Only One Forever (Only One 8)

“If you want me to,” I reply, cleaning up the mess and putting it in the bag. “But I’m better at tag.”

“What’s that?” he asks, and I clap my hands together in glee.

“Tag is when one person is it, and they have to catch the other person,” I explain to him. “When you touch the other person, they are it.”

“Can we play?” he asks me, and I just look over at Dylan.

“I’ll be it,” Dylan says, getting up after cleaning up his garbage. “But just because you’re little doesn’t mean that I’m not going to catch you.”

“Okay.” The way he says it, I can hear a lightness in his voice. His brown eyes are lighting up just a touch, I can’t help but smile at him

Once I have all the stuff out of the way, I stand. “You ready?” I ask Maddox, who nods his head.

“Okay, I’m going to count to three,” Dylan says, grabbing the leash from me, and stands there with Mac beside him, and my eyes open as I look down at Maddox.

“Run,” I say as we run in opposite directions. Dylan counts to three and then comes running to me with Mac by his side, barking the whole time, no doubt to show Maddox how to play. I run away from him, and then he follows me in a circle. Mac runs to me, jumping on me at the same time Dylan touches my back shoulder. I can’t help but laugh.

“You’re it,” Dylan huffs out. I squeal when his hand touches my shoulder, and I turn around to chase him back, but he ducks and runs to the side.

I stop and look at both of them. Mac stands beside me, waiting for me to move. Maddox looks at me, and then he runs toward Dylan. Mac takes off before me, running back to Dylan barking and jumping. “I’m going to get you,” I say to him, and he runs behind Dylan and then takes off. I chase him in a circle, and I wish I was saying that I was giving him a break, but I wasn’t. The kid is really fast. I reach out my hand to touch him, and he escapes by ducking to the right. “Dammit!” I yell, and there in the middle of the park, something happens that neither Dylan nor I could have ever expected. Maddox throws his head back and full-on belly laughs, the sound making my feet stop. My eyes fixate on his smile that lights up his whole face. “I’m going to catch you,” I warn, and he just runs faster. It’s so carefree that anyone looking at him would think he’s just another little boy, but what they don’t know is the hell that this child is living. Mac runs alongside Maddox, never leaving his side, not even coming to Dylan or me.

“Don’t let her catch you,” Dylan says as he runs past me, and I stick out my hand, touching him.

“You’re it,” I say, running away from him as fast as I can, but he grabs me around the waist, and Maddox isn’t the only one laughing. Mac jumps up and licks Maddox’s face, making him laugh even harder.

“Not so fast,” he says into my neck as he kisses me. All I can do is laugh as his hand tightens around me.

“You’re it again,” Maddox says, running past us with Mac jumping and trying to lick him again.

“I’m going to get you,” I threaten, escaping from Dylan’s grasp. I chase him for a good minute and finally touch him. He smiles when I tell him he’s it and then turns around and heads for Dylan.

I don’t know how long we play tag for, but when we stop, Maddox’s face is flushed pink, and he finishes off a whole bottle of water. His chest is heaving when he stops drinking, and he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. I’m busy making sure Mac is drinking when he says the words that make me want to do this every single day. “That was fun,” he says, drinking again.

“If you want, you can go and play on the playground before we head back to the rink,” Dylan says, drinking his own bottle of water.

I see Maddox look over at the playground. “I never played in the park,” he says. “We went a couple of times, but it was to sleep.”

My heart stops in my chest, and my eyes fly to Dylan, who just motions with his head not to make a big deal out of it. “But then the police came and kicked us out.”

“Well, we can go play now,” I say, making it a point to change the memories he has of being in the park to something happier. He follows me toward the playground. “Do you want to try the monkey bars?” I point at the bars that no one is on. “It’s fun.”