Page 51 of The Light to My Darkness (The Light to My Darkness 1)

James sighed and climbed back into bed.

I opened up the door. Axel was standing there with a worn puppy dog stuffed animal in his hand. He looked up at me with his big blue eyes.

"Aunt Penny?" He looked so sad. But at least he wasn't crying.

"Axel, sweetie, what's wrong?" I crouched down in front of him.

"I miss my mommy."

"I know. But you'll see her tomorrow morning right after you wake up." I pushed his hair away from his forehead. "How about we go back downstairs and I'll tuck you in again?"

"I want to say goodnight to my mommy."

"Sweetie, it's..." I looked over my shoulder at the alarm clock. "It's past 3 o'clock in the morning. Your parents are asleep."

His lip started to quiver and he began blinking faster. A single tear ran down his cheek.

"You know what?" I tapped the tip of his nose. "We can try to call them. How about that?"

He nodded furiously.

"I'll be right back, James," I said. I ignored his groan. He could wait five minutes. He hadn't seen Axel's face. If he had, he'd be doing the same thing as me. I stood up, grabbed Axel's hand that wasn't carrying his stuffed animal, and led him back out into the hall. When we reached the stairs he stopped and tugged on the bottom of my nightgown.

I looked down at him. He made the same grabbing motion Scarlett did when she wanted to be picked up. I wondered if he had learned it from her. "Okay, sweetie." I lifted him up and balanced him on my hip as I walked down the stairs. He was significantly heavier than Scarlett. He wasn't that much taller than her, but the kid was pretty solid. I grabbed my phone out of my purse and walked through the living room. Scarlett and Sophie were still sleeping peacefully. I made my way down the hall and opened up the door to my office.

"Here we go," I said and tried to set him on the floor.

"No," he said and wrapped his arms around my neck.

"Okay, I've got you." I kicked the door closed with my foot and made my way over to my desk chair so I could at least distribute some of his weight. I sat down with a sigh and clicked on Hailey's name in my phone. I didn't think anyone would answer. And now I was worried it

was the wrong move. What if them not answering freaked Axel out. I pushed his blonde hair off his forehead again, the way Hailey always did for him. Hopefully the action would be soothing.

"Penny!" Tyler said. There was music blaring in the background. "What's up?"

"Tyler, hey. I thought you guys would be asleep."

"Nope. I had no idea how much Mason liked to party. I'm not sure we're going to get any sleep tonight."

"Is that Penny?" I heard Rob say in the background. "What is the beautiful goddess doing up in the middle of the night? Is James not pleasing you?"

God. I pressed Axel's head to my chest and put my hand over his other ear. It didn't even sound like Rob was near the phone. Which meant he was screaming those words in whatever club he was in. "Tyler, can I talk to Hailey? Axel's having trouble sleeping. He needs to hear her voice."

"Put him on. I'll talk to him."

I took my hand off Axel's ear and put the phone on speaker. "Here's your daddy."

Axel looked down at the phone. "Daddy?"

"Hey, Axel. Having trouble sleeping? Do you have Bert with you? You know that whenever you have Bert with you you're not alone."

Axel hugged his stuffed animal to his chest and leaned toward the phone. "Daddy, I want Mommy," Axel said into the receiver.

Tyler laughed. "Okay. Give me one second to get her." Loud music blared through the phone as Tyler went to find her. "Hails, Penny's on the phone..."

"Why is she calling you in the middle of the night?" I heard Hailey say on the other end, cutting off Tyler's words.

"She's calling you. You gave me your phone because you didn't want to bring a purse. Axel needs you."

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