Page 28 of Summer With You

“Mom, please, I’m a grown man. Let me do my own plate.” He snatched his plate back from his mom, who only frowned at him.

“I just want to take care of you, Ryan. Don’t be so rude.”

“Yeah, well, it’s my turn to take care of you, and I’d love one of those cookies I saw in the kitchen.” He grinned like a little boy at the mention of the chocolate chip cookies his mom had just finished making when we arrived. The whole house smelled like them.

“Just one—the rest are for my grandkids. You can have one, too, Ace.” She smiled at me, always acting like the mother I never had.

“Thank you,” I said, accepting the cookie from her. “I really must be going. I’m going to wake up early and get the shutters up at our house. I want to get to Celine early tomorrow. I’m worried about the storm.”

“Oh, you should be. It just intensified to a category two and looks like it might hit us at a four. That’s pretty severe for Orlando,” Rick speaks up, looking at his phone through a pair of reading glasses that slide down his nose.

“Do you think the house can withstand that, Dad?” Ryan asks, munching nosily on the cookie, but I’m frozen in fear. I’d left Celine and our kids at a time that I really needed to be with them.

She was right—work had come before them.

I need to get back to my family. Celine needed me, and this time, it’s not just Celine relying on me to keep us alive, but our kids, too.

Fear crawls down my throat. I felt vomit rising, but I swallowed it down. Being a parent was no easy feat. It was terrifying enough to have only Celine’s life in my hands, but now we had two little ones and one on the way.

I had two lives depending on me that worshipped the ground I walked on, who called me ‘Daddy’. I was their hero.

I needed to get home to my family. They were counting on me and I wasn’t going to let them down.

I’m on my way, Princess. Just hang in there for me.

---