Grey stares at his hands. “But?—”
“But...if you’re thinking about how things didn’t work out with Sonny’s mother, people make mistakes. Not that your son was a mistake, but in terms of not being there for him.”
“It’s only been a short time, but I cannot imagine a life without you and Sonny. For so long, I didn’t think I was up for the task. She’s the one missing out. And to be honest, it makes me mad.”
“It hasn’t escaped my attention that Sonny instantly called me Mamma. It felt kind of strange at first, like I was peeping in someone’s diary. But it also feels right. What or how do you want to tell Sonny about her? Or have you already?”
“According to reports, she hardly took care of Sonny, leaving him with babysitters, friends, and her mother. He bounced around from person to person. It should’ve been me.”
“You’re here now.”
“I haven’t talked to him about Princess yet.”
I press my lips together, fighting a smile, fighting laughter. I squeeze my eyes shut, hoping it’ll pass. But it’s no use, it pours out of me.
“What’s so funny?”
“Just that you call your ex princess. No offense to the biological mother of your son, but she’s more like a wicked witch.”
“No, that’s her name.”
I whack him with my fingers. “Her name is not Princess.”
“Honest truth.”
My laughter continues because he’s not joking after all.
Grey’s lip quivers like it’s contagious, and I give him a little nudge. “Come on. It’s okay to laugh a little. Let it out, big guy.”
He does, a long bellow of a laugh. It shines in his eyes.
“See? That was good, right?”
He bobbles his head in affirmation, which is much better than a grunt.
“I’m sorry, I can’t believe your ex’s name is Princess. I still think it’s hilarious. That should’ve been a red flag. I cannot picture you with a lady named Princess.” I try putting their names together in my head. Nope, Grey and Princess don’t fit.
“Yeah, in hindsight, her name was fitting in that spoiled, bratty, entitled kind of way.”
“But you got Sonny out of the deal, so I’d say you came out the king.” At the mention of that term, I think of my father and my laughter dies.
“He’s the best thing that ever happened to me. And you,” Grey adds.
The warmth within returns and brings with it a question. “Branson is your brother and you’re Greyson. Did you name him Sonny as per tradition?”
“Princess wanted to name him Aero Moon Hero, so that was the compromise.”
“Where did you find this woman?”
“Late night. Waffle House. She was Norwegian. I thought it was meant to be. We’ll never speak of it again.”
“It’s probably for the best.” Another squawk of laughter escapes.
“But about her, Sonny is barely three years old and I want to wait until our lives settle before I gauge how to approach the subject about Princess and you. Without my prompting or any discussion on the matter, he started calling you Mamma, so I went with it. But we can talk about how to handle it at some point.”
“Speaking of things we ought to talk about...”
My phone beeps. My spine tingles, but I do my best to ignore it.
