Parker laughed again.
“I thought so.” Caleb tickled Parker’s chest, then ruffled his darkening hair. Parker’s laughter turned to delighted shrieks, which made Caleb laugh, too. Jayne watched the exchange, transfixed. While Caleb and Everett had helped with Parker in the past, there was something different about what Jayne saw in that moment—something much more light and carefree. It existed in the easiness of Caleb’s smile and the affection in his eyes, and it drew Jayne to him that much more.
It seemed Jayne wasn’t the only one.
Everett ruffled Shep’s hair through his hood, much to Shep’s displeasure, then came to stand by Caleb’s side. He looked first at Caleb with gentle, unassuming love in his eyes, then turned his gaze to Parker and smiled. “It’s not too much longer until bed time, is it? We should probably get him fed and bathed while Shep takes care of dinner.”
“You’re trusting me alone with this fish?” Shep asked dully. There was a moment’s pause, then he added in a slightly more incredulous tone of voice, “And the knife?”
“I know it’s not an ax, but I’m sure you’ll make do.” Caleb looked at Jayne, a sly look in his eyes. Jayne had no idea what he meant by the ax reference, but Everett seemed to clue in—he snorted with laughter. “Think we can trust Shep to make us dinner tonight while we get Parker settled for the evening? I don’t know about you, but I have a feeling the man can cook, and he’s been holding out on us all this time.”
Shep puffed his chest. There was no doubt in Jayne’s mind that Caleb had called him a man deliberately, but it didn’t matter. Seeing his brother in such good spirits made Jayne smile. For so long, it had been him and Simon doing their best to raise Parker and support Shep, but as brothers, Shep had never respected them in the way he’d respected their parents. No matter how hard they’d tried, they’d never been able to bridge that divide, but Caleb and Everett weren’t bound by the same constraints. While Jayne doubted that Shep saw them as surrogate parents, he did respect them. Whether Shep wanted to admit it or not, he’d found role models.
Jayne hadn’t realized what a heavy weight Shep’s care had put on him until Caleb and Everett had taken it away.
“I think he’ll do a fine job,” Jayne said, his cheeks aching from how he smiled. “My friends have mentioned how good he is in the kitchen. We can trust him.”
“Damn right,” Shep muttered under his breath, sounding both flattered and highly satisfied.
“You got this, Shep?” Everett asked.
“Oh,hellyeah.” This time, Shep spoke at a volume they could all hear. “You guys aren’t going to know what hit you. I’ve got this in the bag.”
“Then let’s go get Parker fed and ready for bed.” Everett patted Caleb on the back, then smiled at Jayne in the same easygoing, tender way he had since the very first time they’d met. That look still stirred the butterflies in Jayne’s stomach and brought heat to his cheeks. No matter how much time passed, he thought it always would.
Wanting nothing more than to be close to his men, Jayne knitted his fingers with Everett’s, then looked at Caleb and Parker. The love on Caleb’s face was transparent. The party boy that Jayne had coaxed out from his shell had fallen head over heels for Jayne’s family, and he’d stepped into his role as father so effortlessly, sometimes Jayne forgot that he wasn’t Parker’s biological father.
As a trio, Parker still in Caleb’s arms, they left the kitchen. While Caleb fussed about getting Parker situated in his living room high chair, and Everett went to find a new bottle of baby food, Jayne unlocked the screen of his phone and returned to the Single Dad chat.
GlitterDoctor: You guys know the whole metric fuckton conversion system you cooked up?
Gwynning: Yes
KnotMyProblem: Yeah, we do. What’s up, Glit?
GlitterDoctor: Can you only use it to measure bad things?
GlitterDoctor: because right now, I feel like I’ve run headfirst into a metric fuckton of happiness
* * *
Later that same night,Jayne stretched out across the couch in an attempt to get comfortable. It shouldn’t have been hard. With a belly still full from dinner and his soul nourished from seeing Shep, Caleb, and Everett bond like they had, nothing should have stood between him and total bliss, yet no matter how much he squirmed and repositioned himself, he couldn’t find the right spot to settle. In the end, he laid his head on Everett’s lap and stretched his legs across Caleb’s thighs, but it was no use. He couldn’t get comfortable.
“Antsy?” Everett asked. He ran his fingers leisurely through Jayne’s hair, no longer interested in what was playing on the television.
Jayne looked up at him, pouting. “Yes.”
“I’ll make it better.” It wasn’t Everett that spoke, but Caleb, who slid his hands over Jayne’s calves, then started to massage, working down to Jayne’s feet before slowly working his way back up.
“Mm.” Jayne closed his eyes, reveling in the way Everett stroked his hair and the firm but loving way Caleb worked his muscles. “Lucky me. All this attention and I didn’t even have to suck anyone’s dick.”
Caleb snorted. By the sounds of it, Everett punched his shoulder—Jayne didn’t open his eyes to investigate.
“Our affection doesn’t hinge on how many blowjobs you give us,” Everett said, no doubt glaring at Caleb as he did. “It’s not conditional.”
“Although if you’re feeling generous, our dicks willalwaysbe appreciative of a good suck.”
Jayne worked his leg out from Caleb’s grip and halfheartedly kicked him, which turned out to be more of a poke with his heel than anything else.
