Ollie was still looking at me with those pretty eyes filled with tears and it broke my heart.
“Ollie, if you want cuddles, I’d be happy to give them to you. All the cuddles you could ever want. Just as long as we keep the cuddlesovermy skirt.”
I watched Dominic mouth the wordcuddlesbut he had to react fast when Ollie stretched his arms out to me and just sort of launched himself away from his father. I caught him and wrapped my arms around him as he latched himself to me.
Even as I reveled in the feeling of his warm little body clinging to mine, I felt the familiar tinge of worry most teachers experienced more than a few times each year, with each new class. While it was beautiful to see a kid so open and loving, there was often a concern about why they might be that way. I’d had to report more parents than I wanted to think about in my short career because their kids hadn’t just been open and loving for no reason.
I held Ollie a little tighter and looked up at Dominic. No matter what all he did for me, or Dad, if I got the first inkling he was doing anything to the little boy to make him desperate for the affection of strangers, I’d crawl to the closest police station if I had to. He was staring down at Ollie with a mix of love andconcern in his own eyes that gave me comfort. It felt like we were both wondering about Ollie’s eagerness to hang on to me.
I was still thinking about it all when breakfast was delivered.
CHAPTER 15
Sutton
“You got a daddy, too?” Lee had insisted on being dressed in a costume that made her little legs struggle more than normal to get across the grass. She looked like a little basketball as she waddled to and fro in her attempt to walk in a straight line.
I pointed to where Dad was sitting on his front steps, a giant smile on his face as he caught sight of us coming his way.
“I do. That’s him. His name is Cohen. You can call him Coco, though.”
Dad heard me and wagged his finger at me.
“Young lady, don’t make me get off my stoop.”
Charlie stood in front of me, her shoulders stiff. I saw her hands tighten into fists and knelt in the grass beside her. Ollie and Lee moved closer, much to Dad’s delight.
“Hey, Charlie, what’s up?”
When she looked at me the haunted look in her eyes made me immediately reach out to gently hold her fist in my hand.
“He threatened you.”
I glanced at Dad and then back at her.
“Oh, no, Charlie, he was just teasing. My dad’s wonderful. He’d never hurt a fly.”
Her eyes shuttered.
“Sometimes it’s okay to hurt people. Bad people.”
I wasn’t sure how to answer that. I felt like I was talking to a kid who’d seen way more than I ever had, and my childhood hadn’t exactly been a walk in the garden. I answered her slowly, wanting to make sure I didn’t do damage by walking into territory I didn’t understand.
“My dad is just a gentle guy. He’s always been my favorite person in the whole world. I love him. Most importantly, I wouldn’t bring you anywhere near him if I thought he wasn’t a big teddy bear.”
“What about your mom?”
The intensity in her gaze made me feel like I was sitting in one of the child therapist’s offices I’d visited as a teen. She was cutting right to the core of me without meaning to.
“My mom was…she wasn’t good like my dad. She’s the reason I can see how good my dad is.”
“None of us have moms?”
I shrugged. “I don’t. I don’t know about y’all. Do you?”
She shook her head. “No.”
There was such finality in her tone that I shoved down my curiosity and shrugged.
