Chapter 20
Twenty
“Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.” —Oscar Wilde
The following Wednesday, Max cleaned the house while Caden rested on the sofa watching Paw Patrol and working on some of the schoolwork his teacher had sent home so he wouldn’t fall behind.
Max wanted his home to be standing tall when Chloe visited for the first time so she would see a single father who had his shit together.
And thank God he worked for the family business and could be out of work while Caden needed him.
After speaking with Grayson the other day, he felt much better about sharing the news of the accident with Chloe.
“The document she signed giving up her parental rights was airtight,” Grayson had said.
“She gave full custody to you in front of multiple witnesses. Even if she’s had a come-to-Jesus since then, she’d have zero chance of taking you to court to upend the custody agreement.
It’s entirely up to you as to how much she gets to see Caden, and I have no doubt she’s gotten that same information if she’s consulted with a lawyer. ”
Max had been so reassured by Grayson’s input that he’d shared the news of Caden’s accident with Chloe by text.
Oh my God, she’d responded. I’m so glad he and his cousin are all right. You must’ve been terrified.
I was, he’d replied. I’d like to never go through that ever again.
I’m sure! Thank you for letting me know. Please tell him I hope he feels much better, and I can’t wait to see him on Wednesday.
I will, thanks.
So now it was Wednesday, and he was going to see Chloe for the first time in seven years and introduce her to their son. The whole thing was surreal, to say the least.
A knock on the door had Max putting down the mop to admit his grandfather, who’d come by every day to see Caden since he’d been home.
“How are my boys today?” Elmer asked.
“The boys are good and so is the girl,” Caden said of Daisy, who sat up with excitement when she saw Elmer come in. She’d been amazingly well behaved and gentle with Caden.
Elmer had a treat for Daisy and a bag of penny candy from the store for Caden. “Got your favorite, chocolate raisins,” Elmer said.
“Thanks, Gramps.”
“You’re welcome, buddy. How’re you feeling?”
“A lot better. Dad said I can go back to school next week.”
“Only if Dr. McKinley says it’s okay,” Max said.
“I gotta go see him tomorrow,” Caden said.
“How’s the homework coming?” Elmer asked, taking a seat next to the sofa.
“Not great, but Dad said if I get it done before dinner, I can have two scoops of ice cream for dessert.”
“That sounds like a pretty good deal to me.” Elmer ruffled his hair. “I’ll let you get to it. Time’s a-wastin’, my friend.”
“If you were really my friend, you’d do it for me,” Caden said with an impish grin.
Elmer howled with laughter. “I’m the best friend you’ll ever have, but I ain’t doing your homework.”
“Fine. Be that way.”
“Glad to see him getting his sass back,” Elmer said when he joined Max in the kitchen.
“Me, too. I never thought I’d be so happy to see him be sassy.”
“Accidents have a way of reminding you of what’s important.”
“Indeed. Have you been to see Chase today?”
“Just came from there. He’s very unhappy about the food situation, which is all liquid for the time being.”
“Poor kid.”
“Your mom is making some of the tomato soup he loves, and Cameron has the smoothie machine going full steam.”
“That’s got to be a heck of a challenge.”
“It is, but he’ll be back to fighting form in a few weeks, and then you got to get them right back on that mountain, so they won’t be afraid of it.”
“Ugh, I don’t know about that.”
“They love it the way you and Will do. You can’t let them lose that. Get them back on the horse, my friend.”
“We’ll see.” Max glanced around his grandfather to make sure Caden was occupied by the TV and the homework. “His mom is coming today.”
“I might’ve heard something about that. How you feeling about it?”
“Oddly fine.”
Elmer nodded. “Because she doesn’t mean anything to you anymore, except as the person who gave you the greatest gift of your life.”
“That she did, and I’ll always be thankful to her for him.”
“If you can stay in that mindset around her, it’ll all be fine.”
“That’s the goal. Thanks for coming by, Gramps.” Max hugged the older man. “We look forward to seeing you every day.”
“Glad to see our boy bouncing back quickly. I’m too old for a scare like the one he and his cousin gave us.”
“Me, too,” Max said, smiling.
“Damned kids.”
“Right?”
“Caden, I’ll see you tomorrow. Be good for your dad.”
“I always am.”
“Love you, buddy.”
“Love you, too.”
Max waved Elmer off from the front door and then went to see how Caden was making out with the homework.
“I think he might be my favorite person in the whole wide world,” Caden said. “After you, of course.”
“It’s okay if he’s first. He’s first on a lot of people’s lists of favorites.”
