Chapter Thirteen

Kent

My daddy was coming home. I hadn’t realized how much I was going to miss him when he left. I mean, I should’ve known—we’d been spending a lot of time together—but he was still fairly new in my life. It wasn’t even like he’d been gone for long.

It wasn’t like I didn’t have work or other things to keep me occupied, either. I was busy. But still…every day, when I walked out of the house and saw his place, knowing he wasn’t there, it hit hard. Daddy wasn’t here. He wasn’t even close by.

Sure, we got to FaceTime and text, and that was great. We’d a lot of wonderful conversations, as well as some fun ones, but I was ready to see his face, to feel his embrace, and just to exist in the same space as him. I needed him to come home.

After work, I stopped at the grocery store and picked up ingredients for a shrimp dish that was supposed to be fast, easy, and delicious—at least according to the internet. I grabbed everything I needed, happy with my plan.

It turned out to be not fast—not easy—not delicious. Somehow, I managed to turn it into an inedible disaster. I’d have made something new, but time wasn’t on my side. Daddy came home just as I discovered how wretched it was. The scent should’ve given it away, but I’d tried to be optimistic. I didn’t even manage to swallow the bite I took. It was that horrible.

So, when there was a knock on the door, letting me know he was here, what did I do? What any normal boy would do, of course. I opened the door with tears streaming down my cheeks.

“Oh, sweet boy, what’s wrong?” He set down a gift bag and pulled me into his arms. “Tell me what I can do.”

“I ruined it!” I sobbed, sniffling as I fought back the tears. “I wanted to make you a special dinner, but the recipe lied. The internet lied!”

His warm chuckle tickled my ear. “The internet always lies. You should know that.”

He cupped my cheeks, tilting my head back so he could meet my eyes. “If you’re worried about dinner, don’t be. Because, right now, the only thing I’m hungry for is you.”

He kissed my lips, tentatively at first. When I melted into it, he deepened the kiss until the cold air forced us apart. He stepped inside, shutting the door behind him.

“I brought you a present.” He held the gift bag out to me.

“Really? You didn’t have to do that.”

“I didn’t do it because I had to.” He shook the bag I’d still not taken.

“Is it a ‘now’ present or a Christmas present?”

“It’s a ‘now’ present.”

I grabbed it out of the bag fast and tore the paper away even faster. I reached inside to find…a duck! It was too big for my Christmas village, but it wore the jersey from the local team where he’d just been and was absolutely perfect.

“I love it! I love it so much!” I ran off to put it on the edge of the tub, calling back to him, “I’m going to use it next time I take a bath! Maybe you can play with it with me.”

“I’d love that.”

I was already feeling better, but the scent of the ruined dish lingered in the air.

“Let me take out the garbage, and then we can figure out what we’re going to eat.” I scraped every last bit of the mess into the trash and put the pan in the sink to soak. It wasn’t even burnt, but I wasn’t wanting to deal with it, not right now.

“I’ll take it out.” He grabbed the bag from me and carried it to the bins outside.

When he came back in, he said, “Let’s go out to eat. I’m not picking Pearly up until tomorrow, so we can stay out as long as we like. I heard there are some fun things going on in town. I was eavesdropping on the plan, so that’s as much detail as I have.”

I didn’t know what those “fun things” were either, but if it was with Barrett, I was in.

“Okay, but I’m buying dinner.” It was only fair.

“I think you already bought dinner,” he teased, tapping my nose. “I’ll buy second dinner. We can be hobbits.”

I rolled my eyes, but I let him win. If he was pulling out the hobbit logic, he meant it.

We drove into town, which was unusually crowded. His eavesdrop-collected intel was correct. Something was going on.

“Why are so many people here on a Thursday? What kind of fun thing would make that happen?” I could understand on a weekend, but everyone had work or school in the morning. It was an odd choice of night.

He pulled out his phone and tapped away. “It’s the tree-lighting ceremony. What do you think? Are you in, or should we head to the next town for dinner?”

“Oh, I’m in.” I hadn’t gone to this one before, but, growing up, it had been a favorite event of mine, right up there with First Night, which celebrated New Year’s Eve with all the local merchants and organizations having special things happening.

It took a while to find parking, but we eventually did. The streets for a few blocks were shut down to traffic, lined with little shops and filled with tents offering food, snacks, and trinkets. We stopped at nearly every one, grabbing hot cocoa with toasted marshmallows and sipping it slowly as we walked.

We hadn’t decided on dinner yet, but the cocoa was enough to tide us over.

There were groups singing down one street and an art display from the local school in a shop window. They even had some make-and-take crafts for the kids. I was a bit sad that it was for twelve and under, but it was fun to see what they were making either which way.

We had a blast exploring everything the event had to offer, and, of course, it ended with the tree lighting.

Everyone sang “O Christmas Tree,” off-key and loud, but it was fabulous. A good old-fashioned sing-along. The ceremony concluded with fireworks over the river—festive colors of red, green, silver, blue, and gold. Pure Christmas magic.

It was getting late, and we still hadn’t eaten, so we opted for a drive-through on the way back to Barrett’s. I got a kid’s meal because the toy was an elf. Daddy didn’t even think twice when I gave him my order. He might not have had a little of his own before, but his ability to be a daddy shone through, especially at times like this.

Once home, we ate in his living room while watching Rudolph , cuddled up on the couch. It was one of my favorites, and I always loved sharing it with someone for the first time. It made the experience new. The only thing missing from the night was Pearly, but they would be back tomorrow.

Not ready to be apart again, we opted for a “sleepover,” my word for it. I snuggled into his side and kissed his shoulder. “You must be glad to be in your own bed again.” Hotel beds were the worst. It didn’t matter how high quality they were. Nothing was better than snuggling into a person’s own comfy bed.

“I guess,” he said, pulling me closer. “But, more than that, I’m glad to have you in my arms. I missed you, my sweet boy.”

“I missed you, too, Daddy.”

Daddy rolled so that he could kiss me and one kiss led to two, led to deepening, growing into something more, until we were both naked, spent, and sated. I tried to stay awake in his arms, savoring this time together, but sleep soon took over and I was dreaming in my most favorite place in the world—Daddy’s arms.