Day 9 of our Father’s Day Week celebration in honor of the wonderful men we love and read about is an exclusive from Claire Contreras – Darkness Before Dawn.

**SPOILER ALERT!!!  You must read Darkness Before Dawn BEFORE you read this exclusive!!!**

Enjoy!

My eyes dart around the back seat in search of Logan’s baseball glove as I unstrap his seat belt.
“Daddy, whatcha looking for?” Logan asks curiously.
“Your glove, do you remember where you put it?” I ask, grunting loudly as I pull him out of the car, which always makes him laugh. “You’re getting too big for your dad, Lo!”
He laughs. “Nu-uh. You’re strong like Superman!”
I smile and ruffle his hair. “I have to be if you’re going to keep growing as fast as you are,” I reply, leaning into the car to get the glove from the bottom of the passenger seat.
“Mommy’s not strong like Superman,” he muses as he squeezes my arm.
I chuckle, shaking my head. “No, she’s not…but she’s strong like Wonder Woman.”
“Who’s that?” he asks, his voice chirping with curiosity as I close the door and hold on to his hand.
I gasp loudly. “You don’t know who Wonder Woman is?”
He shakes his head vigorously. “Nope.”
“I’ll have to show you when we get home.”
We finally make it to the front of Wrigley Field and head inside. Once we find our section, I pull a baseball cap over my head and look down at Logan, who’s looking around the ballpark in amazement. It doesn’t matter how often he’s been here with me, he’s always in awe of this place. As small and insignificant as that may be, it makes me feel like I’m dong something right.
“Lo, do you need to use the bathroom before we sit down?” I ask, tugging his arm to call his attention.
He shakes his head slowly, his gray eyes bright. “No! Mommy made me go before we left the house!”
“Are you sure?” I ask in a serious tone.
“I’m sure!”
I sigh and nod at him, pulling him to walk down the steps behind me. I slow down when I get to our seats and turn around to gage his reaction. He doesn’t disappoint when his eyes widen and his mouth drops. His eyes land on mine, to the leather seats behind home plate, to the field, before they come back to mine.
“Are we in the game?” he asks, clearly astonished.
I laugh loudly and pull him into the front row. “No, Logan! We’re just sitting really close to the players today,” I reply between laughter.
Once we settle in our seats, I take out my cell phone to send Blake a text message of what he just said, because it’s too funny not to share. After the guest pitch is thrown and the anthem is sung, Logan turns to me and tugs my arm.
“Daddy, I have to go potty,” he whispers.
I groan and throw my head back in frustration. “Logan,” I say, shifting my body to face him. His big gray eyes plead with mine and I sigh. “All right, let’s go.”
We walk to the bathroom and I call Blake while I wait for him.
“Hey,” she answers sounding flustered.
“Hey, what are you up to?” I ask, eyeing Logan to make sure he’s aiming correctly.
“Here, feeding Oliver and Carley,” she replies with a sigh. “Carley, don’t give Oliver any more cookies!” she admonishes holding the phone away from her ear.
I smile. “I told you we could’ve gotten Aubry to babysit and you could’ve come to the game with me and Logan,” I tease.
“Oh yeah, so fun,” she grumbles, and I laugh picturing her rolling her eyes at me.
“Okay, I gotta go, Logan is done peeing,” I respond.
She laughs. “He waited until they were about to throw the first pitch, huh?” she asks, teasing me because she knows how much I hate to miss that pitch.
“Yeah,” I mope.
“Poor baby,” she retorts with faux pity.
“I know, I always miss it when I come with him,” I say.
“Are you pouting?” she asks curiously.
“Yeah,” I reply with a smile.
“I wish I was there to bite that lip of yours,” she says.
I groan. “Stop. You’re going to give me a hard on in the middle of the men’s bathroom.”
She laughs. “I’ll take care of it when you get home.”
“Really?” I ask, handing Logan a paper towel.
“Well, maybe not when you get home…but after their bedtime, yes,” she answers.
“I can’t freaking wait,” I respond, my voice raspy with want imagining all the things I’m going to do to this woman when I get home.
“Me either,” she responds with a sigh.
She hangs up quickly when Oliver begins to cry in the background, and Logan and I go back to the game.
Surprisingly, Logan makes it to the bottom of the fifth inning before asking for a hot dog and juice, which I’m on board to eat. I explain to him, like I do every time we come, what each player does in their position and how cool it is. I’ve been trying to get him signed up for little league for a while, but he hasn’t seemed interested until recently.
When we leave the game, two hot dogs, a cotton candy, two bags of peanuts and some sodas later, I drive him by the park where he would play.
“I wanna play, daddy!” Logan says enthusiastically.
“You sure?” I ask, trying not to sound too hopeful.
“Yeah! Can Ryder play too?!” he shouts.
I laugh. “I think he will. I’ll talk to Uncle Aubry tomorrow morning and find out,” I respond, knowing that I don’t need to ask Aubry twice. We’ve already discussed helping coach the team, so I know without a doubt our boys will be playing next season.
Yes, I’m that dad. Don’t judge me.

Book 1 – There is No Light in Darkness

Book 2 – Darkness Before Dawn