Page 19 of Xavier

Perhaps with this trip, I could show her that I wasn’t out to get her or take our son away like she was so fearful of. All I wanted was to have some kind of relationship with him, much like she had this past decade without me in the picture.

I’d meant what I said when I’d told her about Dexter eventually spreading his wings and flying from the nest, leaving us far behind in his wake. The nature of kids was that was what eventually happened and as parents, we were supposed to come to terms with that on our own time.

Wanting to form some kind of bond with Dexter while he was still around was only natural. Especially, with him getting up there in age. He’d soon moving from needing protective parents to needing us as guides while he began his own journey through life.

“How about I have him keep you updated every few hours,” I suggested. “Sound fair?”

She was quiet for a while, eventually letting out another sigh. “Yes. That’s fine.”

“All right.” This was all going so well that I had half a mind to ask her if I was being pranked. “Anything else?”

“Just… keep him safe. Please.”

My heart softened at that. Deep down, Kate was just being a mom. Albeit, an overprotective one. But a mom, nonetheless. In her shoes, I’d be the same way. “Of course I will.”

“Thank you.” Her voice was quiet as she spoke.

“I’ll book us plane tickets and send the itinerary over to you once I’ve got it all sorted out.”

“Okay. I’ll be checking my email for it. And… Xavier?”

“Yes?”

“I hope you both have fun.”

Smiling, I said, “Thanks, Kate. I hope so, too.”

CHAPTER 9

Xavier

The followingweek came and went in the blink of an eye and soon, our trip out to Baton Rouge was upon us.

Since telling Gage the good news right after my call with Kate, he’d been blowing up my phone with all of the local hot spots and attractions to take Dexter to after our tour of the campus. I found it all incredibly endearing how supportive he was about all of this, considering we probably wouldn’t be seeing much of each other during most of the day.

I supposed it worked out in the end, considering the trip was a little on the short notice side of things and I hadn’t given him enough of a head’s up for him to be taking off time from the station. Still, he’d at least be home at a decent hour after work, which would give us plenty of down time to spend with each other after Dexter went to bed.

As much as I hated having to sneak behind my kid’s back in order to spend time with my boyfriend, I’d take what I could get.

Waking Dexter up once we landed and were all clear to de-board, I grabbed our things from the carry-on overhead and ushered him down the aisle, sticking close to him as we left the plane.

“You sleep okay?” I asked.

His answering yawn was all the information I needed to know.

Chuckling, I led us down the loading bridge, dragging my suitcase behind me while keeping his duffle slung over my shoulder.

I was glad he’d slept on the plane. Getting to the airport bright and early this morning, while not exactly a struggle, had definitely been quite the trek for my kid. According to Kate, who’d been waiting outside with him when I’d pulled up, she’d caught him up in the middle of the night on his laptop, knee deep in some research that she hadn’t been able to weasel out of him.

Fortunately, once we were safely tucked in my car and on the way to the airport, Dexter had shoved a hastily written itinerary at me with all of the sights he’d wanted to see while we were in Baton Rouge after our campus tour.

I’d gone over it on the plane, noting that most of them were ones that Gage had suggested, too. It made me happy that Dexter was looking forward to spending time with me, even if he didn’t exactly know how to say it out loud.

These small moments that he was giving me were showing me that I wasn’t the only one wanting to fix this. It was my job to, there was no question about that. Dexter meeting me halfway was nice, though.

Getting through the rest of the airport was easy enough. Since we didn’t have any bags to check before leaving on our flight, we breezed through the rest of the terminals and made our way toward the main entrance.

“So…” Dexter said as we stepped onto the escalator that led down to the main part of the airport’s lobby. “Your friend from training is picking us up… right?”

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