Page 7 of The Locksmith’s Promise (The Promise Duet #1)

Mini-Me

B axter

Her eyes darted up to meet mine, then she deflated like a hot air balloon and admitted, “A little.”

I offered her a smile and wiped my palms down the thighs of my jeans. Sitting on the far side of the couch, as far from her chair as I could to give her some room, I assured her, “There’s no need to be.”

She winced and closed her eyes, tucking her pink painted toes under her.

She’d always loved to be barefoot. I was glad to see not everything had changed.

“You must be furious,” she murmured.

“Not with you,” I clipped.

I’d spent hours the night before going over every minute of those last days along with every second of our reunion and came to the only possible conclusion. She hadn’t left me out on purpose.

“Never with you,” I emphasized.

The relief on her pretty face pierced me.

I’d caused her more than enough grief for one lifetime. I couldn’t even imagine what the past ten years had been like on her own with a child.

We turned as one toward the sound of Corwin’s bedroom door creaking open as Maggie sucked in a nervous breath.

My heart skipped a beat as he came out with a squirming ball of loveable fluff tucked under his arm.

Dark eyes the same as the ones I saw in the mirror every morning rippled like two huge pools of trepidation as they sought mine. “Hey.”

I leapt to my feet, heart pounding in my ears, eager to wipe that anxiety from his face.

He should never wonder if I’m happy to see him.

Never wonder what version of his father was showing up for him.

God, I hope he wants me to show up for him.

“Hi, Corwin.” I shrugged and offered another shaky smile. “I’m sure this is weird, but I guess I’m your dad.”

Jeff barked and wiggled wildly in a thwarted effort to get down.

Corwin doubled down on his determination to contain him.

Her?

I was a little foggy on the details from the day before.

He scrubbed his puppy under her chin. “You guess?”

I shook my head. “I know I am. I’m happy about it,” I blurted. “I hope once you get to know me, you’ll be happy, too.”

He tilted his head to the side and tipped his chin up. “You really didn’t know about me?”

Holding his gaze, I reassured him, “I really didn’t.”

“And you want to be friends with me?”

Friends?

That word again that hurt so damn much more than the first time I’d heard it.

My gaze flickered to Maggie’s strained face. What a fucking mess.

I nodded slowly. “How about we start off as friends, and maybe when you’re comfortable with the idea, you’ll let me be your dad.”

For the first time, he smiled. At me. Knowing exactly who I was. “You want to be my dad?”

The knot in my throat tightened my voice, “There’s only one thing I want more.”

He cocked his head to the side. “What’s that?”

I swallowed and studiously avoided Maggie’s gaze, knowing full well I was careening toward a cliff but unwilling to hit the brakes to save myself.

“To be best friends with your mom again.”

Friends was one thing, but best friends? Best friends meant trust and respect and loyalty. And those I could build on.

He beamed like a lighthouse and stepped closer while Jeff panted excitedly. “That would be good. Mom doesn’t have too many friends.”

A small sound of protest broke from Maggie’s lips. “I’m okay, Cor. I’m happy with my boy.”

Her answer was as much truth as warning.

After what I’d put her through and the amount of time I’d allowed to pass, I knew before coming back to Moose Lake I’d be in for an uphill battle. Not knowing about Corwin, I hadn’t realized just how steep it would be.

Mentally shrugging off a well-deserved dismissal, I sat back down on the couch, Maggie’s couch in Maggie’s home, and my son, my son, settled on the other end and released his dog.

Jeff bounced over to me, not a single doubt in her furry mind about her welcome. I rubbed her soft belly, fighting the fear it was all a cruel dream.

Because I was here with Maggie, our son, and a dog named Jeff.

Surrounded by innocuous beige walls and the barest of bones of décor.

In Moose Lake, a place I wasn’t sure I’d ever step foot in again.

I’d entered another dimension.

Eyes wide and curious on my face, he stated, “My best friend is Mikey.”

I raised my eyebrows. “That’s pretty funny seeing as his dad, Miller, is my best friend.”

Wracking my brain for something, anything, to get him talking, I landed on the obvious. “Are you and Mikey in the same class at school?”

Of course they are. Moose Lake isn’t that fucking big.

Despite the stupidity of my question, it unlocked a goldmine of information.

He and Mikey were in the same class, and his new school was tiny compared to his old one.

They used to rent a house with a big backyard, but they didn’t know anybody in their neighbourhood. Not like here.

In his old school, he got stuck in the advanced reading program, but now he got to read the same books as the rest of the kids.

He loved cinnamon buns with cream cheese icing, but Mikey liked his glazed.

I watched, fascinated, as he rambled away.

The stubborn tilt of his chin and the way his lips curved up on one side before breaking into a smile was just like Maggie’s.

The rest was all me.

His lanky limbs and sandy hair.

The smattering of freckles over the bridge of his nose.

His eyes, the exact same shade of brown as mine.

And it hit me in that moment just how fucking small he was.

How small I had been.

Frozen in disbelief, staring down at the scuffed toes of my running shoes as my mother drove away.

The fury on my father’s face when he came home to find me crying, the sting of his slap across my face.

And then I saw Corwin.

A picture of him standing in front of the mirror beside me, copying my motions as I teach him to shave.

Talking to him before his first date, making sure he knew how to treat a girl.

Taking him to buy new school clothes.

