Luke rolled his eyes at me, but he smiled too. “Okay, silly boy. How about you grab three snacks and I’ll pour you more juice and we can talk.”
It wasn’t a question, so I glanced at the offerings, picked up a sandwich, a sliced apple with peanut butter on the side of the plate, and a strawberry yogurt. I took them to the table and sat down, wiggling a little.
“You’re quite cute like this,” Luke stated when he placed the refilled glass in front of me.
I blinked at him again. “Like what?”
He gave me another look and shook his head. “Never mind.”
Once he’d sat down with his lunch and we’d eaten for a while, I realized I hadn’t thanked him.
“Thank you, by the way, for the coloring stuff.”
“Is it good?” he asked, grinning knowingly.
I huffed. “Whatd’ya think?”
“Hey now.” His voice had dropped low in a way that made my stomach clench and my ears burn.
“Sorry.”
“Let’s try that again?”
“Uh, it’s real good. I really like it. Tonya likes it too! So much!” I continued to tell him about the coloring books and the stuff I’d tried and what I’d liked especially.
Once most of the food was gone, Luke cleared his throat in a pointed way.
“All right, Bear. Here’s a thing, I think we need a new rule.”
I put my juice very carefully back on the table. “Okay?”
“I tried to call you several times and I got really worried when you didn’t answer. I had to come home to check to see if you were safe. Now, the client I was about to start tattooing is an old friend, so he understood that I needed to postpone by two hours, so it’s okay, but Bear….”
The weight of what I’d done tried to swallow me up whole. I felt my lip wobble. “I didn’t mean—”
He cut me off by getting up and coming around the table to hug me. “Oh, I know, baby boy, I know.”
I had messed up his work. The thing that was so important to him. What if the client hadn’t been a friend? What then? I could’ve hurt Luke’s reputation! I gasped a breath as sobs burst out of me.
Luke kept petting me and hugging me, and I felt safe like I hadn’t felt since… maybe ever? The thought of that penetrated the odd feeling in my brain and made me cry even harder. I hadn’t felt this comforted even when I was a child and something went wrong. If I hurt myself, I got patched up and was told to man up and get back to whatever it was that needed doing.
I vaguely registered that he’d called me a pet name, but didn’t put any weight on it. He was comforting me, pet names between friends were allowed.
“T-thanks,” I finally mumbled when I’d gathered myself.
He reached to the island to get me some of the paper towel, and I blew my nose, grimacing when I saw how wet and snotty his shirt was.
“It’s okay,” he said quickly. “I’ll change it before I head back to work.”
That made me hiccup, but I managed to push the guilt back.
He raised his hand. “And don’t tell me you’re sorry, either. This was a mistake, and we’re all allowed to make mistakes. We’ll make it a rule that you’re not allowed to put your phone on silent when it comes to my number. I need to be able to know you’re okay if I want to check up on you.”
I nodded eagerly. “I will do that right now.”
“Good.” He glanced toward the living room. “I know coloring was a lot of fun, but Bear, did you do your work stuff first?” His raised eyebrow told me that he knew the answer.
Before I could freak out, he shook his head and smiled gently.
