Chapter 23
HARI
“I think it’s your turn.”
Remy put his hand out, but I already had the baby and was sitting on the bed beside my mate. Our little guy was hungry and demanding to be fed. Not surprising considering he was only a few weeks old.
“Thank you.”
Huxley latched on, and I went to the kitchen to make tea. Despite it being the middle of the night, my mate liked drinking hot sweet tea after he’d fed the baby and while I burped our son and changed his diaper.
When I returned, Remy was screwing up his nose. “There’s been a poop explosion.” He handed Huxley to me, and I trotted to the nursery. Our son did smell bad, but it must have been worse for my mate with his sensitive shifter nose.
“Have you got a poopy diaper? I think you have.” I spoke to the baby as I cleaned his butt and put on a clean diaper.
The onesie had poop on it, so I got another from the dresser drawer.
Whenever I was nearby, I admired Callum and Adrian’s workmanship, and I was pleased I’d made the decision regarding the business expansion.
Rather than grow bigger, I’d put a waiting list in place.
Though I did hire more temporary staff to deal with the hotel project, now that it was complete, I told everyone if they wanted furniture from my company, they could wait.
And the waiting list had become a sign of exclusivity.
It hadn’t put potential customers off but had done the opposite. Life was weird that way.
“You don’t care about waiting lists, do you?” I nuzzled the baby’s tummy before picking him up. “Let’s take you back to Daddy so you can finish your midnight snack.”
I checked the time as I sipped my tea and waited to burp Huxley.
The few weeks of parental leave had slipped by, and I was back at work.
But I no longer arrived before everyone else, and at the end of the day, I let others lock up while I headed home to my mate and son.
Weekends were for family, though we had taken Huxley to his first auction.
He “held” the paddle, and we won the bid for an antique dresser.
“Oh, today’s Sunday, or it will be.” There’d be no going to work today.
“But we do have that special outing planned,” Remy reminded me. “But in the afternoon.”
I took Huxley back to his crib that I was so proud of. He was already asleep, and I crept back to your room and collapsed into bed.
Huxley didn’t wake until ten when he roused us from a six hours of well-needed rest.
“Wow. Our little man did great.”
We pottered around the house, eating, doing chores, and playing with Huxley until it was time to go out.
“Do you remember leaving the house on a whim and only taking a phone or was that a dream?” Remy was holding Huxley while I put all the baby paraphernalia in the car.
“It had to be a dream, though it’s weird that we both had the same one.” He chuckled.
“Right, do we have everyone in and all the bags? Let’s go.”
We weren’t going far, just to our local shopping center.
Remy wanted our son to choose his first book.
The nursery was full of ones my mate and I had chosen, but Remy insisted our little boy was smart enough to pick out one for himself.
I doubted that because our son was at the stage where he didn’t know his hands were part of him.
If getting everyone and everything into the car in our driveway was time-consuming, doing the reverse in the shopping center parking lot was ten times worse. But we made it inside with Remy pushing the stroller and me lugging the stuff that didn’t fit in the stroller’s storage basket.
“This is so exciting. I can’t wait to see what Huxley chooses.”
I couldn’t either, especially as his “vocabulary” consisted of squeals and cries.
Being Sunday, the bookstore was packed with families, and it was difficult to navigate the aisles because there were kids sitting on the floor reading.
I took the stroller and my mate walked ahead clearing a path.
If it’d been up to me, I’d have given up, especially as Huxley had woken and was complaining.
Remy picked him up, and we trudged on to the picture book section.
“Okay, we’re here.” Remy juggled Huxley on his hip. “What do you think of all the books, sweetheart?”
Huxley cried, and tears glistened in Remy’s eyes.
My mate was disappointed this wasn’t going to plan.
I had to make this better, so I grabbed three books with colorful covers and showed them to the baby.
He stopped crying and stared at them, and I gave Remy a thumbs-up.
One by one I put each of the covers close to his face.
He couldn’t distinguish the different colors yet, but I was hopeful he’d give us a sign.
When I showed him the green one, he squealed. “That’s it. That’s the one he’s chosen.”
Remy had gone pale. Oops, what was the book about? Had I made a boo-boo showing it to our son? I looked at the image on the front and the title. Oh my gods, perhaps our son was a genius.
“That’s a really famous book, written over sixty years ago. It’s about a tree and a boy.” Remy took the book.
“That’s perfect.”
“It’s a very moving story, but it’s kinda sad, and there’s a debate about the subject matter. Some say it’s beautiful and others disagree.”
“Oh. Well, we’ll keep it until he’s older, and when we read it together, we can discuss the message.” It would stay in his room until he was ready to read it or have us read it to him. “Is that okay?” I didn’t want Remy to be disappointed in our son’s choice.
“Mmmm.”
We bought the book and got out of there.
“How about no more bookstores on a Sunday. Next time, let’s go Monday morning when the kids are at school.”
“Deal,” my mate agreed.
If it’d been the two of us, I would have suggested we grab a bite to eat, but we headed straight home. We’d get used to going out with the baby eventually, but today was not that day.
“Let’s order in, and after Huxley has a nap, we can eat in bed.” Remy yawned.
“You don’t mind crumbs in the bed?”
“I’m so tired I wouldn’t care if I shared the bed with a rhino.”
“That’d be kinda owie, you know, with the horn and all. Which way would he lie, with the horn facing your side or mine?”
My mate caught my eye, and I giggle-snorted. He put a hand on the dashboard and cackled.
“We must be more exhausted than I realized if we’re discussing which of us would get the sharp end of a rhino’s horn, the same rhino who’s sharing our bed.”
Considering there must be rhino shifters, it wasn’t so implausible.
Remy put the new book not on the picture ledge but in the bookshelf, and I ordered food. When I arrived, my mate was already in bed. This was our default setting these days.
“Gimme, gimme.” He outstretched his hands, but I peeked under the duvet before giving him the bag.
“Looking for rhinos?” He giggled.
“Just in case.” I climbed into bed, and we ate and dropped crumbs.
“Did you ever think this would be your life?” Remy asked before biting into a taco.
“Nope. I was all about work. I had hoped to meet someone one day, marry, and have a family. What I didn’t expect was that the man of my dreams could transform into a koala.”
“And I always assumed I’d mate with a shifter.” He piled guacamole on a corn chip and ate it. “Not that there’s anything wrong with humans.” He patted my hand and licked around his mouth
“Thanks, and I noticed you slipped that last bit in there as an afterthought.”
He shook his head and put a hand to his mouth because it was full.
“I bet you didn’t think wood would figure so prominently in your life?”
“Not really. Trees, yes, because of my koala, but not wood.”
Huxley was still sleeping. In the past, if we’d been eating in bed on a Sunday, we probably would have finished off with afternoon delight. But we were existing on a few hours of uninterrupted sleep most nights and sex was the furthest thing from my mind.
I tossed the garbage in the trash, and after a glance at our son in the nursery, I hurried back to bed, anxious to get as much rest as possible before the baby demanded a feed.
“You know, even though I practically have to prop my eyes open with toothpicks, I wouldn’t miss this time with Huxley. When he’s grown up with a career and maybe a family of his own, I’ll look back at this time with fond memories.”
“Mmmm.” Remy turned over. “Can we reminisce about a possible future some other time?”
“Absolutely.”