“Oh, baby,” I say, rubbing his head, and he turns to look at me. My son who never had anyone but me to comfort him before is locked up in Justin’s arms, and nothing will pry him from them.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Justin

Hearing him scream and then cry stopped my heart literally. I thought my heart was not beating while I ran to him standing there in the middle of my dark hallway, looking panicked and scared. He tried to wipe the tears off his face before I got to him, but the minute I held open my arms, he jumped into them. Wrapping his arms around me, he buried his face in my neck, trying not to cry. “I dreamed that you left me,” he says, “and I couldn’t find Mom.”

I hold him to me tightly, whispering, “Never.” I look up at Caroline who is now coming out of the room wearing the shirt I was just wearing. “We would never leave you,” I say. Holding on to him, I feel Caroline beside me.

“What happened?” she whispers, and I look at her, expecting him to jump into her arms, but he doesn’t. I kiss his shoulder and walk with him to the couch, sitting down with him on my lap.

Caroline comes over and sits next to me, and a few seconds later, he is snoring softly on my shoulder. “You can put him down,” she says, rubbing his cheek softly.

“Not yet,” I say, making sure I hold him tighter. “I bet it was that fucking movie.” I look over at her and see she is trying not to laugh. “Or waking in the fort where it’s so dark.”

“I think it’s just a bad dream,” she says.

“Whatever. He’s not going to sleep in that room,” I say, getting up and walking to the bedroom she slept in the night before. She walks ahead of me and pulls down the covers, and I place him gently down and wait for him to wake up, but he just turns to the side, and Caroline covers him. “Let’s leave the hall light on in case he wakes up again.”

“He’s going to be fine,” Caroline says, walking to the other side of the bed and pulling down the covers. “I’ll be right here.”

“Um, no, you won’t.” I put my hand on my hip. “You’ll be sleeping,” I say, “but in that bed.” I point in the direction of my room.

“What?” she says, and I put my finger to my lips.

“Let’s talk about this in bed so we don’t wake him,” I say. Walking to where she is, I take her hand and pull her with me out of the room. After looking over my shoulder ten times, I leave the door open just a bit and turn the light on in the hallway.