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But fuck, why didn’t I just put my shit away and avoid all this.
I did my best to focus on the tiny cracks in the paint and a cobweb that I made a mental note to dust after work, but within just a few minutes, my mind was back to feeling bad about disappointing James. He didn’t ask me to do much. In fact, I didn’t have any household responsibilities other than to clean up after myself…and I didn’t even do that.
Before I knew it, tears were streaming down my cheeks and slight sobs shook my shoulders.
The timer didn’t go off but James pulled the chair away from the corner and twisted it so I was facing where he was seated on the couch. “Why are you upset?”
“I’m sorry you’re mad at me.” A louder sob broke through. “Do you still love me?”
He pulled me off the chair and into his lap, holding me tightly as he pressed his lips to my temple. “Baby, don’t be sad. Of course I still love you. That’s why we have rules. And that’s why we have consequences. So if a rule gets broken, we can move past it quickly…” He pulled back and looked me in the eye. “And hopefully think twice about breaking it in the future.”
I wiped my cheek with my shoulder and nodded. “I won’t do it again. I promise.”
James smiled and cupped my cheek. “You might do it again. We all make mistakes. Even me. But when you do, we’ll handle it and move on. Good?”
I pulled in a shuddering breath and sighed. “Yeah, I’m good.”
“And you still love me?” He said it with a smile, but I could see the insecurity in my Daddy’s eyes. He never needed to question that.
“Always.” I pressed my lips to his and just held there for a moment. “I trust you to know what I need and to always take care of me. And I’ll never stop loving you for that.”
EPILOGUE
JAMES
We were watching an episode of Below Deck, a guilty pleasure that Max and I both enjoyed for both the fantasy aspect of imagining being on a luxury yacht for a short vacation, but also for the entertainment factor of all the drama the crew and guests managed to stir up.
When it was over, I flipped to the local news to see what the weather would be for the weekend. Max had been talking about hosting a yard sale to get rid of our duplicate home items and much of the clutter that he’d kept in his apartment, but the weather had been unpredictable lately.
If he really wanted to make it happen, I’d borrow a few canopies and we’d make it happen. But it looked like the rain would let up before then, so we were probably fine.
“No rain in the forecast for Saturday if you want to do the yard sale.”
Max had been dozing off, so he looked at the TV and nodded. “Oh, good. Let’s plan for it. I’ll post on the neighborhood site that we’ll start at eight on Saturday. Is that good?”
“It’s good for me.” I gripped his socked foot and massaged the bottom of it. “Hey, look at that.” The news had changed from the weather to a segment about breaking news.
“That’s the mini mart by the shop.” Max sat up, pulling his feet off my lap and tucking them under his body as he leaned into my side. “What’s going on there?”
“...attempted to rob a local convenience store and was apprehended by two good Samaritans.”
“Is that…” My jaw dropped, and I cranked up the volume when I saw Cayson on the screen with a microphone shoved in his face.
“I just did what anyone else would do. There were innocent people in the store.” He glanced beyond the camera and kept his gaze on someone in the distance. “That dude had no idea he was about to rob a national bodybuilding champion and an off-duty security officer. I’m just glad no one but that jerk got hurt.”
The camera cut back to the anchorwoman for a second, and I shook my head.
“That’s crazy.” I grabbed my phone to text Cayson and get the full story. “He’s a hero.”
Max just stared at the TV as he smiled. “He’ll make a good Daddy to someone. I hope he finds his boy soon.”
