Chapter 3
Chapter
Three
D aniel had to admit that the house in the mountains really had nothing in common with the haunted hotel he’d originally thought it would be like.
Oh, it was isolated, and the owner was grumpy, but everyone else was so dear and Jacks was just phenomenal.
He was off the charts in all areas, from height and weight, to noises, to eye hand-coordination.
It was fine with him. He’d asked about the birth date, and they all insisted Jacks was a spring baby, but…there was no way. Christmas, maybe.
It didn’t matter.
He could meet Jacks where he was, after all.
He had toys out today, ones that would test Jacks’s ideas of color and shape a little, since he was already holding himself up, already able to pick up toys and put them elsewhere.
Oh, certainly Jacks wasn’t ready to put square blocks in a square hole, but he would see what colors appealed most to the little one and which blocks he wanted to chew on.
He hummed, going to check and see if Jacks was awake. They were going downstairs for breakfast today. Apparently Mr. Sadler wasn’t as busy today and wanted to sit with them and let Jacks babble at him.
He had to admit, the guy seemed to love Jacks, which was a bit of a shock.
Oh, that probably wasn’t fair. Really, the man was less of a dick than Daniel had thought he was, but he was so… contained. Like an ink blot. Or like a human black hole. He had this enormous stillness about him. Like he drew light in and killed it.
“Is that mean, Jacks? That seems mean. But I don’t know what else to say.”
The baby crowed, laughed at him. The little one chewed on his hand, those pretty eyes just staring at him.
“You are so awake aren’t you? Let’s see if we can get you changed and then your dad wants to visit with you this morning for breakfast. Doesn’t that sound fun?”
He swore he heard the baby make an affirmative noise. There was no way, but it sure sounded like it.
“I tell you what — I’ll get you dressed, we’ll have breakfast, then maybe we’ll go walk around outside for a little while and get some sunshine and look at the pretty flowers. The roses are blooming, and they won’t stay that way long, I don’t imagine.”
Little bit reached for him, so he picked the baby up, changed him, and got him dressed in a cute little T-shirt and soft pants outfit. He did love dressing babies up.
The muted chime sounded throughout the house, meaning that another meal was ready.
Rita and Denise were amazing. Rita kept the house going like a dream, and Denise made three meals a day. It was great.
He didn’t have to think about it, and at least normally, two of the meals were either taken up to his room, outside, or just alone.
Suppers, now, his boss tended to be at all of them. Honestly, he was going to have to stop being grumpy about the whole thing. It was amazing that a busy man like Hayden could even love on this baby, and he did. He was totally hands-on.
This was going to be the start of their first weekend together, and he wasn’t sure what he was going to do. He supposed he could just get in his car and head down the mountain, find a hotel room, and stay.
Maybe he could play video games in his room and just keep the door shut.
He wasn’t sure if he was allowed to come to meals when he wasn’t at work.
Daniel guessed he ought to ask that kind of question before the whole weekend started, but he just didn’t know. He felt like he was stepping out of his place if he did. And who was he going to ask?
If he went to Rita or Denise, and they were wrong, he wouldn’t want to get them in trouble with Hayden. But if he went to Hayden and the man got all grumpy, that could be unpleasant too.
Jacks babbled at him, playing with a button on his shirt.
So Daniel babbled back, “I know, little guy. I don’t know who to talk to, either. I wish I did. It just seems like this weird thing, right? I don’t know that he enjoys me actually being at meals, but at the same time I feel like I have to bring you down there because he wants to see you…”
He stared down into Jacks’s little face and noticed that Jacks was frowning deeply, his expression screwed up in a hard line across the eyebrows. Maybe he had gas. He bounced Jacks a bit, but nothing came out—no burps, no farts.
“What do you think? Are you telling me I should talk to your dad?”
Jacks’ face cleared a bit, though he didn’t start smiling, not really. However, Daniel was kind of shocked when an image of Hayden’s face rose into his mind, completely clear and a little bit, how should he say it, a little bit idealized.
That wasn’t how he saw Hayden. Was it? Surely not. He barely liked the guy.
Daniel didn’t necessarily dislike him. It was just awkward. How did somebody make friends with their boss, especially when their boss was so out of their realm of experience?
Jacks was a totally different thing. He was so easy to love. He was a baby.
And he didn’t pay the bills.
Daniel didn’t suppose it mattered one way or the other. No matter what, he was heading downstairs for breakfast with Mr. Wonderful.
