Chapter 15
Chapter
Fifteen
T he morning of Thanksgiving dawned bright and clear, and Daniel got up early, slipping out of Hayden’s bed—he still couldn’t think of it as their bed, even though Hayden had asked him to—and headed downstairs.
He checked Jacks’s little bed first, and the baby was still sound asleep, warm and cozy, and dreaming of volcanic islands, which was a little strange considering that he’d never seen one, he didn’t think, and how did he know what Jacks was dreaming of anyway?
It didn’t matter. What mattered was that the baby was asleep. That was the important part. He needed Jacks to rest so he could breathe a little and give him some space.
He thought he’d go down and help Rita and Denise with the food. He knew how to cook just about as well as anybody. He could at least be a help and not a hindrance in the kitchen.
Hell, to be honest, he even knew how to make bread. He could make rolls and everything.
The ladies were downstairs, and they both offered him a smile as he came in. “Happy Thanksgiving!”
“Happy-happy!” He winked back at them. “I’m here to help. I can chop. I can sauté. You just point me and shoot me.”
Rita beamed at him as Denise went to pour him a cup of coffee. “Lots of it’s already done. In fact, we’re making breakfast. I thought we’d all watch the parade together. It’s Jacks’s first.”
“Oh, he’ll love the colors and the music.” He took the coffee with a smile. “Can I do anything with breakfast?”
He hated feeling useless.
“Come put bacon on a sheet for us.”
“That I can do.” He loved to put bacon on a baking sheet rather than frying it in a pan. It got it cooked evenly, and it let the oil drip down underneath if he used the rack, which they had already set up. So all he had to do was peel bacon off the pile and lay out the slices.
Then he ended up helping ice the cinnamon rolls and squeeze oranges for orange juice, and he thought that he was just going to have the best day.
By the time he went to get Jacks, he met Hayden, who was coming down the stairs at the same time. And he got stopped for a kiss, which made his lips tingle and made him grin a little bit crazily.
Hayden cupped the back of his neck with one hand and rubbed his cheek with one big thumb. “Do you need any help with Jacks, or should I go see what the ladies need?”
“They’re fine, getting ready for breakfast. They want to watch the parade together. I’ll be down in a minute.”
After all, it was still sort of officially his job to deal with Jacks, no matter where he was sleeping. Some things didn’t change.
He stole another quick kiss before hauled his ass upstairs where Jacks was standing at the edge of his crib calling for him at the top of his lungs.
“Dan Dan! Dan Dan! Dan Dan!” It sounded vaguely like an alarm or a wild siren. It was a little bit maddening, but what was he going to do about it?
He grinned at the baby and nuzzled him, lifting him from his crib. “Are you ready to get up, beautiful boy?”
Jacks gave him a look like he was absolutely insane, and he stuck his tongue out at the little boy.
“We’re going to have the best day. First, we’re going to go have breakfast and watch the parade.”
Jacks tilted his head, eyes curious, and he grinned.
“Well, a parade is where there’s going to be balloons and music and all sorts of neat things.”
Jacks pursed his lips at him. So distrustful.
“It’ll be fun, we’re going to watch it on the TV with Daddy.”
That got him the appropriate response, which was a bright-eyed grin and wild clapping.
“Ah, there’s my sweet boy. Don’t you stress, you’re going to like this. And afterward, there’s dogs and I bet your daddy will watch the dog show with us.”
He changed Jacks’s diaper and dressed him warmly so they could go downstairs. He had a feeling Jacks was going to like cinnamon rolls. They could be gummed easily, and they were sweet and yet spicy. Jacks already liked hot things, he’d noticed. He liked cinnamon, for sure.
He hauled Jacks downstairs, and sure enough, the ladies had put out the food for breakfast, the bacon, cinnamon rolls, orange juice, and all that. There was also a bottle for Jacks because he was still mostly on that kind of nutrition.
“Here we are,” he sang, presenting Jacks to Hayden who grabbed him and twirled him around and then kissed his cheek.
“Are we ready to get food and go watch the parade?” Hayden asked.
“I know I am.” Denise grinned. “And then Daniel can come and help us finish up with dinner after the parade, right, Daniel?”
“Yes, I like to be useful, and I love to cook.”
“I love to sit on the couch with Jacks.” Hayden winked at them all.
“We all have our talents.” That was Rita, who looked so amused.
Hayden wrinkled his nose, and then, to Daniel’s surprise, blew a smoke ring right at her, just like it was nothing.
Little Jacks’s laughter filled the air, as if he’d never seen anything so funny in his entire life.
