Page 69 of The Fix
“Great. We picked it up to celebrate our matching DNA, and we have plenty. Cyrus is watching a show, but will you come join me?”
Chapter Forty-One
Gosh, Cami was happy to see him. When her phone had dinged with the notification that someone was at her door, she’d been practically giddy when she’d opened the app to see Rex standing there.
How could you miss someone you’d only really known for a week? And yet, she did. If she’d had any doubt, the bounce of her heart left no question.
She’d considered calling and inviting him over to have dinner with them, but then thought better of it. She’d already dragged him into so much. Rex probably wanted to get back to his life. He was in town to settle his grandfather’s estate, a task that she’d taken him from. And now he was behind schedule and having to make up for lost time. Because of her.
There was also the matter of her growing attraction. She had some inkling that he was attracted to her, too, but she also understood his misgivings. She understood why he’d want to pass on taking their relationship even one step further.
As for her, she was trying to convince herself it was a bad idea as well. He was leaving town soon, and she had a whole lot on her plate right now. The convincing, however, was falling short.
She liked him. She’d missed him. And she respected the hell out of Rex Lowe.
“Cyrus is watching a show in the bedroom,” she said. She lowered her voice. “We spent some time at my dad’s, and he’s been quiet since.He ate a little bit and then curled up on my bed.” She was slightly worried. Since she’d met him, Cyrus had been present and even upbeat despite all he’d experienced. But she also wasn’t completely surprised by his sudden reticence. A part of her had been waiting for it. A kid could only handle so much, and she hoped that if he was withdrawing, it was because he finally felt safe enough to begin to process.
She really hoped she was right because that would mean he felt secure with her, and that feeling of security had been compounded because of Rex, and then spending time with her dad and Gigi, not to mention the police car outside the window.
Rex’s gaze moved over her face, and his brow drew inward as though he’d seen her worry. “Can I say hi?” He held up a book she hadn’t noticed in his hand. “I actually have something for him.”
“Yeah, sure, of course. He’ll be happy to see you.”
Rex followed her the short distance to her bedroom door, and she peeked in before opening it all the way. Cyrus was still sitting propped up on her pillows, Boots snuggled next to him. Her boy’s eyes were trained on the television on her dresser, but his expression remained disinterested and far away.
“Hey, buddy,” Rex said as they both entered the room.
Cyrus looked up, and Cami saw the first flicker of interest and what looked like happiness at Rex’s presence. Cyrus trusted him, that was clear.
Rex raised the paperback and handed it to Cyrus, and the little boy scooted higher, eyes widening. “The Art of War,” he whispered, taking the copy of the book the man in the park had first given him. The man who’d stepped into the gap after Cyrus had found himself grieving and alone. She wondered if that man even knew how vital his kindness had been to a lost little boy. It made her want to cry.
Rex sat down on the side of the bed, and Boots stretched and then relaxed back into the blanket. “Yeah. I’ve read it about a hundred times. And it’s gone lots of places with me. All over the world actually.”
Cyrus looked up. “To war?”
“Well, I’ve never been to war, not like your dad. But I’ve been near war zones, yeah.”
Cyrus nodded slowly and then held the book against his chest. “Thank you.”
They continued to talk for a few minutes, their voices fading as Cami simply watched them together, her heart expanding by the moment so that she felt like it might burst. And she had this sudden vision of Rex Lowe’s face that long-ago day in the grocery store where he worked, the one she’d traveled miles out of her way to so that she wouldn’t run into anyone she knew. She’d been about to give birth to Cyrus, and the way Rex had looked at her ... the raw compassion she’d seen in his face, the honesty of it? It’d slayed her, even if she’d been confused and traumatized. She’d known, deep in her bones, that if she’d asked him to hold her in that moment, that he would have jumped over the counter to do so. At the time, it’d compounded her emotional turmoil, and so she’d quickly left and then she’d sat in her car and cried. But later ... just weeks later, looking into the earnest eyes of the man in the adoption agency’s folder, she’d seen that same sincere kindness, and she’d chosen him and his wife to love her child because of it.
And very suddenly, she had no ill feelings toward the woman at the adoption agency she’d worked with, the one who had apparently withheld information that might have disqualified Gray Sanders. She didn’t feel duped or misled because it hadn’t been disclosed to her that the man she’d chosen had struggled. She’d looked in his eyes and she’d picked him intuitively and she’d pickedright. Her son’s sweetness and bravery and intelligence were living proof of that.
Rex stood, and Cyrus relaxed back against the pillow, snuggling closer to Boots, a small smile gracing his lips as he opened the book. Cami managed to lead Rex from the room, even though she felt a bit dizzy, like she’d just been catapulted through time and found herself on unsteady feet in her bedroom, where her eleven-year-old son and that shy boy behind the grocery store counter with goodness shining from his eyes were inexplicably sitting on her bed.
She gestured to Rex to follow her into the kitchen, where the rest of the sushi was, her bearings returning as they walked. She and Cyrus had gone a little crazy with the volume of food, but Cyrus had looked so delighted about pulling boats of rolls from the river that encircled the sushi counter at her favorite restaurant, and so she’d let him choose far more than they could eat in one sitting. “It seems like he’s decompressing,” Rex said. “That’s normal. And positive.”
“Thanks for saying that. Yes, I think so too. He needs it. He’s been on guard in one way or another for a long time.” Even before that room with the bars, from what it sounded like, he’d been the only one watching out for himself in the three years since his parents died and he went into foster care.
“Kids are resilient. He’s got your genes, and he was raised by good people. He’s going to be fine. He’s going to be better than fine.”
His words brought relief. She trusted him too. She believed to her core that he wouldn’t say anything unless he fully believed it.
She sat down and then handed him a paper plate and a pair of chopsticks. She inclined her chin toward the phone on the side of the table that was all set up and charging. “I bought him a cell phone so I could always reach him or vice versa. I figured that would help him feel as safe as possible no matter where he is. Then I scheduled an in-home visit from a social worker today and put a call in to a child therapist too. After that, I visited the school in my district and picked up paperwork. It’s all”—she shook her head as he put a few rolls on his plate—“it’s a lot.”
“One thing at a time,” he said.
“Yeah. Hey, do you want a beer?”
