Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
B ryan did not sigh. Instead, he counted to five and answered Micah’s one thousandth question of the day. Everything was why and how come and from each answer sprang two more questions. He’d had issues chasing down payment from one of his clients this morning, and that made it feel like it had been a really long day, and the constant questions were making it longer.
“Where are we going?” Micah asked for about the eighth time.
“Asked and answered,” Bryan told his boy, keeping his voice even. He was good. They were all good, and soon the boys would be distracted by a new place and new people. And while he was pretty sure that wouldn’t put an end to the eternal questions, at least he wouldn’t be the only one available to answer them.
“Daaaaady! I forgetted!”
“Forgot,” he corrected without even thinking about it. “We’re going to visit my new friend and his girls.”
“Do they really live here?” That was Dylan, eyes wide as he looked up at the building they now stood in front of.
“Yes, they really do.”
“In a skyscraper? Really?”
Bryan chuckled—he wasn’t sure eight or nine floors technically counted as a skyscraper but it was to his boys—and nodded. “Yes. Really.” He could understand Dylan’s awe—they didn’t know anyone who lived in an apartment of any size so this was a very unique situation.
“That’s so cool!”
“So cool!” Micah parroted.
They went in and he stopped at the security desk, keeping the boys’ hands firmly in his. “Hi. I’m here to visit Devlin Marx.”
“Name, sir?” the guy asked.
“Bryan St-Vincent.”
The guard consulted his computer for a moment, then nodded. “The elevator bank on the left. Sixth floor.”
“Thanks.” He assumed the guard was able to trigger whatever he needed to so that Bryan and the boys could actually go up without a key, so he headed in that direction.
The moment they stepped away from the security guard, the boys started up again, just amazed by the whole experience so far.
“Was that a police, Daddy?”
“Why did he want to know your name?”
“What are all the buttons for?” That question included him having to keep Micah away from the panel so no extra buttons were pushed.
When the elevator arrived at the sixth floor and the doors slid open, their questions stopped, both of them simply taking it all in as they walked along the hall to Dev’s place.
“Who wants to knock?”
“Me!”
“Me! Pick me!”
“How about you guys do it together,” he suggested.
Which they did, banging hard on the door. He grabbed their hands. “Okay, okay. I think they heard that.”
Marley answered the door with a grin. “Hey there! Come on in. Daddy was in the studio, so he’s washing up.
The apartment was homey enough that he didn’t worry too much about the boys making a mess.
“Hi, Marley. This is Dylan and Micah. Boys, this is Marley.”
Micah pressed against his leg, suddenly shy, but Dylan held out his hand and said, “pleased to meet you.”
“Hey guys. We have an art room—you want to come color?”
“Yes!” Micah grabbed hold of Dylan’s hand. “An art room, D. Come on!”
Bryan grinned. If she was interviewing for the babysitting job, she was doing a good job.
Juniper came over. “They can make all sorts of things. Daddy likes making things.”
“They like making things, too. What about you, are you not going to make art too?” She and her sister seemed so different. It was neat.
“I am, but it’s rude to leave a guest alone, so I’ll go when Daddy comes in.” So confident.
He was charmed. “Well aren’t you a very polite young lady! Thank you very much, I appreciate that.”
“You’re welcome. Would you like a drink? We have water and juice and soda, or there’s a kettle for tea.”
“I’m good for now, thanks.” He was about to ask how her day at school had been but stopped himself. He’d already committed some weird faux pas with her yesterday, asking about homework, which apparently was a teachers-only domain. “Are you looking forward to the weekend?” That should be neutral enough and not teacher-like.
“Yep! We’re going to the zoo tomorrow. Daddy has a new painting there.”
“A painting at the zoo? That’s pretty cool.” His boys loved the zoo.
“Yeah. At the penguin house. Would you all like to come? We have special tickets, and we get to stay after the zoo closes!”
“Oh wow! Well, we should maybe check with your dad, huh?” That sounded like so much fun, but he didn’t know how many special tickets Dev had, or if he’d even want them to come.
“Daddy says he’s going to ask, because it’s so much fun. I’m bringing my best friend Victor, and Marley is bringing Hannah. Three and three and two is eight!”
