Chapter 11
ELEVEN
TRAVIS
I was the luckiest man in this city, maybe this whole section of the world.
“Oh my gosh, thank you so much. Spot’s going to love them, and I love them and I just…just…” Casey gave up trying to speak and threw one of his arms around my neck instead. His new babies were squished between us, but they would be all right.
“You’re very welcome, bub.”
Casey squeezed a little tighter, rose onto his tiptoes, and pressed his mouth fully against mine.
I pulled him in again, wrapped my arm around his waist, and held him close.
We weren’t being inappropriate, but I wanted a real kiss.
Casey smiled against my mouth, and that pulled another one out of me.
The children behind us giggled, but that was fine too.
It wasn’t going to hurt them to see two people happy and affectionate.
Holding him like that made the rest of the world fall away until it was just us.
“I really do appreciate you getting them.”
“You’re very welcome, but I am itching to get home and go all Daddy on my boy,” I answered.
Casey gave me a look of complete understanding, grabbed my hand, and guided me toward the escalators.
We weaved and bobbed through the hordes of holiday shoppers.
Every once in a while, he’d look back to make sure I was following, even though he still gripped my hand.
His chocolate eyes were full of light and laughter.
The winged fringe of his eyelashes was so thick it looked like he was wearing eyeliner.
I thought they were beautiful the first time I saw them, but now they were breathtaking.
Seeing him like that hit me low in the gut, a reminder of how easy it was to want more of him.
I let him lead me to the checkout counters.
When he tried to pull out his wallet, one look had him sliding his hand right back into his pocket.
I gave an approving nod and turned back to the register to pay.
Casey rocked back and forth as he waited next to me.
Infectious excitement radiated through him and seemed to lift the mood of everyone around him, including the harried checkout person.
“These yours?” she asked him. Her sincere smile was focused entirely on Casey’s enthusiastic nod.
Once outside, we hurried to my car and climbed in.
Winter in the Pacific Northwest was no place to linger outside more than needed.
The constant drizzle since October was chilly, and we both sighed with relief when we reached cover.
I pushed the seat warmer button, and Casey’s bone-deep sigh gave me a secret thrill.
It felt ridiculous to say aloud, but I was giddy with happiness.
I felt like a real Daddy with a real boy who was ready for me to care for him.
I always thought that when this moment came, I’d be more nervous.
But it felt natural and right. Every instinct had pushed me here, and the world felt settled around me.
When I’d first stumbled on the Daddy/little dynamic, I was freshly divorced and having a pity party in a bar in Toronto during a run of road games from hell.
We couldn’t have hit the goal to save our lives, and I wasn’t helping make anything happen.
Sitting at the booth behind me was a Daddy and his boy.
They weren’t talking about anything earth-shattering, but the joy and happiness were so obvious that they couldn’t be ignored.
The more I eavesdropped, the more jealous I became that the Daddy was able to pour all his attention and love into his boy. I’d wanted what they had.
My trip down memory lane left me driving on autopilot.
Before I realized it, I’d pulled into my driveway.
We waited for the garage door to open, and I pulled inside.
In the seat beside me, Casey was quietly playing with his new stuffies.
They were playing some kind of tag game that seemed overly complicated.
Whatever it was, Casey was intent upon it.
When I didn’t move out of the car, he glanced up and cleared his throat.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, I was just thinking about how long I’ve been waiting for this, and now you’re here, and it’s pretty effing amazing.”
Casey quietly contemplated me from the passenger seat. His face was more serious than I was used to seeing from him.
“Here I am. And I’ve been waiting a while for a Daddy too. It’s kinda cool.”
“I’m probably going to screw something up,” I offered with a rueful snort.
“Me too.”
“Impossible. You’re perfect.” Casey looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “What? You are.”
“I’m scattered. I never remember to switch my laundry.
My bills are paid late on occasion because my bank makes it a difficult as possible, and I never take the time to get it straightened out.
My mom texts me passive-aggressive messages because I go too long without calling them.
Not in the running for perfect.” Casey looked at me as if he really thought those things would lessen his standing with me. Bonkers.
“First of all, scattered doesn’t make you less than perfect.
