Page 67 of That First Night

“Remember what I said,” she continues, pointing her finger at me as if she’s scolding me. “You deserve to be happy, Peyton. Follow your heart. Lean into what makes you feel good and take the risks, even if it’s scary. Maybe it won’t work out. But maybe, it will be the greatest adventure.”

I fight back the tears at her wise words and give her a tight nod.

“Your heart is the most beautiful thing about you, Peyton. Let him see that and the rest will work out on its own.”

Another nod and I swipe a small tear that threatens to drip down my cheek. “I will see you soon.”

“See you soon, honey.”

* * *

We have all the arts and crafts spread out on the massive kitchen table in the penthouse. Thomas doesn’t have visitors over often, so it blows my mind that he has a table that seats twelve. It works for James when he has all his arts and crafts out though.

Thomas had to deliver legal documents of some sort to Marc at his office, so Kali and Avery are both here and we’re having a craft party with James. They are both so good with James. As much as I have grown to care for him, I can tell they have too. It might be a best friend thing. Whoever I like, they like. Whoever I hate, they hate. You know how it goes. Besties for life.

“I want to use the letter beads to spell my name on this,” James says. “We can just glue the beads on the paper.”

“What is with three-year-old’s and always wanting to play with glue,” Avery asks.

“It’s so sticky and fun!” James shrieks in excitement while the three of us just laugh at him. “Daddy organimized all my letters in little bags, Ave. Can you help me spell my name and I will glue them on.”

Avery chuckles at his mispronounced word and begins to dig into the large bin. It’s organized by bags and little bins. He has separate bins for glue and tape. In another bin, there’s a set of colored folders that have colored paper in each of them. There’s also separate bins for crayons, colored pencils, and markers. She pulls out a large bag that is organized with tiny bags inside of it. Each bag contains multiple beads with the same letter. Like I said, super organized craft bin.

“Look,” Avery laughs, and we all look in her direction as she holds up a tiny bag of letters. “It’s a bag of D’s.”

“The letter D,” James screams and starts bouncing in his seat. “D is for Daddy!”

“D is for a lot of things.” Avery wiggles her brows at James. “It’s my favorite letter of the alphabet.”

“Stop that.” Kali smacks her arm.

“What? It’s true,” she laughs.

“Back to crafts.” I snap my fingers at her. “Oh, I meant to ask you two a question.”

“What’s up?” They both say in unison.

“Did you have groceries delivered to Gigi this morning?” I ask, continuing the craft of finding letters for James. “Today I was there, and she thanked me for the groceries and care package of goodies.”

“I haven’t had anything sent there.”

“I haven’t sent anything either,” Kali adds. “I always bring some stuff when I visit but that’s about it.”

“Hmm…” I hum, trying to figure out what’s happening. “Okay.”

A few moments of silence pass between us as we organize the letters for James to spell out his name and glue them on the paper. Once he’s finished, we’re all looking at him from across the table to see what he thinks of his finished masterpiece. He stares down at the paper void of emotion on his face.Huh?I think to myself.

It’s as if the next series of events happen in slow motion. The world stops spinning on its axis. Time is completely frozen as James places the piece of paper down, his eyes finding mine. I stare at him, my smile turning to a small frown when I see water pooling in the corner of his eyes. My eyes find Kali’s next to me and she shrugs her shoulders as if she doesn’t know what happened either.

“Are you okay, buddy?” I ask him as I return my gaze back to his.

He pauses for a moment, wiping a tear before it drips down his cheek. “I love you, Pey.”

My fucking heart.

I quickly stand up from my seat and move to sit directly next to him on the table. I grab his tiny hand in mine and look him in the eyes. For such a little boy, he has so many emotions. “Why are you crying, buddy?”

“I’m scared,” he says.