friend, but he does fall in love like snow falls from the sky in the winter. Often, and excessively.
“That’s for the best. She moves in tomorrow. Behave, will you two?”
My mind flashes to True and how much fun Coop had with her today. I sip my beer and say a silent prayer that she lasts. Not for my sake. For Cooper.
I don’t want any more people leaving him.
It’s unrealistic to think True will be with us for more than a couple of years, but maybe by then, Cooper will be stronger.
Although I’m thirty-four, I still feel weak and lost most days.
4
True
“Can we go play in my room now?!” Cooper shouts, as he barges into the room Milo just informed me is mine for the time being.
“She doesn’t start till Monday, Coop. She gets the weekends off,” Milo says, but Cooper is six. Not only does he not understand, but he also couldn’t care less. He just wants to play.
I shrug my shoulders and smile. “I’ve got nothing else to do.” I turn to Cooper. “Why don’t you give me a tour and show me all your favorite things? Let's start with some food. I’m starving!”
“Chocolate chip waffles with strawberries!” Cooper announces, and I see Milo flinch.
