Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
Chase
I grunt, loud and a bit overexaggerated, as I go to pin Deaton to the ground.
The kid’s tougher than his little three-year-old self looks, his arms surprisingly strong as he tries his damnedest to lock me into a cradle, a wrestling move Mase taught him.
His limbs are too short to even get it half-right, but he understands what he’s supposed to do, so when his left arm slips behind my knee, his right coming up, trying to stretch around the back, I bend myself to make it easier on him, making him think he’s got me good.
“Pinned!” he shouts as he unfolds and throws himself down on my chest.
This time my grunt is real, and he grins like he won the Super Bowl, his little palms patting my chest. I chuckle, letting my head fall back to catch my breath. The kid’s got endless energy and serious competitiveness. Just like his dad.
Suddenly, I feel him wiggle and he jumps up, that grin of his stretching as he looks over at the doorway.
“Paige!” he yells with excitement, turning straight for her with his arms outstretched, his legs moving faster than I would have thought possible.
“Hey, handsome.” Paige smiles, her voice warm and playful as she puts her hands out, scooping him up and hugging him to her chest.
Something tugs somewhere in my own and I frown, pushing up from my spot on the floor.
She looks over at me then. “What are you grinning at?” she teases, kissing Deaton’s temple and lowering him to his feet.
“Was I grinning?” I try to play it cool, but let it deepen now. “I was just thinking how you didn’t really have to bend much to pick him up. He’s already about half your size and he’s still a toddler.”
Her mouth drops open, a cute, little laugh escaping, and my own follows.
I can’t help but notice the playful glint in her eyes, the one I think I saw earlier—it’s definitely there now.
“What are you doing here, anyway?” she asks. “Couldn’t wait for the ‘next time’?”
“I mean, I thought I made that kind of obvious.” The words leave me before I even think them, and I look away, clearing my throat.
It shouldn’t feel so natural, so…refreshing, to tease her.
Right?
I turn back, and she lifts a blond brow, a small curve at the edge of her mouth.
Right, she asked a question. “Mase asked me to hang out with my guy here, teach him some moves.” I rub Deaton’s head when he presses his back to my legs, looking up at Paige the way I’m looking down at her. “Ain’t that right, D?”
“No! My dad taught me. He said I can be a wrestler one day when I’m big if I want to.”
Paige and I both chuckle.
“Yeah, Payton asked me, but I can go if…” She watches me closely, but she makes no move for the door.
“Wait, Paige. Stay. What did you bring?” D moves toward the bag, peeking inside without touching it. “Are we making Pop-Tarts again? I love those blue kinds we made last time.”
Paige smiles, a small blush creeping over her cheeks when she meets my questioning gaze. “I might be cheating and buying his love with baked goods.”
I laugh, now curious what it is she brought, so I reach for the bag and she bites her cheek as she passes it over, letting me look inside.
Marshmallows and Fruity Pebbles.
She laughs at my expression. “Fruity Pebble marshmallow treats, the perfect disguise for a breakfast bar.”
“Nice.”
“And M&M’s!” Deaton bounces up and down as Paige reaches in, pulling out a mason jar half-full of little chocolates. “Me and Uncle Chaser are going to the park. Can you come, too?”
“What do you think?” She tucks her hair behind her ear, peeking up at me.
“I think,” I begin, stepping a little closer. “That if the boy wants you to come, you definitely should.”
Jesus. Am I flirting right now? Is that really what I’m doing and in front of my nephew?
Thankfully, the moment is overtaken by Deaton when he throws his arms up in a little victory dance and sets the candy down, running for the door. The second he gets it open, he runs back and grabs the jar, waving for us to follow his lead.
So that’s exactly what we do.
Paige and I walk side by side, a little behind Deaton, who is excited to lead the way, proud he remembers how to get here from their apartment.
The second it comes into view, he breaks into a run. Holding his little jar of candies tightly, he rushes for the swings, folding his belly over the thick rubber seat and kicking off with his feet.
“Uncle Chaser, push me! Push me and Paige!”
Paige grins and lowers herself into the swing beside him as he turns around, and I help him up into the seat, having to pry his candy from his hand, but I don’t put it far, setting it in the sand right against the pole.
I give them both a little push and Paige does her best to try to teach Deaton how to kick his legs, but he can’t quite figure out the motion yet, his little tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth as he tries.
It’s kinda nice, just hanging out here, with nothing else going on. Oddly my mind is quiet right now, which isn’t something I’m used to lately.
Paige glances over her shoulder, meeting my gaze with a small smile, and for a second, I just look at her.
Man, she’s really, really pretty.
Jesus that sounds like such a dumb word to say. Pretty.
She is more than pretty and you know it…
A hint of color starts to crawl up her neck, and I fight the smirk that wants to take over. She’s too easy.
This feels too easy.
“A butterfly!” Deaton shouts suddenly, wiggling in the swing and jumping out before I can stop him, falling to his hands and knees, but he doesn’t seem to care. He starts to run off but not before grabbing his candy. “I’m going to get him!”
Paige laughs, her own swing coming to a stop as she looks up at me, a bit of shyness to her that wasn’t there a moment ago. “Think he’ll catch it?”
“Honestly, yeah.” I laugh, moving to follow as he gets a little farther away, and I can hear her doing the same behind me.
Deaton stops close to a row of flowers that leads back toward campus and drops onto his butt. He hears me coming and looks over his shoulder, putting a finger to his lips, telling me to shush, but there’s no sort of quietness to his tone as he does, and I have to hold back a laugh.
