Chapter Twenty
Brax
“What did you get us?” I asked. Cliff had something up his sleeve.
Something big that came from the delivery guy the night before.
But he wouldn’t tell me what it was. I could’ve looked it up, since we shared an account with the big corp online, but Daddy liked his surprises.
It was one of the things that made me fall in love with him.
“It’s for you and Edwin. You can open it together.”
He had a point. Opening it with Edwin would be way more fun.
“I wish he could be here all the time.” I said the words out loud before thinking about what that meant for us.
“I wish he could be, too. I miss him when he’s gone.”
I whirled to look at my partner. “What can we do about it? I don’t want to miss him anymore.”
Cliff wrapped me in his embrace. “Should we ask him to be here more often?”
Looking up at my love, one of my loves, I shrugged. “What do you mean more often? He can’t be here all the time and still paying rent at the Little House. It wouldn’t be fair to him.”
“Do you think we should consider…have you thought about him moving in with us?”
I took a long, deep breath. I had thought about Edwin moving in with us. Dreamed of it even. “I’ve thought a lot about it, but we haven’t been dating him that long. Are we rushing this? Getting ahead of ourselves?”
Cliff held me tighter. “I don’t know. I want to ask him to move in. Don’t you?”
I nodded against his chest, feeling his steady heartbeat next to my ear. Edwin had some clothes here. His body wash was in our shower, and his duckie floated right alongside mine when I took a bath.
“Do you love him?” I asked. “There’s enough love in my heart for both of you, so I’m sure there is in yours as well.”
Cliff confessed, not surprisingly. He loved Edwin and wanted him with us all the time.
So did I. Cliff treated him as well as he did me.
He noticed when his mood was off and made sure his favorite food and snacks were always stocked.
He helped us keep our playroom tidy and ready for us to relax and be the part of ourselves we didn’t show many people.
“Not today, though,” I whispered. “Today, let’s just show him how much we love him.”
“You’re right. When the time comes, we will tell him. We’ll know when it’s right.”
We came to our agreement right on time. The doorbell rang. Edwin came in and changed right into his little overalls with the train on the front. I asked him if he ever wanted to go on a real train, but he was concerned about the level of noise and the scary moving parts.
“We’re going to play, Daddy,” I announced.
“Not so fast, little ones. Edwin, have you had breakfast? Brax hasn’t. You’ll need energy.”
Cliff, always the good daddy. Edwin and I exchanged a glance. “Okay. Thank you,” he said.
“How about you go play out back and I’ll call you when it’s time. Get some good morning sunshine.”
We played for a while outside then Cliff called us in for breakfast. He’d made us tiny star pancakes with sausage links and strawberries with yogurt. Edwin asked for whipped cream and Cliff gave us some, but just a little. He said too much would be hard on our tummies.
“Can we watch the dinosaur movie? The second one of the one we watched before?” Edwin was getting used to asking Daddy for things. He was easygoing, and I believed if we asked him to live with us, he would accept, but it still felt like everything was going too fast.
“Of course. I was wondering if you would like to continue the series.” Cliff put the movie on TV. Earlier in the week when Edwin was gone at the Little House, he’d bought the whole series of movies, hoping Edwin would want to watch it.
We sat together in a pile, Cliff in the middle, and watched the movie, not a peep between us.
“Is it always like this? When everyone doesn’t have work?” Edwin asked. There was a glimmer in his eyes I hadn’t seen before. He was hinting at things, but Cliff and I had already promised we wouldn’t ask. Yet.
“It’s not,” Cliff answered. “Sometimes life is tough or topsy-turvy. Sometimes Brax doesn’t get as much play as he would like, and there are times when my job becomes daunting, but we always try to be the best we can to each other.
Because we love one another. It takes work, but I know Brax always has the best in mind for me and you, and I have the best in mind for the both of you now. ”
Cliff said, “Speaking of, let’s see the surprise I bought for my boys.”