Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“ D addy! Daddy, I need to practice. Please. Can everyone be quiet for half an hour?” Marley was in tears. “I have a recital in three weeks! I need to practice!”
“Okay. Okay, I’ll deal with it.” Dev’s head was pounding, but that was mostly because he wanted to work, and he couldn’t. “Hey, guys. Marley needs to practice. Do you want to go up to the roof?”
“Daddy says we can’t go unless a grown-up is with us,” Dylan informed him.
“Guess what. I am a grown-up!” He winked and started gathering kiddos. “Let’s go upstairs.”
“I wanna watch cartoons,” Juni complained.
“Cartoons!” Micah parroted, predictably.
“But the swings are up on the roof,” Dylan pointed out. “I wanna swing. C’mon, Micah.”
Micah looked from Juni to his brother, and back, then shrugged. “I do swings.”
Juni crossed her arms defiantly. “Fine. I’ll watch cartoons all by myself.”
“Get your sweaters,” he told the boys. It wasn’t warm enough up there without them. Hell, they wouldn’t be able to play up there for too much longer. When they ran off to get them, he turned to Juni. “If I find out you played the TV loud enough to bother your sister, you lose television privileges for a week, understand?”
“No fair!”
“Juniper.”
She pouted and glared, but he waited her out until she finally sighed and nodded.
“I need you to say it.”
Juni rolled her eyes, but did say, “I understand.” Then she headed to the living room.
The boys came back, Dylan in a sweater, Micah in a hoodie, and they each took one of his hands, but he waited until he heard the TV go on, and the volume get turned down before he turned to them.
“Let’s go upstairs, quiet as little mice.” He unlocked the door to the stairs up to the roof.
The boys tried hard to be quiet, going on tiptoes and pretending to be mice. They would have been successful too if not for the giggles, but at least those were fairly soft. They made it up to the roof where the last of the day’s sunlight shone down on them.
Dylan ran for the swings, his brother following in his footsteps, copying each move he made as they played.
He sat on the bench and kept an eye on them, chuckling as they swung and slid and swung again.
“Is this our playground?” Micah asked after going down the slide again. “Our own?”
“It is! Your dad’s got lots of plans.”
“Like what?” Dylan asked.
“Like filling the sandbox and planting a garden,” Bry’s voice sounded from behind him.
He turned and smiled. “Hey, you. Marley’s practicing, and she needs to focus, so we’re playing.”
“Ah. That makes sense. You know you can tell the boys to go play in their room if they’re in the way or being too noisy. Or come and get me to deal with them. It’s going to be too cold to play up here soon. And we’re losing daylight earlier and earlier.” Bry sat next to him, hand coming to rest on his leg.
“Well, her recital is coming up, so she’s stressed, you know?” And she’d had some worry lately, with all the changes. He thought she’d been managing pretty well actually.
“And now she’s got two little boys who are rambunctious and noisy and curious and all up in her business to contend with,” Bry noted, meeting his eyes. “I don’t want our being here to be a negative thing for her. For any of you.”
“There are going to be growing pains. She asked for quiet, and we’re giving it. That’s reasonable.” And he was proud of her for asking for what she needed instead of being a martyr.
“Okay. I guess I’m feeling a little guilty,” Bryan admitted. “We’ve known each other for barely over a month and I’m already moved in with my boys, making myself at home. I really do love you, though. I didn’t think I would ever feel this way about anyone ever again, and then I met you and started having feelings and…” Bryan’s gaze was intense, holding his the entire time Bry spoke. “I swear it’s not because of your money. It’s because of you and your girls, who you are, not what you can give us.”
“I know.” If it had been about the money, Bry wouldn’t have been so worried, so stressed. He knew how badly Bry’s ego had been hit, and he knew that they didn’t have all the answers, but they had a little family forming here that was good, really, really good.
Hell, two dads and four kids wasn’t even a little family.
“Okay.” Bryan smiled at him, squeezed his leg, and took a deep breath. Clearly, the matter had been stressing him. “We never talked about rent or anything. I want to contribute, but I don’t need it to be monetarily, ’cause I know I can never match what you’re offering us in that arena. I enjoy cooking, so I can make us meals. I can teach the girls how to cook. I can be the drop-off and pickup king so you can work. Whatever. I just want to make a significant contribution.” Bryan was so dear, so earnest.
