Page 63 of The Sweetheart
“Where are you going, sweetheart?”
Kai froze, and then cast him a wary glance. “I forgot to put my clothes in the hamper.”
“Okay. Did you want me to pause the movie?”
“Yes, please.” Nolan paused the movie, calling out to Kai just as he was leaving the room.
“Hey, if you happen to find my good boy upstairs, can you ask him if there’s anything he needs to talk to his Daddy about?”
Fifteen minutes later, Kai sat on the ground packing all of his Lego back into the toy chest while Nolan waited patiently. He didn’t have to check to know that Kai had gone to finish all of his tasks, and Nolan could barely contain his pleasure. He wasn’t going to celebrate his victory prematurely, however, because there was still a conversation that needed to be had.
When he was done, Kai came and stood in front of Nolan looking unsure of what to do next.
“On your knees,” Nolan told him. “Hands behind your back.”
Kai did what he was told, his face the picture of sadness and regret.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart? Did you not have fun with your brat?”
“No,” Kai answered with a shadow of rebellion. Nolan raised his eyebrows at him. “No, Daddy,” he corrected.
“I didn’t either. That was not how I hoped to spend our last evening together.” Nolan didn’t raise his voice, but Kai shrank from the scolding.
“I’m sorry, Daddy,” Kai whispered.
Nolan looked down at Kai, trying not to let his frustration get the better of him. He knew that the only way to get Kai to start opening up was to keep putting in the work. “Is there something that you would like to talk about?”
“Maybe I’ve been a little worried.” Nolan waited for him to elaborate. “Liam knows all of the bad stuff I’ve done. From before,” he clarified.
“You’re going to need to use more words, Kai.”
“I don’t want you to know bad things about me,” he said stubbornly.
Nolan nodded thoughtfully, choosing his words carefully. “And so you thought the best way to communicate that would be acting out?”
“Maybe I just wanted to know what you would do,” Kai muttered.
“And what did you learn?”
“I… I don’t know.” Kai looked at him, confused.
“You do know. Tell me what you learned,” Nolan pressed mercilessly.
“You won’t get angry with me when I’m bad?”
“What else?”
“You’ll still care for me when I’m bad?” Nolan leaned forward and braced his arms on his knees, hands clasped in front of him, so that he was dead in Kai’s face.
“Baby, I already told you that I’m not going to judge you on what you had to do to get by. If you want to keep your secrets, I am willing to let you have them for as long as they do not negatively impact this relationship. As soon as I feel like they’re a problem, you’ll be exactly where you are right now, confessing every last one of them to me. I don’t give a fuck about Liam, and there’s not a single thing that he could say that would have any bearing on my feelings for you. Is that clear?”
Kai nodded at him, wide-eyed. “Yes, Daddy.”
“You understand that I care about you very deeply, don’t you?”
“Yes, Daddy,” Kai whispered. “I care about you too.”
Nolan leaned back and shook his head as he took him in.
