Page 3 of What A Croc
“Why wouldn’t they like you?” I asked cheerfully, turning my attention back to my son, while still navigating the new to us streets. “You’re very likeable.”
Aiden let out a small huff of air, his slender shoulders moving with the effort. “You have to like me,” he grumbled, “you’re my dad.”
“Is that in the parent handbook somewhere?” Teasing, I turned into the parking lot of the Little Cubs Daycare. Finding an empty spot, I put the car in park and turned off the ignition. Unbuckling my seatbelt, I turned in my seat, until I could face my son to give him my undivided attention.
He gave me a little smile, nodding his head. “Yep. It says you must like your kids.”
Tapping my chin with my finger, I hummed. “Hmmm, I must have missed that chapter. I just like you because you’re you. And you are pretty great.”
“But I don’t know nobody.”
“You don’t know anybody,” I corrected, reaching out to push a lock of his unruly sandy hair off his forehead. Levi’s hair had done the same thing, that one lone lock that always fell over his forehead, no matter how he tried to tame it.
Is it ever going to not hurt when I thinkabout him?
It will get easier,my croc advised, not for the first time,eventually.
“You know Miss Charlie,” I reminded him, thankful not for the first time, for the kindness my new boss, Brendan Sinclair, had shown us since we’d arrived in Sweet Alps. He and his husband, Ryan, had invited us over for dinner a couple of times already in the two weeks we had been here. Their little girl, Charlie, already adored Aiden. “And you know Mr. Ryan. He works here and I know Miss Charlie will be here today. So, see, that’s two people you know.”
Aiden didn’t look convinced in the slightest, his little face scrunched up, brow furrowed once again, blue eyes troubled.
“Hey,” keeping my voice quiet, I tilted his chin up, “you think I’m not nervous too? Because I am. And I only know one person at my new job. It’s a big day for both of us.”
“Grown ups don’t get nervous,” he scoffed, crossing his arms over his skinny chest.
Folding my arms over my broad chest, in a good imitation of my son, I nodded. “Grown ups do get nervous. I’m very nervous. I’m doing a brand new job, with people I’ve never met. It’s okay to be a little scared starting something new. I bet by the time I pick you up tonight you’ll have made at least two new friends.”
He wrinkled his nose, his thinking face on. “You need to make two friends today, too, daddy.”
Sticking out my hand, I said, “Deal. We both go into today with the goal of making at least two new friends.”
He placed his little hand in mine, and we shook on it. It had become our thing, shaking on things, when life had gotten a bit away from me and I had started burying myself in my work. It was a promise to him to do whatever it was I had promised him I would do. I hadn’t always been the best at keeping my promises to him, but I had vowed to do better, to be better. To be the father that Levi would have been. That he would have expected me to be.
Walking up to the glass doors of the daycare, his warm hand in mine, I predicted, “I bet you’ll make lots more than two friends today.”
He shrugged, trepidation back on his face, as I ushered him into the building and what I could only describe as controlled chaos. The sounds of children already playing filled the air, despite it not even being eight in the morning yet. I knew the center opened at six a.m. and stayed open until after eight, to accommodate as many parents’ schedules as they could reasonably manage.
Ryan had recommended Little Cubs, as he worked here part-time and acted as the assistant manager. Still, I had asked for a tour, and had been shown around personally by the owner, Wyatt Cooper-Beckett. The facility was outstanding and offered a good learning environment. Since I had felt it would be a good fit for Aiden, and would solve my immediate childcare problem, I had enrolled him.
I never imagined I would ever leave Levi’s and my marital home, or my cushy job where I was the youngest managing partner of a swanky accounting firm, to move across the country. But the walls had started closing in with too many memories, and I–we–had needed a change.
If I had stayed in that house, I knew I would never move on. I loved Levi, but he was gone, and wallowing in his memory, in the what-if’s, the should-have-been, hadn’t been healthy for me or my growing son. When I realized I was spending more time in my office than with my son, to avoid going home to the house Levi had decorated so lovingly, to wishes and dreams that would never come true, I knew I needed to make a change. For both Aiden and me.
The job in Sweet Alps had practically fallen into my lap at just the right time. A friend of a friend from college, who was a headhunter, had approached me with the opportunity. Brendan Sinclair ran his family’s upscale department store, but was wanting to scale back and spend more time at home with his mate and daughter. He was on the hunt for a CFO that he could hand the reins over to. He and his three brothers had also recently gone into business together and built the first shopping mall in Sweet Alps. On the days Brendan would be in the offices of the store, I would be in the offices of the mall.
The job came with a hefty salary, as well as several perks, and would pose some new challenges for me that I found myself eager to take on. It helped that Brendan andI had hit it off from our very first zoom meeting, an easy friendship already forming. It made it much easier to tell my family–and Levi’s–that we were moving to Northern California from Connecticut.
Glancing around the big open room of the daycare, I helped Aiden off with his light jacket, my eyes scanning all the activity. Kids of all ages played in various areas, overseen by adults. There was a craft area, an inside play area, complete with a small slide and merry-go-round, and an area that I knew from my tour was used for story time. I knew there were also some rooms kept for the smaller children and infants, and areas for napping.
Folding Aiden’s jacket over my arm, I shifted his backpack in my hand. Aiden firmly grasped my other hand, squeezing tightly as his large eyes looked around at all the kids playing and the various things to do. We hadn’t been noticed by any of the adults working yet, beyond the young woman who had been sitting behind the reception desk when we first arrived, and I wasn’t really sure what the protocol was for drop off.
One of the ladies who was overseeing the craft area noticed us and started over, a welcoming smile on her face. Movement from a doorway caught my eye, shifting my attention, and my gut clenched.
A man stood there, a beautiful little girl with dark curls perched on his hip.
He was absolutely stunning. Breathtakingly beautiful.
Brown hair, a mixture of light and dark strands, sprinkled with some strands of gray. It was stylishly cut to frame his face in a flattering way, brushed back from his forehead and showing off his features. He was slender like most omegas, standing about five foot six or seven, which meant I would tower over him at six foot two.
