Page 5 of The Greatest Gift

I try not to laugh at my little girl as she butchers his name. “No. Nah-kuhl.”

“I’ll try later.” Then she plops her head onto her pillow and starts pretend snoring, her signal for me to leave.

“Goodnight, sweetheart.” I flick off the light and blow her a kiss, Stevie making audible sounds as she catches it and chews on it. She’s my little ball of joy especially in moments like this that make it worth it to keep going.

Closing her door, I head back into the kitchen, surprised at the scene before me. Nakul has cleaned up most of the kitchen, stacking the dishes and wiping down the counter. He stands there awkwardly, his hands still holding a dishrag, giving me a small smile as I approach.

“Thanks,” I say, awkwardly rubbing the back of my neck. “I would have done all of that.”

He shrugs, setting the dishrag down. “I don’t mind. Besides, I’m glad we got to meet up. It was… nice.” He moves toward the door, clearly getting ready to leave and I nod, trying to find the words to express my gratitude, my awkwardness, everything all at once.

But before I can say anything, Stevie is running back into the living room. “I forgot! Goodbye!” She zooms past me before I can catch her, running straight into Nakul’s leg, and wrapping her arms around what she can reach.

Nakul freezes and then leans down to softly pat her head. “Goodbye, Stevie.”

“I hope you come again,” she whispers, looking up at him with her wide, trusting eyes. My face heats, my embarrassment growing as she turns to me and adds, “Daddy, can the guy with the nice eyes come again?”

Nakul’s gaze shifts to me, his own cheeks reddening as he stares at me, clearly caught off guard by Stevie’s words. He opens his mouth as if to say something, but then he simply nods. “I’d love to come by again,” he murmurs, glancing from Stevie back to me.

“Thank you,” I manage, feeling my heart beat faster, my thoughts a mess of conflicting emotions. Nakul gives me one last nod, his expression lingering with something I can’t quite place and then he slips out the door, leaving me standing there, my head spinning.

As I watch him leave, something shifts inside me, a sense of something new, something I haven’t felt in a long time. I close the door, my mind still reeling from the awkwardness of it all but as I turn back to Stevie, she’s grinning up at me, her eyes bright with mischief.

“Okay, bedtime now,” She tells me. She rarely leaves her room after I put her to bed and I haven’t ever seen her attached to someone. Stevie reaches up for my hand, gingerly trying to drag me down the hallway.

She’s right about two things. It is absolutely bedtime.

And Nakuldoeshave kind eyes.

Nakul

The whole drive back to my motel, my mind is on Judd.

It doesn’t make any sense and I know it. Judd’s a man, a man four years older than me, with a life I can’t imagine fitting into. But I keep replaying the way his face flushed when he caught me looking at him or how gentle he was with Stevie.

The way he looked at her with so much love and patience—it was like he’d carved out this world just for her, keeping it safe and warm even if he was barely holding himself together. I can’t stop thinking about it, about him.

I’ve never thought about a man this way before and I’m not even sure what this way is. I just know that when Judd offered me dinner, when he invited me into his space, his home, I felt something shift. There was something pure, something real in that moment, something I haven’t felt in a long time.

Something that wasn’t even present when I was with Ava.

It’s confusing, though. My whole life, I’ve had an image of what I wanted—family, stability, maybe even a kid or two. Judd has all of that, and maybe part of me is just drawn to what he has because I know I can’t. There was a time, not too long ago, when I thought I had everything figured out.

I was ready to start a family with Ava, planning a future with her that seemed solid and real. She filled my head with ideas, dreams that we were both moving toward the same thing. I thought she wanted it, too. And then, suddenly, I found out that it was all an illusion—she wasn’t who I thought she was and those dreams were hers only as long as they suited her.

Maybe that’s what I see in Judd.

He’s got the life I wanted—the family, the love, even if it’s just with his daughter—and it’s something he’s built himself. The more I think about it, the more I realize how easy it is to picture myself in his world. Judd has created something beautiful, something simple and strong, and I’m just… on the outside, looking in.

I wasn’t even raised with a big family. I was the only child of a couple who put all their hopes into me, always calling me their “golden boy.” Everyone expected big things from me in high school. Maybe that’s why I worked so hard to be one of the top athletes, to win all the awards and scholarships. But that all came crashing down the moment I got injured. I didn’t go to the big city; I stayed local, tried to find my way in construction. And since then, it’s been failure after failure.

I’ve made a living, but nothing like I’d planned.

Nothing like I’d hoped.

But maybe that’s why I feel this pull to help Judd, to be around him. Seeing him with Stevie, seeing how much he loves her—it makes me want to protect that, to make sure they never have to struggle.

I don’t know where that instinct comes from, but I know I’ve felt it before… with Ava, when I thought she was the one. I was wrong about her, but with Judd, the feeling is somehow different, deeper, like it’s tied to who I am, not just some relationship I thought I wanted.

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