Page 200 of When Love Takes Root

Kayden laughed under his breath.

It was small and reluctant, but I heard it. Josiah heard it too. His eyes shifted to my son without pressure, without triumph, just acknowledgment. Kayden’s smile faded almost as quickly as it came, and he looked down at his plate while his fingers curled around his fork. His knee stopped bouncing, then started again.

A few minutes passed before he set his fork down.

“Mr. Josiah?”

The whole table changed.

Josiah turned toward him. “Yeah?”

Kayden swallowed. His hands disappeared beneath the table, and his shoulders rose like he wanted to protect himself from his own words. JJ’s expression softened, and the girls went still. Even Skye, who usually treated silence like a personal challenge, pressed her lips together and watched her brother with wide eyes.

Kayden looked at Josiah, then away, then back again. “I owe you an apology.”

Josiah didn’t rescue him from the discomfort. He let the moment stand, and I respected him for that because my first instinct was to reach over and rub Kayden’s back until the hard part passed. Motherhood made me want to soften every sharp edge my babies brushed against, but some moments had to be walked through, not carried around.

Kayden’s voice roughened. “I was disrespectful at dinner. I said stuff I shouldn’t have said, and I acted like you did something wrong just by being there. You didn’t. I was mad about things that weren’t your fault.”

My throat tightened so fast I had to press a napkin against my mouth. Across the table, Maya’s pencil had gone still in her hand. Zuri blinked too hard, and Skye’s little chin started to tremble even though she clearly didn’t understand all of it.

Kayden blinked hard. “I’m sorry.”

Josiah leaned back slightly, his eyes steady on my son. “I accept your apology.”

Kayden nodded, but his chin trembled once.

Josiah’s voice lowered. “And I respect you for making it.”

Kayden’s face cracked.

Not all the way. Just enough for the boy beneath the attitude to show through. He nodded again, quickly this time, and JJ reached across the table, tapping two fingers against Kayden’s wrist. Kayden didn’t look at him, but he shifted his hand closer, accepting the touch without making a scene out of needing it.

After brunch, Josiah walked us outside and stood near his truck with his hands in his pockets. The girls clustered around him like tiny committee members waiting for minutes from the meeting, and Kayden lingered half a step behind JJ, his posture looser than before but still guarded around the edges.

“I’d like to take y’all somewhere.”

I looked at him. “Where?”

His eyes met mine first, then moved to the kids. “The Root & Remembrance Garden.”

The name brushed over me with a softness I couldn’t explain.

Maya’s pencil paused above her notebook. “At Self Ridge Botanical Park?”

Josiah nodded. “Yes.”

Zuri tilted her head. “The Black-owned one with the big butterfly mural?”

“That’s the one.”

Kayden’s brow creased. “Why?”

Josiah held his gaze. “Because there’s something I need y’all to see.”

No one argued.

That alone felt like a miracle.