Page 26 of Single Dad Problems
“Where’s his room?”
I pointed down the hallway and immediately started trying to pick up. The trash was easy enough to get rid of, which made me question myself and why I hadn’t already gotten rid of it.The clothes I shoved to one corner of the couch and I gathered a bunch of sewing supplies in my arms and shoved it all in the basket in the corner that was already overflowing with yarn and six different types of glue.
I perched on the edge of the couch to grab as much stuff as I could off the coffee table but as soon as my eyes landed on the photo album I hadn’t been able to find lately, all my motivationpoofed right out of me. I slid off the couch to the floor and flipped open the cover page. A newborn Oliver stared back at me and I forgot everything else around me.
Those photos were all I had from the time Oliver was first born and it gutted me that I didn’t have more. From day one it’d been obvious that he was going to be smart. The way his eyes tracked seemingly everyone in the room had been intense. Everyone had said he was an old soul. Funny how by the time he was four and still so intense the comments changed from how he was an old soul into concern over why he didn’t act like the rest of the kids.
“Cupcake?”
22
Callie
I jumped and clutched the album to my chest. “Shit! You scared me half to death.”
He held my gaze and then looked at the couch. Time stood still as the two of us silently wondered if he should sit down or just go ahead and leave. I wanted him there. I knew it wasn’t right of me to ask him to stay, though, especially not when I was constantly telling them no.
He rolled his eyes and folded himself into the space next to me on the floor. His body was pressed to mine from shoulder to knee but it was so comforting that I couldn’t even pretend I wanted to move.
“That Ollie?” Cole stroked his finger over Ollie’s photographed cheek and smiled softly. “He came out that serious, huh? Noah flipped me off on day one. I still haven’t decided if it was an accident or not.”
I sighed as he flipped the page and my favorite picture of Oliver came into view. We were wrapped up after swimminglessons and despite being so small and despite how much he hated touching the water, he had the brightest smile on his face while looking up at me. I was staring back at him and I’d never considered looking at myself for flaws to hate the photo when Oliver was there, smiling at me like I’d hung the moon and stars for him.
“He was always serious and quiet. I get these moments like this one, though, and they’re that much sweeter for it.”
“He’s a good kid.” Cole stretched his arm out along the couch behind me and flipped another page. “You were just as beautiful then as you are now.”
As always when the picture of Oliver’s dad caught my gaze, my stomach sank. It was the only picture that existed of Lane Flannagan holding his son. Each time I saw it I could almost convince myself to move it, hide it, or, on the bad days, even trash it. Then I imagined the day Oliver wanted to know where he came from and kept it right where it was.
“Is that Oliver’s dad?” Cole gently took the album and put it down on the table. “You just went so stiff that I’d be flattered if you were a man.”
I let out a laugh and then dropped my head back over his arm. The roughness of his arm hair felt oddly good against my neck. “That’s his dad, my ex-husband.”
“Is there a big story there?”
“Not really. We got married before we should’ve, had a shit marriage for a few years, had a baby because that’s what couples do, and then he fell into a woman named Mandy’s vagina and left before Oliver turned one.” I turned my face to him and made a face. “It’s nothing new; a tale as old as time. I save the picture for Oliver, if he ever wants to see his dad, but I feel a flash of rage each time I see it.”
“What kind of stupid fuck would cheat on you?” Cole shook his head and glared at the album. “Does he still live around here?”
I grabbed the hand not rubbing my arm and squeezed it against my chest. “I don’t even care about the cheating anymore. Why would I? Any man who’s willing to walk away from his family is a bullet I’d always prefer to dodge. It’s him walking away from Oliver that eats me up. Someone who thought they were being helpful a few years ago told me that he has a new family now, one he’s raising. I considered hunting the piece of shit down myself until I remembered what a shit dad and sorry lay he really was.”
That brought a wide grin to Cole’s face. “He was a sorry lay, huh?”
I nudged him with my shoulder and somehow ended up with my cheek pressed against his chest and his arms wrapped around me. “Cole?”
“We’re just talking, Callie.” He kissed the top of my head and sniffed. “You smell so fucking good. It shouldn’t be allowed, not if I’m not allowed to have you.”
I slowly moved my arm across his stomach so I could hold him back. My heart felt like it was trying to beat its way out of my chest and into his. “Were the boys okay?”
“They’re fine. Is it okay that I put Noah in with Ollie?”
“Yeah, of course.”
Cole shocked me by climbing to his feet like it wouldn’t have taken me an old person grunt to do the same and picked me up. He settled us on the couch with me sitting sideways across his lap and pulled my head back to his chest. “Has there been anyone else since your ex?”
I was too busy trying to process that I was on his lap to think about my words. “Not until you three. I never had time. Bigger than that, the idea of bringing someone else into Oliver’s life who would possibly walk out on him just like his father did is nightmare fuel for me.”
“What about you, though, Callie? Have you been lonely?” The look in his eyes promised he’d keep me from being lonely if I gave him the chance. It also promised bad, bad things if I didn’t get off his lap. Bad, bad things that would be so, so good.
