Chapter 14
Calvin
“You know, you’re not so bad when you’re sitting here happy,” I tell Emily. I have no idea whether she understands me. She probably only understands the word ‘ no’, so she can ignore it.
It helps that her mouth is full of animal crackers and she’s happily getting crumbs all over me. I’ll live, but I draw the line at changing diapers. Is she still in diapers? I know absolutely zero about infants and toddlers.
She’s pretty cute when she’s not being feral, with her blonde hair in little pompoms on top of her head.
Emily looks up at me with soggy crumbs all over her face. Ugh, gross. “Muh.”
I dig in the box and pull out a few more cookies. I have no idea how many she’s allowed, but she’s happy, so it’s a win in my book.
The ride is over, but only Seth and Sawyer return. Seth stops in his tracks and looks at me with what? Doe eyes? Jesus. I’m only watching his daughter. What’s the big deal?
I almost didn’t come today because I needed to work.
But when Seth came to my door in his little yellow golf shorts, exposing lean, tanned, runner’s legs, a pink polo, and a white sweater wrapped around his shoulders, he was too cute to ignore.
He looks like an Easter egg exploded all over him.
And now he’s taken. Bummer. But I can still admire him from afar.
I never thought I’d be into preppy dudes, but here we are.
“Look at you and Em. Seems like you two can be friends after all.”
“Tsh, what’s not to like about this hellcat? If she misbehaves, she gets to live with you, not me.”
God, I love pushing his buttons. Before, he was scowling and fighting the urge to flip me the bird, and now he rolls his eyes and tries not to smile. ‘Try’ being the operative word. He always gives in to the inevitable.
“Hey, Sawyer,” I say.
He gives me a quick wave and tucks his body behind his dad. He seems to be the shyest and quietest of the three kids.
Seth sits next to me as Sawyer crawls beside him. “Braeden seems to be having fun. He’s really coming out of his shell,” he says.
“I blame it all on Cicero. He deserves all the credit. That cat is a dang diva, demanding all the love and attention.”
The way Braeden’s eyes lit up when I told him we were getting a cat did something to my cold, dead heart. He may still be hurting, but the cat makes him feel a bit better.
“Humility doesn’t suit you, Cal.”
“No? Too bad.”
“You’re impossible.”
“So you keep saying.”
Seth chuckles as we watch the two older boys head our way when they wrap up their second ride.
We all stand, and I plop the velociraptor princess into her stroller, now calm, then we head toward Storyland.
The place is filled with little areas representing children’s books. And there are a ton of kids, most of them screaming and running, which is kind of a headache. I can already feel the pressure in my temples.
“Alright, boys, please keep an eye on your sister.”
All four kids ran off, making sure Emily was close to them. The area is small enough, and we can watch them from where we sit on the park bench.
“You sure you want to let her loose in the world?” I tease.
He huffs a laugh and bumps my shoulder playfully, which makes me smile in return, while trying to ignore the strange zings that hit me. “I try to promote independence and autonomy in my kids. I don’t want them to feel constrained by life, you know.”
I think about my mother and how I was raised.
It was nothing like this. “I was pretty much neglected,” I tell him.
It slips out with a strange ease, but I don’t divert the subject to something more pleasant.
I understood a long time ago why women enjoy venting so much.
“Part of it wasn’t my mom’s fault since she had to work all the time to take care of me, but she had no constraints on me.
I ran amok much like your little hellion.
She didn’t teach me much, except that when I did something wrong, she would punish me for it, even if I didn’t know any better.
I spent much of my youth learning from my friends, who were hellions themselves. ”
“Sounds terrible. Parents shouldn’t neglect their kids. They need love and guidance.”
“That’s not even half of it,” I reply, but I don’t elaborate, and I don’t acknowledge his staring.
I’m not in the mood to go into that much detail.
Honestly, it’s a wonder I’ve done as well as I have with my life.
“How’s the boyfriend?” I ask to change the subject, not that I want to know about his boyfriend all that much.
“Good. It’s good.”
“Just good? Not fantastic? Not on cloud nine? Not ‘he makes my heart beat faster and my hole throb pleasantly’?” Yeah, I went there.
“Oh my god. Stop. We’ve only had a few dates.”
“I saw him coming out of your house one morning with a grin on his face. You must’ve done something right.”
Seth’s face bloomed and went blotchy. I gnawed on my bottom lip to stop myself from smiling like a loon. “That’s none of your business.”
“Who knew my neighbor was such a tiger in bed?”
