I felt Calla’s eyes on the side of my face, studying me incredulously. I bit down on the inside of my lip to hide the smile that her attention brought out. With her sweet little face pitched in a fit, she looked so much like her daughter in the beginning throes of a tantrum that I almost wanted to laugh. “I’m not here for a donation today, Miss Blanchet. We’re here to add me to Axel Latour’s list of approved guardians for pickup.” I lifted my hand up, displaying where I held Calla’s hand clutched tightly in my own.
“No, we’re just here to pick him up today,” Calla inserted with a white face. “You’ll have to excuse him, Hulk here is a little overly enthusiastic, but I will continue to pick Axel up every day.”
“Sunshine,” I murmured, turning her face toward me. “I thought we talked about this.”
She ignored me, pressing on with Miss Blanchet like I hadn’t spoken. “Is Axel ready? I still have to pick up my daughter.” The shrewd other woman narrowed her eyes on her, judgment all over her face. I’d known, from a distance, that they judged Calla for being herself and not striving harder for perfection or trying harder to find another man to marry her. But they frowned upon the fact that she had another man lined up a year after her husband’s death too.
I fucking hated women like that. Who spent more time tearing each other down, no matter what the other did. Calla would be damned if she did and damned if she didn’t.
I wanted to make it better, but I also knew that all the times the Principal had made it obvious she’d be available to me would not help Calla’s case.
Fuck.
The Principal called Axel’s class on her phone and a few minutes later Axel made his way toward us with his face pinched in concern when he saw me holding his mother’s hand. Calla tightened her hand in mine, giving me a wordless plea not to scare him. Not to hurt her boy.
She’d realize soon enough that I’d die before I let anything happen to him. I might not have had someone to protect me when I was a boy, but that only gave me a stronger sense of conviction that children deserved to be protected at all costs.
Nobody would touch Axel or Ines.
Over my dead body.
Having him walk toward me for the first time, I realized just how much his face looked like mine. He had my mannerisms, my facial expressions somehow.
As if he’d seen me lurking in the shadows for the past four years and absorbed them into his own person. Like his father had never existed, and there had only ever been Calla and I.
“Hi, baby,” Calla murmured, reaching her free hand out to stroke his hair back from his face. My heart melted into a giant puddle of goop. Watching the way he stared up at his mother with complete adoration, even when he was confused, I
couldn’t help the sense of familiarity I felt.
That was how I felt every time I looked at Calla, so I understood the look.
“Mommy?” he asked, glancing at her hand and then up to me with those dark blue eyes. He swallowed visibly, and I forced myself to clear my throat and smile at him even if I felt like I might explode with everything circling in my chest.
Being a father had been all I’d ever wanted once upon a time, and it had taken years for me to find my way back to being ready for that again. Loving people came with risks, and I knew Calla related to that better than most.
“Let’s go outside, Buddy,” I suggested, and Calla forced a smile down at her son as she took his hand and we went out the doors. I tried to ignore the Principal staring after us like there was an unfortunate gossip mill brewing in her head already. I’d deal with her later, because at that moment I had much more important things to do.
Like explain the new reality to my son and go get my daughter from the grandfather who would undoubtedly have some thoughts.
As soon as we were out the front gates to the school, Axel glanced over at me nervously, but we made it to the Maserati before he opened his mouth. “Who’s that, Mommy?”
I bent down in front of him, dropping Calla’s hand for the moment for me to focus all my attention on my boy. “My name is Ryker, and I knew your father,” I said, and Axel’s eyes widened for a moment before he nodded with a sniffle. I wasn’t above using the things I knew Axel said, the things he wished for in his darkest moments to worm my way into their lives. “I know you wished your mom had someone who could look out for her the way she looks after you and Ines. I know it isn’t exactly the same, but I will look after all of you now.”
Axel looked up at me with wide eyes. “Did my Dad send you? I asked him if he could send a hero to look after my Mommy. It isn’t fair that she doesn’t have someone to protect her from bad guys. What if someone tries to hurt her like they did my Dad?” he asked, and I heard Calla whimper beside me. I knew it killed her to think of what would happen to the kids if something ever happened to her. That it ate her up at night to think she might be torn from their lives the same way their father had been, and still felt his absence, even if he had been a piece of shit.
“I don’t know if he sent me or not, Axe,” I said. “But I know that I care about your Mommy a lot, and I want to take care of her. I’ll need your help though. You think we can handle her and your sister between the two of us?”
He nodded with a smile. “I’m good at taking care of Ines,” he said happily. I knew at his age, I’d have been relieved to have someone looking out for me, but I also would have loved to know I still had a very important role in my family.
At least I suspected I would have, if mine hadn’t been complete shit.
“Should we go pick her up? And then I have a surprise for the two of you.” Axel nodded, a smile tugging at his lips before he looked to Calla.
“Can we have the surprise, Mommy?” he asked.
“Sure, Cookie Monster,” she murmured back with a brief smile. Even though she tapped her foot repeatedly like she wanted to kick me in the balls, she didn’t protest when I opened the back door of the Maserati and watched Axel buckle himself into his car seat before I checked to make sure everything was secure. Calla watched us like a hawk, narrowing her eyes on me when she realized I’d strapped him in properly.
I wouldn’t tell her I’d practiced with a doll a few dozen times first.