“Can we play dress-up? You don’t have to do anything. I want my dolly to wear her new clothes. And I want to try on the nail polish too.” With careful concentration, she sat her doll on the sofa next to her and put the bottle of glittery nail polish on her lap.
Too tired to care, Marcus shrugged. “Knock yourself out. As long as I don’t have to get up, you can do whatever you want.”
“I’ll do mine first.”
Marcus yawned and stretched. Hopefully she wouldn’t get nail polish all over the new doll, but he didn’t really care. Taking care of a kid wasn’t as bad as he’d thought.
Chapter Twenty
‡
All sorts ofproblems ran through Tyler’s mind upon discovering Marcus had been conscripted to pick up Lillie from preschool. And a reassuring text that they were having “fun” didn’t set his mind at ease as it should have. Fun for Marcus meant something very different than it did for an ordinary person.
He was so nervous that he broke his own rule and took a cab home rather than wait for the eternally slow subway. Raymond nodded and waved hello to him as he hurried past.
“Marcus and Lillie are upstairs.”
“Thanks,” said Tyler over his shoulder, running to catch the elevator. Now that he was back, he realized how silly he was being. Marcus had lived with Lillie for two months now and while he never spent any time alone with her, he tolerated her as an amusing presence in his life. Hearing voices inside, Tyler inserted his key in the lock, curious and a bit anxious to see how Marcus had spent almost an entire day with a four-year-old girl.
The two of them sat on the sofa, surrounded by dolls. Doll clothing and shopping bags lay strewn about their feet. Lillie caught a glimpse of him, picked up a big doll which he knew she hadn’t owned prior to today and ran to him.
“Uncle Ty, look what Marcus got me.”
“That’s nice, baby-girl.”
Tyler barely glanced at her; the sight of Marcus had him transfixed.
“Don’t say a word.”
Tyler bit his lip, but it was impossible not to break out in laughter. “What happened?” he managed to get out in between bursts of hilarity.
Marcus glowered, his eyes flashing. Beams of late-afternoon sunlight picked up on the sparkling tiara resting in Marcus’s sleek black hair. And, if Tyler wasn’t mistaken, a suspicious pink sheen of lip-gloss gleamed on Marcus’s lips.
“Marcus played dress-up with me. He said it was okay.” Lillie looked between the two of them. “Did I do something wrong?” With slow, hesitant steps, she walked over to Marcus. “Are you mad at me?”
And then Tyler watched something extraordinary occur. Marcus picked Lillie up and sat her in his lap. As gentle as Tyler had ever witnessed, Marcus smoothed back her hair from her brow and gave her a kiss on the forehead. “Not a chance, Lillie-bug. Now why don’t you gather all your stuff up and go to your room for a bit. I think your uncle Tyler and I need to have a talk.”
“Are you gonna fight? Please don’t fight and say mean things.”
“No, we’re not going to fight. I promise.” Marcus swatted her on the backside. “Go on now.”
Amazed, Tyler watched Lillie pick up all her things, lug them into her bedroom, and shut the door behind her. Tyler imagined she was more than happy to stay behind closed doors and play with whatever else Marcus had bought for her.
They stared at one another across the room until Tyler couldn’t take it any longer and walked over to Marcus. “So, Princess, do you mind telling me what happened here? But first let me get my hello kiss.”
Tyler leaned over and kissed Marcus, tracing his lips with the tip of his tongue. As always, whenever they kissed or touched, a rich warmth flooded Tyler, soaking up all the coldness he had inside, though after two months with Marcus, those cold unhappy places had become harder than ever to find.
Tyler wasn’t about to let Marcus get away without a little (who was he kidding—a lot) of teasing, and he licked his lips. “Umm, strawberry.” If possible, the scowl on Marcus’s face grew even blacker.
“You’re a fucking riot, Tyler. What was I supposed to do? She had to get picked up, and there was only me. You never told me you put me down as her emergency contact after you. We went to lunch, and there were all these other kids with stuff from that Girl place.”
Vacillating between shock and horror, Tyler stared at Marcus. “You aren’t telling me you took her to the American Girl store? That place is a pit of hell for parents.”
Marcus pulled the tiara off his head and set it down on the tabletop. “Yeah, well, except for a slight dent in my credit card, I made it out alive and unscathed. It’s really no big deal; I was happy to do it, and she’s thrilled.”
Bemused at Marcus’s attitude, Tyler caught sight of Marcus’s hand and almost choked. “Marcus? What’s on your fingers?”
For a brief second Marcus checked and curled his fingers into his palms as if by hiding them, Tyler could possibly forget what he’d seen.