“It is indeed. It sounds like fun,” he admitted. And it was Saturday and they hadn’t done something fun like the zoo in far too long.
“Cool.” A door opened, and Juniper jumped up. “Daddy! He says yes about the zoo!”
“Does he? Excellent!”
“If you’re sure it’s all right, we’d love to go.” He didn’t want to push Dev into it just because Juniper had asked.
“Oh, we wanted to invite you. We have eight tickets. It’s a whole day thing—we get to stay after the zoo closes and see the animals as it gets dark.”
“That sounds really cool. The boys will be excited, I’m sure.” He’d pack them sandwiches and juice boxes and snacks. Hopefully, they had what they needed. Maybe they would stop at the corner store on the way home and get bread.
“It should be. We’ll have food passes, drink passes, and amusement passes. It’ll be a perfect day of exhausted children.”
“Oh, wow, that’s very generous of you.” He wouldn’t have to say no to the boys when they asked for stuff. That never happened anymore.
“I have eight passes. It’s my pleasure. I can’t guarantee babysitting—Marley and Hannah tend to be somehow more teenaged together than they do apart.”
“Hannah?” Bryan figured babysitting wasn’t even a consideration—he’d be there with his boys after all and considering they were getting a lovely outing for free, they totally didn’t need babysitting on top of that.
“Her best friend on earth. They met in kindergarten. They are deep in each other’s pockets.”
“Ah. And they get up to no good together, eh?” That’s what best friends were for, right? Egg you on and have your back no matter what. Miller had been his best friend as well as his lover. Grant had never been a best friend. That should have been his first red flag.
“They do, and they are starting to pay attention to fashion and experiment with makeup and being on their phones. It’s… different.”
“I bet. Having boys has its own challenges, but it doesn’t sound like having girls is easy at all!” He knew he’d learn—the internet could be his best friend too—if he had girls, but it still seemed harder than boys.
“They’re unicorns, that’s for sure.”
Bryan laughed at that. “And boys are…? Rhinos?” They both had single horns, after all.
Dev’s laughter filled the living room, the sound bright and happy.
He loved that, almost as much as he loved hearing kids laugh. Joy was a good thing. He just grinned, pleased he’d amused Dev.
“Come on in. Would you like a drink? I figure we’d order whatever you guys ate. I don’t cook.”
Bryan blinked a few times, taking that in. “At all. Like not at all?”
Dev gave him a warm smile. “Nope. I had a housekeeper, but she had to move to be closer to her grandchildren. I’m interviewing for someone new, but for now, we’re just making do.”
There was a period of time when if Bry hadn’t been able to cook, and do so on an extreme budget, they wouldn’t have eaten at all. Hell, he’d frequented the food bank when Grant had first left them destitute. It had only been by the grace of God, and the Pereiras that they hadn’t been homeless. “We’ll have to have you over for a home-cooked meal then. As a thank-you for tonight and tomorrow’s adventure.”
“Oh, that’s very kind. We’d love to.”
“Awesome. Chicken, broccoli, and what was it your other daughter prefers again?” He had a few casseroles that might fit the bill. And he could always look something up on the internet. You name it and there was a recipe for it.
“She’ll eat anything, but she prefers for it to be terrible for her.”
Bryan chuckled. “We’ll come up with something for them.” His boys would want to ‘help’ cook for guests. “Maybe Sunday? Say, late afternoon?” That would let them sleep in a little bit, go to the market for food, and have everyone go to bed early enough for school Monday morning.
“Sounds amazing. Thank you.”
“Excellent.” He didn’t examine too closely how it made him happy that he would be spending the entire weekend with Dev and his girls. He knew he was lonely, but it was more than that—so far from what he knew of Dev, he liked the guy a lot. Handsome, fierce about his kids, a smile that lit up his face, and they had something in common on top of that.
“So what do you guys want tonight?” Dev asked.
“Oh, right! What are our choices?”
“Basically, anything you want. You name it, I can have it delivered.” Devon grinned. “I actually have a folder of menus, if you want to search through. She left two months ago, and we had to improvise.”
