Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 79749 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79749 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
The plan is for others to be in the pool when we go for our swim, and instead of letting him leave with the excuse that he changed his mind like he did last week, Caitlyn suggested that she be here too, already in the pool. He always welcomes the sight of her, so we're hoping he'll make the tough decision to stay and play rather than curl away and wait for what he considers a more opportune time when no one else is around.
"That's fantastic," Jersey says once the last screw is in the easel.
Nolan taps the thing to make sure it's not going to fall over, and I love him a little more for being concerned about our son's safety.
"Do I have to wait to use it," Eli asks, and I know why he does.
Last week we went shopping and got several toys because Nolan is a sucker and grabbed anything our son looked twice at in the toy department. When Eli asked if he could play with his matchbox cars, he was instructed to wait until we got home so they didn't get lost in the vehicle.
"Of course, you can," Nolan says.
I hand Eli a box of crayons when he turns in my direction because it was "Your job is to hold this and look pretty while us men work, Momma."
I smile at Eli and catch Nolan's gaze as he watches me. Seeing the same color eyes on him that Eli has makes everything utterly perfect in my world.
We spend every night wrapped around each other, a tangle of arms and legs. We can't keep our hands off each other although we do keep it to a minimum in front of Eli. Caitlyn instructed us that it was okay for us to show that we care for each other in front of Eli, but it's not like the child ever saw Damien and me being affectionate. Thank God we never had that kind of relationship.
Damien used sex as a weapon in the beginning, and thankfully as the years went on, he spent most of that energy on the girls at the club he owned rather than bringing it back home.
We three adults sit back and watch as Eli meticulously lines up the colors of crayons he wants to use in the cup provided with the easel before he gets to work.
The second Nolan saw him coloring in a session last week with Caitlyn, it became his mission to find the perfect way for Eli to color and draw. We were told it's a great outlet for the things he might be feeling inside.
"Did you see that bear outside your window?" Jersey asks when Eli takes a step back with his brown crayon and inspects his work.
Eli frowns, looking over his shoulder at the man. "Do you need glasses? That's a puppy."
He jabs the crayon at the paper as Nolan starts to chuckle.
"Do you want a puppy?" Jersey asks instead of taking his correction on the chin like a real man would.
"Jersey," I snap at him.
"That's actually not a bad idea," Nolan says. "Caitlyn mentioned a service animal last week."
I glare at him.
"This is like the fifth time one of you has mentioned this woman. Is she like a goddess or something?"
"She's my best friend," Eli says, and I know that comes with its own set of problems.
Eventually, Eli will graduate from therapy, and I don't want the distance between the two of them to make him regress.
"Do you think she has a dog?" Eli asks.
"I don't know. We can't even think about getting a dog until we make sure it's okay with Hemlock," I tell him, glaring even harder at Nolan when he doesn't hesitate to pull out his phone. "Some people have allergies, and we don't want to make people sick."
Eli scrunches up his nose the same way I do, but I already see the wheels turning in his head.
"Hemlock is my friend. He'll say yes."
"He says let him check with everyone first," Nolan says, holding up his phone as if I can read the tiny script on there from the other side of the room.
"I think that means you're getting a puppy, bud," Jersey says with a wide smile as if he's living vicariously through our child. He turns his attention back to the easel. "Now if that's a puppy, what's his name?"
Chapter 41
Jericho
"I'll name him Felix," Eli says as we walk toward the stairs that will take us to the swimming pool.
Despite what happened near the pool with Damien, he hasn’t had an issue with swimming here every day as I promised until the other day when a couple of the guys were down here killing time. He refused to get close to the water with them in it, and we're hoping that with Caitlyn here, along with a few of the other guys, he'll decide that he wants to stay.