Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 135847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
He cleared his throat before he asked, “Do you think it’s weird that I want it just like it was before he died?”
It was my turn to be quick when I said, “No.”
“I didn’t see it after he…” I watched Hale swallow. “It’d been cleaned up by the time I saw it. It’s just him.” He shrugged. “It’s him.”
“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.
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.