Please let me find a way to keep him close,he prayed every time he thought of their tenuous situation.
But some things were beyond his control.
The sun was just setting and couples were arriving for the singalong when he spotted Evangeline arriving with Leo in her arms.
Ana Gutierrez and her mom walked by her side. Ana had offered to swing by and pick them up tonight and bring them over, and Grayson had been delighted to say yes.
Evangeline has a friend here already,he thought to himself happily as he strode through the gathering crowd to join them.
“Grayson,” Evangeline called when she spotted him.
Her gentle voice was so joyful when she said his name that it made his heart squeeze like it was too big for his chest.
“Hey,” he said, moving a little too close.
Leo noticed him and began reaching and kicking his legs, doing his usual swim through the air to get to his daddy.
“Hey, buddy,” Grayson said, taking him and holding him close. “How was your day?”
“Ah-AH-ah,”Leo told him, his eyes wide and a big baby smile on his sweet face.
“Wow,” Grayson said, nodding.
“It was a peaceful day,” Evangeline put in. “We put some music on and danced, we talked to the mobile in the crib before nap time, and someone had an early bath tonight.”
“I thought you smelled extra good,” Grayson told Leo.
Leo chuckled at him and grabbed at his nose.
“Hey,” Grayson teased. “Not mynose.”
When Leo smacked his lips and laughed, Grayson felt like his heart was melting.
“Everything looks amazing,” Evangeline said as she took in the space around them.
Grayson had been up here to work so much recently that he’d hardly had the chance to step back and admire how the event was turning out.
But Evangeline was right. The open-air market had been transformed by the hard work of the center volunteers. Twinkling lights hung from the rafters of the vaulted wooden ceiling, filling the space with a magical glow. The big train set wound in a lazy circle, carrying s’mores ingredients as a throng of townspeople admired it.
Many of the booths from earlier today were still open. Instead of selling sandwiches and crafts, they had offerings of desserts and they were handing out copies of the song-pages for the sing-along.
The scent of wood smoke was rich on the air. Fire pits had been set up, and the people who had gathered to share the evening together were settling in.
“Everyone worked really hard on it,” he said, smiling.
“It takes a village,” Mrs. Gutierrez said with a smile.
“It sure does,” Grayson agreed. “Should we all find a good place to sit for the campfire?”
They all agreed. Grayson got each of them a little box of ingredients to make s’mores and they found some cozy seats on one of the logs by a crackling fire pit.
He braced himself for an uncomfortable feeling, buttonight, the dancing flames didn’t try to take him back to the past, not when he was watching the firelight dance on Evangeline’s beautiful face.
Grayson’s phone buzzed in his pocket, but he finally had his son in his arms and his girl by his side, so he decided to let it go to voicemail.
It buzzed again a moment later and he didn’t think anything more about it. Everything that was important to him was right here.
“Here we go,” Evangeline said, holding her marshmallow carefully over the fire.
