“You had him,” he said. “You’d already wrapped him in your jacket. The doctors said another ten minutes in that cold… and it could’ve ended very differently.”
I had to steady myself against a chair.
Jax shifted uncomfortably.
“I just… couldn’t walk away,” he said.
Daniels nodded.
“That’s what matters,” he said. “A lot of people would’ve ignored that sound. Thought it was a cat. You didn’t.”
He bent down and picked up a baby carrier from the porch—I hadn’t even noticed it before.
Inside, wrapped in a proper blanket, was the baby.
Warm now. Rosy cheeks. A tiny hat with little bear ears.
“This is Theo,” Daniels said. “My son.”
He looked at Jax.
“Do you want to hold him?”
Jax immediately went pale.
“I don’t want to break him,” he said.
“You won’t,” Daniels replied gently. “He already knows you.”
Jax glanced at me.
“Sit,” I told him. “We’ll make sure nothing happens.”
He sat down on the couch, and Daniels carefully placed Theo in his arms.
Jax held him like something fragile, his large hands impossibly gentle.
“Hey, little man,” he whispered. “Round two, huh?”
Theo blinked up at him and reached out, grabbing a fistful of Jax’s hoodie.
He didn’t let go.
I heard Daniels take a breath.
“He does that every time he sees you,” he said quietly. “Like he remembers.”
My eyes burned.
Daniels pulled a card from his pocket and handed it to Jax.
“I spoke to your principal,” he said. “I don’t want what you did to go unnoticed. Maybe a small assembly. The local paper.”
Jax groaned.
“Oh my God… please no,” he muttered.
Daniels smiled faintly.
Leave a Comment