Papa
This can’t be a long term solution. What are you going to tell Everdin 6 months from now? 12 months?
Titan
Mathlin should’ve moved on by then. I’ll tell her it didn’t work out and he took the pup with him. For now, he’ll be working for me as my hands. Hopefully help heal me too. I’ll give you updates when I have them.
Dad
Careful, pup. Don’t get yourself tangled into a heartbreak.
Titan
I’ll try.
Titan closed the chat and looked up. Now that the most time-sensitive problem had been solved, there were a few more things to iron out. He looked around and found Mathlin back on the sales floor.
“Math—” he began to say.
Then he realized that Mathlin was showing his baby the colorful pictures on the walls.
“This is a rainbow,” Mathlin cooed. “It’s a pretty arch of light in the sky. I wish we could climb on it; it would be such a great slide. This is a tiger, it’s trying to dance under the rainbow. Everyone says tigers are fierce, but they haven’t tried to rub a tiger’s belly. Tigers would roll over for more belly rubs.”
The baby wriggled and smiled; Mathlin cuddled her more snugly against himself.
Titan swallowed, desire coiling through his stomach. Mathlin was really great with his child.
It didn’t help that Mathlin was so much smaller than Titan. He had bright orange eyes—Titan had never seen anyone with orange eyes before. Mathlin’s light brown hair looked soft, and he was thin, almost starved.
Titan wanted to make him some food. Feed him a little so he wouldn’t look so hungry.
But his arms were crap right now.
“Hey,” Titan said. “Have you had breakfast?”
Mathlin looked over, all wide-eyed and innocent. “No. And I hope you don’t mean a breakfast sausage because cannibalism isn’t my thing.”
His gaze dropped to Titan’s crotch.
A beat passed. Mathlin glanced at Titan in horror. “Let’s pretend I didn’t say that to my future boss.”
Titan coughed lightly. “No, I meant actual food. There are some snacks in my fridge, and quite a few eggs in there. They were delivered right before the accident happened.”
“Eggs!” Mathlin perked up. “Do you have ice cream?”
“In the freezer. Help yourself.”
Instead of going for the eggs, Mathlin turned to the freezer immediately. He gasped at the single commercial-sized tub. “Do you only have one flavor?”
“It’s my favorite. Peanut butter.”
“Of course it is,” Mathlin said. Then his mouth grew pinched, and he shoved his hand over it. “Um! That wasn’t a dog joke?”
“Sure,” Titan said dryly. “You’ll have to get it out of there yourself, obviously. I apologize.”
It went against all his instincts to watch Mathlin struggle with the round, paper-wrapped tub. Titan ached to help him. It would be so easy to grab that tub and heft it onto the counter—if his arms weren’t injured.
His fingers twitched. Mathlin wrangled the tub onto his hip, then the counter, and carefully pried it open. Both he and his baby looked inside; Mathlin’s eyes seemed to sparkle.