“Is Daddy so funny?” Daniel teased the baby. “Is he blowing smoke rings?”
Jacks tried to blow bubbles, and he swore some of them seemed to have sparks caught inside of them. He supposed that counted, but it sent a ripple of uncomfortable emotion through him, and he didn’t know where to look.
So he just went to grab the baby’s bottle and take him from Hayden so the big dragon could go get himself a bite of breakfast.
Daniel turned on the pre-show so he could listen and quiet his brain.
It was amazing to him how much his life had changed in the last year.
He was in a different place with a different family, living a different life, and there were things like dragons.
Wow.
And he was in love with the dragon. He knew it. He admitted it. And he didn’t mean Jacks. He meant Hayden. The man made him stupid, and he couldn’t parse what was going on in his brain and his heart. He really couldn’t.
Daniel had to admit that sometimes he couldn’t parse what was occurring in his body either. He felt like things were changing. Like he was running a few degrees hotter than he used to, and sometimes he found little rough patches on his skin that looked a lot like Hayden’s scales.
It still freaked him out, but at the same time it was getting more and more normal, and he didn’t know what to think about that.
Was it just an illusion? Was it something that Hayden had convinced him was happening? Or was it real?
And if it was real, what did it mean? Did it mean that he was part dragon, like Hayden said he was? Did it mean that he was going to?—
“You’re thinking very hard.” Hayden reached over with one hand, the other arm still holding Jacks, and took Daniel’s wrist. “It’s nothing to panic about.”
“Tell that to my brain.” He glanced at the ladies because he didn’t know if he really wanted to have this discussion with them right there, but maybe he needed to.
Maybe he should switch to talking to Hayden mentally.
I didn’t mean to upset you, Hayden told him. I just want you to be happy.
And I just want to be happy too. He was tired, to be honest, and he didn’t want to start any problems, so he tried to find a smile. I’m okay. Just a lot to think about. I just want to have a good Thanksgiving, and I’ll worry about the rest of it tomorrow.
You don’t have to worry about any of it at all .
He was fairly sure that wasn’t the truth. In fact, he was positive. One way or the other, he was going to have to worry about it.
Because either he was crazy or he was becoming a dragon, and either way it was a little freaky.
But he didn’t have to stress it today. He could just not.
He turned his focus to the parade, blinking up in surprise when Rita took Jacks from him. “You need to eat. Your breakfast is getting cold.”
He hadn’t even gotten any yet. He looked down, surprised to see that Hayden had brought him a plate. “Oh, well, thank you.”
“Of course, mate.”
He wasn’t sure if he wanted Hayden to say things like that in front of the ladies, but then obviously they knew Hayden. They knew about…this.
So he went with it, kind of like he went with everything else around here. He just let it flow over him like a river.
Jacks squealed when something came into view on the parade screen. It was that giant turkey that usually came really early in the parade. It was blinking and winking at everybody. Jacks seemed to think that it was absolutely fascinating.
Hopefully that wasn’t because Jacks wanted to go hunting turkeys. He didn’t know if dragons hunted or if they just had evolved past that now. Were they predators? It seemed like Hayden was of a size that he could be a pretty amazing, chomping thing—in dragon form at least.
One way or the other, Daniel had to admit that it was the cutest thing ever to watch Jacks bounce and squeal and reach for the turkey.
“He likes that, doesn’t he?” Denise chuckled softly. “It’s adorable. I love the eyelashes.”
The turkey waved his wings, and Jacks waved his arms.
Then the turkey blinked, and Jacks fluttered his eyelashes.
They all started laughing—the joy filling the air, impossible not to join in with.
Jacks was super pleased with himself — it was perfectly obvious. So every time he waved his arms, bobbed his head, and fluttered his eyelashes, everybody laughed.
On the other hand, the baby was unimpressed with the Broadway musical numbers, although he did stop trying to steal Daniel’s bacon long enough to look at the sparkly dresses of the Rockettes.
That was cute.
Hayden leaned in to kiss his cheeks, stealing a bite of his bacon. “Hopefully, there’s a dragon float or a balloon.”
He swatted Hayden’s head. “I don’t think there’s a dragon balloon, though, but maybe there’s a float, bacon thief.”
“If not, there’s always one in the Rose parade on New Year’s.”
“That’ll be fun.”
“I think this is the most TV I’ve ever seen you watch,” he pointed out, and Hayden shrugged.
“I just never spent a lot of time watching television. Have you? Do you watch it upstairs?”