Chapter 37 Proud Of His Kid
PROUD OF HIS KID
“Hey, Maverick,” Jocelyn said the next morning and reached to pick up Chance’s son. Chance had been coming in second place now. He couldn’t complain too much since his son was happy and it seemed, though the dynamics of what he and Jocelyn had changed, it wasn’t in a horrible way.
Dates were out of the picture, but they were spending more time as a threesome. Like a family.
Things he never had and found he’d rather do that than go to dinner with the two of them.
“Joce,” Maverick said. “Hi.” He was waving his little hand backwards at her.
“Hi,” she said, giving him a snuggle. “You smell good. Did Daddy bathe you this morning?”
“I had to,” he said. “He had a blowout after breakfast. We have to start potty training. I’m not sure how many more times I can do that.”
“It might have been the avocado,” she said, cringing. “There is a lot of fiber in it. He ate two pieces of avocado toast. I didn’t think he’d like it but wanted to try mine.”
“Jocelyn,” he said, his voice as pained as his sinuses were cleaning his kid up. “A little warning would help. After he’d filled his pants, he took off and was hiding in his room.”
She laughed and poked Maverick in the belly. “Tell Daddy that’s your new game when you poop. You think it’s funny.”
“How come I don’t know that?”
Shouldn’t he know everything about his kid?
“Because I didn’t realize it was a thing, but the past two times he’s done it. He doesn’t always poop with me.”
“True.” She put Maverick down and he took off for the toys in a bin against the wall. There was more space here and his son could move around better. “I hope he doesn’t do that today at your parents’ with everyone around.”
“Hopefully he got it out of his system. Do you have a change of clothes just in case?”
“No,” he said. “I didn’t think of that.”
She ran her hand down his arm. “I’ve got clothes here. We’ll just put it in with his stuff. I’ve got some toys in a bag to bring too.”
He’d thrown a few things in the backpack he carried everywhere now. It felt as if he was in school all over again and would be thrilled when he could ditch it and his son used the toilet.
“Whatever,” he said. “I don’t want to be high-maintenance every time we go somewhere. I should be able to just grab him and go run errands.”
“You can. But this is a full-day event. It will be better if he has things to entertain him.”
“He’s going to be a bear if he doesn’t get his nap,” he said.
“My father has a couch in his office on the first floor. We can put him in there with the door open. It’s off the family room and we can watch him. There is a TV in there too to keep him entertained. My mother has it all set, don’t worry.”
It was hard not to.
As it was, he was anxious about the first holiday meal he’d had with a woman and her family and then add in a child that he was navigating care with.
If it weren’t that he wanted Maverick to have childhood memories he felt robbed of, he would have passed on this.
But he’d already been buying Christmas ornaments and decorations to put around the house that Maverick might like. Even ordered a small toy train to go around the tree when he picked one of them up. The first one he’d have.
Santa always showed up at the firehouse so his son would get to experience that too.
Chance had never sat on Santa’s lap. Even scoffed at it when he was older, but as a kid, he’d heard the others talking about it and kept his jealousy hidden with sarcasm.
If his mouth wasn’t getting him in trouble, then his facial expressions were.
“You’ve thought of it all,” he said.
She shrugged. “We can go if you want.”
He looked at his watch. “It’s only eleven.”
“My mother is going to put a lot of snacks out. Maverick will be hungry. We’ll eat around one. Then he can nap after.”
“If he goes down,” he said. “Maybe I should take my truck and follow you there. If he’s unruly, we can leave and you can stay with your family.”
“I don’t want to stay with my family and not you.” This time she drilled her finger into his chest. “Stop being ornery.”
He leaned his chest over the island to whisper in her ear. “You like me that way.” Then he bit her lobe, watched her shudder, and knew she was missing the connection the two of them had before it became three.
That could be part of his messed-up mind too.
Their sex life, when they had it now, was rushed and hushed. No freedom to get naked in the living room or chase the other around the apartment.
Not that there was much running from each other, but they had fun.
Now it felt more like a quick release and it was the last thing he wanted. Or wanted Jocelyn to feel as if it was all he could give her.
“I do like you that way,” she said. “I miss it too.”
“We’ll get back there,” he said. “Maybe I’ll see if my grandmother can watch Maverick for a few hours. I hate to think we’ve got to schedule these things.”
Good Lord, was he going to turn into one of those people?
“We’ll figure it out. Come on, Maverick. Want to go see my parents, Stacy and Jim?”
“Yes,” Maverick said, then ran for the door and reached for the knob.
“You’re going to have your hands full there if he can figure out how to open it.”
He sighed. “I know. One more thing.”
“Let me grab a change of clothes for him and I’ll stuff them in the bag I’ve got together.”
He watched as she ran into his son’s room in his girlfriend’s apartment. Maverick was more at home here.
If he was feeling as if he wanted to be here more, he wouldn’t let her know.
There was enough on her shoulders without adding what he was feeling.
Before he found out he had a kid, their relationship was about fun. Taking a turn onto another road wasn’t the plan for him.
He didn’t know what the plan was in her eyes.
“Ready?” he asked when she came back.
He reached for the bag, she slipped her sneakers on, picked up Maverick, then they left and went to the elevator.
“Hang on,” she said when Maverick leaned toward the buttons and almost fell out of Jocelyn’s arms. “We are going down. Remember, going down.”
“What’s he doing?”
“I let him push the buttons,” she said. “He likes it.”
She put Maverick down and he walked over, then hit the big G on his own.
“He knows which one to hit?”
