“Check this out,” Logan said as he swiped through his phone. “Total badass!”
He held it out and showed me the photo of Noah, framed so it looked like he was way higher than he’d actually gone. His eyes were fixed on the top, determined and confident.
“Oh, it’s perfect!”
Logan smiled softly as he continued looking at the images. “What a kid.”
“Agreed,” I replied. “He’s really special. And you did an amazing job with him today.”
His head popped up, and he looked at me with wide eyes full of hope. “Really? You think so?”
Wow, hereallycared. It wasn’t like I’d ever doubted that he loved his son, but this moment drove home how important it was to him to get this right, to be the dad Noah needed. It was surprisingly sweet.
The blue eyes that matched the ocean fixed on mine. He wore a questioning look, so different from the stern, furrowed expression I was used to seeing. His mouth was seconds away from curving into a smile, and I wanted to see that smile.
“Of course you did everything right. You were supportive, not judgmental, and flexible on the fly. I think you understood that pushing him would backfire.”
Instead of the smile I hoped for, Logan’s face went tight. “Took me quite a while to figure that out.”
I felt like part of my job was keeping sonandfather in a positive headspace.
“Hey, don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s a journey.”
We both went silent as we watched Noah come out of his shell, minute by minute. The confidence boost of getting back on the wall flipped a switch in him. Now, instead of hovering in the background, he joined the rest of the kids clipping the carabiners around their ears like they were earrings, which apparently was hilarious if you were six years old.
“I need to get back to work,” Logan mused. “But I hate to leave.”
We stood side by side, watching Noah act like a typical kid.
“Thanks for making time for this,” I replied. “Youwere the reason he gave it another shot.”
Logan’s smile expanded, and I ignored what it did to me.
Butterflies.
Notthat I was in danger of falling for him. No freaking way. It was just that Logan was also transforming in front of my eyes, from someone intolerable to…a teammate.
Granted, it was going to take time to get him to relax his grip on the reins, but I’d seen glimmers of his willingness to change for the better.
Andthatwas hot as hell.
Between the kitten and this victory, it really felt like Noah was turning a corner.
“Thank you.”
It was my turn to give Logan a surprised look.
“For what?”
“For helping us get here, to a version of stability. I doubt he would’ve even shown up at the wall today if it wasn’t for you.” He paused. “And thanks for giving me some insights for helping him.”
Heat crept up to my face. I appreciated his acknowledgment of my work, but something deeper was happening between us. An understanding that no matter how different we were, we were united whether we liked it or not.
And for the first time, I suspected that Ididlike it.
“Hey, you know what they say: teamwork makes the dream work.”
I held out my hand to offer him knuckles, and he looked at it with mild distaste, like I was flipping him off.
