Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 89303 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89303 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
His parents were not happy like he assumed they would be. Deacon looked like a volcano that had just switched from dormant to active. “Let me get this shit straight. Catherine gives birth to your son…and decides to tell you now? As in, eight months after he’s born?”
Cleo shook her head. “Wow, that’s just…”
“Un-fucking-acceptable.” Deacon slammed his palm onto the table. “Who the fuck does that bitch think she is?”
Whoa.
“Deacon.” Cleo hissed at him and grabbed him by the arm.
I actually liked Deacon more now.
“Seriously.” He pushed Cleo’s hand off his arm. “How can she possibly justify this behavior? How can she not tell the father that she’s having a baby? So, we missed the delivery, buying him clothes, holding him…because she just didn’t feel obligated to inform you?” He clenched his jaw and shook his head. “Is she insane? Is she even fit to care for a child?”
“Dad…” Dex tried to de-escalate the situation by keeping his voice low. “Look, I know it’s a lot. But she kinda lost her mind in her grief, and we all do things we aren’t proud of when we grieve. Look at me, working for Mom and abandoning my patients for a year—”
“Don’t fucking defend her,” Deacon snapped. “I’m sick of you making excuses for her.”
Amen.
“I’m not,” Dex snapped back. “But all my anger for her evaporated when I realized we have a son together. His name is Ryan. He’s happy, smart, and insanely cute. It just doesn’t matter. Yes, I was pissed when she told me, but then I realized…it doesn’t matter. We are parents now. We need to work together, respect each other, and do the best we can to be parents to this kid. I’m not gonna hate my baby mama. What kind of example is that to Ryan?”
Deacon was so pissed that he couldn’t speak. He looked away from his son and out the window, livid.
Cleo took over. “Honey, that’s a really mature way to look at it. You’re absolutely right. There’s nothing we can do about the past. It’s happened. It’s done. All we can do is move forward, and your anger toward Catherine is irrelevant because all that matters is the son you’re both responsible for.” Like always, she smoothed things over with a nice gloss. “I think your father is just surprised—”
“No, I’m pissed off.” Deacon turned back to him. “The first five years of a child’s life are so important for development, and we missed almost a full year—”
“Deacon.” Cleo stared at him down. “Nothing we can do about it. Let it go.”
Deacon turned to her, giving her a look of wrath.
She held his stare without backing down.
Deacon eventually caved and gave a sigh of defeat.
Cleo turned back to Dex. “I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but are you certain he’s yours?”
“We’re doing a paternity test,” Dex said. “But I’m sure.” He opened the picture and set his phone on the table between them.
Deacon leaned forward to look at it.
Cleo just stared, her eyes wide, examining the picture in silence.
Slowly, both of them softened right before our eyes, the anger fading away, the resentment gone, and there was nothing left but pure love for their grandson. Cleo looked at Deacon, and they shared a look, a deep, long look.
Dex took the phone back. “Told you he was crazy-cute.”
Cleo leaned into Deacon and hugged him, her arms moving around his neck. “We have another grandbaby…”
He turned his face into her temple and kissed her, his arm over hers. “And he’s beautiful.”
“He’s got my eyes…” She cried a little bit in his arms.
He kissed her again. “Yeah, he does.”
Dex watched them, his eyes growing emotional.
It was sweet to watch them shift from angry people to blissfully happy…all because of a photo.
Cleo pulled away from her husband and looked at her son. “When do we get to see him?”
“I’m meeting him for the first time in…an hour.” He tapped his screen to see the time. “But I get him this weekend, so…”
Cleo turned to Deacon. “Oh my god, we have to go shopping.”
“We’ve got to make him a room,” Deacon said. They talked back and forth, preparing for their new grandchild whenever he came to visit.
I started to feel like I didn’t belong, like I wasn’t a part of this family anymore, like I was an outsider.
“How are you feeling about all this?” Cleo asked Dex. “That must have been really sudden.”
Dex shrugged. “It took me like thirty minutes to process the shock, the anger, but once it was over…I was just happy. I’ve always wanted to be a father, and I know this isn’t how I imagined having a family, but it’s still great news. I haven’t even met the kid and I love him, you know? I guess that’s why this is easier than I thought it would be.”