Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Justin
Hearing him scream and then cry stopped my heart literally.
I thought my heart was not beating while I ran to him standing there in the middle of my dark hallway, looking panicked and scared.
He tried to wipe the tears off his face before I got to him, but the minute I held open my arms, he jumped into them.
Wrapping his arms around me, he buried his face in my neck, trying not to cry.
“I dreamed that you left me,” he says, “and I couldn’t find Mom. ”
I hold him to me tightly, whispering, “Never.” I look up at Caroline who is now coming out of the room wearing the shirt I was just wearing. “We would never leave you,” I say. Holding on to him, I feel Caroline beside me.
“What happened?” she whispers, and I look at her, expecting him to jump into her arms, but he doesn’t. I kiss his shoulder and walk with him to the couch, sitting down with him on my lap.
Caroline comes over and sits next to me, and a few seconds later, he is snoring softly on my shoulder. “You can put him down,” she says, rubbing his cheek softly.
“Not yet,” I say, making sure I hold him tighter. “I bet it was that fucking movie.” I look over at her and see she is trying not to laugh. “Or waking in the fort where it’s so dark.”
“I think it’s just a bad dream,” she says.
“Whatever. He’s not going to sleep in that room,” I say, getting up and walking to the bedroom she slept in the night before.
She walks ahead of me and pulls down the covers, and I place him gently down and wait for him to wake up, but he just turns to the side, and Caroline covers him.
“Let’s leave the hall light on in case he wakes up again. ”
“He’s going to be fine,” Caroline says, walking to the other side of the bed and pulling down the covers. “I’ll be right here.”
“Um, no, you won’t.” I put my hand on my hip. “You’ll be sleeping,” I say, “but in that bed.” I point in the direction of my room.
“What?” she says, and I put my finger to my lips.
“Let’s talk about this in bed so we don’t wake him,” I say. Walking to where she is, I take her hand and pull her with me out of the room. After looking over my shoulder ten times, I leave the door open just a bit and turn the light on in the hallway.
“Justin,” she whispers, and I stop by the fridge to grab a bottle of water. “Can we talk?”
“Yes,” I say. Walking into my bedroom, I turn off the light and then walk to the bed. I remove the top cover and just about push her onto it, then go to the other side and get in. Pulling her to me, I wrap myself around her. “Now we can talk.”
“Justin,” she says, turning in my arms, and I lean in and kiss her lips. “You can’t …” God, her kisses are everything. I go back in again for another kiss. My cock gets harder than it was before, and let me tell you, it was fucking rock solid.
“I’m not going to win this,” she says breathlessly between kisses, and she hikes her leg over my hip. If we weren’t wearing any clothes, I would slip inside her.
“Good night, sweetheart,” I say, and she just cuddles closer to me, putting one hand between us and wrapping the other one over me.
She leans up and kisses the underside of my jaw. “Good night, Justin,” she says softly, and with her in my arms, I fall asleep. I don’t think I move all night.
“Justin.” I hear my name whispered, and open one eye first, seeing it’s Dylan. “I’m hungry. Can I have cereal?”
“Yeah, buddy,” I say and then turn back to gather Caroline in my arms. “Go ahead. I’m getting up in a second, and I’ll make pancakes,” I say, and he hops and skips out of the room.
“Why didn’t you just get up?” Caroline says from beside me.
“Because he would have seen my morning wood, and that isn’t a conversation I want to have with him right now,” I say and kiss the top of her head. She looks up at me, her eyes still heavy with sleep. “Did you sleep well, sweetheart?” I ask, and she nods.
I turn over, and she slips out of my arms. I walk to the bathroom, and when I come back, she’s already gone from bed.
When I join them in the kitchen, she already has the coffee going.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” I hear her ask him, and he just nods while he fills his mouth with a spoonful of cereal.
“You okay, buddy?” I say, going to him and rubbing his hair, and he nods.
“What do you want for breakfast?” Caroline asks, and I look at her.
“Mom, are we going to church?” he asks, and she looks at me.
“Would you mind if we went?” she asks, and I shake my head. “I just don’t have anything for Dylan to wear, so maybe we can stop at Walmart before.”
“Yeah,” I say. “We can do that.”
“Perfect.” She smiles at me and fills two cups of coffee. Going to the fridge, she then looks at me. “You really did buy all the milk.”
“I didn’t know which one you drank, so it was a safe bet to get them all,” I say and sit next to Dylan, grabbing the box of cereal and popping some into my mouth.
“We have all the milk that they have in the store.” He shrugs. “It’s like we are the store.”
“We have thirty minutes before we have to leave,” she says, and I nod at her. “Dylan, you need to shower,” she groans. “And so do I.”
