Worth the Wait(30)

I watched as he made my children laugh and squeal in delight as he spent time following them from play set to play set, never once losing his patience like Lance had been so prone to doing.

About an hour later, Callie and Cam came running back over to me, out of breath and smiling a mile wide, with Brett trailing closely behind.

“Mommy, did you see how high I swinged?”

I scooped my little girl up in my lap and gave her a nuzzle, earning myself a laugh.

“I did! I was afraid you were gonna swing all the way to the moon.”

“Silly Mommy,” she giggled, kissing me on my cheek.

“I’d have missed you soooo much if you went all the way to the moon.”

I felt a shift on the bench as Brett took a seat next to me and pulled Cameron onto his lap, pulling his ball cap off and plopping it on my son’s head.

“Hey, Mom. Brett said I can wear his hat all day!”

“That’s really awesome, bub. It’s a great hat.” I smiled. “Did you tell him thank you?”

“Yu huh. He said it has magical powers. It’ll make me strong like Spiderman!”

“That’s right, bud.” Brett gave the brim a little flick. “My granddad gave it to me so I could grow up strong, and look at me now.”

Cameron stared up at Brett in wonder, awed that the magic hat could possibly make him so big. “Wow,” he breathed out.

“Yeah, my granddad was a pretty cool man.”

Cameron turned back to me and asked, “Is my granddad as cool as Brett’s, Mommy?”

I felt my smile falter at that question. I’d been dreading questions like that for the longest time, knowing I’d have to lie to them.

“Yeah,” I croaked out, trying to maintain a cheerful face as I spoke past the lump that had formed in my throat.

“How come we never seen our granddad?” Callie asked. My eyes went wide as I stuttered, trying to come up with an appropriate answer.

Thankfully, Brett seemed to be in tune with my sudden mood shift and quickly jumped on a subject change.

“Hey, guys, I’m starving. How about we go get ourselves something to eat, huh? I know Emmy’s dying to see y’all. We can head over to the diner for lunch.”

“YAY!” they cheered, hopping off our laps and jumping up and down.

We grabbed our stuff and left the park. As we walked, I looked over to catch Brett’s eye, mouthing a silent thank you to him. He smiled politely, but the expression in his eyes told me he was just as curious for an answer as my kids had been. That was a conversation I had no intention of ever having with him



All thoughts and talk of their grandfather was completely forgotten by the time we walked through the door of Virgie May’s. After eating a delicious lunch and visiting with Emmy, where she plied my kids with pie (whoever said sugar doesn’t affect a child’s energy level is a jackass), we spent the rest of the day running around, enjoying the beautiful weather.

By the time the sun started to set, Callie and Cameron were dead to the world and I was thankful to have Brett there to help me carry them up the stairs and into the apartment. He put Cameron on his bed as I laid Callie down on hers and stepped out so I could get them in their jammies and tucked in properly. Neither of them flinched as I got them set.

Stepping to the doorway, I flicked the switch off and turned to look at my two tiny angels sleeping peacefully in their beds before pulling the door to and heading back into the living room.

“Thank you.” I reached for the beer Brett offered and plopped down on the couch, sucking down a generous gulp before dropping my head back and closing my eyes. The couch dipped with Brett’s weight as he took a seat next to me, both of us sitting in companionable silence for a few minutes.

“I appreciate you coming with us today,” I spoke, breaking the peaceful quiet. I felt him shift next to me and my eyes popped open at the sensation of his fingers brushing along my cheek.

“I had fun. I always have fun when I’m with those two.”

The grin on his face as he tipped his head in the direction of the hall caused butterflies to take off in my belly. He was always so genuine when he talked about my kids.

“They really like you,” I whispered, emotion clogging my throat as I thought back to how he was with Cameron and Callie earlier in the day. I’d never seen a man connected so well with them before. Lance was always too busy or too tired to be bothered with them, but Brett had the patience of a saint. It pulled at something inside of me that I was trying so desperately to ignore.

“I really like them, too.”

I studied his face, trying to find something that indicated what he said was a lie, but I came up empty.