“You gon’ get that?” KO asked casually while I cut up Dakoda’s pancakes.
“I kinda have to, I guess.” I picked up the phone and answered quickly before the call disturbed the entire restaurant.
“Hello?”
“Lyrius, thank God you answered,” Denise, the assistant general manager of Shoreline Grand Hotel, let out immediately. “Where are you?”
“At breakfast.”
“Well, I need you here.”
I frowned instantly. “I’m off until Monday.”
“I know, but half the staff called out after the storm, and we got water damage on the third floor.” I could already hear chaosin the background behind her. “Housekeeping is drowning. The front desk is backed up. I need my manager.”
I closed my eyes briefly. “Denise, I don’t have childcare right now.”
“Bring him.”
“What?”
“Bring Dakoda. We’ll put cartoons on in the office or something. I don’t care.” She sounded exhausted. “I just need you here.”
My stomach tightened immediately, and I turned slightly and looked back toward the table. Dakoda was talking KO’s head off while KO sat there, actually listening to him like every word mattered.
“You hear me?” Denise asked.
“Yeah, I hear you. I just don’t think it’s a good idea to have Dakoda up there.” I rubbed my forehead. “I would still need to figure out how to even get there. My car is underwater.”
“I can keep him.” My eyes lifted fully to KO. He hadn’t even looked up from Dakoda. “I got him,” he added simply. “And I’ll take care of the car situation too.”
I hesitated for a second. Every part of me wanted to overthink it, wanted to panic.
I wanted to remember this man had only been back in our lives for a day. But it was something about how he saidI got him, andI’ll take care of itthat had my knees feeling a little weak. I looked over at Dakoda. He was smiling with syrup all over his face, and somehow . . . I knew he’d be okay with his father.
“Okay,” I said slowly into the phone. “I can be there in an hour.”
“Thank you!” Denise practically moaned in relief before hanging up, and I searched around the restaurant for our server so I could get a to-go box.
“Was that your work?” Dakoda asked immediately. “Mommy, you gotta go to work?” He asked it casually, like he was already used to me leaving, used to me choosing work because I didn’t have any other option.
“Yeah, baby.”
“Aww, man.” His shoulders slumped. “We can’t eat our pancakes.” I could hear the excitement leave his body and be replaced by disappointment.
“Nah, we gon’ eat first,” KO spoke up. “Then we’ll take mom to work and have some guy time.” He looked directly at me. “Whatever mess that is there will be there whether you arrive in ten minutes or after eating breakfast with your son.”
I blew out a deep breath. Nobody had ever given me permission to put myself before the job.
“Yay!” Dakoda nodded seriously, like that was the correct answer.
“Okay.” I stared down at my pancakes for a second before finally taking a bite. Having another person to share the load with was going to take a little getting used to, but maybe having KO staying with us wasn’t as scary as I thought. Maybe the scary part was how quickly my heart started believing we really could be a family.
It had been about four hours since we dropped Lyrius off at work. Dakoda and I had already been to the park, the grocery store, and somehow ended up back at Lyrius’s apartment, covered in plastic dinosaurs and a half bag of Goldfish crackers.
“Daddy, look!” Dakoda yelled, holding up a T-Rex with one arm missing like it was the hardest thing in the world. “He’s hurt. Ali ate his arm.”
“That dinosaur needs to be in the trash,” I told him, and he laughed so hard he fell over into the carpet. I looked around the apartment while he kept talking my head off. Lyrius’s apartment wasn’t big, but it felt homey. Traces of Dakoda were everywhere. His little Jordans were by the door. His coloring books were on the coffee table. There was a schedule for kindergartenorientation stuck to the fridge with a magnet from the Shoreline Elementary.