“I guess I’ll just ask him when I’m down there. Be the easiest thing, right Jacks? Come on, let’s go.”
He hauled Jacks up out of the crib, the hairs on his arms lifting. This baby was the most staticky little guy he’d ever met, but it never seemed to make Jacks cry when they accidentally popped each other.
It could be intense, though.
“I can’t wait until you’re old enough that we can do that game where you lift the covers up in the dark, and you get to see all these sparks from the static. It’s like magic. I can remember doing that when I was a little boy.”
They headed out, Jacks watching him with intent.
“This winter, you’ll get to experience snow for the first time, your first Christmas, your first Thanksgiving, and, ooh, your first Halloween.” He bounced the baby, who laughed, and that made him smile. “I wonder what they’re going to dress you up as this Halloween. You could be a sweet pea…”
The baby stared at him as if he was insane.
“Or you could be a cow. Moo. No?”
Jacks just watched him.
“Or you could be a dragon?”
That got him a smile. A real, goofy wide one.
“Okay, then.”
They made it down the stairs, and he headed toward the kitchen through the big dining room.
“I’ll talk to your dad and see if you can’t be a dragon for Halloween.” He thought it would be cute as hell. “Dragon, dragon, dragon.”
He walked into the kitchen singing a made-up dragon song, and when he stepped in, everyone—Denise, Rita, and Mr. Sadler—were staring at him—like staring at him.
Weird.
“Hey, guys, we came as soon as we heard the bell. Something smells really good. Is it sausage biscuits?”
“It is!” Denise chuckled and came over to kiss Jacks on the forehead. “Hello, my love.”
Jacks cooed, waving at Denise, and there was a zap of static electricity as they touched. The spark traveled through the two of them to him, just making him grunt with the force of it.
Wow.
That was some kind of electricity.
Daniel licked his lower lip, which felt a little like it was trying to crawl off his face.
“Oh sorry!” Denise grinned at him. “Your hair is sticking up a bit.”
Daniel chuckled, shifting Jacks’s weight to one arm so he could smooth his hair down with the other hand. It really had been standing up on end like crazy.
“You are super zappy, my dude.” He stroked Jacks’s downy head of hair too.
“He always has been.” That was Hayden. Mr. Sadler. Who was smiling at them with a wry expression.
“I bet. It’s really dry up here, anyway.”
“It is indeed.” Hayden winked, his little smile making his face much more open.
He was a ridiculously attractive man.
“Come here, my little Jack-in-the-box,” Hayden said, and Jacks went to him easily, just ba-ba-ing and hoo-hoo-ing like something out of Dr. Seuss.
Such a happy baby. So far, he didn’t get why everyone thought Jacks was such a challenge. He was just?—
Daniel blinked. Hayden had grunted, and it looked for a moment like he’d dropped Jacks, but then Rita was holding the wee one in her arms, so he couldn’t have.
Right?
“Do you want me to take him?” Daniel asked.
“No, no. He was just peeved that I hadn’t held him yet.” Rita bounced the little guy. “Oh, you are getting so heavy.”
“Jacks, come back to Papa, please.” Hayden held out his arms, and Jacks lunged, but surely he was too far away and he was going to fall, and…
And then Hayden was holding Jacks again, and Daniel blinked.
There had to be something desperately wrong with him. He must be having a migraine. That was really the only answer.
“Do you mind excusing me? I think I need to run upstairs.” He nodded to everyone, finding a smile. “Please don’t wait breakfast on me. I might be a minute.”
He headed upstairs to his bathroom.
He really didn’t have a headache to speak of, but he was known to have visual things, so he was going to have to figure this out and fast.
At least it was the weekend, right?
If he had to, he’d just simply not attend breakfast. He was perfectly capable of hiding up here for a couple of days.
They’d handled Jacks without him for how long? Surely they could deal with it on his days off.
When he got upstairs, he went to the bathroom to take something for his head.
He stared in the mirror waiting for some sort of visual halo or rainbow effect to come over his vision, but nothing did.
It was really weird because in general, when he had a migraine, the visual stuff didn’t just come and go; it progressively got worse.
So was it something about Jacks? Was the kid just preternaturally fast or something? Seriously, he was overdeveloped for his supposed age, and he did have a real habit of lunging at people, but Daniel had never seen a baby move quite that way.
No, that wasn’t a thing. There was no way that was a thing.
He just was seeing things, which was dangerous, but he had to be careful.
The very last thing that he needed in a childcare situation was to be in a place where he was admitting that he might be seeing things.