“Use my bathroom,” I say, and she just looks at me. “Pick your battles, sweetheart.”
She takes her cup of coffee, stopping at Dylan’s stool first and kissing him and then coming to mine. “I have a feeling every battle I pick I’ll lose.”
“You’re learning,” I say and lean forward to kiss her lips, tasting the sweetness of her hazelnut creamer.
“Thirty minutes, people.” She walks away from us, and I give Dylan a couple more minutes until I push him to go take a shower.
“Put your stuff from yesterday on, and you’ll change in the car when we stop at the store,” I say, taking the last sip of my coffee.
When he goes to the bathroom to take a shower, I walk into my room.
The bed is already made, and the shower has just turned off.
She walks out of the bathroom dressed in last night’s clothes with a towel around her head and the coffee cup in her hand.
“I’m going to take a shower.” I kiss her, and she smiles at me.
I don’t know how long I take in the shower, but when I come out, my bedroom door is closed, and I don’t hear any noise.
I walk to my walk-in closet and put on a pair of boxers, grabbing a pair of blue pants, my brown belt, and a white button-down.
I tuck in my shirt and slip on my brown dress shoes.
I walk out of the room and roll up my sleeve, finding Caroline in the kitchen wearing her green dress.
Her hair is dry now, and the ends are curled.
“Hey,” I say, and she looks over, but her mouth opens.
“Is this okay?” I ask, looking down at my outfit. “I can always change.”
“You …” she starts to say and then closes her mouth again. “You.” She points. “You’re hot.”
I throw my head back and laugh. “Thank you,” I say, folding the other sleeve. “I think.”
“Like wow,” she says, and I shake my head.
I look around the kitchen and the living room and see that Dylan isn’t here.
“Listen, I was thinking that after church we could swing by your place and you can go up and grab clothes for you two,” I say, and her face goes white as though she’s seen a ghost. “What’s wrong?
” Then I walk to her. “If it’s too much for you, I can go up. ”
“No,” she says almost like she’s shouting, and she walks to the sink, grabs a glass, and drinks some water.
She turns to look at me. “There is something I didn’t tell you.
” Just the way she says it makes my heart sink.
“I was going to, but it was just too much.” She looks at me. “There are no clothes.”
“Go on.” I don’t trust myself to say much more.
“All the clothes were slashed and destroyed. I think I have one shirt left that I had in the laundry basket,” she says, playing with her hands again, and I want to shake something.
“Tomorrow, I’m going to hit up the thrift shop and even the church shop and get us some things to hold us over.
” Her voice goes soft. “I’m going to take care of it.
” Her eyes fill with tears, and I don’t want her to cry.
I don’t want her to shed another fucking tear for the rest of her life.
“Mom, I’m ready,” Dylan says, but her eyes never leave mine. “Mom?” he calls her again. “Are we leaving?”
“Yeah,” she says, grabbing her purse. “It’s okay if you don’t feel up to it.”
“Justin, you aren’t coming?” he asks.
“Of course, I’m coming,” I say and then look down to see him wearing the same stuff he wore for two days. “We have to stop and get you some clothes.” I grab my phone and my keys. “Let’s go.”
“Justin,” she says my name softly.
“I hate this for you,” I say softly. “Hate it.”
She shrugs. “It’s just another speed bump in the road.
” I look at her and wonder what road she is on because there are craters in her road, and I suddenly want to pave them all.
I grab her hand in mine and bring it to my lips when we walk out of the apartment.
The elevator comes right away, and the three of us ride it to the garage.
“We can take the BMW today,” I say, and she looks at me, smirking.
“You know it’s Sunday,” she jokes, and I put my arm around her. “Sunday is for BMW and church.”
“That mouth is going to get you into a lot of trouble,” I whisper into her ear. When we get to the car, I unlock the doors, and Dylan climbs in. I kiss her lips. “Big trouble.”
“Yeah,” she says, getting into the car, and I get into the car also. “Will I end up in the penalty box?” she asks.
“You only go to the box when you do something bad, Mom,” Dylan says, and I wink at her before putting on my sunglasses.
“Where to?” I ask, and she looks at me.
“The closest Walmart,” she says, and I nod at her and punch it in the GPS. We get there, and she gets out of the car and opens the back door for Dylan.
“Are you coming with us?” Dylan asks, and I look at him.
“No, buddy, I have to make a phone call,” I say. He jumps out of the car, and they walk into the busy Walmart.
I pick up my phone and dial the one person I know who can help me. “Well, well, well.” She answers on the first ring.
“Hey,” I say, looking to make sure they haven’t come out. “I need a favor.”
“It’s going to cost you,” she says, and my eyes never leave the glass door.
“Whatever it is,” I say and put my plan into motion.