He wasn’t one to always air out his personal life, but this was something that couldn’t be hidden. He could have taken another rotation off, but there wasn’t a need for it. He’d rather save his time for the future. Maybe he needed the routine back in his life also.
“With Jocelyn,” he said. Which he hated. But his grandmother took Maverick one night and he could tell it didn’t go well.
She needed her sleep and Maverick didn’t want to go down. They had nights like that and it was still a work in progress. But he and Jocelyn were young enough to handle it, his grandmother not so much.
And maybe he remembered he hadn’t always gotten a gentle hand as a child growing up. Did he turn out okay? Sure. But he wanted something different for his son.
Something he’d always craved. That wasn’t horrible of him to think that way.
“Things seem to be moving pretty fast there,” Justin said.
No shit. In a little over two months he had his first relationship in years. Someone he trusted enough with his child and leaned on more than he had any other person.
She held his heart in her hands, but he hadn’t said it once. Hadn’t even led on to it.
“I guess,” he said. No reason to let on anything he was feeling. He never had with anyone before.
Justin laughed. “I have to say we were all shocked when we found out you had a son.”
“No shit,” he said. “Try being me.”
“Hey, if you need anything, you can call on any of us. Some wives on the squad would watch him. You know that. We are in this together.”
He knew, but no one had ever offered it to him before. “Thanks, man. I appreciate it. I’m still afloat, which is better than I thought a few weeks ago.”
“Got any plans for Thanksgiving? Or are you working at the pub?”
“I’m closed tomorrow,” he said. He was open last year and didn’t have a huge turnout. It was best to give his staff the day off.
He’d be crazy busy tonight though. Blackout Wednesday or Drinksgiving was always a big day at the bar.
“Just going to be you and your son?”
“I’m going to Jocelyn’s for the holiday with Maverick,” he said.
His grandmother told him she had plans with friends to go to dinner. He encouraged her to go and said he wouldn’t be alone. She was invited to the McCarthy’s also but had declined.
That might have been moving too fast in his eyes, but right now he was lucky his brakes worked if he needed them.
He turned when the first guy for the next shift came in. “You go,” Justin said. “No one is going to care and half aren’t even down yet.”
Normally he was the last one to leave, sending others before him, or at least one of the last. This time he was going to take Justin up on it.
“Thanks.”
He grabbed his things out of his locker, then drove to Jocelyn’s to get Maverick to bring to daycare. Jocelyn had offered to do it for him and there might be a day he’d have to take her up on it, but for now, they needed to get his son used to seeing him and then being dropped off.
The first day hadn’t gone so well with Maverick crying. Just seeing him and then dropping him off, but the last few times Maverick was happy to go to daycare.
He wished he knew what went through his son’s mind, but at two, he was lucky he could understand the jabbering that was coming more frequently.
Hearing the doctor say that Maverick was behind developmentally had been another kick in the gut. Every day he and Jocelyn were reading to Mav, teaching him simple things like animals and letters and colors. Every moment was a learning opportunity in his mind.
Daycare was working out better than he thought since they were teaching the kids too and not just entertaining them or letting them run around and free play or watch TV.
In his mind, that was what he thought of with childcare. A home setting more than a structure. Would have been cheaper he was sure!
Ten minutes later, he was knocking on Jocelyn’s door. She opened it and Maverick came running.
