Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Easton
The scrambled eggs were a good call.
Tanner is going at them as though he hasn’t eaten in a week, his little fist slamming the tray every time Hadley loads the spoon and brings it toward him, as if he’s worried she might change her mind before it reaches his mouth.
I lean against the counter and watch her feed him.
She doesn’t sense my eyes on her. She’s too focused on loading the next spoon before Tanner can protest, keeping him engaged so he doesn’t have time to remember he was crying twenty minutes ago.
“I never looked that up,” I say, not to compliment her, but because it’s the truth.
She turns slightly, but Tanner gives an excited, loud pitch, and her gaze snaps from mine.
Who would’ve thought I’d be competing with my son for her attention?
“What?”
“The eggs.” I nod toward the bowl and spoon in her hand. “I’ve been going off what Callie, Penelope, and Leighton told me to buy the first night. I never thought to look up if he could have any real food.”
She loads another spoonful of eggs. “Google is my best friend.”
“Apparently.” Tanner opens his mouth before the spoon even reaches him. “He really likes them.”
“He does really like them.” The corner of her mouth turns up before she can stop it.
She’s proud of herself.
She won’t say that. She’d rather make a joke about it or wave it off entirely.
I pull out the chair across from them and sit down, crossing my arms on the table. For a minute, neither of us says anything, and the only sounds are Tanner’s enthusiastic protest every time the spoon takes too long to reach his mouth.
“So,” she says, not looking away from Tanner. “A public proposal.”
“Yeah.”
“When?”
“I’m not telling you that.”
She finally looks at me, and her shoulders fall. “Easton.”
I raise both hands. “My agent Jagger’s orders. He wants the surprise to be genuine.”
“So you told me there’s going to be a proposal but won’t tell me when.” She loads another spoon. “That’s not going to make me anxious at all.”
“I know we have a timeline to stick to.” I wink.
“And I’ll have to make sure I have my makeup on point and a cute outfit every day until then.”
“All you have to do is say yes.”
She goes still for a second. Then she looks back at Tanner. “What do I do? When you ask. What’s the right reaction?”
This is why I was on the fence about telling her about the proposal. Jagger didn’t want me to, but I wasn’t going to blindside her with some big proposal and my buddies taking videos and pictures behind me. We’re supposed to be a team here, and it’s not right to not fill her in on everything.
“Whatever you feel is the right reaction.”
She glares at me, but Tanner pounds on the tray. She laughs at him, putting a few pieces of the eggs on the tray. “That’s not helpful, Easton. Do I scream? Cover my mouth? Maybe I should watch some proposal videos tonight so I can be prepared.”
Tanner tries to pick up a piece of the egg, and I take this as my opportunity to make sure I get through to her.
“Hadley.” I wait until she meets my gaze. “Just look at me. Don’t look at the cameras or whoever’s around. Just look at me, and whatever happens will be the right reaction.”
She holds my gaze for a beat longer than I would have thought. “Okay,” she says quietly.
Tanner slaps the tray.
She laughs again and loads the spoon. “Can’t let me have a conversation with your daddy, huh?”
Hearing her call me daddy throws me at first. As if I should correct her, but she’s right. Tanner is mine, and I am his daddy. It still feels so surreal.
I get up from the table and look through the cabinets for something to make for dinner. I’m starving, and it gives me something to do other than sit here and admire her taking care of my son.
“What should I make for us?”
“I’m good with cereal.” She comes into the kitchen, putting the bowl in the sink. She reaches under my raised arm and grabs the jar of banana baby food. “Dessert time, Tanman!”
“You’re not having cereal. I can make us something.”
“Do you actually have any food here?” She sits back down at the table but keeps the jar below the tray as she spoons it.
“Pasta.” I pull a box from the shelf. “And I think there’s sauce somewhere.”
“You think?”
“I’m a bachelor. Give me some grace.” I find the sauce behind all the baby food jars. “I can do pasta.” I hold up the sauce to show her.
“Good. Because the eggs were the last of my culinary knowledge. I told you I’m not very domesticated.”
“You killed it with the scrambled eggs. He couldn’t be happier.”
She doesn’t answer right away.
“I did okay,” she says finally.
“Take the win, Hadley.”
I fill the pot with water and put it on the stove, but I don’t push her further because she obviously isn’t ready to take the compliment. I don’t know how I know that, but I do.
Tanner makes a sound from the high chair as if he just ate a seven-course meal and needs to unbutton his pants.
I glance back at the two of them.
Hadley has the empty jar in her hand and she’s making a face at him and he’s making one back. There’s a kind of contentment between them. As though they lived through the war. She’s too busy watching him to see me admiring her with my son once again.
Maybe moving her in here and asking her to care for my son wasn’t my brightest idea.
She’s the only woman I ever spent more than one night with since moving here. If I wanted to dig into that, I’d probably find that it means something.
But I don’t, so I turn back to the stove.
And make her dinner.