Page 52 of My Song for You
“I don’t know. Hailey told me I should give him time to get to know me first. Spend time doing father-and-son activities with him.”
“That makes sense.” I could hug her for that. “So he won’t be moving in with you yet?”
“No. But if you’re okay with it, I thought I’d hang out at your apartment in the evenings. We can do things together…and I can still read to him before he goes to bed.”
So we’ll be like a family?I kept that to myself. I still didn’t know how I factored into this—and I was afraid to ask. “I’m sure Logan will like that.”
“Plus I have years of child support to make up for. I’ll talk to my lawyer and the bank and have it dealt with.”
I nodded, even though it wasn’t his money I longed for.
While the tension between us didn’t completely vanish, it did lessen. He didn’t trust me after what my sister had done to him, and I was waiting for him to rip away the only family I had left. But for Logan’s sake, we had to at least try. So much was at stake—and not just my heart.
Logan was yawning when we stepped into the backyard. “It looks like Rocky wore him out,” I said, grinning.
“I think it went both ways,” Nolan said, referring to the puppy lying on his side, fighting to keep his eyes open.
Jared scooped Logan up. The four-year-old rested his head against his father’s shoulder and his eyelids began to droop. The sight of them this way was enough to melt my insides in a good way, despite the tension that lingered.
“Logan,” I said, “what do you say to Hailey and Nolan for letting you visit Rocky?”
He signed “thank you” and murmured something that could have been the same.
“You’re welcome,” Hailey said.
Jared drove us home and carried his sleeping son upstairs to my apartment. “Do we wake him so he can eat dinner first?”
“We could try. Otherwise he might wake up in the middle of the night hungry.” Or wake up way earlier than I wished to get up tomorrow morning. I’d already learned that lesson the hard way.
He lowered Logan onto the couch while I went into the kitchen and made a grilled cheese sandwich and cut apple wedges. Logan was half awake, watching TV with Jared, when I returned with his meal. As painful as it was knowing that one day this scene would no longer be part of my life, I couldn’t stop the smile that snuck onto my lips at how adorable they looked together. I still had no idea how Jared had figured out he was Logan’s father, but if he had seen himself next to his son, he never would’ve doubted it for a second.
I placed Logan’s food and milk on the table. “Dinner.”
Jared carried him to the table, causing the four-year-old to giggle. I returned to the kitchen to cook dinner for myself and Jared. By the time the food was ready, Logan had finished his meal and was in the bathroom with Jared, getting ready for bed.
I joined them for a bedtime story, with Logan sandwiched between us on the bed.
“I never knew you were so talented,” I said, referring to his funny animal voices.
“I’m a man with many talents.” He winked at me. For some reason, my face heated at this and he chuckled.
He read Logan two more books, signing the animal names he’d learned. By the end of the second book, Logan’s eyelids were beginning to droop shut again. I helped him with his implant and signed “good night” before kissing him and tucking him into bed.
Jared did the same. If someone were to peer into the window and watch us, they would’ve mistakenly thought we were a happy family. For a moment, I wished perception and reality were the same. But I had long ago learned that wishing was for dreamers, and my days of dreaming were long over.
I returned to the kitchen and dished out the spaghetti and meatballs. I set the plates on the dining room table, along with two sodas. “Do you want to stay and watch a movie?”
“You okay with that? You don’t have to study or anything?”
Yes, I did have to study, but I wanted to hang out with Jared even more. I wasn’t ready for him to leave just yet. “No, I’m fine to watch a movie.”
Once Jared and I finished our meal, we picked up our drinks and sat on the couch. It felt natural, like when Jared had helped put Logan to bed.
I sat next to him, my legs curled to the side, but careful to keep several inches between us—even though I craved to curl up against him and rest my head on his shoulder.
Jared searched for a movie to watch on TV. “How about this?” he asked.
I read the movie’s blurb. “You want to watch a horror movie?”
