Capturing Peace (Sharing You 0.50)

I suppressed a groan. “Mom. Really? Keegan has tattoos.”

“Not like that.”

“Mom!”

“Okay, okay!” She held her hands up. “We did like him. Despite the tattoos,” she threw in. “He seems like a wonderful young man. Keegan had a lot of great things to say about him when we asked him, but, I would trust his judgment on this.”

It was there, on that last bit that I realized Keegan must have told my parents his worries about Coen and his demons. Whatever they were. I could see it in my mom’s eyes. She was worried about this too, just as Keegan had been. But she didn’t understand, she didn’t know Coen. What was I saying? I barely knew Coen.

“I approve,” Keegan said as he appeared from out of nowhere.

I pointed at him. “He approves!”

“You do?” Mom asked, eyeing him warily.

“One hundred percent. I think he’d be good for them, and she’d be good for him.”

Turning, I sent him a thankful smile, and he winked at me as he opened the front door and walked out. Looking back at my mom, I saw her blink a few times before clapping her hands together once.

“Well, since I just put it all on Keegan, I guess that settles that.”

“It’ll be fine, Mom,” I said, hoping to reassure her. “You ready to go, buddy?”

Parker was studying his forearm intently, so he just nodded as he started walking toward the front door. “Mommy, do you think Coen will still have his stars?”

My eyes widened and I turned to look at my mom. “Uh, yeah, Parker. He will.”

“Because he’s old so his won’t wash away.”

“Right.”

“I’m gonna get old so mine won’t wash away, because I’m getting stars just like Coen’s.”

Mom groaned and rolled her eyes, and I tried covering my laugh with a cough, and failed miserably. Blowing her a kiss, I put my hand on Parker’s back and led him outside.

“Why don’t we wait a decade or so until we think about that, okay? Right now, let’s just go have dinner with Coen, sound good?”

“Cool!”

I smiled and followed my son to the car. The entire time I chanted to myself that this dinner was a good idea. That one day I wouldn’t regret letting my guard down for a guy like Coen and letting him into my son’s life.

Chapter Six

Coen—­September 2, 2010

“THIS IS THE coolest, ever!” Parker yelled. “Coen’s the coolest, isn’t he, Mom?”

I glanced over at Reagan and she rolled her eyes at me. “Yeah, he’s pretty cool, buddy.”

“And this one comes off because I’m not old like you?”

I barked out a laugh and kept pressing the wet paper towel down on Parker’s arm. “That’s right, bud. It’ll come off in a few days.”

I held the paper towel there for a few more seconds before removing it, and then removed the hard back for the temporary tattoo and watched as Parker’s eyes lit up.

“Cool!”

I’m positive cool was his favorite word, and the extent of expressive words at that. But I had to steal his word. This kid was pretty damn cool.