Chapter 7
(Cooper)
“You’re looking pleased with yourself; what gives?” Cooper asked as he flopped on the couch beside Gage as he closed his laptop.
“Just finished sharing some more Shriveled Rose footage with Song and found out he and his band have brought Ajay in as their new singer,” Gage explained.
“He was so excited and inspired after seeing those videos that he said he was headed up to his room to finish a new song. By the time he and Zachy chat tonight, I’m sure he’ll have something new to share with him. ”
“Good for him,” Cooper replied. “I was worried about him after you told me what happened at the club.”
“I tried to tell you there was nothing to worry about,” Gage explained.
“I know, but he’s special, just like Zachy. They’re both just so sweet and innocent, even when they’re all hyped up on sugar and being absolute gremlins when they’re trying to prank us.”
“That’s half the fun right there.”
“Yeah. I can’t wait to see what they get up to on Sunday.”
“Well, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to find out, since you’ll be in here supervising the cookie making while I grill up some meat and veggies for kebabs.”
“You have seen that the forecast is calling for snow Saturday night?” Cooper asked.
“And?”
“Do you have a backup plan?”
“Don’t need one.”
“You can’t seriously be planning to stand out there manning the grill with snow on the ground.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’ll be cold as fuck, that’s why not.”
“Coats and boots were invented for a reason.”
Sputtering, Cooper couldn’t think of a single follow-up statement to that.
“I’ve got a cap with earflaps I can pull on if I truly need it, though I doubt I will; they’re only calling for a few inches.”
“The last time they claimed we were only getting a few inches, we found ourselves in whiteout conditions as a blizzard swept through.”
“True, but entirely unlikely to happen again.”
“Unlikely, but not impossible.”
“If it turns out I’m wrong, you can whisper ‘I told you so’ in my ear as you warm me up.”
“What makes you think I’d let you anywhere near me with popsicle fingers?” Cooper huffed.
“’Cause[TM3] you know I’ll think of some wicked ways to make it up to you?”
“Uh-huh, sure, sounds to me like you’re already planning ways to steal my body heat.”
“And?”
“You suck.”
“That can be on the menu too.”
“I hate you so hard right now.”
“No, you don’t,” Gage teased, gliding his fingers over the front of Cooper’s pants. “Semi-hard, maybe, but I can fix that too.”
Cooper smacked a hand to his face, grumbling as Gage stroked him more, until the disgruntled sounds that spilled from his lips morphed into low, pleasure-filled moans.
“Now you can hate me as hard as you want to,” Gage teased, beginning to ease his hands away.
Oh, no way in hell was that gonna stand; Cooper grabbed it and dragged it back over the bulge in his jeans, growling when Gage gave a gentle squeeze.
“Save that for the bedroom tonight,” Gage growled as he withdrew his hand. “That way we can watch our beautiful boy play with it too.”
“You enjoy tormenting me, don’t you?”
“It’s become one of my favorite pastimes.”
“No shit.”
Gage chuckled at that, then his expression turned serious. Cooper knew that look. There was something important that Gage wanted to discuss with him, and he was working out the best way to phrase it.
“You might as well just spit it out,” Cooper encouraged. “I know that look. What’s gnawing at you?”
“Song,” Gage blurted, and heaved a heavy sigh. “I just…”
“You’re attached already,” Cooper finished for him.
“Yeah.”
“So is Zachy.”
“You see it too?”
“Hard to miss,” Cooper replied. “So, what’s the problem?”
“You.”
“Huh?”
“Just wondering what your thoughts are when it comes to him?” Gage asked. “You’ve said very little. It won’t work if we don’t all share the same connection, and you’ve been a bit aloof when it comes to him.”
“He’s awesome,” Cooper said. “We both know Zachy doesn’t make friends easily, but in Song’s case it feels like they are already moving beyond friendship.
When I listen to them giggling and flirting with one another at bedtime, it feels like Song is a piece we didn’t even realize that we were missing from our lives. ”
“But?”
Sighing, Cooper ran his hand over his hair while he struggled to explain the feelings he’d had since Song had come into their lives.
“Hey, don’t feel like you have to say yes if you’d prefer to keep things the way they are. Song and Zachy can still have plenty of playdates and hang out together,” Gage said. “If we put our heads together, we might even be able to find the perfect Daddy for Song if it isn’t meant to be us.”
“It’s not that,” Cooper blurted, only his thoughts froze up, and he couldn’t follow up his words with a proper explanation.