The temptation to say ‘oh poor baby’ was huge, but he didn’t, because he had no idea. Maybe Dev didn’t cook because he didn’t know how. Maybe he worked twelve-hour days.
He was going to have to reserve judgment, no matter how weird not cooking at all seemed to him.
“Well, my boys love anything Mexican. Especially tacos and flautas. Pretty much if it’s finger food, they’ll eat it. And there’s lots of other stuff they’ll eat—that was just off the top of my head.” He’d learned to make tacos at home, but he couldn’t do anything that got deep fried. He could probably learn how, but the hot oil thing was intimidating, and fryers weren’t cheap. “And I’ll eat anything. Pretty much literally.”
“Well then, let’s do tacos. My girls love tacos. We had chicken soup last night. I’d ordered it earlier in the day, but it wound up being the perfect choice. We all needed a little comfort food after our unexpected and unwelcome visitors. Not you of course.”
Bryan couldn’t imagine ordering chicken soup. Part of what made that comfort food for him was that it was homemade, but he wasn’t judging, right? Everyone was different.
“Tacos sounds good. Can we get a few flautas, too? They really do love munching on those.” And he maybe liked them even better than tacos himself.
“Absolutely. How do you feel about guacamole? I’m a chip and dip person, all the way.”
“I like a good guac. Especially if it’s mixed with some salsa and sour cream.” Hopefully Dev wasn’t a purist who would think that was gross. Bry liked all the flavors together on one chip.
“Ooh… okay. So, tacos, flautas, all the dips, chips.” Dev nodded and went to make an order.
He thought maybe Dev didn’t approve of the way he ate his guacamole. He chuckled and relaxed back on one of the couches. This was very comfy. He closed his eyes, just for a moment.
Before he knew it, he smelled food and heard his boys giggling.
Bry blinked. Shit, he’d fallen asleep. He looked around. “Oh man, sorry. Sorry.”
“Shh. You’re fine. We all made art.” Dev’s smile was so kind.
“Oh, that’s sounds nice.” He blinked a few more times, smiled at his boys.
“You was sleeping, Daddy,” Micah informed him, both he and Dylan giggling some more.
“I was. I guess I was more tired than I thought and your couch is so comfortable,” he told Dev. So many people had couches that looked great, were classy and such, but were not comfortable to sit on. Dev’s couch definitely fell into the comfy category. At least the one he was on did.
“It’s amazing. I love it. It’s like puffy heaven. Both of them are.”
Bry nodded, amused. “Yes! That’s it exactly.”
“Daddy, are you awake enough to eat now? There’s tacos!” Dylan was always hungry these days. His boy was going through a growth spurt, he’d bet money on it.
“And fluties!” Micah added.
“And chips and guacamolly!” Juniper grinned, even as the eldest girl rolled her eyes.
“Well, I don’t want to keep anyone waiting if there’s fluties and guacamolly.” He got up and followed the kids as they trooped into the kitchen, which had a nice-sized table, already laid out with plates and the take-out food in the center. “It smells delicious.”
“Doesn’t it? I want to try guacamole with salsa in it.” Dev grinned at him, obviously trying to put him at ease. “What do your boys drink?”
“Milk or water. I try to keep the sugary drinks to a minimum, especially in the evenings.” He wasn’t a crazy no-sugar-at-all dad, but he had found that high-sugar content drinks had absolutely no nutrition and hyped the boys up. Hyped-up kids were the last thing you needed when bedtime rolled around.
“Yeah. I understand. I have milk. Juniper?”
“I’d like water, please, Daddy. Is there lemon?”
“There is.”
Bryan tilted his head. “Lemon juice in the water? Or a fancy slice on the side?” He nodded to the boys, letting them know they could take some food. He trusted they wouldn’t fill their plates with three quarters of what was there, but would know they could go back for seconds.
“Just a fancy slice. I like lemon in my water. It makes it goes down easier,” she informed him.
“Oh, that’s cool.” Bryan thought water went down just fine, but he also knew kids all had their foibles. He kept an eye on his boys, pleased to see them each take one taco and two flautas. He took two tacos of his own and one flauta, along with scoops of salsa, guac, and sour cream.
The girls each took tacos, and Dev took the dips and some chips.
