Page 19 of Awakening His Daddy

I was a beat cop with no college education and a six-year-old son with a wife who hated me as much as I hated her. We managed to stick it out for a few more years until Leo actually told us to get a divorce because he was tired of us fighting.

I guess I’m not really that different now.

Tammy got the house in the divorce and half my savings, so now I live in a small apartment because I don’t see the need to have anything nicer since it’s just me.

“Alright. We can have dessert and then you can get this place cleaned up,” Leo says.

“Ice cream?” Izzy asks.

“Didn’t you just have ice cream?” I tease, and Izzy blushes.

Leo looks at me but doesn’t say anything.

“You can never have enough ice cream,” Izzy says.

“Yeah, Dad.”

“I’ll get the bowls.” I start to stand.

“Sit, it’s my kitchen.” Leo jumps up, and I sit back down.

“How was your day?” Izzy asks.

“Days like this are some of the hardest. When it’s this cold, people are more likely to get sick, and we spend a good amount of time doing wellness checks.” I don’t mention the three frozen bodies we found. “The longer the winter goes on, the worse it gets.”

“Yeah, we make sure that everyone takes breaks and has hand warmers and stuff. We mostly just focus on snow removal after the holidays are done and it’s warm in the trucks.”

I nod, and Leo comes back with three bowls.

“Here you go, Iz, extra sprinkles for you. Extra hot fudge and caramel for me. And extra sprinkles and strawberry topping for you, Dad.” I glare at my son. “Fine, just plain old boring vanilla, like everything else in your life.”

He’s not wrong.

“There’s nothing wrong with vanilla.” Izzy points his spoon at Leo.

“Thank you.” I nod.

“Izzy’s not vanilla,” Leo teases, and Izzy blushes.

“Stop it.”

“What? He already knows what you want.”

“But we don’t need to talk about it.”

So we finish our ice cream in silence. Leo stretches and stands up.

“I’m going to go take a shower since I don’t have to do dishes.”

Izzy groans again.

“Come on it will be quick,” I say.

“Fine.”

Izzy waits next to me as the sink fills. I notice he’s watching the bubbles build with a smile on his face, so I scoop some up and blow them at him.

“That tickles.” He giggles as he bats them away.

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