“Then what is it?
“I’ve barely gotten the hang of taking care of one little,” Cooper explained.
“Do you really think we can handle a second one without everything falling on you? My work schedule still doesn’t allow me the amount of free time I’d like to devote to being here with you and Zachy; I’d just hate to upset the applecart and fuck things up for everybody. ”
Turning and slipping an arm around him, Gage tugged him closer until Cooper rested his head on Gage’s shoulder and lay half sprawled on him, wrapped in a warm, firm embrace.
“You’ve come a long way from the daddy you were on the cruise ship with Zachy,” Gage explained.
“I know you still beat yourself up about the way you handled things both there and in the playroom with Zachy’s toy, but like I’ve told you a million times, all daddies make mistakes.
It’s the good ones who learn and grow from them.
As for your job, all of us are busy; it’s not just you.
And with Song’s music and artwork, he pulls long hours the same as the rest of us.
I know his siblings do too, which means that he spends a lot of time on his own when he’s not with his band.
If he was a needy boy who needed a ton of attention, then yeah, I could see where we might run into issues, but I think you’ll find that things will fall into place once we all have a chance to settle into the routine. ”
“If you’re really sure, then I’d love to put the offer on the table.”
“I am, and I don’t want you to worry if I wind up doing a bit more with them here or there. It doesn’t mean any of us will love you any less; it just means we’ll cherish the time we get to spend together even more, that’s all.”
“I admit that’s been the biggest drawback whenever I’ve started to think about the possibility of bringing him into the relationship.”
“But you have been thinking about it.”
“Oh yeah.”
“Okay then,” Gage said. “Let’s see how the next few weeks play out and revisit the topic then. There’s no need to rush. With the holidays coming, we’ll all have some time off. It will be far easier to spend more of it together then and see if we’re truly as compatible as I think we are.”
“Sounds like a good plan to me.”
Gage nodded at that, only instead of staying relaxed against the back of the couch the way he’d been, he suddenly sat up and cocked his head.
“What?” Cooper asked, expecting to hear a knock on the door or some other unexpected interruption to their evening.
“Do you hear that?”
“What?” Cooper asked, hearing nothing but silence and the low music rumbling from the smart speaker as it played an old classic rock song.
“Exactly,” Gage said as he got to his feet. “Zachy is in the playroom, and yet there is nothing but silence. “Let’s go see what our boy has gotten into.”
Quietly, they slipped down the hall, Cooper expecting to see that their boy had played so hard he’d worn himself out and fallen asleep in the big, soft turtle-shaped bed they’d placed in there for him.
The door was open, as it always was when he was playing, only the sight that greeted them wasn’t one of a sleeping Zachy, but Zachy bent over the art table with what looked like a Christmas stocking stretched out on the table in front of him.
Silently, they crept forward to get a closer look, Gage pressing his fingers to his lips to remind Cooper not to say or do anything to startle him, since it looked like he was hard at work on something.
Oh shit.
There were three canisters of glitter on the table beside Zachy’s hand: purple, silver, and aqua. As they watched, he carefully finished writing Song’s name on the stocking and reached for the purple glitter as Gage motioned for them to back out of the room.
“Oh my god, where did he get glitter? It’s going to sparkle in the playroom forever,” Cooper moaned once they’d retreated to the far end of the hall.
He knew he was being overly dramatic as he draped himself against Gage and rested his head on his shoulder, groaning in despair at the mess he knew would be left behind.
The last time Zachy had gotten his hands on glitter had been in the art room on the ship.
He’d sparkled for the duration of their vacation, despite pool time and Cooper’s efforts to scrub it out of his hair.
Hell, the shower had sparkled with the stubborn shit clinging to the tile in places.
“Not just the playroom,” Gage pointed out, amusement in his voice. “If he gets any at all on him, you know it’s going to wind up on the pillows and between the sheets.”
“And stuck to me somewhere I won’t notice until someone points it out at work tomorrow.”
“That too.”
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“Might be fun to do a full body check just to make sure you don’t go to work with a glittering eyebrow.”
“Why do I suddenly feel like my eyebrows will be the last thing you’ll worry about checking?”
“Because you’re an astute man who knows when someone is plotting something nefarious.”
“Easy enough to spot the signs around you; you’re always plotting something nefarious.”
“Precisely.”
“At least it keeps things interesting,” Cooper said, giving up on further attempts at bantering with him.