Page 40 of The Bet
He seemed more interested then, as if what she said meant something because she wasn’t an only child. As if she might know what she was talking about.
“And you only have one daddy?”
“Uh. Yes,” she replied, not sure what he was getting to.
“I wish Tobias was my dad, but he’s not. He’s going to be the real daddy for thenewbaby. He’s not going to be my real daddy.”
“Uh,” for the first time, she found herself with nothing to say. No comeback, and it killed her, to know she was leaving this child without some kind words of reassurance.
“I have another dad, and he’s not so nice.”
She could see where this was going, even if Jacob didn’t know much about how children were fathered, and she wasn’t sure whenthatwas taught to kids these days. He seemed hung up on something. “But Tobias loves you like a real daddy would.”
“You’re just saying that because you want me to feel better.”
His directness blew her away. “I’m saying that because it’strue.” With both hands on his tiny shoulders, she drew in a breath. “It doesn’t matter who was the daddy in the house you grew up in, your real daddy, the one who’s going to be there for you is the one who’s there for you now.”
He looked unsure. “Look at me, Jacob. I’m right, aren’t I?”
He shrugged.
“Does Tobias spend time with you?”
He nodded.
“And does he tuck you in at night?”
“Yeah. And he reads to me.”
“And he reads to you?” said Izzy. “And what else?”
“I don’t know.” He looked down and shrugged. “He takes me to the park, and he’s took me on a helicopter ride.”
“Taken me,” she corrected.
“Yeah, he did, and he tickles me, and he makes me laugh, and we go for hotdogs and have man-to-man time.”
“Man to man time?”
He shook his head proudly.
“He sounds like a real dad to me, Jacob.”
His lips edged out into a tiny smile.
“So, how about we get out of the pool and shower, and maybe go to the park or something—whatever you want to do?”
~ ~ ~
“You waited for us,” cried Jacob, as soon as he returned from his swim.
“Yeah, dude. I told you I would.” Xavier put away his cell phone knowing that it would take a while to sift through a week’s worth of backlog. He was halfway through it, that and his current goal of trying to get some investment into a new stream of business. His virtual assistant had gone AWOL on him. The normally reliable middle-aged woman who took care of his accounts and paperwork and all the other various tasks he had for her, had left to take care of her husband who’d broken his leg.
Why the fuck she couldn’t work around that was beyond him. It left him in a serious bind. Coming back from the wedding to a truckload of correspondence to deal with as well as her unfinished work had been the hugest pain in the ass.
“How about we go to lunch?” he suggested. “Tobias told me you like hotdogs.”
“I love hotdogs!”