Max was thankful his grandfather had lived long enough that Caden would remember him, not that he wanted to think about a time when Elmer wasn’t right in the middle of everything in their lives.
He spent more than an hour helping Caden finish his homework and then made turkey sandwiches for lunch.
“What time is my mom coming?” Caden asked.
“Three.”
“What time is it now?”
“One. How many hours until three?”
Caden gave him a withering look. “Duh. Two. That’s baby math.”
“Just making sure you’re staying sharp while you’re out of school.”
“It was cool that the whole class sent me a card and those sick cookies.”
“It was very nice of them. They miss you.”
“I know.”
Several of his friends had called to check on him, which had made Caden so happy. “You’ll be back there soon.”
“Hey, Dad?”
“What’s up?”
“What if my mom doesn’t like me?”
Max was flabbergasted by the question. “Caden, buddy… Of course she’ll like you. Everyone likes you.”
“But what if she doesn’t?”
“You don’t need to worry about that. She’s going to be so happy to see you that she’ll probably cry.”
“You think so?”
“I’ll be surprised if she doesn’t. I would if I hadn’t seen you since you were a baby.”
“Tell me again where she’s been all this time.”
“Do you remember us talking about where babies come from?” Max had given him the highest-level view he possibly could after Caden had seen two sheep humping in a neighbor’s yard.
“Ew, yes, disgusting.”
“Sometimes when people make babies, the babies aren’t planned.”
“Like I wasn’t, right?” That had come up when a friend’s mother had a surprise pregnancy and he’d asked how that was possible.
“Right. The second we knew we were having you, I was so excited to meet you. Your mom was scared. Her family wasn’t around like mine is, so she didn’t have a lot of support. She was still really young and didn’t feel ready to take care of a baby.”
“Weren’t you really young, too?”
“I was, but I had my wonderful parents and great big family supporting me the whole way. Your mom didn’t have that.”
“Why not?”
“I’m not sure, buddy, but they weren’t close like the Abbotts are.”
“That’s sad.”
“It is. We’re very lucky to have such a wonderful family.”
“What’s she like? My mom?”
“Well, I haven’t seen her in a long time, but when we were in college, she was sweet and funny and pretty.” That was until she became pregnant unexpectedly, and then she’d changed dramatically, not that Caden needed to know that.
“What should I call her?”
“Why don’t we ask what she prefers?”
“Okay.”
Max leaned in to hug his son. “Don’t worry about anything. She’ll be thrilled to see you, and she’ll love you like everyone else does.”
“She’s not going to try to take me away from you, is she?”
Shocked, Max pulled back. “What? No. Why would you think that?”
“I heard you talking to Grammy about it in the car the other day.”
“You were asleep.”
“I could hear you.”
“I’m sorry you heard that, but I talked to Grayson, and he said there’s no chance of anything happening to change our current situation.” Max was furious with himself for talking about that when Caden was nearby. "I hope you haven’t been worried about that.”
“Not really. I knew you wouldn’t let that happen.”
“I’d never let that happen, so don’t worry. She may want to see you occasionally, which is fine, but she can’t take you away from me. And I don’t think she’d ever try to because she knows that’s not what’s best for you.”
“Okay.”
“Can we talk about something else?”
“Sure.”
“My friend Lexi…”
“Your girlfriend, you mean?”
Max smiled. “Yeah, my girlfriend.”
“What about her?”
“I want you to do something for me. Something really important.”
“What?”
“I want you to give her a chance before you decide you don’t like her just because you think she’s going to change things between us or something like that.
” Max felt it was important to continue this conversation since she’d be living near them before much longer.
“You should know by now that nothing and no one could ever change things between us. We’re always going to be best friends and buddies, no matter what. ”
Caden appeared to give that some thought. “Is she coming here?”
“She’s moving back to Butler after Christmas. Having her in my life again makes me happy, but I can’t truly be happy if you’re not. So it would mean a lot to me if you would give her a chance.”
“I will.”
“Really? You promise?”
He nodded. “You do a lot to make me happy, so I guess it’s only fair that I do the same for you.”
“Thank you. I promise you that nothing between us will change if we see your mom once in a while or if Lexi is in our lives. You’ll just have more people who love you, which is always a good thing.” Max caressed his son’s soft hair. “No one will ever love you as much as I do.”
Caden smiled. “I love you, too.”
“Why don’t you go get cleaned up? Your mom will be here in a little bit.”
“I can’t believe I’m going to meet my mom.”