Chapter 7
Chapter
Seven
D aniel wandered around the play room, picking up blocks and putting them away while Jacks was involved with a little electronic piano.
It gave him a chance to relax, to think, and didn’t that tend to bring Hayden to mind?
Daniel wasn’t sure when he and his boss had become friends. Sometime between early September and mid-October, for sure.
Honestly, as much as a dork as Hayden could be, the man was basically kind.
They played hours of games, cards, board games, role-playing games, which was a little weird but fun nonetheless.
Not only that, but somehow the ladies, Hayden and the gardener, had created a book club with him, and he swore every so often someone threatened to teach him how to crochet, which he guessed would be okay.
He didn’t know how—hell, there were all sorts of things he didn’t know how to do.
God knew there was a lot of yarn, and she was willing to share and trade.
Rita had it in different boxes and baskets and bags everywhere. All over the house.
Jacks frowned at him. “Dan.”
“You know you’re not supposed to be speaking yet. You’re supposed to be six months old, which means just crawling, not walking, and saying words.”
“Dan. Papa.”
“Papa is busy working right now.”
“No!” Jacks had learned that word really well.
He barely stopped himself from frowning. Daniel didn’t dare let Jacks see him sweat or give in to a little frustration. That kid would swoop down on any sign of weakness like a bird of prey.
“Papa.”
“Jacks, no. He’s busy. We’ll see him at lunch.”
Jacks crawled over to him, the wee keyboard abandoned. He grabbed Daniel’s pants and pulled himself up.
Hungry.
He heard the word distinctly.
“Not yet. Let’s have some juice.” He’d given in and started to give Jacks pureed food. Including some meat. That seemed to be Jacks’s favorite.
Again, so not typical, dammit.
“Dan.”
“Ugh. Let’s go for a walk.” He picked up Jacks, who seemed to weigh as much as a neutron star today. Maybe a change of scenery would make Jacks less fussy.
He passed through the windows and blinked. “Oh, Jacks, look! It’s snowing!”
“No?”
“Yes, snow. It’s snowing. Look, do you want to go out and look and play in it?”
Jacks frowned at him. “Papa?”
Not engaging, la la la. “At lunch, we’ll see Papa. You want to go play in the snow? Come on, let’s get our coat on and our snowsuits.”
He tried to sound excited.
The chances were that Jacks would go out there for approximately seven seconds, decide that the snowflakes were acidic or poisonous or something, and squeal to come in.
But at this point, it might be fun to just let him catch snowflakes for a few minutes.
Jacks squealed, which he took to mean something good, and they headed downstairs to the huge coat closet—it was more like a coat room, really.
Denise showed up about the time he came down with a smile. “I was just coming up to tell you it was snowing.”
“Yes, we’re going to go out and play.”
“Well, I’ll make sure there’s something warm for when you come in. Hot cocoa?”
He wasn’t sure that the baby needed hot chocolate—that was a lot of sugar, but he was just getting tired of arguing with everyone.
“It sounds great. I like mine with whipped cream, not marshmallows. Can we do that?”
“Of course you can.” She laughed, and he managed to get Jacks in his snow suit, which made him look like the little baby Michelin Man. God, the cuteness.
He was going to die.
He stomped into some snow boots and threw on a jacket, making sure that he had a hat and some gloves.
He took Jacks’s hand and led him outside. Jacks’s eyes went huge as he stared at the falling snowflakes.
“Cool, huh?” He grinned, then picked up Jacks when he held his arms aloft. With Jacks against his chest, he tilted his head back and caught a snowflake on his tongue.
Jacks stared at him a moment, then threw his own head back and opened his mouth. “Nom, nom, nom!”
“You know it, buddy. Good noms.” Jacks was— His heart squeezed. This baby was his ride or die. Seriously. This kid… God.
Jacks beamed at him. “DAN!”
“Jacks!” He danced the baby around, both of them laughing.
Papa! Papa. Papa Papa Papa.
He chuckled, shaking his head. The hat made his hearing so weird. “Papa’s working, he’ll come down soon, I’m sure.”
“NO! PAPA!”
The door slammed open, the snow making Hayden’s eyes look wild and unnatural. “Is everything okay?”
Daniel looked at Hayden. “We’re playing in the snow. Yes, everything is fine.”
He swore the snowflakes were steaming as they landed on Hayden’s skin. Weird.
“Are you running a fever? If you’re running a fever, stay over there. I don’t need it, and neither does the baby.”
“I’m not running a fever.”
“Oh.”
Someone was being a grumpy-puss.
“Well, do you want to come play in the snow?”
Hayden seemed a little constipated. “I thought I heard him calling for me.”