I’m happy to try and help figure out the app, put an alarm on your phone for your mom, and who remembers to switch the laundry?
Just run it again like the rest of the world.
Still perfect.” Casey’s head lolled back on the headrest, but I saw his smirk.
“I said what I said, and I’m pulling the Daddy card. ”
“Is that so?” Casey asked with an arched brow.
“Sure is.” I ignored his snort and continued, “And now we are going inside to get this playdate started.”
When Casey hopped out of the car, arms full of babies, I grabbed the bag and headed to the door leading inside. I dumped his LEGO and bracelet kit on the kitchen table and turned to face him.
“So I might’ve done another thing…” My voice trailed off when Casey looked at me with narrowed eyes. “But it’s small.”
“Small is good.”
“Yeah, exactly. You know at the party when your onesie wasn’t working right? I didn’t want you to have to mess with it anymore, so I got a replacement.”
“Daddy, that’s so sweet. Thank you.”
“Or two.”
“Oh, well, it’s nice to have choices, so thank you for that.”
And now what? No one mentioned this part. If we were just hooking up with each other, I knew what would come next—no pun intended—but I was completely out of my element. I hadn’t even been this nervous on my first pro game, and I could barely remember my name that night.
“Daddy, wanna make some bracelets with me?”
“Yeah, I absolutely do, bub.”
We settled at the kitchen table to make our masterpieces. It was harder than it looked in the videos we watched before getting started. The glorified dental floss wasn’t made for grown-up male fingers.
Casey showed me the pink-and-white one he’d made for Rory. The beads he’d chosen for the other boys were laid in front of him too. Orange was for Owen, green for Nico, and blue for Jakob.
“How did you pick colors for the boys?”
“Their auras,” Casey answered absentmindedly.
His tongue peeked from the corner of his mouth as he concentrated on knotting the string. When he finished Rory’s, he laid it reverently down and then arranged it just so.
“Is that a thing?”
Casey sat back in the chair and thought about my question. Finally, he answered, “I can’t see ’em, but it’s the colors I ’magine.”
He said it so simply, so matter-of-fact, that I wondered if he could see them and just didn’t want to say anything. The wondering was fleeting because I was distracted by how much I liked having him in my home.
The quiet moment echoed around the room in outsized importance, except it wasn’t inflated at all. Casey at my side felt more right than anything, or anyone, ever had. The question that popped into my mind and stayed at the forefront was how I would be able to keep him?
“Whatcha thinkin’ ’bout?”
“Lots of things, but mostly how cute you are.”
Casey stopped his line tying and turned toward me. “You think I’m cute?”
His preening was over the top with his hands under his chin and simpering eyes. The giggles that erupted from my throat were deep and warm rather than high and flighty, which made no sense, but somehow, he made it happen.
It had been too long since I’d touched him, and his soft hair pulled me in like a beacon. I chuckled at my own ridiculous and mixed-up metaphor.
“What’s so funny?”
“My own ridiculousness,” I said as my fingers curled through his dark hair.
It was silky soft, the ends curling just a little.
I was amazed at how thick it was. I was not a little bit jealous.
I was a lot jealous. Once I started running my fingers through it, I could not stop.
Everything about Casey made me want him more.
His lightness. His laugh. His body, which he spent so much time sculpting in the gym.
My fingers moved from his hair to the side of his throat. He shifted into my hand with a soft sigh. I shifted across the table and pressed a light kiss to his lips. When I pulled back, he followed and brushed his mouth against mine.
“Daddy, do you think we can finish this later?”
“Yeah, of course. Did you want to do something else instead?”
“Wanna take a bubble bath with me?”
“Always.”
“If I had this bathtub, I would never get out.” Casey sighed and sank deeper into the water. Only his head showed above the bubbles. The rest of him was lost under the foam and the warm, overflowing tub.
“Yeah. When I was playing some days, the only thing that kept me going was knowing I could come home and get in,” I said, turning the faucet off.
We both lay back against the ends of the oversized tub.
I had never fit in a standard bathtub, so I had this one custom-built to hold me with room to spare.
More than enough room for Casey. The jets kicked on, stirring the water and sending up even more bubbles while the scent of chamomile filled the air.