We had our mugs and Joker was behind the bar, I was on a stool as Travis shook away sleep in my arms, when Joker asked, “What’s on for your day?”

“Gotta get my car,” I murmured as Travis made movements I read so I slid off the stool and bent to put him on his tush on the floor.

I went and fetched a variety of things from a basket in the living room area. I brought him his selection of toys and Travis stared at them, still shaking off sleep but also deciding.

“Get you that,” Joker said and I looked to him. “After we get your car, you need to do laundry? We can take it to the Compound.”

He’d said we.

I liked that but I shook my head. “I do that kind of thing when I don’t have Travis so I can be with Travis and not with him in a Laundromat.”

“Groceries?” Joker went on.

“Same,” I told him. “We’re good.”

He nodded and looked over the bar as Travis leaned forward, pressing his baby hands into buttons, making noise on the toy keyboard. He enjoyed the sound. I knew that from experience, but it was confirmed when he tipped back his head and giggled.

I grinned at my son as I thought about it, decided what I wanted, so I went for it.

I looked to Joker. “Are you, uh… busy today?”

His gaze went from Travis to me. “Nope.”

“Wanna, maybe… spend the day with Travis and me?”

His lips curved up. “Yep.”

And again I was goo.

“Travis needs breakfast and bath. I need a shower. And then—” I began.

“Got the first two covered, you take care a’ you.”

The idea of a shower that wasn’t necessarily quick for the purpose of getting clean and getting out so I could rescue my child from his secure place in a jumper seat or because I had a million things to do when my son wasn’t with me was a promise of heaven.

“His baby tub is in—” I started.

“Get me what I need, Carrie, then I got it.”

I tipped my head. “You sure?”

“Been a few years, but you’re not gonna be on the moon. I run into problems, I know where to find you.”

In the shower.

I felt goose bumps spread on my skin.

Then I nodded.

After that, I got him what he needed and gave instructions on how to make Travis’s cereal and do his bath. Then I laid out a new diaper and my boy’s clothes for the day, got my own stuff, and hit the shower.

I didn’t luxuriate in it. I didn’t hurry.

But I’d been right.

Knowing Travis was in good hands and I could just take care of me was heaven.

* * *