Was that all he was going to eat? Was there not enough for everyone?
“Not hungry?” he asked, hoping it was that and not that he and his boys were taking more than their share, although there seemed to be plenty of food left. He bet there’d be leftovers, even if he and the boys went back for seconds.
“I’m a grazer. I’ll eat this. Then a little more. Then a little more.”
“Ah. That makes sense.” No longer worried they were running out of food, he happily munched on his tacos. These were pretty good.
The kids all jabbered happily about art and cartoons and the zoo, eating like they were starving, comfortable around Dev.
This was clearly a good man, and, despite the circumstances of why they’d met, he was glad they had. So far, he more than liked what he saw, and he wanted to get to know Dev better.
“So what kind of art did you do for the zoo?”
“I donated a painting for the new building. It’s a pair of penguins and their baby.”
“That sounds adorable. Did you use actual zoo penguins as the models?”
Dev smiled, the expression friendly. “I did. I went down, took some photos, and worked from them.”
“That’s awesome! I can’t wait to see the piece and then the penguins that inspired it.”
“Tomorrow, huh? They hung it today, and the unveiling is at three p.m.”
“So when and where are we meeting up?” He and the boys would be there with bells on. They hadn’t had an extensive outing like this before. An expedition to the zoo, behind the scenes stuff, and food? They were going to remember this for a long time.
“We can pick you up at one thirty? Does that sound like fun?”
“Have you got room for all of us? Both boys are still in car seats.”
“I’ll have a van pick us up.”
“Cool.” Bryan wasn’t used to having money for whatever anymore, even if they were doing so much better now, so it was surprising every time Dev casually said stuff like that.
“Yeah. It’s the easiest answer. We have to pick up the girls’ friends too.”
“Sounds awesome. Let me text you our address.” He grabbed his phone and typed it in, sent it off. “Now you’ll know where to go next week for Sunday supper, too.” He was going to be spoiled for company, what with being here tonight, doing the zoo with Dev and his family tomorrow, and them coming over next Sunday. “Hopefully, you won’t be sick of us by then.”
“We’re having a ball. Aren’t we, girls?”
Both girls nodded around their tacos.
“And so are we, eh, guys?”
“Balls!” Micah shouted, both hands in the air.
Bryan bit the side of his mouth, hard, to keep from bursting out laughing. He didn’t want to encourage them, though, and he knew laughing totally would.
The girls stared at each other, then started giggling.
Micah clearly didn’t know what the joke was, but he was happy to have made everyone laugh and so he did it again, shouting “Balls,” and enthusiastically throwing his hands in the air. Then Dylan joined him.
Bryan shook his head, then put it in his hands. Oye.
“Ah, boys. How is the food?” Dev chuckled, obviously trying to distract.
“It’s balls!” Micah said, clearly believing he was onto something.
“Micah…” Bryan gave his son a look. “It was funny the first time.”
“That means it’s really good, Daddy,” Micah insisted.
“Then say it’s really good.”
“Okay.” Micah shoved half a flauta into his mouth.
“Sometimes it’s like a… hiccup, saying something funny,” Juniper said, smiling at Micah.
Oh, that was so sweet. Bryan smiled at Juniper. Dev’s kids were good kids. It said so much about the man.
“So, what do you do for a living?” Dev asked him as the kids settled back down to finishing their food. “I don’t think we discussed it yesterday.”
“Nothing exciting like what you do. I’m an accountant.” It let him work from home. Let him set his own schedule; as long as he got people’s taxes done and their accounts settled, he was good. And it paid good money, too, which was a bonus given the lack of funds.
“Oh, that’s a great job, though. Solid. Stable.”
Assuming your ex doesn’t steal it all, of course…
“It pays the bills and because I’m working for myself, I can work as much extra as I want at tax season rather than mandatory overtime.” He’d put in his time with a company, and February to April, nobody saw their family.
“Oh, good for you. I appreciate that—sometimes my life gets a little nuts, to be honest.”
“That’s one thing I learned from the whole debacle—to make time for what’s important. Which in my case is my boys.”
“I understand that, bone deep. I have my girls and my arts.”
