I couldn’t stop watching. It was like I was watching my own personal movie that never ended. It was beautiful.
“Hey,” Luciano said, coming to stand next to me, watching the scene before us. “He seems to be handling the transition well. Even Catarina is doing better. It’s like she’s come out of her shell.”
“She has her son back.”
“How are you doing?”
“I’m fine.”
“Really? Because you haven’t left this clubhouse since we returned. It’s been two weeks, Reggie.”
“I’m not letting them out of my sight.”
“You can’t watch over them every minute of the day.”
“Watch me.”
“What are you going to do when Colin starts school? You can’t go with him.”
“Cat wants to home school him.”
Luciano sighed. “Fine, but you still need to provide for them.”
“I have money.”
“Really? Because the last time I checked, it cost thousands of dollars to raise a kid, and that’s not mentioning the quarter of a million dollars it will take to get him through college. You got that kind of money?”
“I will figure it out.”
“No, you’re not. You are hovering, too afraid to leave. They are safe here, Reggie. No one is going to let anything happen to them, and you know that.”
“They will never be safe here.”
“That may be, but you can’t be with them twenty-four-seven.”
“Go away, Luc. You are pissing me off.”
“Reaper wants you in church.”
“I’m busy.”
Luciano laughed. “I’ll be sure to tell him you said that.”
I said nothing more as Luciano walked away, leaving me once again with my perfect family.
Catarina turned and smiled at me, and my heart filled with joy.
God, my woman, was beautiful.
She was meant to be a mother.
The mother of my children.
I just stood there as she stood, reaching for a towel. Wrapping it around Colin, our son laughed, kicking his legs as his mother pulled him from his bath fun time. Turning to me, she handed him to me as I followed her to our bed.
Reaper had offered us the room next to us for Colin, but I refused, wanting him close. His small bed sat against the wall near the window. Sitting on the bed with him in my lap, I smelled his freshly washed hair and grinned as Catarina scavenged in a small drawer for his pajamas. There was never a better smell.
Returning with a blue set of pajamas, I laid him on the bed while Catarina dried and dressed him. Shortly after we returned, we had Colin checked out by a pediatrician. Not that I didn’t believe Healer, I just wanted a second opinion. When the kiddie doctor gave Colin a thumbs up, we took him over to a barbershop and had his hair cut. Now he really looked like me.