AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He led Hale out in the sand then turned him to look up at their new house.
“See that?” he asked, still holding Hale’s hand and using his other to point up at the house.
Hale tipped his head way back and blinked at the big house on the cliff.
“Our new houz?”
“Our new house.” Corey crouched, pulling Hale to his side with an arm around his little body. “And one day, a long time from today, it’s going be yours. I’m going to leave it to you.”
He knew he messed that up because Hale’s little head jerked to face him and he asked with alarm, “Where you goin’, Daddy?”
“Nowhere, son. Nowhere. Never,” Corey assured hurriedly. “I’ll always be there for you. I just want you to know,”—he pointed up again—“that’s yours. All I have is yours. All I do is for you. You’re going to live here a very long time, Hale, and you’re going to do it safe and happy.”
Hale looked confused, but said, “Okay.”
Okay.
Safe.
And happy.
Safe.
That was what he’d give his son.
Safe.
Corey allowed himself to lean in and kiss his son’s head then muttered, “You’ll get it one day.”
“Can weez go swimmin’?” Hale asked.
“Tomorrow, when the sun is out. That’s why I got this house on the beach for us. So you can go play in the ocean whenever you want.”
Hale grinned a big grin.
“You want to sit and listen to the waves for a while?” Corey asked.
“Yeah!”
Suddenly, Corey was overcome with crippling worry, because now his son seemed excited, and if he was overexcited, he wouldn’t get back to sleep. And kids needed their sleep. He’d read a lot of books on this subject, and that was in all of them.
He was kicking himself—and vowing not to do foolish things like this ever again—when his son, sitting in his lap, within a few minutes, fell fast asleep tucked to his father’s chest.
Corey sat for a bit, listening to the waves, holding his boy in the warmth of his arms, before he carefully got to his feet and kept him close as he walked up the steps, into the house, and then, finally, he tucked his son back in his bed among the stars.
* * *
Hale
Now…
“Wake up, baby.”
Hale watched as she turned, stretched, ran a hand over her eyes, and then blinked at him through the moonlight.
“Come on,” he urged, guiding her out of the bed.
“Hale, it’s two in the morning, where are we going?” she asked.
