Page 60 of She Wolf

“Are these flowers for her?” he asks, picking the heap of peonies up off the floor.

“They are,” I tell him, and he nods, but I don’t think I’ve seen him blink yet.

I thought we had a good thing going, but now I’m starting to wonder.

“Jack are you alright?” Coralie asks, her voice shaky, obviously noticing the same thing I have.

“Yeah, Mom. Can I speak to Gunner by myself?” She looks between us, and I nod so she walks into the house and closes the door.

“Is everything okay? I’m sorry you found us like that. I just want to kiss her so much. We were literally going to tell you when I came in. If it bothers you, I’ll stop.”

He’s still got this weird look on his face, but he straightens up, squaring his shoulders, and crosses his arms. Is thisthetalk? I always thought he was a mini version of Casey but right now he’s all business and reminds me of Coralie’s other brother Scott.

“Ah. I see. Hit me with it then. I’m listening.” I take the same stance. This is a man-to-man talk after all.

“You promise to buy her flowers all the time, so she smiles?”

“I do. I’ll buy her flowers and take care of her. Of you. I’ll make sure you both smile every day.”

“If you ever make her sad, you’ll have me to deal with. We’ll both get in trouble sometimes and she might get mad, but sad?” he shakes his head. “I don’t ever want that. She’s my mom and it’s my job to protect her.”

I swear my heart swells five times its size at his words. “It is and you’re right, she probably will get mad at me.” I take a knee in front of him so I’m closer in height, “But it’s my job to protect both of you. And I will, with everything I have. I would never intentionally hurt your mom. Do you believe me?”

His stern little face cracks and a smile splits his face. “This is the best day ever!Finally!I’ve been working on this for ages.” I start laughing, no idea what he means, but he wraps his little arms around me and hugs my neck.

“You have? This is what you wanted?”

“Yeah, really loads. My best friend and my mom, are you kidding me?”

Honestly, I don’t ever think I’ve been this happy in my life. Looking at this little boy my heart feels like it’s going to burst.

“Hey, give it a few years. I’m sure if your best friend wanted to kiss your mom then you’d have something to say about it.”

“What?” he asks, eyes big and wide.

“Nothing.” I shake my head and stand back up.

“Good talk dude. Your message was loud and clear, but I respected you.”

“Thanks. I tried.”

“You did well.”

“Are you going to start staying over now? It would be so cool if you did. We could wake up and practice together. We could eat pancakes all the time. You could watch my shows with me!” He talks so fast he has to take a big gulp of air.

“I want nothing more than to do all those things with you Jack,” I say, placing my hand on his shoulder and opening the front door.

We go inside, Coralie taking us both in, searching to make sure everything is okay between us. I throw her a wink, making her blush, but she continues to tend to the laundry. Jack passes her the flowers he collected up off the floor and she stops folding to take them out of their wrapping. She fills a vase and then delicately cuts the stems and arranges them with care.

I drag my eyes from her and stare out into the garden making a mental note to hire someone to come over and keep up the maintenance. I’ll do what I can over the next couple of months, but then she’ll have to do it and she already has enough going on.

I quickly pull out my phone and send a text to Rosie asking her to speak with the team that do mine.

Jack brings me out of my thoughts with his long list of awesome things we can do. He reels them off in order of preference. I smile down at him and then track Coralie’s movement in the kitchen again, the ache in my chest finally easing, once and for all.

***

Some people wish for things and then when they get them, the novelty wears off because it’s not as shiny or as good as they pictured. It’s been five hours and so far, I’ve taught Jack a special deke move for when he’s stolen the puck, played soccer in the garden, and built more of our Lego city.

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