Page 79 of Saving You

I nod against him.

He pulls back and his hands come to the side of my face as he tucks my hair behind my ears. “You sure?” Worry laces his voice as his eyes take me in.

“Yeah,” I say before checkingmy phone. “I need to head back.”

He nods and grabs my food and bag. We walk into the parking lot, and he leads me to his cruiser, opening the passenger side door for me. We ride in silence for the few minutes it takes to get back to the office. When we arrive, he jumps out and opens my door for me. Before I can get out, his lips come to mine as he dusts a light kiss over them. Resting his forehead against mine, he whispers, “Thank you for calling me.”

I stare into his eyes, reaching up and running my fingers through his hair. “Thank you for showing up,” I whisper.

“Always,” he says before kissing my forehead.

He helps me out, and I make my way into the office. I spend the rest of my shift on edge, worried that every time the door opens, it’s going to be Derek that’s walking in.

I power through the rest of the week. Once the weekend comes, I know Derek isn’t going to be able to find me at Caleb’s. Caleb and I agree to try to set up a meeting on the eighteenth. Caleb’s off work and can go with us so I don’t have to do it alone. Knowing he’s going to be there makes it more bearable to think about.

CHAPTER 28

Caleb

Derek never showed up to the scheduled meet-up with Charlie last week, so we spent time in the park just the three of us. Then I took the girls to get ice cream to take Charlie’s mind off the fact her dad never showed. We took notes and recorded everything to help Bailey build her case to have Derek’s visitation rights revoked.

We decided to spend Christmas Eve at home, just us. Bailey shares their traditions with me, an easy dinner in before baking cookies and watching Christmas movies with hot chocolate.

Bailey hands me a wrapped gift, and I look at it with furrowed brows. “I thought we were doing gifts tomorrow.”

“We are, but this is the Christmas Eve gift,” she says with a wide smile as she hands another gift to Charlie and takes one herself. They begin to unwrap theirs, and I open mine. My heart skips a beat as I see what she wrapped. I hold my pair of matching pyjamas in my hands and close my eyes.

Matching pyjamas is something families do.

This small gift means more to me than anything anyone else could get me. I reach out and pull both girls into a hug, kissing the tops of their heads and hoping my tears don’t fall.I don’t cry, but being pulled into this family—and being wanted—is making me more emotional than I’ve been since my dad’s death.

Charlie secures the matching bandana around Finn’s neck before we head upstairs and change into our matching pyjamas. Bailey insists on getting a photo of the four of us, so I hold Charlie on my hip while Bailey uses her phone for the picture. We take several, some nice and some silly. I watch as Bailey selects one of me kissing her temple and Charlie kissing my cheek and makes it her lock screen.

I lean down and whisper in her ear, “Send me those, please.”

She smiles and nods before we bundle up on the couch. Charlie insists on sitting on my lap, and Bailey tucks into my side. Contentment washes over me.

After Charlie falls asleep, I carry her upstairs and get her settled in her bed. I meet Bailey in the hallway, and we begin taking gifts out of our closet and bringing them downstairs, placing them under the tree. I stuff Bailey and Charlie’s stockings while she fixes some of the gifts. When she gets up and turns to them, tears fill her eyes.

“You stuffed them,” she whispers.

Her eyes find mine, and I stride right for her, wiping the tears as they fall. Her eyes close, and she leans into my touch.

“I always had to stuff all the stockings,” she says. “I didn’t stuff my own at first. And as Charlie got older, she would ask me about mine and I had to tell her Mommy didn’t get one. I decided to stuff my own after that first year so she wouldn’t ask me about it.”

Anger rises in my chest. Who doesn’t stuff his wife’s and child’s stockings? At least his wife’s, if she does his and their kid’s. Standing here, I vow to myself that I will make sure her and Charlie’s stockings are stuffed every year.

“You don’t need to worry aboutthat anymore,” I say, giving her a quick kiss. “I’ll take care of it from now on.”

She closes her eyes, and I lean my forehead against hers. After a minute, we make our way upstairs and I hold her close as we fall asleep.

In the morning, Bailey and I cook breakfast while Charlie colours at the table. When we finish, we head into the living room and open the stockings. Charlie is ecstatic about all her chocolate. She pulls out her new crayons, card game, and socks with bears printed all over them. She ignores everything else and brings the socks right to me.

“Look Caleb, Santa brought me socks with bears. You call me Little Bear. It’s so cool,” she says excitedly.

I smile at her and run my hand over her hair. “That is really cool. So, you like your new socks?”

She nods vigorously. “They’re my favourites.”

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