Bry held Dev’s gaze and nodded. They got each other.
“Is there sweets?” Micah asked.
“He means dessert,” Dylan clarified.
“Do you like pineapple? We have a tray of pineapple, mandarins, and strawberries.”
“Stawlberries!” Micah put his hand in the air as he said it, just like he’d cheered for ‘balls’. It was adorable.
“I love pineapple. You gotta love a fruit that eats you back.”
“I’ll get it, Daddy,” Marley said, hopping up.
“Pineapple eats you?” Micah asked, eyes huge.
“In a way, but don’t worry about it. You eat it more than it eats you,” Bry assured his boy.
“Okay. I’ll have strawlberries.”
Bryan chuckled. “Sounds good.”
“I want the mandarins. They’re my favs.” Juni snapped up the last of her taco.
“I am going to have a little bit of each one. Fruit is delicious. It’s like nature’s candy.” He preferred it to candy, actually, but Bry knew that put him in the minority, especially when it came to this particular table.
Cue his older boy. “It’s not as good as candy!”
“It’s better than some candy,” Juniper argued. “Not as good as others.”
“All candy is good,” Dylan insisted. Micah nodded his agreement with his older brother.
His boys were still at the age where they didn’t distinguish. If it was sweet and sugary, well then it was yummy and they were happy to eat it. Of course, that meant that they could have the cheap candy so it didn’t cost him the earth to treat them.
“I like peppermint and dark chocolate together the best,” Marley added.
“Mint is too spicy,” Dylan noted. “But chocolate is awesome!”
“I like squishy worms.” Micah started counting off on his fingers, and when he ran out, he just started back at the first one. “And choco bars, and squishy bears, and crunchy candy, and pixie sticks, and nerds, and sweetarts.”
“Basically, he’s saying if it’s candy, he likes it,” Bry noted, rubbing the hair on Dylan’s head. “Though he doesn’t get it that often.” Because the way Dylan was talking, it sounded like he ate candy all the time.
“It’s okay, man. This is a no-judgment zone, you know?”
“That’s good to know.” Man, he’d really become defensive about the boys, hadn’t he? He thought it was a result of what had happened. He was defensive because he judged himself badly for losing all that money; he’d already let them down so badly.
Dev nodded and patted his hand. “It’s hard. I get it. We’re going to make him pay.”
He nodded and turned his hand over to hold Dev’s and squeeze it. “That sounds really good.” It was also really good to not be in this alone. He hadn’t realized how isolating being taken advantage of like that had been until he had someone else to talk to who got it. “Thank you.”
“It’s okay. No judgment.” Dev winked at him, and Marley brought a plastic tray of fruits from the fridge and some plastic chopsticks over to the table.
“Skewers!” Juniper clapped and bounced.
“What’s those?” Dylan asked.
Bryan figured he’d let Juniper answer as they seemed to be a favorite eating utensil of hers, and he was curious to see how she used them.
“We poke the fruit, and then munch.” She skewered a piece of mandarin with the tip of one of her chopsticks, then ate it off the end. “Yum!”
Micah grabbed one of the chopsticks and stabbed it into a piece of pineapple, then ate it off the end of the stick and said, “Yum!”
And that was adorable.
Dylan also took a chopstick and used it to spear a piece of fruit—choosing a strawberry as he’d said he would—then ate it.
Micah looked at Dylan expectantly, and when Dylan didn’t say anything, Micah nudged him.
“You gotta say yum!”
“Oh! Yum!”
Marley giggled, then she stabbed a pineapple and ate it. The little boys stared at her as she paused. “YUM!”
They laughed, and Bry grinned and grabbed his own chopstick to get in on the action. There was more laughter when he said “Yum!” too after eating his slice of kiwi.
Then all five of them stared at Dev.
Dev waggled his eyebrows, then speared a pineapple and a strawberry, then ate them both, chewing and licking his lips. “Yum!”
That had his boys in conniptions, laughing so hard. Damn, that was a good sound anytime, but when it was his own boys, it was even better.
He knew that Dev wasn’t a friend—not yet—but it was an absolute possibility. And God knew, he needed more friends in his life. Especially one who understood him the way that Dev did.