Page 26 of Dale
She shakes her head. “I have to work on trusting you. Let me know when you’re on your way back.”
*
Natalia’s waiting for me outside of the clubhouse with Maverick with her. When Maverick sees me get off of my bike, he comes running toward me.
“Can I call youDad?”
I smile at him. “You can call me whatever you want.”
“I’ve always wanted a dad,” he says with finality. “Can you teach me how to ride a bike, too?”
Before I can answer him, Natalia clears her throat to get our attention.
“Maverick, we have some things to talk about. Do you want to play on your tablet while we talk?”
He nods and runs over toward his tablet on the table in the courtyard.
“First things first, thank you for talkin’ to Cassie about everything.”
Natalia gives me a bright smile at my compliment. “No problem. I like her a lot for you. I’m sorry it wasn’t me, but we both know we weren’t meant for this kind of life together.”
I point to my son. “I’m gonna be involved with him. I hope you know that.”
“I wouldn’t want you to not be involved in his life. You have to understand I don’t want him around anything that can taint him. He’s a good kid.”
I nod. “Of course. What do you think I’m gonna do?”
She sticks her hand up to get my attention again. “I didn’t mean that as a bad thing. He’s not been raised in this life. He needs to know he’s safe. That’s all I’m saying.”
“How are we gonna work out custody and all of that? We qualify for an annulment. I checked it out after you left,” I let her know.
“Let’s get the annulment and work on custody. First, how about you go play with your son.”
She doesn’t need to invite me to play with my kid. I run over towards him and he begins to show me some game with birds on it and apparently, they blow up.
Epilogue
Colm
Having Natalia back around me is making me crazy. I’ve wanted this woman for longer than I care to admit and now she’s back. She looks good and she seems to be doing good.
Natalia looks back at me from the courtyard and I wave at her with two fingers. She smiles and then looks back at her son.
I’m ready to make her mine.