Page 37 of Finding You

Dallas gave in and reached for him again, giving him a careful pat on the arm before pulling away. “I don’t know if it gets easier. Adele’s son is in high school, and sometimes, he gets drunk and cries himself to sleep on my couch. But I like to think that we’re doing the best we can, and at some point, we stop losing so much sleep.”

Kylen nodded, then smiled. His top teeth poked over his bottom lip, and fuck, Dallas wanted to kiss him. “So. Boyfriends who met on a plane?”

Dallas chuckled and shrugged. “Not the weirdest meet-cute, right?”

Kylen wrinkled his nose. “No, but don’t call it that in front of my sister. She’ll definitely know I’m lying then.”

Dallas clapped his hands three times, the signal for the kids to put away their free-time activities and get ready for reading. He’d taken some flak from the other kinder teachers for starting the kids on Lemony Snicket so young, but they were riveted, and he felt good in his choices.

He hadn’t wanted to stick to the status quo. He wanted to push the kids a little further, teach them that he thought they were capable tiny humans where so many people tended to dismiss them as babies. He’d seen a lot of parents treating their kids as accessories and pets instead of cognizant, growing, future adults, and he hated it.

It was one of the motivating factors for him getting into teaching, and he could only hope that one day when Audra was old enough, she’d have someone who believed in her.

“Mr. Reed?”

Dallas glanced down at Flora, who was chewing on the collar of her shirt. He reached down and carefully plucked it from between her teeth. “What’s up, kiddo?”

“Are you…if you…” She fidgeted, struggling with her words.

“Take your time,” he said, dropping to a knee.

“If you could like chicken nuggets?”

“Do I like chicken nuggets?” he offered.

She nodded. “But Daddy said you could come eat dinner at my house with Auntie. And I said…I said I like to have chicken nuggets, but Auntie said no.”

He closed his eyes and breathed out. Fuck, this could get complicated. “I do like chicken nuggets. I like the dinosaur ones.”

Her eyes brightened. “I love…I have some dinosaurs! In my room. And some shirts. And my shoelaces!” She threw herself at him, and he wrapped his arms around her before easing her away. “Could you bring some dinosaur chicken nuggets?”

“Let me talk to your dad, okay? But tell your auntie I’m okay with the food that makes you happy.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Eating makes me scared sometimes.”

He’d noticed her anxiety around her lunches and snacks. Sometimes she went the whole day without having anything, and he was starting to wonder if he should suggest she get tested to see if there was something going on. He hadn’t been teaching long, but he’d been there long enough to have seen several kids on different spectrums.

And it was hard to tell the parents because most of the time they wanted to believe their kid would grow out of it. It was worse now because of the situation he was in with Flora’s dad. Would Kylen take it well? Or would he get angry?

It was just one more complication to add to his ever-growing list.

“Let’s go read,” he told Flora. “Go put your colors away.”

She skipped off, and he walked to his desk, grabbing the book before settling in his beanbag chair. The kids all got their cushions, and he cleared his throat once they were settled, and he searched for his reading voice before he began.

“My kid told me you wanted dinosaur chicken nuggets for dinner.”

Dallas choked on his iced coffee, and he heard Kylen burst into laughter on the other end of the phone. “Okay, I did not ask for dinosaur chicken nuggets. I said I’d be willing to eat them.”

“Look, I’m not knocking your choice,” Kylen said, still chuckling. Dallas could hear the sounds of the supermarket in the background. “I go to town on those things. Especially after long shifts of airplane food.”

“They don’t give the pilots something better?” Dallas asked, horrified.

Kylen snorted. “If you’re nice enough, the flight attendants squirrel things away for you, but usually, I have to grab airport food, and it’s not much better. I still get nauseous every time I see the Chili’s sign.”

Dallas kicked his legs up onto his coffee table and wriggled his toes. It had been a very long day, and he’d hit the gym right after he got out of work, so he was sore all over, though he’d been able to run out some of his frustrations, which was a help. He was missing his daughter and starting to feel defeated in how long it was taking to get help for his situation.

“You okay?”

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