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“What do they talk about?”
“Sergio asks about Wyatt’s day and then reads him a story.”When she didn’t respond, I looked to see if the call had dropped before prompting her.“Cee?”
“Do you know what book?”she asked.
“Of course.It’s one of the same three.”I listed the books for Cee.
“Candi, I’ll call you back, okay?”I could hear tears in her voice.Shit.
“Of course.”I ended the call and yelled out.“Mace?”Swinging my legs out of bed, I reached for his shirt off the floor, pulling it on.
Before I could leave the room, he appeared in the doorway to the bedroom in our hotel suite.He wore only briefs and a sideways grin as he leaned against the frame.“Miss me already, sugar?”
Our little getaway to Puerto Rico was going well until now.“I think I fucked up.”
His lustful grin turned to a look of concern as he stepped close to me and took me in his arms.“What’s wrong?”
“Cee sent me a text this morning asking me if we let Wyatt call Sergio every day.”
He scrunched up his face.“Wyatt callseveryone.It’s like he’s campaigning.”
“I know.And she’s good friends with Serge.But I’m telling you she didn’t know, and it upset her.A lot.I think she was crying when she hung up.”My hands shook.
“Really?Maybe you should tell me the entire conversation,” he said, running his hand soothingly up and down my back.I recounted the conversation, and he nodded along.“It wasn’t you.It was the books.”
I pulled back to look at him.“The books?”
“Sergio took over for Eli.”He grimaced.“Eli always read one of those books to Wyatt before bed until he died.I guess she didn’t know that Sergio was doing it.She probably thought I was reading to him at night.More likely that no one was.I don’t have the best fatherly track record.”His shoulders slumped.
“Mason, you’re a great dad.Cee thinks so, I think so, and most importantly, Wyatt thinks so.Someone else reading his bedtime story doesn’t make them better than you.”
He took a deep breath.“I just fucked up so much with that kid.”
“You also jumped in headfirst when he needed you most.He lost Eli and his mom was unavailable all at once.I doubt he even remembers anything different.”
“ButIdo.I held him twice when he was a baby.He was almost six months old before I saw him in person for the first time.”
“Exactly why we aren’t letting your dad call the shots anymore,” I pointed out.
“I’ll never get that back,” he said quietly.
“No.You won’t.But I have every confidence you’ll be a great dad from now on.Someday you’ll have other babies, and you can be there from the beginning.”
His eyes went wide.“Do you want children?”he asked cautiously.I shrugged noncommittally, even though I knew I did.“Candi, I’m serious.”
“Yes,” I whispered.What if he doesn’t?I thought about his experience with fatherhood thus far and realized he may not want to give a subsequent child the things he didn’t give Wyatt.That would be just like him.
He took my face in his hands.“Are we talking about one child or ten?”
“Definitely not ten.Way less than ten.Absolutely under a handful.”
He smiled at my nervous babbling.“One child can be a handful, you know.”
I smiled back.“You know what I mean.Less than five.One or two, maybe?”
“And you would have those children withme?”
“Of course, I would.I mean, if you want them too.”