Showing him how to knot a tie.

And buying him his first guitar, a guitar I would teach him to play.

I could picture it as crisp and clear as a big screen movie playing on a loop in my mind.

And where would Maggie be in all this? At their home? Waiting for me to drop him off after my weekly visit?

No.

My entire system revolted against the thought.

I came back to Moose Lake ready to take anything Maggie would give me. And if leaving was all she wanted from me? I’d have given it to her.

But not now.

Not now that she’d given me the world.

The sudden silence brought me back to the present.

I gave myself a brisk mental shake. “Tell me about Jeff,” I coaxed.

Jumping to his feet, he ran around the coffee table and dropped to his knees to peruse the bottom level of their bookshelf.

Like a proud mom, Corwin pulled out a photograph album and bounded back to the couch to show me Jeff’s progression from a bedraggled bit of scraggly fur to the fluffball stretched out on the couch cushion between us without a care in the world.

“Last summer, Mom and I, we volunteered at an animal shelter close to our house. Jeff was there.”

I knew the answer, but I wanted to hear it from him.

I wanted Maggie to hear it from him.

To remind her of what she’d once wanted, what we’d dreamed.

To show her the players were all in place.

If she’d only roll the dice.

It was too soon to expect anything from her, but the curveball she threw already made me yearn to rewind time. The thought of losing more agonized me.

“Was she already named Jeff?”

He shook his head. “What was Jeff called, Mom?”

Maggie left her seat and puttered around, tidying things that didn’t need tidying and checking on the tiny plants in her greenhouse. The place was small, and there was nowhere for her to go to escape.

Which was a bonus for me.

“Minnie,” she answered stiffly, avoiding my eyes.

“Yeah,” Corwin agreed. “Minnie.”

“But Mom said it had to be Jeff. Said she had a dream about a dog named Jeff and wanted it to come true. Right, Mom?”

“That’s right, baby,” she choked out, her cheeks flaming.

“It’s good to have dreams,” I murmured.

“Do you have dreams?” Corwin asked.

“I’ve had the same dream forever,” I replied, noting Maggie’s stiff posture. “I’ll tell you about it some day.”

Despite Maggie’s discomfort with me and the subject matter, it didn’t take away from the ease with which she and Corwin visually checked in with one another. It spoke of a closeness I craved with both of them.

Maggie’s maternal side fascinated me. Nurturing, attentive, and responsive.

It had always fascinated me. That tenderness she slathered over me once upon a time.

And somehow, I’d taken it and used it to destroy her.

The fuzzy edges of a memory teased the edges of my mind, but I shied away from it with a shudder.

There were things I never wanted to remember, and cheating on Maggie was at the top of that long list.

Regret reared her ugly head, but I pushed her back down into the deepest recesses of my heart.

Buried, she wouldn’t interfere with my determination to get Maggie back. Thinking too much about the past would only underline how unworthy I was for this present gift.

Unworthy, yes, but selfish enough to take it.

And man enough to ensure she’d never regret it.

Maggie pulled another album off the shelf and set it on the side table by the front door before shuffling back to her chair.

My resolve renewed, I turned back to Corwin.

I’d never heard that name before. Where did she come up with it? How did she choose? Corwin wasn’t the name we agreed on when we mapped out our plans.

Oh, God. She’d gone through the entire pregnancy by herself.

The birth.

Had anyone been there with her?

I stared into space, a butterfly flapping violently in my chest.

Those first few sleepless months. I’d heard the horror stories of endless ear infections, vaccinations, and fevers.

I blinked away the dark thoughts. Surely her parents were with her?

Dragging my mind from a past I knew nothing about, I met my son’s curious gaze.

My son .

He studied me much the same way I studied him.

There was so much I didn’t know. I cleared my throat. “Do you play sports?”

He wagged his head back and forth. “I like music more. And hiking. Mom and I go hiking sometimes.”

He was a mini-me.

How did Maggie stand it? All these years loving a child with the face, interests, and quirks of the man who betrayed her.

I shook the memory of Jenny passed out on my bed from my head.

There was something wrong with the memory, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but I couldn’t stand to look at it for any amount of time without feeling sick to my stomach.

Without the visceral need to run.

I straightened and stretched out the kinks in my spine from too many hours playing guitar the night before and turned my full attention back to my beautiful son.

Wracking my brain for more questions, I landed on the obvious. “Do you play any instruments?”

He perked up. “We haven’t had the money for lessons yet. Mom says she’ll look into it once we’re settled.”

My heart lurched in my chest. “What do you want to play?”

“Guitar,” he paused. “Maybe the bagpipes.”

I looked up and grinned at Maggie, gratified to hear her laugh. “Bagpipes?”

He shrugged. “I think they’re cool. Do you play anything?”

“Guitar, bass guitar, and harmonica. I can get by on the piano but not well.”

His face lit up. Feeling like a hero, I continued, “I was even in a band.”

Maggie’s gaze sharpened, her pretty features tightening.

Heat infused my face.

I knew how it looked. Like I went on with my life without looking back, but nothing could have been further from the truth.

“That’s so cool,” he breathed. “Are you still in the band?”

I shook my head. “I left it to come home.”

He nodded sagely. “Because your father died.”

“Cor,” Maggie admonished.

“It’s okay,” I intervened. “I came back for your mom.”