Unmatched Wife: Not His To Claim Anymore novel Chapter 201

Chapter 201

Chapter 201

MATTHEW

“I’ll be here,” Callahan said, with complete seriousness.

Theo followed me to his room.

We sat on his bed in the same configuration we’d used for these conversations for months now. Him beside me, close enough that I could feel his warmth, facing the shelf of dinosaurs so he had something to look at that wasn’t my face when he needed it.

“Your teacher called me today,” I said.

He was quiet for a moment. Then: “Mrs. Hendricks or Mrs. Patterson?”

“Mrs. Hendricks.”

He nodded slowly, the nod of someone identifying which thing this was about. “About Cal,” he said.

“About Cal,” I confirmed. “And also Marcus told me that Daniel asked you if Cal and I kissed.”

Theo didn’t look embarrassed. He looked thoughtful. “Daniel was curious,” he said. “I gave him honest answers.”

“I know,” I said. “And honest answers are right. But sometimes we need to give people extra information

alongside the honest answers so they understand what they’re hearing.” I paused. “What you told Daniel and your friends about Cal living here, sleeping in my room, telling me what to cook-

–

“That’s all true,” Theo said.

“It’s all true,” I agreed. “But without the context that Cal is someone who works for us and was hurt and is getting better here – it can sound like something different to people who don’t know the full situation.”

Theo processed this. I could see him doing it. “Like what?”

“Like Cal might be a partner,” I said. “Someone I’m in a relationship with.”

Theo thought about this seriously. “But he’s not.”

“He’s not.”

“So people have the wrong idea.”

“Some people might have gotten the wrong idea,” I said. “Which isn’t your fault. You said true things. I just want to help you understand that sometimes true things need extra information to make sense to people who don’t know the background.”

He was quiet, turning the Triceratops over in his hands. Then he said: “Is Cal going to be in trouble? For being here?”

“No,‘

“I said. “Nobody’s in trouble.”

“Good,” he said. Then: “Dad, I know he’s not your partner.

“I know you know,” I said.

“I just like him,” Theo said. “He’s easy to talk to.”

Chapter 201

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There it was. Said simply, without weight, the way Theo said most true things. He liked Callahan because Callahan was easy to talk to. Clear cause, clear effect.

“Can I ask you something?” I said.

“Yes.”

“You’ve always taken a while to get comfortable with new people,” I said carefully. “But you’re really comfortable

h Cal already. Why do you think that is?”

hought about it seriously, which I had known he would, because he took these kinds of questions seriously. looked at the Triceratops for a while, then at the shelf of dinosaurs, then at the window.

He doesn’t try to be anything,” Theo said finally. “He just is what he is. And he talks to me like I’m a person, not like I’m small.” He paused. “And when I told him I wanted to learn the bandaging because Mum was a doctor and I wanted to be a doctor too, he didn’t tell me it was a silly idea. He just showed me how.”

I stayed very still.

“I miss her,” Theo said, not looking at me. “And when I’m learning the bandaging stuff, I feel close to her. Like I’m doing something she would have done. Like she’d be happy I was learning.” He paused. “Is that weird?”

“No,” I said. “That’s not weird at all.”

He nodded. Seemed satisfied with that answer.

“Cal lets me do things instead of just watching,” he continued. “He explained why each step matters. He asked me questions to check I understood.” He looked at the dinosaurs. “Mum used to do that. Ask me questions to check I understood.”

I sat with that.

My son, who was four years old and had lost his mother and was finding his way toward her through the specific actions of someone who was nothing like her except in the ways that mattered in the patience, the directness, the willingness to take a child seriously.

He had latched onto Callahan not because Callahan had tried to be anything. But because he was consistent and present and didn’t manage Theo. He just showed up.

that.

“He’s not replacing Mum,” Theo said, reading something in my silence. “I know that. Nobody can do that. He’s just someone I like.”

“I know, buddy,” I said.

“And I’ll tell Daniel the full context,” he added, with the tone of someone noting an action item. “So he has accurate inf

y of someone whose business was concluded. “Can I go back? We’re in the

moment, looking at the dinosau

on the shelf. The Triceratops position. The

utside.

My son was doing exactly what I was trying to do. Finding the pieces that helped him carry the grief without being crushed by it. Building carefully with what was available.

He’d found Callahan the way he’d found his friends, the way he’d found everything that had helped him in pers months – by paying attention to what felt real and extending toward it without making a production of it

He was better at this than me.

I got off the bed and went back downstairs, where Marcus had made fresh coffee and was sitting at the table with the expression of someone who had never laughed at anything in his life.

“Not a word,” I said.

“The patrol formation review,” Marcus said, entirely deadpan.

I sat down and picked up my coffee.

Outside, somewhere on our street, a normal afternoon was happening Children coming home from school People walking dogs. The ordinary texture of a neighborhood going about its business.

Inside, my son was explaining dinosaur defensive formations to an injured security consultant who had accidentally become an important person in his life.

I drank my coffee and let that be exactly what it was.

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