“Jake,” she sighed. “Seriously, you need to come pick him up. And you need to be calm about it. He’s scared and feels very alone. No, I am not telling you how to parent...but I am telling you your son is very scared right now and needs the love from both his folks.” Genna rolled her eyes.
She hadn’t really realised the breadth of the issues that were between her brother and his wife. But the fracture that was there did not need to be trickled down to her nephew.
“Fine, two hours, get your shit straight and come get him, but don’t you dare be pissed off at him when you do!” She hung up on her brother with a bit more aggression than she meant to, but land alive he irritated her. Had he really forgotten what it was like to be that age, and hear your parents fight, like it was the end of the world as you knew it?
She padded softly down the stairs, her heart melting at the scene she came to. Jaxson was tucked in the corner of her couch, with the huge cat next to him, his head in the boy’s lap. She leaned against the door jam a soft smile on her face, her heart swelling. If you could love an animal, Genna was pretty sure this moment sealed it for her. She moved slowly and knelt before the pair, her hand instinctively burring it in the cats soft fur as she spoke to her nephew
.
“Your Dad says you can stay, and watch a movie with me, but then he’s coming to pick you up. He and your mom have been pretty scared wondering where you were.” She added the last bit, a lie, her brother and his wife hadn’t even noticed the child had been gone. But Genna knew Jaxson needed to think that they had.
She leaned in close and placed a soft kiss on the cat's head. She hoped that expressed her thanks more than any words she could say that he may or may not have understood.