Page 70 of The Broken Beginning: Part One

“Okay,” I relented. He was right. I had to put my pride aside, if for no other reason than I would never allow my son to get hurt just because I was being stubborn. “It doesn’t mean anything as far as we’re concerned though. It just means I’m conceding to taking the help that’s offered.”

“It’s a start.”

The man was infuriating, and yet I couldn’t hide the smile on my face. How many days and nights had I prayed that he would finally take things seriously? Now, here we were, and it looked like he was doing just that. My stomach bubbled again, and I backed slowly away from the kitchen to the sound of the knowing chuckles Merc let out.

“Go wake our boy and get him straight before dinner. I’ll take care of this in the meantime, so you don’t have to smell it.”

I turned and went to do just that, making Deck help me put all the blankets from their fort back on his bed or in the closet where they belonged.

“Daddy builded me a fort. It was so cool. We watched Turtles and he taught me how to pow-pow-punch da baddies.” Declan attempted to show me exactly how to do that, including a kick to the air that landed him on his butt. His cheeks reddened in embarrassment as he picked himself back up.

“That was some amazing fighting, baby. Sometimes, the baddies knock you down and you know what you do when that happens?”

“What?”

“You get right back up and show ‘em you’re made of tougher stuff!”

“Yeah!” He fist-pumped the air. “Tough stuff,” he mimicked. “Wook at these muscles!” My boy flexed his scrawny little arm at me, so I humored him and used my thumb and forefinger to wrap around his bicep and pretended to not be able to squeeze him there.

“Wow! Those are some manly muscles. You keep eating all your food and one day, you’ll be great big and strong.”

“Yeah, like my dad and boff my pops.”

I smiled at Deck and turned to see Merc standing there with a look of such awe on his face that I wished the camera I still had in my pocket had just one more photo available on it.

“You good?”

“Meat’s done cooking and seasoned. Figured it was okay for you to come back in now.”

“We’ll be there in just a minute.”

He tapped the edge of the wall and then turned to walk away. There were moments where I thought maybe if Merc had been around more, just the presence of his son in his life would have changed things. The kid had superpowers already, whether he realized it or not. His soul was a balm to everyone around him simply because he loved life and the people who lived in his world.

Then again, I never wanted to put that kind of pressure on my son, not even unknowingly. If nothing else came from this time Merc was trying to “make up for the past”, I hoped that at least it solidified a greater bond between father and son.

Merc ate dinner with us, cleaned up all the mess, and then helped Declan get his bath before tucking him into bed.

“Can you be here all the nights, Daddy?”

Well shit.

“I don’t know, buddy. Daddy has to work sometimes and,” it was obvious he was stumbling over what to say. “How about I’ll try to be here as much as I can.”

“Okay. I love you.”

“Love you too, Deck. Now, get some sleep.”

I stayed right where I was, in the hallway, when Merc came out of our son’s bedroom. “That mural I painted in there, kind of fits in with his Lion King obsession now. Think it might need some retouches, but if you’re going to move, I can just redo it in whatever house you end up picking.”

“What?”

“What-what?”

“The mural you did?”

“Yeah, for the nursery,” he said as he hitched a thumb back toward our son’s room.

“I never knew you painted that.”

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