“He’s smart,” she said. “I showed him a few times. He knows when we go down, it’s the G. When we go up it’s the number five.”
Damn, he was pretty proud of his kid.
When they arrived at Jim and Stacy’s fifteen minutes later, Maverick was kicking his feet and gabbing about things he couldn’t understand.
“I like he’s talking more, but I don’t know what he’s saying. It’s like he’s singing.”
“It’s a song on one toy I brought. He plays with it the most. It’s animals and noises they make.”
He laughed. “He’s not very good at making the noises.”
“Neither are most adults. But he likes it and it will entertain him for an hour or more.”
“I might need to get one at my place.”
“It will be crazy to have the same at both places, but that’s up to you.”
He thought the same thing, but it wasn’t the time to talk about that. Too soon to even bring up their living together.
He didn’t need her family to think he was shacking up with her, and she’d never move into his place. It was too small and not up to her standards.
They went in the front door of the massive house that Jocelyn grew up in. As a kid he wouldn’t have believed actual people he went to school with lived in a house this big.
He couldn’t give her something like this, nor his son. But he could give Maverick a nice comfortable home that he’d never had and that was his plan. If he could even get a loan with the one he had on the pub.
Just another headache he’d have to figure out.
“Hi, Chance,” Stacy said. “Give me that baby.”
“He’s not much of a baby,” he said.
He handed his son over and Maverick went willingly, then wiggled to get down. It was sensory overload here for a toddler. A place this massive.
“Is Jayce going to behave?” Jocelyn asked Stacy.
“He will. After.”
He was watching his girlfriend. She’d mentioned Jayce was in town and stopped in to see her yesterday.
That they’d fought too. He didn’t get everything out of Jocelyn, but was positive it had to do with her twin not caring for Chance in his sister’s life.
Maybe he didn’t want to hear what was said either and bring up more of his self-doubt that he’d been trying to conquer.
When it was just him, Jocelyn, and Mav, he didn’t see the differences in their lives as much. But coming here brought it back to the front of the stage with the curtains open and spotlights on.
“Might as well get it over with,” he said.
She turned to look at him and nodded.
They moved to the back of the house. Jayce was sitting on the couch and stood.
“Chance,” Jayce said.
“Jayce,” he said back in the same firm tone. He’d never let anyone run him over, but he’d try not to be a dick either.
“Oh my God. It’s like watching a western with two men ready to draw their pistols. Jayce, don’t make me hunt you down in Charlotte. I mean it.”
“I won’t,” Jayce said, angling his head to the side.
Chance followed Jocelyn’s brother out a set of glass doors onto a deck.
“Get it off your chest. I know you think I’m not good enough for her.
I often think the same thing. But I appreciate her.
I care about Jocelyn. I like to think she cares for me too.
She’s been a rock when I didn’t think anyone would stand by me.
I’d never shit on someone like that, whether you believe it or not. Nor am I taking advantage of her.”
Jayce crossed his arms. “You better not be.”
“You live your life by your rules and I live by mine, but that doesn’t make either of us wrong. Think what you want about me, but I wouldn’t do anything to hurt your sister.”
Jayce continued to stare at him, then looked through the glass doors into the house. He’d bet money Jocelyn was watching them.
“Don’t mess her up. The last two guys she fell for did a number on her and kept her single for years. Now that there is a child involved it’s worse.”
He frowned. First over the comment about Jocelyn falling. Had she fallen for him or was Jayce just guessing? And the second over Maverick being involved.
“The last thing I want is someone in my son’s life who might not be there again. I won’t mess him up any more than I would do that to your sister.”
“So it’s more about Maverick?”
“Don’t be an asshole, Jayce,” Gabe said, coming on the deck. “I already talked to you about this.”
Gabe was always so laid back so he was taken back by the tone and the words. “What did you talk about?” he asked, crossing his arms.
“Listen, Chance. I’m going to lay it out right now,” Gabe said. “Jocelyn will be pissed if she finds out and I don’t care. I love my sister and don’t want her hurt and I don’t think she will be. First, she wants kids, she loves kids, and her goal had been to have them by now.”
“Don’t tell him that,” Jayce said. “Now he’ll think that is all Jocelyn wants.”
“Are you on my side now?” Chance asked.
“No. I’m just saying no guy wants to think they aren’t wanted for themselves,” Jayce said.
“That’s right,” he said. Funny how they both felt the same way.
“I’m saying that for once she’s not planning it all out like she always did,” Gabe said. “She’s going with the flow. But she’s getting attached to your son and if you think this isn’t a long-term thing, then you need to cut it quick. For both Maverick and Jocelyn.”
“It’s not that,” he said. “Not that your sister knows.”
“Why doesn’t she?” Jayce asked.
“It’s not something that has been talked about. It’d been about a month of dating before we went from two to three. I’ve given her a few outs because of my job, the hours I’m gone, and now my son. She’s not cutting.”
“Because she’s stronger than that,” Gabe said. “Maybe you both should think about that and the reason she’s not.”
Gabe walking back in didn’t tell him what he needed.
Jayce shook his head looking almost as confused.
“Don’t hurt her,” Jayce said. “I don’t give a shit how tough you are. When you hurt one McCarthy, we all band together.”
He put his hand out. “I don’t plan on it.” Jayce didn’t make a move to shake. “You know she’s watching right now. Do you want her pissed or to think we made peace even if we didn’t?”
Jayce slapped his hand into Chance’s. “You need to prove yourself for me to come to peace with it.”
“I only need to prove it to Jocelyn.”
He turned and went inside.