Seth, Tristan and the rest of the family had come to visit me in the days that followed, but they hadn’t been who I’d needed.
That role had been reserved for one man and one man only. And he’d walked in and given me my second miracle a mere four days after I got my child back.
We hadn’t talked that night about what had happened between us, but I’d known it was coming. When Tristan and Seth had come by the next day to sit with Amani so I could go home and get cleaned up, Levi had come with me. But when I’d brought it up as soon as we’d walked in the door, he’d kissed me and said that it didn’t matter what had happened in the past. We were moving forward and that was it.
I’d thought for sure he’d harbor some anger towards me in the weeks that had followed, but he hadn’t. When he hadn’t been working, he’d been at my side with Amani.
Talking to her.
Reading to her.
Watching TV with her.
Seth had been the one to tell me that Levi had gotten Henry back, but that they’d had no place to stay, so I’d asked Levi to come stay with me, though I wasn’t spending much time at the house. I’d even offered up my guest room in case Levi wasn’t ready to go back to an intimate relationship, but he’d merely kissed me, told me that he loved me, and accepted my offer.
He never left.
Amani’s therapy in the past few months hadn’t been easy, but she’d started to regain the ability to speak. Her cognitive functions were better than her motor and physiological skills so we spent time playing games and reading books when she wasn’t working with her team of therapists. A few weeks after she’d woken up, she’d gotten to go outside in a wheelchair and Levi and Henry and I had treatedher to a picnic, though the food choices had been limited to the bland foods Amani was able to tolerate.
I’d finally stopped sleeping at the rehab center about a month earlier, but I still spent every day there. Levi and I hoped to go back to volunteering at the soup kitchen at some point, but between Henry and Amani, we knew it wouldn’t be as often as we would have liked. I’d donated some money to the church instead, and while I knew it helped, I still missed not being able to contribute in a more meaningful way.
Levi and Henry had settled into my home with no issue whatsoever and the one time Levi had mentioned finding his own place, I’d unashamedly begged him and his son not to move out…to stay with me and my daughter and make us a family.
He’d never brought up leaving again.
While I’d initially been worried that I’d done too much damage to our relationship to repair, Levi hadn’t seen it the same way. The first full night I’d slept at home, he and I had made love. It had been just as amazing as the first time. The next night, Levi had fucked me for the first time and I’d loved every second of it. I’d never had a more passionate or giving lover than Levi, though he had a bit of dirty streak in him. After the first time he’d fucked me, we’d fallen asleep. I’d woken up to him pressed against my back, his dick notched between the globes of my ass. He’d fucked me in that exact position, but he’d told me if I didn’t come, he’d reward me handsomely.
He had.
First with a toe-curling blow job.
Then again in the shower as I’d pressed him against the wall while he’d wrapped his legs around my waist.
“Daddy!”
“Yeah, Peaches, in here!” I called as I began to unbutton the cuffs of Levi’s shirt and roll up his sleeves. My eyes fell on the reddened skin on his wrist. The burn was still healing all these months later, but Levi had gotten his wish. The tattoo was gone.
I pulled his wrist up to my mouth and pressed a gentle kiss against it. Levi’s fingers brushed over my head and then he waspulling me to him for a kiss. The whir of Amani’s electric wheelchair had me releasing him and turning to face my daughter. I smiled at the sight of Henry sitting happily on her lap.
Amani had been home for two weeks now, though I took her to rehab every day and likely would for at least a year until she fully recovered. She’d fallen completely in love with Henry and he with her. While the pair had separate rooms, they were otherwise inseparable.
“He needs changing,” Amani said as she pinched her nose.
Levi chuckled and plucked Henry off her lap. Amani usually fed Henry and helped dress him, but her motor skills weren’t strong enough to handle the intricacies of changing a dirty diaper.
“Daddy, can I wear this?” she asked as she looked down at her pink dress.
“It’s perfect,” I said. I leaned down to kiss the top of her head. “You look beautiful.”
“Will the other kids like me?” she said. “Like this?” She motioned with her chin to the chair.
I bent down in front of her and said, “They’re going to love you and they’re going to love this,” I said as I patted the chair’s wheel. “Remind me to tell you about Mrs. Finney and her wheelchair on the way up there, okay? I suspect the other kids are going to want to see how fast you can get this thing to go.”
“Really fast,” she said with a nod.
“That’s right,” I said.
Levi returned with Henry. I took him and placed him back in Amani’s lap. “Can you watch him while we finish getting ready?”
