Downfall(70)

A moment later, my kid ran into the messy playroom, the large man close behind her. I tried to keep my expression neutral when she dropped to her bottom, sat with her legs crossed, and the man followed suit. It took every ounce of self-control I possessed to not burst into hysterical laughter when Noble started clapping her hands against his in a really awkward, uncoordinated version of patty-cake. Solo didn’t bother to hold back is laughter when the man sang the silly song and clapped right along with my daughter.

If this scene in front of me wasn’t a perfect example of how weird, wild, and perfectly imperfect my world was now, I didn’t know what would be.

I had to lose everything in order to learn how to appreciate the things that mattered most. I would never, ever forget how powerful and necessary that lesson was.

I wrapped my arms around Solo’s neck and demanded between kisses, “Take us home, Hero.”

I knew, with absolute certainty, regardless of what happened in our future, he would always be the one who not only saved me, but taught me the value in being able to save myself. He was always going to be a hero in my eyes.





Solo



“Bye, Daddy.” Noble waved at me over her shoulder as she disappeared inside her classroom. Her teacher gave me a friendly nod, even though I was pretty sure the woman had to fight the urge to call the cops every single day when I dropped off the curly-headed troublemaker. Orley insisted it was all in my head, but I could always feel the eyes watching me whenever I was on the elite private school campus. The other parents and staff always looked at me like they weren’t really sure what I was doing in their midst, but I had thick skin, so the judgment didn’t bother me as long as they treated Noble well.

I was never going to get used to it.

No, not Noble calling me daddy. She’d been doing that since I convinced Orley to move in with me a couple of years ago. I started responding before the significance of the shift really hit me. Hearing her say it never failed to make me grin and to cause my heart to swell with inexplicable pride. Being Noble’s daddy, and her mommy’s man, was hands down the thing I was best at, and the one area of my life where I devoted most of my time. I’d learned balance, even if it’d taken more than one knock-down-drag-out fight with Orley to get there.

Hearing Noble call me daddy was nothing new, but I was still trying to adjust to her being in school half the day, and more than that, going to a private school where she had to wear a little uniform and shiny black shoes. I was used to her in Converse and jeans, running around the garage after me, dirty and greasy, as she asked me one-million questions about each and every car we crawled under. She had to fit me in her busy playdate schedule. It seemed like she was always running between Erica’s to play with Riley and out into the woods to play with the Devil’s daughter. She was already making powerful friends, even if she didn’t know it.

My kid looked cute in her tiny plaid skirt, white shirt, and plaid bow-tie, but it was so far removed from how I’d dressed for school, she looked almost alien. Noble loved her teacher and the kids in her class, and this school was the best of the best near the new townhouse I bought just outside of the city. I was still close enough to my old stomping grounds to feel like I could keep my street-cred intact, but far enough away I could let Noble play in the front yard without worrying about her catching a stray bullet while she was outside. The townhouse was also closer to my mom, which made visiting her more often, and dashing off in the middle of the night if she had an episode, much easier.

When Orley told me she was going to talk to the Devil about paying for Noble’s tuition to this fancy ass school, my first instinct was to argue. We lived a pretty modest life. I finally finished school and got certified as a mechanic, just in time for Orley to decide she wanted to go to college so she could get into the nursing field. She’d gotten very close with Melody and the rest of the staff who cared for my mother over the years and decided she wanted to help others the way they helped my mom. After everything he’d done for us, there wasn’t really a way I could justify walking away from the Boss once I had my certification, so I agreed to go work for him in the legal part of his garage. Much to my surprise, he told me working as a regular mechanic would be a waste of my skills and talent, so instead, he set me up in a custom shop where all I did was rebuild and restore classics. It was all above board and clean as a whistle, but I was never going to be a millionaire. I made enough to keep us comfortable, and once Orley was working, we would be more than set, but right now, we were an average family on an average income, so private school shouldn’t be in the cards. I didn’t want Noble feeling like she had to keep up with the other kids in her class, or like she wasn’t good enough because I wasn’t a doctor or a lawyer. Orley and I were very careful to make sure she had everything she needed, but she most definitely wasn’t spoiled.

It wasn’t until he mentioned he was thinking about sending his daughter to the same school when she was old enough that I changed my mind about enrolling Noble. It wasn’t about what I was comfortable with or what I could give her. It was about making sure she was set up for a bright, successful future. Just like my mother had wanted so much more for me, it was now my turn to want the world for the little girl whom I was going raise as my own. Regardless how uncomfortable the manicured lawns and majestic white building made me, this was where Noble belonged so she had the best options available at her fingertips.