“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.”
