“I think you’re wrong. You’ve got syrup all over your face.” I pointed to where a drop of syrup lived.
“Oh no.” He tapped his cheek. “If only there was someone who could kiss it off.”
Daddy looked to me. “Rock, paper, scissors?”
I laughed.
“I’ll call it,” Brax said. “One, two, three, shoot.”
My hand automatically went to paper, which covered Daddy’s rock. I leaned in, licked the drop of syrup just below Brax’s lip, then swiped my tongue across his bottom lip before kissing him. I sat back in my chair.
“Guess I’ll have to go in and see if you did your job correctly.” Daddy leaned in. It was so hot watching him do exactly as I had, licking, then kissing Brax. “What do you think? Do you think I got it all?”
“I got all of his but, oops, I have a syrup on my lip too. Rock paper scissors?” I was so down for this game.
Brax and Daddy held out their hands, ready to battle over who got to kiss me. So much fun.
Chapter Twenty
Brax
“What did you get us?” I asked. Cliff had something up his sleeve. Something big that came from the delivery guy the night before. But he wouldn’t tell me what it was. I could’ve looked it up, since we shared an account with the big corp online, but Daddy liked his surprises. It was one of the things that made me fall in love with him.
“It’s for you and Edwin. You can open it together.”
He had a point. Opening it with Edwin would be way more fun.
“I wish he could be here all the time.” I said the words out loud before thinking about what that meant for us.
“I wish he could be, too. I miss him when he’s gone.”
I whirled to look at my partner. “What can we do about it? I don’t want to miss him anymore.”
Cliff wrapped me in his embrace. “Should we ask him to be here more often?”
Looking up at my love, one of my loves, I shrugged. “What do you mean more often? He can’t be here all the time and still paying rent at the Little House. It wouldn’t be fair to him.”
“Do you think we should consider…have you thought about him moving in with us?”
I took a long, deep breath. I had thought about Edwin moving in with us. Dreamed of it even. “I’ve thought a lot about it, but we haven’t been dating him that long. Are we rushing this? Getting ahead of ourselves?”
Cliff held me tighter. “I don’t know. I want to ask him to move in. Don’t you?”
I nodded against his chest, feeling his steady heartbeat next to my ear. Edwin had some clothes here. His body wash was inour shower, and his duckie floated right alongside mine when I took a bath.
“Do you love him?” I asked. “There’s enough love in my heart for both of you, so I’m sure there is in yours as well.”
Cliff confessed, not surprisingly. He loved Edwin and wanted him with us all the time. So did I. Cliff treated him as well as he did me. He noticed when his mood was off and made sure his favorite food and snacks were always stocked. He helped us keep our playroom tidy and ready for us to relax and be the part of ourselves we didn’t show many people.
“Not today, though,” I whispered. “Today, let’s just show him how much we love him.”
“You’re right. When the time comes, we will tell him. We’ll know when it’s right.”
We came to our agreement right on time. The doorbell rang. Edwin came in and changed right into his little overalls with the train on the front. I asked him if he ever wanted to go on a real train, but he was concerned about the level of noise and the scary moving parts.
“We’re going to play, Daddy,” I announced.
“Not so fast, little ones. Edwin, have you had breakfast? Brax hasn’t. You’ll need energy.”
