Landry smiles down at Camden and doesn’t even glance our way as he opens the mini piece of chocolate and hands it back to Camden.
“Ank ooo,” he says, after shoving the entire piece into his mouth.
“You’re weak, Reynolds.” Knox laughs.
“You can’t give him everything he wants,” Baker tells him. He’s not mad; in fact, I don’t even have to look at him to know that he’s highly amused with Landry’s lack of willpower where the kids are concerned.
“I—Yes, I’m weak,” he says, holding his hands up in the air, and the room erupts in laughter. “He’s too damn cute. The struggle is real.”
“It’s okay, babe. At least you admit there’s a problem,” Rowan teases.
“How do you do it?” Landry asks Baker.
“It’s hard at times, but kids need structure. And if he fills up on chocolate, he won’t eat his dinner, and he’ll be bouncing off the walls and will be up all night with a bellyache. Then Sloane and I will never get any sleep.”
“So, this is what we have to look forward to,” Reid muses.
“We’re already there.” Bellamy laughs. “And you’re as weak as Landry when it comes to telling Coral no.”
“What? I am not,” Reid counters, but his tone and the look on his face tell us he knows he’s guilty.
“Yes, you are,” Bellamy fires back. “What about last night? She kept tossing her cheese puff to the floor, and instead of ignoring it or telling her no, you laughed, which meant she was also laughing, and she kept doing it to make you smile at her.”
“It was cute as hell.” Reid sniggers.
Camden comes rushing over to Landry and hands him another piece of chocolate. Landry looks pained, so I intercept as I step closer to him, lift Camden into my arms, and twirl him around, making him giggle. I manage to take the piece of candy and toss it to Baker, who shoves it into his pocket.
“Teamwork.” Baker winks at me.
Camden presses his hands to my cheeks and kisses me, and he tastes like chocolate. “Have you been eating more chocolate than we know about?” I ask him.
“Where are you getting those?” Baker asks him.
Camden points to the living room, and Coral’s bag is beneath his wagon, the one we used to haul them around the neighborhood. She was sleeping, so we wheeled it inside, and this little bugger took full advantage.
Her bag is on the floor, and sure enough, there are some empty wrappers. I want to tell him he’s been a bad boy, but I’m fighting my own smile, because he also told on himself.
“You little sneak,” I say, tickling his belly. That earns me a big laugh, and I twirl us around again. We end up bumping into Baker, who wraps his arms around us with a smile.
The doorbell rings. “I’ll get it,” Foster says, moving toward the door.
“I put the tip on the card!” I call after him, and he waves over his shoulder.
Once everyone has a plate, we move to the dining room and talk about some of the silly and even scary costumes we saw tonight as we walked around the neighborhood. Baker finishes before me and tries to take Camden from Landry, but he’s stuck like glue to his uncle, who feeds him chocolate. So instead, he leans back in his chair, stretches his arm out on the back of mine. Landry smirks, proud as a peacock that Camden chose to stay with him, and offers Camden a piece of his wing he just tore off the bone.
Baker leans in close. “Today was one for the memory books,” he says, kissing just below my ear. “Thank you for this.”
I turn to look at him. “It would have happened regardless.”
“Yeah, but I wouldn’t have been as prepared, and chances are, not dressed up, and wouldn’t get to walk around with my favorite cheerleader and the best referee in Tennessee,” he jokes.
“It was fun. I took so many pictures.” I make a mental note to upload them to get developed. Over the last several months, my camera roll is pretty much the Camden show.
“Good. We’ll have to top this next year.” He winks, and my belly flops at his words as excitement washes over me. It’s the kind of excitement that makes you want to jump headfirst with your eyes closed, hoping for the best. However, it’s too late for that. My heart is already split in the middle for the two of them. Father and son stole it, and I don’t want it back.
Thinking that far into the future gives me hope. Things are going great with us. I still haven’t told him that I love him. Not because of how I think he’ll react, but I just… I don’t know if I’m being honest. We’re just us right now. We’re enjoying life, time with each other, and time with Camden. We’re in a good place, and I don’t want to risk rocking the boat, even if I don’t think that would happen.
It took us a good while to get Camden down after everyone left. We gave him a bath, which he loved, and I think it was the fourth story before his eyes finally closed. He was fighting it. He had such a fun time tonight, I think he was afraid he might miss something else.