“Stop!” he snaps, but he can’t hide the humor in his voice, nor the smile on his face. “You’re seriously incorrigible.”
I leaned close to his ear. He smells of lemons and other citrusy scents. It suits him. “Maybe, but I have a few good qualities.” His breath catches, and his eyes ping to mine. The blues with flecks of yellow are quite pretty. “I mean, look at how I get you to react to me.”
Seth quickly pulls away and coughs, masking his blush again. “No doubt you excel at that.”
I laugh and make a mental note not to tease him so much. It’s fun, but I also shouldn’t give him the wrong idea. He’s taken, and I’m not looking, no matter how cute he is.
“Harrison! Harrison! Emily’s running off,” he yells suddenly. All three boys chase after her. I can hear her squealing with laughter from here. Even Braeden is laughing. That’s definitely a good sign.
“Brae is nicely distracted by your kiddos. Thanks for this.”
He glances at me with a soft smile and a gleam in his eyes. “You’re welcome.”
Seth adjusts himself on the bench to look at me. “Say, now that you’re a dad—”
“Dad?” God, what a weird thing to hear me called that. “I’m not even officially his guardian yet, Tiger.” There go those rolling eyes again. I swear to god, I’m going to call him Tiger for as long as I live. “Besides, I’ll never replace his dad. Robert was a better man than I’ll ever be.”
“Technicalities. You’re still a father figure to him now. The reason I say this is that I want to invite you to our poker club.”
I cross my legs and stretch my arms out along the back of the bench, watching the kids chase Emily around. “Poker, you say?”
“Yep, every other Friday we get together and play. Royal Dads’ Poker Night. It’s not high stakes or anything. It’s hanging out with queer men like us who are dads. It’s a little community we’ve formed with people we can relate to.”
“You talk about kids all night? I don’t know… it doesn’t sound that enticing.”
“Sometimes, but mostly we talk about ourselves, life, and the game. It’s fun, even if I suck at playing.”
“Poker, you say? Maybe. It does sound fun. I barely have any friends, unless you count my bad-ass PA. Too busy pushing my business to succeed.”
“I’ll talk to my friends to make sure, but there’s a game next Friday if you want to come.”
“What do I do with Braeden?”
Seth thinks about it for a second and nods.
“Well, he’s a little old for my babysitting place, which cuts off at thirteen.
He’s old enough to stay home for a few hours at night, but not right now.
He’s still hurting, so he can come with us and hang out.
Sometimes there are other kids there, but there’s always something for them to do. ”
“Thanks, Tiger.”
“God, why do I even bother?”
“Come on, you love it.”
He looks at me flatly. “Anyway… it starts at eight. I’ll drive us, if you want.”
“Okay, let’s do it.”
“And no calling me ‘tiger’ while we’re there.”
“Well, shit, now I want to call you that even more.”
“Ugh, you’re uninvited.”
I throw my head back and laugh. Honestly, it’ll be nice to meet other men and make some friends.
“Emily’s running on her last legs. We’d better go so I can get her to nap.”
The kids run back to us when Seth calls them. They’re completely disheveled and dirty, except for Braeden. He seems more like the indoor type.
Emily looks exhausted, and when Seth gets her all buckled into her stroller, she doesn’t fight him. In fact, as soon as we start moving, she crashes, her little arm dangling off to the side.
“Ah, the joys of sleeping children.”
Seth eyes me and smirks. Instead of complaining, he says, “It can be pretty nice. Quiet is a luxury in my house.”
We reach his minivan, and we get the kids all in. Before we climb in ourselves, he turns to face me. “You don’t have to say yes, but would you like to eat dinner with us tonight?”
I lean my arm on the car and grin at him. “You asking me out there, Tiger?”
He stammers, and his eyes go wide. “W-what? Huh? Ah…”
I chuckle and raise my hand to him. “I’m only teasing you.”
“Ugh, I’m never getting used to your humor, if you can even call it that.”
“I’m gutted. You’re a cruel man, Seth Griffin.”
“You’re so weird,” he says as we drive home.
“Hey,” I say, making him glance at me before his eyes focus back on the road. “All jokes aside, you’ve helped me with this major life transition. I’m not sure how well I would have done had you left me to the wolves. I’m glad to know you.”
Seth narrows his eyes at me, looking for jokes or lies, then he smiles. “I’m glad, too.”
After my shower, and before Braeden and I head over to Seth’s place for dinner, my stomach does a weird flip while I get dressed. It’s short-lived, but I felt it nonetheless.
Oh boy.
That’s not good.