“He’s just happy because we’re playing in the snow; it’s fine. Jacks is fine, spoiled rotten but fine.” He rubbed noses with Jacks, who looked so pleased with himself.
Daniel was about a one hundred and ten thousand percent sure that he was completely out of control with this child.
“Sorry if he bothered you. I didn’t think you could hear us in your office from down here.”
Jacks started wiggling, trying to get down and get to his father.
He sort of gave Hayden one of those looks that meant either go inside or stay out here, but make a decision because this baby is trying to get to you right now.
Hopefully Hayden understood.
“It really is snowing, isn’t it?” Hayden took a step out of the door down the stairs, and that was it. Jacks was getting down.
“It’s pretty. It’s going to build up quick, I think.”
“Looks like it.” Hayden came close enough for Jacks to be in his arms in a flash, and it was like a little waterfall of snowmelt happened between them.
Weird.
He hoped it wasn’t, like, rage on Hayden’s part that was making the snow sizzle.
But then Hayden was smiling down at Jacks. “You are a little manipulator, bud.”
“Papa!” Jacks was altogether too proud of himself. “No!”
“It is snow. Isn’t it pretty? It’s cold, huh?” Hayden shook his head. “There’s going to be a lot of it. You can make a snowman. I bet Daniel is super good at making snowmen.”
“I have been known to make a snowman or four, yes.” Daniel grinned.
He’d been a nanny in Colorado his entire working life.
Winter sports were a thing. “I can also snowshoe and ski. I’m pretty good on a snowmobile.
I have taken snowboarding lessons, but I suck at it and sledding?
” He stopped and blinked. “Do we have a sled?”
Surely they had a sled?
“I don’t think we have a sled,” Hayden admitted.
“I need to order a sled. I’ll go pick it up.”
Hayden shook his head. “We’ll just have it delivered. I don’t really trust your little car.”
“Do not malign my baby car. It’s been mine for a very long time, and I love the ugly old thing.” Sort of.
“I am not maligning. I’m just a realist.” Hayden winked at him, and his pulse leaped. Wow. That was such a hot smile.
It was kind of nuts how he wasn’t even snowed in yet and he was lusting after his boss. He had to quit that shit.
Hayden smiled at him. “It’s all going to be okay; you have my word. Just relax.”
He tilted his head. “I am relaxed. We were playing out in the snow. That’s relaxing.” And it was what he wanted to do after all.
Play in the snow, relax.
Let little bit play.
Nothing serious.
“Yeah, to be honest, I hate working on the first snow day of the year. Did I ever tell you about the time that I went to the hot springs, and I was sitting in the water, and the snow was melting off of my head?” Hayden winked at him, and he felt that in his balls.
“It’s kind of steaming now. It’s cool.” He wasn’t steaming. At least he didn’t seem to be. The snow seemed to be catching on his body just fine. “Do you want to show your papa how you can catch a snowflake in your mouth like this?”
He tilted his head back and stuck out his tongue. “Ah.”
Little Jacks threw his head back, stuck out his tongue, and Daniel swore he saw a teeny tiny bolt of lightning. “Did you see that, Hayden?”
Hayden blinked at him. “See what?”
“I—” Surely it had just been nothing. A bolt of lightning didn’t just go from a baby’s mouth to a snowflake. Even if it were static electricity, there was no static electricity in snow, was there?
“Jacks was just catching snowflakes on his tongue, right?” Hayden’s eyebrows went up. And he would swear the man was fucking with him. But he couldn’t prove it, and Hayden looked so innocent somehow that he just had to let it go.
Jacks giggled madly and made chomping noises.
“We’re just playing. That’s all.” Hayden moved closer and he swore he could feel heat radiating from that big body. It was kind of nice because he was starting to get a little cold.
“How can you be so warm when you’re clearly not dressed for this?”
“I tend to run hot.” Hayden shrugged. “But if you would like, I’ll go get my coat.”
“I think maybe you should. And maybe a hat for your head too. All of your heat escapes out that way, they say.”
Jacks made this weird rumbling noise as if he was agreeing with Daniel. “Papa. Hat.”
“Hey, okay, gang up on me, why don’t you?” Hayden held up his hands, one of them brushing Daniel’s arm, which made him shiver. “I’ll be right back.”
He and Jacks made snow angels while they waited on Hayden, Jacks sitting on his chest to keep his little body out of the snow, which was still crazy because everywhere Jacks did touch the snow, it melted.
“Are you made of lava, little guy? Is that why you’re so hot and the snow is so averse to you?”
Jacks made this sort of mooing sound. “Laaaaava.”