Love, Exes, and Ohs (Cactus Creek #4)(55)

Tears flooded Darcy’s eyes.

For Xoey as well. Because after nine long years, she was now her son’s mother again.

And tonight, she was going to introduce him to his father.





CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR


Two Months Later



ISAAC WATCHED XOEY AND BLAKE walk around the dog park while Darcy and Vivian finished talking to their friend—an amazing service animal trainer who had been singlehandedly responsible for Darcy getting a service animal in two short months, as opposed to the normal waiting period of a few years that it takes most individuals who apply through placement organizations.

For months, the trainer had been privately training a rescue dog for her cousin, who had similarly been in a terrible car accident. However, after four months, her cousin had ended up regaining enough motor function through surgery and rehab to no longer need the service animal the way Darcy did so she had graciously, amazingly offered to have Darcy adopt her dog Toby. And as the two women shared similar injuries, adjusting the training for Darcy’s needs had been a relatively seamless process, with today marking the official end of the training program.

Slamming the truck door closed, Isaac headed over to join them—his family—for the happy event, all the while, suppressing the twinge of pain he got in his chest now whenever he entered the dog park, and bracing himself for the even bigger wave of pain that always rammed into him when he saw Xoey.

He missed the hell out of her.

For the past two months, Xoey had gone out of her way to ensure that Blake could spend a balanced amount of time with all three of his parents. For him, that meant their spending time together every other afternoon during the week, along with a few dinners. The weekends varied, but would always consist of some combination of two parents, sometimes all three when Xoey would gather them together for a barbeque or other family function.

All in all, it was pretty great. And he and Blake were getting along famously.

As he and Xoey had quickly found, their son was incredibly bright, and extremely athletic. Since moving to Cactus Creek, Blake had joined quite a few extracurriculars and made a whole host of friends at his new school.

This meant that Isaac and Xoey did a lot of coordinating and-tag team parenting as a result, to keep up with his activities, and games, and friends’ sleepovers. Essentially, he was seeing and talking to Xoey almost as much as he had before.

And yet, he’d never felt further from her.

Sure, they still had their Saturday morning dog park breakfasts, and thanks to Blake’s presence, it was always fun, never awkward. But it wasn’t the same.

“Hey, you.” Xoey came over and handed him a ham and cheese turnover. “You’re late. Everything okay?”

He watched her smile softly when he placed the pumpkin iced coffee in her hands.

In a thousand ways, everything was better than okay.

But horribly not okay in one heartbreaking way.

He was back to being Xoey’s ex.



*

THEIR SON was happy.

Xoey couldn’t get over how much that one sentence affected her, filled her with irrepressible joy.

After all the universe had done to his three parents, here was their son, glowing, thriving.

And happy.

He’d made the declaration not ten minutes ago, after he’d finished meeting Toby, Darcy’s new service animal. Even though the two had met for the past few months, Toby had mostly been in training so the two had never had a chance to just relax, really.

After following the trainer’s instructions on signaling to Toby that ‘work time’ was over, Blake squatted down to scratch Toby’s ears.

And like two magnets finding their mate, Toby instantly rested his chin on Blake’s shoulder for what could only be described as a canine hug. Blake immediately reached his little arms around Toby and gave him a big ole hug back.

Then he sprawled out next to Toby and simply started chatting like he’d just been reunited with his long lost pal.

Even the trainer looked startled.

Barely a minute later, Toby was so content that he looked to be asleep, with his head on Blake’s lap as Blake continued to pet him and tell him all about his two moms, his dad, his aunt and uncle, and his cousins. He explained to his new furry friend all the playground politics of being a second grader. And then he told him how special this park was for his family, and that since Toby was part of his family now, it would be special for him too.

Meanwhile, they’d all just stood there in utter silence watching the magical bond forming between Blake and Toby.

…And that’s when it happened.

In the middle of another hug for his new bestie, Blake smiled up at them and then said those simple little words: “I’m happy. Really, really happy, you guys.”

Immediately following, Isaac caught her gaze and held it in the only kind of embrace they gave each other anymore. So they could share, celebrate the fact that their child was happy.

God, she missed him so much.



*



IT HAD TAKEN absolutely every last bit of restraint he possessed not to grab Xoey and drag her into his arms in that moment.

Christ, he missed her.

“So how has your time with him been lately?” she asked with a friendly smile when Blake went off to run around the park with Toby and the trainer.

“Good. His first sleepover at my place last weekend was a huge success.”