“Good deal. We have our hands full with the kids, all the activities. That’s four full-time jobs, for sure.”
Bryan laughed, the sound bright. “You just might be right at that.”
The boys came running over at Bryan’s laughter.
“What’s funny, Daddy?” Dylan asked.
“Why laughs?” Micah added.
“Because I’m happy.”
“Me too! We have a park!” Dylan’s eyes were shining with his joy. “Our own park!”
Bryan hugged them to him and nodded. “We do. We are so lucky that Dev invited us to live in his wonderful home.” Bry smiled over their heads, heart in his eyes.
“Is he a daddy too?”
Bry nodded. “He’s Marley and?—”
Micah cheered and launched into Dev’s arms. “Daddy Devvy!”
He grabbed the little boy and held on, touched and pleased.
“Oh…” Bryan smiled. “Is that okay, Dev?”
“Absolutely. I’m honored.”
Dylan watched Micah with Dev for a minute, before moving to stand by Dev. “Me too?”
“Of course?” He drew Dylan into the hug as well, snuggling the little boys close.
“Daddy? Can I come up too? I’m bored.” Juni was staring from the door at the top of the stairway, pouting just a little bit.
“Sure. Come on.”
“Come swinging,” Dylan said, pulling out of his arms and running over to grab her hand. “We’re sisters now.”
“We are? Cool. I always wanted to be somebody’s big sister.” Her pout was completely gone, her mood improving drastically.
Micah slid out of his hold and went running over to join them on the play structure. “Me too! Me too! I a sister, too!”
Bryan laughed. “That is the most adorable thing ever. You think we should tell him he’s not actually a sister?”
“Nah. He’ll figure it out or Marley will explain it. She’s good at that.” As far as Dev was concerned, they should all just swing and be kids.
“Yeah, she’s so grown up sometimes. So, a big recital, huh?” Bryan shifted a little closer, leaning against him.
“It is. Her last one before high school. Crazy, huh?”
“Very crazy. I’m not old enough to be dating a guy with a kid in high school. Hell, you’re not old enough to have a kid in high school.” Bryan grinned up at him.
“I know. I’m an old man, but I’m cute.” He hoped he was still cute…
“You’re not cute. Puppies are cute. You’re good-looking and hot and sexy. And you’re not old, either. I was teasing.”
“I’m old enough to have a teenager.” He winked and stole a kiss.
Humming, Bryan kept the kiss going a moment longer. “Yeah, but I think you’re just the right age for a sexy, hot, handsome lover.” Bryan’s cheeks went red as he said the words, but he didn’t drop Dev’s gaze.
“Well, that’s what matters, right?” He leaned in, rubbed their noses together. “You, me, and the kiddos.”
“Uh-huh. We make a good family, don’t we?”
Marley came up, looking calmer. She came to sit with them.
“How was the practice?” Bryan asked.
“Good. Good. It’s fine.” She smiled at them, relaxing back against the bench. “Thank you all for letting me have practice time. I hate being embarrassed.”
“I’ll talk to the boys about being quiet, or noisy in their room whenever you’re at the piano so they don’t bother you in the future,” Bryan promised.
“It’s not always a big deal, but it’s kind of a deal now.” Marley winced and shrugged. “You know?”
“You’ll do fine, honey,” Dev told her. “I promise.” He hated that she stressed over tests and recitals, but he figured that was part of why she did so well; she was motivated to study and practice.
“Is this a recital we can all come to and watch?” Bryan asked.
“If you want to. Daddy and Juni always come.”
“She’ll be the last one to play this year, since she is graduating.”
“Wow. That’s impressive, and the boys and I would love to come.” Bryan looked over to where the kids were playing. “You wanna go play with them?”
“I—” She went a bright pink. “I sorta do.”
“I won’t tell. I promise,” Dev teased.
She went running. “I’ll push you, Micah.”
“It’s hard being fourteen,” Bryan noted. “One minute, you want to be a grown-up and the next, you still want to be a kid. Hell, I still want to be a kid sometimes.”
“So let’s go and play. I promise not to break my arm any worse.”
Bryan gave him a look and then laughed. “I’ll race you!”