A low sigh leaves her, and I can sense the heaviness to it, my eyes flicking toward her briefly in question.
The smile she gives is a little sad, and I know I read her tone right, especially when she starts sharing.
“My dad used to bring me out to this park by our house. It was kind of like this, but it was surrounded by this big walking path that had a garden on both sides and around this time of year is when we’d start to see all the butterflies coming out.
We used to chase them around just like this,” she says softly, a mixture of fondness and…
maybe longing? “Well, I used to chase them and he used to follow. So yeah, I guess pretty much just like this.”
We share a quiet laugh.
“That sounds nice.” I think of my own childhood, how it was my dad, too, who was the one to take me to the park when I wanted to go. To practices and games. Movies and birthday parties.
Always Dad.
How did I not see my childhood for what it was before? I think absentmindedly, but shake it off when she continues, not wanting to drown in my own shit when I have something else I’d rather distract myself with.
Someone else.
“He’d tell me that catching a butterfly would be my first tough choice in life. Keep what I want for the benefit of myself, or let it go for the benefit of it.” She trails off, her voice so light that I can’t help but look at her.
There’s this serene expression on her face, like she’s living in that memory with her dad right here and now.
But then a little smirk takes over and she peeks up at me.
“Rude, right?” she tries to soften the moment.
“How dare he try and make me set free what I fought so hard for. Sometimes it took hours to catch just one.” She laughs, but I see the importance of it in her eyes.
Still, I play along, because somehow I know she needs me to. “So. Rude.”
She giggles, facing forward. That same soft sigh follows as we stop a few feet back from Deaton, watching as he tries to creep up on his target.
“You ever go back to that park?” I can’t help but ask, tension in my damn chest as I wonder if I’ll ever be able to go home and still feel like it is home.
She pushes her hair over her shoulder, smiling at Deaton. “Did you know I took a year off after my freshman year here?”
A small scowl forms, and I shake my head. “I knew you were closer to Noah’s age, but I guess I never thought about that.”
“Yeah.” She nods. “I should have graduated last year, technically, but after my dad died, I left school for a while and, to answer your question, yeah. I went back to that park. I’d go and just sit out there for hours watching the butterflies.
One day, one dropped down on my knee, then my arm, then my shoulder.
This old man walked by and smiled and said, ‘Someone is trying to tell you they love you,’ and he just kept on walking his dog, having no idea I started breaking down the second he turned away.
” She pauses, and I shift on my feet, unsure if I should reach out and, I don’t know, hold her?
I feel compelled to do it, but I’m not sure she’d want me to, so I just stand there and wait.
“I just thought, ‘Wow, that was random,’ but it hit home, and the next day, it happened again, and then again, and I just picked up my phone and started reading all about butterflies.” She smiles up at me then.
“In Greek mythology, the butterfly represents the soul’s journey.
It’s about transformation and becoming. And in other cultures, it’s seen as the ultimate symbol of freedom, the path you choose to take. Well, according to Google anyway.”
My lips twitch, and I drop down on the grass, Paige following suit.
She swallows, glancing over at the butterfly Deaton is tracking as he sneaks candy as if we can’t see him.
“And about a week later was when I finally sucked it up and met with my dad’s lawyers to go over the will, and there was a letter in there to me.
At the bottom he had written, A butterfly’s flight is eternal, carried by the winds of choice.
Freedom is the soul’s journey, where love transcends time and space.
No matter the distance, no matter the lifetime.
Love, like a butterfly, always finds its way home. ”
My lungs expand. “That’s…”
She just nods, offering me a small smile. “Yeah. It is.”
I watch her as she watches Deaton.
He takes the lid off his candy and pours the last few pieces onto the grass in front of him, and slowly moving forward, he manages to set the jar right over the butterfly.
“I did it! I got it!” He claps his hands, standing up and giving a couple jumps before dropping right down to his knees again, this time lying flat on his belly, propped on his elbows, his chin in his hands as he smiles at the little monarch.
The butterfly flaps its wings, bouncing all through the jar as it tries to find an opening to get free before settling back on the grass.
Paige smiles at Deaton, reaching out to run her fingers through his curls. “Good job, buddy.”
He beams, sitting back and tugging the pack of Goldfish from my pocket, eating the crackers as he just watches the monarch with a smile.
My eyes move back to Paige, and after a little while, I lower onto my side, propping up on an elbow so I can be more eye level with D.
“You know,” I begin, snagging one of his Goldfish and popping it into my mouth, “I bet this little guy has friends and a family at home somewhere.”
Deaton frowns at the little jar, and after a second, he shakes his head. “No, I think he just flew all around.”
“Maybe he does, but I bet he goes home at night.”
His frown deepens, and he starts to shake his head again, so I pull out the big guns.
“I bet he gets so excited to go home and see his mama at bedtime.”
Paige shakes her head knowingly, and I give her a subtle wink because the moment it leaves my mouth, Deaton starts chewing on his lip.
It doesn’t take long after that for him to pull the jar up and the monarch breaks free the second it can, but shockingly, it doesn’t go far. It circles back.
It circles me, then settles on the grass about a yard from Paige’s pinkie.
She grins down at it and then Deaton jumps up.
“Let’s go make some treats!” He tugs on her hand.
So that’s exactly what we do.
It might be the most refreshing day I’ve had all year.