AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And you need him close to you,” I surmised gently.
“Yeah,” he grunted.
Finally, I walked to my guy. I got close and put my hand on his chest.
“Can we move some of the other pictures in here? Matt and Sasha. Tom. Marilyn and Robert. Frame one of Chloe and Judge’s wedding pictures. Duncan and Genny’s. A photo of Mika and Cadence with Tom. Put them on his desk.”
I barely finished my suggestion before I was in his arms and crushed to his body.
Into my hair, he said, “Dad would like that.”
Yes.
I’d never meet Corey Szabo, but I knew one thing to be true.
Yes, he would like that.
Hale wouldn’t move any of the photos that were already in the house. They’d been put where they were by his dad, so they stayed in their places, untouched.
However, within two days, Hale had made his selections from photos on his phone and ones sent to him from his family. We’d had them printed out. Then we went out to buy frames.
And it was Hale who went into the study to arrange them while I stood close.
They all sat on Corey’s desk, facing his chair.
Everyone he loved.
Who loved him in return.
Including me.
* * *
Corey
Then…
“Wake up, little guy.”
Corey watched his son turn, stretch, rub his eyes with his fists, and blink at his father through the stars illuminating his room.
“Come on,” Corey urged, helping him get out of bed.
“Wherz we goin’, Daddy?” Hale asked sleepily.
“I want to show you something.”
“Okay,” Hale mumbled.
Corey held his hand and helped him navigate his new room, the hall, the stairs, then being very careful with him, more stairs as they walked down the cliff face.
He didn’t pick him up because his boy liked to get places on his own and being carried “was for babies.” So Corey kept a firm grip while not quashing the fierce independence his son displayed from practically birth.
Oh no, Corey took pains not to do that. He wanted his son to forge his own path.
Always.
It was night. The ocean was calm, the waves soothing as they wet the shore.
