“Well, my uncle seems lonely without my mom to talk to, so I was going to ask Santa for a friend for him too. You should be his friend! Do you want to have Christmas with us?”
“Uhhh…”
Chase was as frozen as Tobias.
What the hell could either of them say to that?
‘Tell him to say yes!’
That’s an awful idea.
‘So???’
Goddammit.
Luckily, Chase recovered before Tobias could.
“How about you tell your uncle that if he needs a friend, I’d be more than happy to give him one,” he said as he shot Tobias a knowing smile over Madison’s head. He wasn’t unaware of him after all. “I’ll, um, see you the next time you come for class, okay?”
“Okay, deal,” she said, and then she leapt into Chase’s arms for another hug.
“Merry Christmas, Chase,” she said as she turnedtoward Tobias.
“Merry Christmas, Madison. You too, Uncle Oby,” he said, shooting a wink at Tobias.
Tobias cocked his head at Chase, silently asking a million questions, but all Chase did was beam at him.
Cocky little shit.
Still, Tobias couldn’t help but smile as he left the gym, holding Madison’s hand and listening to a play-by-play recap of the lesson he watched, including plenty of highlights explaining how awesome Chase was.
Both of them were at risk of getting hurt. And he needed reinforcements.
————————
A sigh of relief escaped Tobias as he walked out of Cherrywood Boulders, Madison’s hand gripping his. She talked a mile a minute about her class. Her excitement helped calm his racing heart and his constant worries.
“…and then I climbed all the way to the top of the wall and I was on top of the fort. Did you see me, Oby?”
“Yeah, sweetie, I did. You were so brave.”
“Well, Chase helped us stay safe and he taught us a lot about climbing before we even started,” she explained, her smile widening. “He made me brave.”
A layer of ice around his heart melted, but he tried to ignore it.
“That’s good,Maddie-moo.”
“Do you think I could go again?” she asked as they reached the car and he opened her door. She climbed into her booster seat and he started buckling her in, her face nervous as she awaited an answer.
“If you enjoyed it, then we can definitely do it again.”
“Good, because I want to see Chase again. He’s so nice and he has a pretty smile.”
His mouth twitched as he finished connecting the final part of her buckle.
‘Looks like you’ve got competition for Chase.’
My niece isn’t competition.
