Page 95 of Senior

She smiled at him. “Only good things.”

Dax looked back at me. “You’re so pretty, Ms. Stephanie.”

Senior poked him. “A’ight now. That’s my wife.”

I giggled. “Thank you, Dax. You are a handsome young man, and your sister is very beautiful.”

I stood and moved to Senior’s side where he slid an arm around my waist. When I looked up at him, I could see we were having the same thoughts. He nodded at me and I turned to the kids.

“We’d be very interested in getting to know you both a little better. How about we grab something to eat?”

Dax looked to his sister for approval. I could tell she was his safe space, and he moved when she was okay with it.

She nodded and grabbed his hand. “Okay.”

Stanley linked his fingers through mine while Dax reached for my other hand. He looked up at me with a smile full of innocence, and my heart melted. Yeah… I was as good as got.

Steph was already in love, and I couldn’t blame her. The time we spent with Dax and Sevyn was time well spent. They seemed like good, sweet kids, but I could also tell that they had a story with them. Sevyn has this protective aura about her. Even as young as she was, I could tell she didn’t play about Daxon, and I respected that.

By the time things started winding down, I was ready to take these babies with me. Did I think I’d want to be a father again in my late fifties? Hell nah. Jaeda was supposed to be my last then along came Mia, then Emmy by default. Was I ready to open my home to another child… children? With Steph, yes.

When she brought the idea of fostering or adopting a child to me before we even rekindled, I was prepared to be in their lives. Not saying she wasn’t capable of doing it on her own, but that woman helped raise my kids, no questions asked. Why wouldn’t I return the favor?

The day had wound down and it was time for us to go. Daxon looked a little teary eyed when we had to say goodbye.

“Will we see you again?” he asked hopefully.

“Dax, don’t ask that,” Sevyn said. “I don’t want you to get your hopes up.”

It broke my heart to know that they had probably gotten their hopes up so many times before only to have them let down. I rested a hand on both of their shoulders.

“I promise you’re gonna see us again. Probably sooner than you think.”

“Definitely sooner than you think,” Steph said, cupping their chins. “It was so nice meeting and spending time with you both.”

Much to our surprise, Daxon wrapped his arms around her in a hug. Steph froze for a moment, her lip trembling and eyes watering. She hugged him back in the most motherly manner, one hand stroking his back and the other clutching his head to her chest.

“You give good hugs, Ms. Stephanie,” he said.

“So do you, baby.”

He let her go and gave me the same hug. I knew right then that we had to get the ball rolling on bringing them home. Sevyn stood back, watching. It looked like she was fighting with herself on whether she wanted to do the same. I went back and forth on whether to offer her a hug and decided to just go with it. When I opened my arms to her, she was hesitant for a moment before falling into them.

At first, she was tense, then I felt the moment her body relaxed, and she melted into my embrace. It was the type of thing that happened when you genuinely sensed safety with someone. I felt it every time one of my kids hugged me. I could only imagine what this child was carrying. She deserved a space to let all that shit go.

“You give hugs like my daddy,” she whispered.

I chuckled. “Well, I have six kids. If I’m not good at anything else, it’s dad hugs.”

Daxon smiled as he got in on the hug too. When he opened his free arm to welcome Steph in, my baby wasn’t any more good. In the middle of this fucking backyard, she had tears streaming down her cheeks. Yeah… these were our babies, and we were coming for them.

We finally said our goodbyes them and watched as they headed back inside. Hand in hand, we turned to walk to back to my car.

“Mr. and Mrs. Dillinger!”

Looking back, we saw Shelly, the woman we spoke to earlier, running to catch up to us.

“I’m glad I caught you!” she said, breathing all hard and shit. “I wanted to talk to you.”