Going Down Easy (Boys of the Big Easy #1)(65)

“Where was Miss Linda?” Addison asked.

A wave of anger swept through Gabe at her question. Yes, where in the fuck was Miss Linda?

“She has coffee with Miss Heather during quiet time,” Cooper said, naming the woman who was in charge of the older group of kids at the day care center.

“So she didn’t know this happened?” Addison asked before Gabe could.

Cooper shook his head.

“Why didn’t you tell her, honey?” Addison asked, gentling her tone.

Cooper shrugged. “They said I should be brave.”

“So now he has the flashlight, and he turns that on so he can stay in there and they think he’s very brave,” Stella said.

Addison’s expression softened, and she gave Stella a smile, but Gabe could see she was gritting her teeth as she said, “Well, I think that was a really great solution. But we need to tell Miss Linda about this.”

“It was Stella’s idea,” Cooper said.

Stella beamed, and Gabe leaned over to see that Cooper was looking at Stella as if she’d hung the moon.

Gabe’s heart squeezed so hard that he had to rub a hand over his chest.

Stella had been there for Cooper. She’d saved the day. She’d helped him get over his fear. She’d made him feel safe.

Gabe hadn’t done any of that.

He hadn’t even asked why Cooper suddenly felt the need to collect flashlights. Out of the blue. For no apparent reason. He hadn’t even asked.

The tightness in his chest and gut intensified, and he squeezed his eyes shut.

“Ow, Daddy, you’re squishing me,” Cooper protested, wiggling in Gabe’s lap.

Gabe loosened his hold but couldn’t completely let Cooper go.

“Cooper, I’m going to stop by tomorrow and have lunch with you,” Addison said. “Would that be okay?”

Gabe’s eyes snapped open. “What?” he managed to push past the lump in his throat.

Addison met his eyes. “I’m going to have lunch with Cooper. And maybe have a chat with Miss Linda.”

Wow. Gabe wasn’t sure what to say. Part of him, a really big part of him, wanted that. He wanted Addison to go down there and deal with this. He had no doubt that Addison Sloan would leave Linda with no question about how she—how they—felt about what had happened and how she expected Linda to solve the problem. She would likely be sure she spoke to the day care’s owner and possibly the parents of the boys responsible.

He wanted her to take care of it.

And he felt almost instantly horrible.

He swallowed and opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, Cooper looked up at him. “Can you come to lunch, too, Dad?”

Dammit. Yes, of course he could. And more, he fucking should.

“Yeah, buddy, I can. In fact, maybe just you and me, what about that?”

“Okay.”

Cooper grinned up at him, and Gabe felt guilt and love and frustration and a bit of humiliation slide through him. He hadn’t gone to lunch with Cooper before. He hadn’t had a meeting with Miss Linda before. He’d attended the initial open house. He’d shown up for the Christmas program. He’d read the weekly reports of what activities Cooper had participated in. But he’d read “wonderful student, enjoy having him” and “gets along well with others” and “curious and bright” and had felt proud and like everything was fine. He’d never asked for more in-depth reports. He’d never visited otherwise.

And he felt like shit.

“I don’t mind,” Addison said softly. “I’d love to see Cooper’s day care.”

Gabe nodded but didn’t meet her eyes. “I know. But I should do this.” God, it would be so much easier to let her do it. She’d probably had dozens of meetings with teachers and day care providers. She’d probably read the reports and asked follow-up questions. She’d probably been to lunches and programs and chaperoned field trips and been on planning committees for holiday parties. Addison didn’t just show up to see her kid sing a couple of Christmas songs, eat a frosted snowman cookie, and then head back to work.

“Cooper,” Addison said, “I’m really glad the flashlights have helped. And I’m glad that you talked to Stella about this. But I want you to know that you can talk to your dad and me about things, too. You don’t have to keep all of this to yourself.”

The feelings of guilt and inadequacy crept through Gabe again, his gut tightening. He wanted to yell and cuss and punch things. Instead, he sat on the floor of his son’s bedroom, holding him and letting his girlfriend say all the right things and reassure Cooper. Because Gabe didn’t know what the fuck he was doing.

Gabe kissed the top of Cooper’s head, then gently sat him on the floor next to Stella. “Okay, bud, I think maybe it’s time for bed. How about you brush your teeth and then I’ll come back in after Stella and Addison leave to read to you.”

He swore he could hear Addison’s frown, and he glanced up to find her looking at him with a combination of surprise and hurt. Yeah, he’d been really subtle there. He knew that was kind of a shitty way to handle this and ask her to leave, but he needed to get his mind around all of this. He needed to step up here, and he wasn’t sure how, and sitting here with Supermom suddenly wasn’t helping.