I didn’t care if he was eight and too old for it. I swooped him up into my arms, mine slipping beneath his backpack to hold him close. Maddox wrapped himself around me like a monkey, laughing with joy that I was home.
“When did you get home? Are you staying? Can you cook the chicken wrap thingies I like? When do you leave?” He blurted out all his questions at once as I carried him back toward his aunt and uncle.
“I just got home. Aye, I’m staying. Aye to the wraps and I don’t leave for a few weeks. But I won’t be long this time. When I come home again, I’ll be sticking around. How does that sound?”
He clung to my neck, bobbing his head with excitement. “Good, good. That means we can start a tournament on this new fight game Uncle Fyfe bought me. It’ll take us weeks!”
Grinning as I lowered him to the ground, I said truthfully, “Sounds fun, pal.”
He grabbed my hand, clutching tightly as he turned to Theo and Ally. “Dad’s back!”
“So we see.” Ally laughed at his exuberance.
“Sorry, Uncle Theo, but I don’t need a lift with you and Rose because Dad’s back.” He shrugged like he wasn’t sorry at all.
“How easily I’m replaced,” Theo drawled, eyes dancing with amusement.
“Dad, can we get some sweeties from the shop before we go home?” Maddox asked, already tugging me toward the car.
I nodded, my heart feeling like it might burst as every second word out of his mouth wasDad. “Dad, we should get Mum a chocolate bar too,” he prattled from the back seat. “She says they stick to her hips—whatever that means—but that you like that they stick to her hips, so we should definitely get Mum chocolate if we’re getting chocolate. It’s only polite.”
My grin almost cracked my cheeks as I laughed, driving slowly out of the car park. “Aye, buddy, we’ll get your mum chocolate. What about a chocolate cake to celebrate me being home?”
“Oh, oh, aye, let’s go to Aunt Callie’s bakery! She does the best chocolate. Dad, Dad”—he was speaking so fast, he had to catch his breath—“did you see Aunt Callie and Uncle Lewis had a baby?”
“I did, Mad. I saw that.”
“Did they have chocolate where you were? I bet it wasn’t as good as Aunt Callie and Aunt Sloane’s chocolate cake? It’s good that you’re staying for a while.” He nodded sagely.
Laughing softly, I agreed wholeheartedly. “Aye, son. It’s definitely good that I’m staying home for a long while.”
THEO
A few days later
To my utterdelight (note the sarcasm), the school called to ask me to come speak to Rose’s teacher when I picked her up at day’s end. Sarah was worried. I was irritated because there was no way Rose could have done anything untoward while in class. My six-year-old was, to everyone’s relief, hermother’schild.
“I’ll see to this.” I’d kissed Sarah thoroughly before departing to pick up Rose.
Filming would start on the new season of my current show in just over a month. Eilidh and I were co-showrunners. Co-writers and producers. We filmed it forty minutes south of Ardnoch, just outside Inverness, on an estate similar enough to Ardnochto make it authentic. It meant I could stay at home, but it also meant I didn’t get to spend as much time with Sarah and Rose. So, while I was home, I took Rose to and from school whenever the opportunity presented itself.
Attempting to curb my irritation at being called into school for Rose’s sake, I was a mask of cool politeness when I entered the reception area.
The truth of the matter was I had never wanted or planned for children. One of the reasons Sarah was so perfect for me was because she shared the same vision for our future. Just the two of us. Writing, traveling, bantering daily, and gloriously fucking in any room of the house we wanted because there were no small people around to be considerate of.
However, it turned out my super sperm were as attracted to Sarah’s eggs as my cock was to her vagina, and no matter she was on the pill, Sarah fell pregnant.
It wasn’t in the plan.
Sarah was afraid to tell me, which was rather humbling and distressing.
I loved her.
And she didn’t bloody well get pregnant on her own.
Thank you, super sperm and your obsessive fertilization abilities. Just couldn’t go for a bloody swim like all the others, could you?
Something changed during Sarah’s pregnancy. My possessiveness for her expanded alongside her waistline. That little bump became mine too. Then as soon as the doctor put Rose in my arms, I was unequivocally ruined. I was claimed.
