“Okay!”
I get up and offer him a hand. He lets me pull him off the ground—and I mean literally pull him up—and we go into the bathroom to brush his teeth and go potty before bedtime. We read a dozen books, and I’m starting to drift off during the last one.
“Lights out,” I yawn. Jackson starts to freak out the moment the light goes off. “What’s going on?” I ask.
“The Tall Man might get me in the dark. Can you leave the light on?”
“The Tall Man isn’t here. Are you scared of the dark tonight?”
He nods, and I flick the bedside lamp back on. “Hang on a second. I have something for you. Stay here.”
I get to his door before he scrambles after me, following me into my room at the end of the hall.
“This is Ray,” I say, taking my scruffy unicorn from my bed. “He was mine when I was a kid, and he kept me safe. He’ll keep you safe too.”
Jackson looks at the stuffed animal, not sure whether to believe me or not. A few seconds pass and he hugs Ray.
“Can you feel his protection powers?”
“I do!”
“Good.” Taking his hand, I lead him back into his room and into bed. I shut off the lights and pull the blankets back up, gently tucking Jackson in. He cuddles the dingy yellow unicorn against his chest and closes his eyes for half a second before opening them again.
“Are you still here?” he asks, voice thin.
“Yes,” I assure him. “I am.”
“Can you sleep without Ray?” He eyes the unicorn, face tight. “You can have him if you need him.”
“He’s yours now,” I say with a smile. “I think he’ll have more fun hanging out in your room with your other toys than he did sitting alone on my bed.”
Jackson nods. “And you’re kind of old to have toys.”
I laugh and lean forward, kissing his forehead. “I suppose I am. Try to get some sleep, buddy.” Smoothing out his blankets, I get up to leave.
“Scarlet?” Jackson sits up right before I close the door.
“Yeah?”
He twists the frayed yarn that makes up Ray’s mane through his fingers. “Will I always be scared of the dark?”
“No,” I say with a shake of my head. I go back into his room and sit on the edge of his bed. “You won’t be. I used to be scared of the dark, you know.”
“You were?”
“Yeah. But I’m not anymore.”
“How do you stop being scared of the dark?” His eyes meet mine, and something pulls on my heart. I look at him and see everything a child should be. Innocent. Playful. Pure. Kind-hearted and carefree. It’s then I realize that I’ll do anything to keep him that way, to make sure he lives the best life he can, the life he deserves to live.
It’s then that I realize I love him.
“I don’t really know,” I start. My eyes flutter shut, and I think of my own life, of the darkness that grew around me, suffocating and deafening at the same time. The darkness that spread so deep within, it turned everything inside of me black, and the numbness took over, like poison ivy twisting on vines, wrapping around my head and eventually my heart.
I think of the numbness that was so vast and hollow it reverberated through my soul with an emptiness that hurt more than anything I’ve ever experienced. That isolated me and made me feel alone even when I was standing in a room full of people. That made me do bad things just so I’d feel anything other than nothing.
I open my eyes, and Jackson clicks on his flashlight. The tightness in my chest releases, and it’s here, in this moment, I realize how I stopped being afraid of the dark.
“You stop being afraid of the dark when you learn how to make your own light.”
Jackson tips his head. “Like my flashlight.”
“Yes,” I say, tears pricking the corners of my eyes. “Like your flashlight.”
“Can I keep it on all night?”
“Of course. And I’ll be just downstairs in the kitchen. I have dishes to wash. But if you need me, call for me and I’ll be back here.”
“Okay. I love you, Scarlet.”
I smile, heart pounding inside my chest. “Love you, too, buddy.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Weston
Fuck. Me. I’m in trouble.
It’s Friday night, and while I’m still not at one hundred percent, I agreed to go out with everyone to Getaway tonight. And I mean everyone. Logan and Owen are there already, of course. Dean and Kara are going, as well as Quinn and Archer. Quinn invited Scarlet to hang out with her and her friend Jamie, and I can tell Scarlet’s looking forward to it.
“Ready?” Scarlet asks, coming down the stairs as if she has no idea she looks like a temptress. Swallowing hard, I shift my weight to hide my hardening cock. It’s going to be one hell of a night. She curled her hair and is wearing a simple, curve-hugging black dress and heels. My mind jumps ahead, and I imagine myself pushing her up against the wall. I can almost feel her legs around me as I inch the hem of her black dress up and over her ass.
Dammit. Now I have an erection.
“Just a second,” I mumble and go into the kitchen, clenching the muscles in my thighs to try and get rid of this thing. I open the fridge, pretending to dig around for something to eat until my cock goes down.
“Are you seriously eating again?” Scarlet asks, voice coming from behind me.
“I’m always hungry.”
She laughs. “We literally just ate.”
And we did. I put the food away while Scarlet brushed her teeth upstairs. I waste some more time before grabbing an apple and closing the fridge. Feeling like a teenage boy at the risk of popping a boner just from looking at a hot girl, I grab my coat and hold it in front of me as we walk to my Jeep.
“It was nice of your parents to watch Jackson tonight,” she comments.
“Yeah. I think my mom misses having him around even though it made it hard for her to do her job.”
“I can see that. He’s a great kid.”
We get in, and we both reach for the radio at the same time. The slight feeling of Scarlet’s skin against mine sends a jolt right to the tip of my cock. She took such good care of me when I was sick, balancing helping me out but not being overbearing. Every minute I’m around her puts me more and more at risk for spilling my guts. Or maybe I’ll cut through all the verbal nonsense and kiss her.
Again.
But this time I won’t stop.
“Strike out already?” I ask Logan, taking a drink of my beer.
“Not as bad as you,” he fires back, pulling out a chair and joining me at the table. “Though we think you’re holding out for your new nanny.”
I shake my head, flicking my eyes to Scarlet. She’s sitting at the bar with Quinn, Kara, and Jamie, sipping a vodka tonic and laughing at something Quinn just said. “She’s Jackson’s nanny. I’m not getting involved with her.”
“I’ll get involved with her,” Owen says, coming up behind us. He’s on his third—maybe fourth—beer already.
“No,” I say a little too sternly. Dammit. “Besides…you seemed to be getting involved with the chick in the leopard skirt.”