Page 24 of The Locksmith's Promise

Mentally shrugging off a well-deserved dismissal, I sat back down on the couch, Maggie’s couch in Maggie’s home, and my son,my son,settled on the other end and released his dog.

Jeff bounced over to me, not a single doubt in her furry mind about her welcome. I rubbed her soft belly, fighting the fear it was all a cruel dream.

Because I was here with Maggie, our son, and a dog named Jeff.

Surrounded by innocuous beige walls and the barest of bones of décor.

In Moose Lake, a place I wasn’t sure I’d ever step foot in again.

I’d entered another dimension.

Eyes wide and curious on my face, he stated, “My best friend is Mikey.”

I raised my eyebrows. “That’s pretty funny seeing as his dad, Miller, is my best friend.”

Wracking my brain for something, anything, to get him talking, I landed on the obvious. “Are you and Mikey in the same class at school?”

Of course they are. Moose Lake isn’t that fucking big.

Despite the stupidity of my question, it unlocked a goldmine of information.

He and Mikey were in the same class, and his new school was tiny compared to his old one.

They used to rent a house with a big backyard, but they didn’t know anybody in their neighbourhood. Not like here.

In his old school, he got stuck in the advanced reading program, but now he got to read the same books as the rest of the kids.

He loved cinnamon buns with cream cheese icing, but Mikey liked his glazed.

I watched, fascinated, as he rambled away.

The stubborn tilt of his chin and the way his lips curved up on one side before breaking into a smile was just like Maggie’s.

The rest was all me.

His lanky limbs and sandy hair.

The smattering of freckles over the bridge of his nose.

His eyes, the exact same shade of brown as mine.

And it hit me in that moment just how fucking small he was.

How small I had been.

Frozen in disbelief, staring down at the scuffed toes of my running shoes as my mother drove away.

The fury on my father’s face when he came home to find me crying, the sting of his slap across my face.

And then I saw Corwin.

A picture of him standing in front of the mirror beside me, copying my motions as I teach him to shave.

Talking to him before his first date, making sure he knew how to treat a girl.

Taking him to buy new school clothes.

Showing him how to knot a tie.

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