“It sucks,” he muttered. “It sucks to have wanted something for so long, and I get this close, and still I’m helpless and lacking the ability to control this.”
I took a deep breath.
“Are you even going to tell him about me?” he asked.
“Of course. I will tell him tonight. I’ll tell him we met and that you’d love to meet him, but I won’t push him on a decision to meet you,” I said.
Chase nodded and put his napkin on the table.
“He probably won’t want to meet me. I don’t blame him. I haven’t been around or been there for him. God knows I’ve tried, though.”
“I will tell him that my impression of you is positive.”
“Thank you. I hope he says yes.”
I didn’t give Chase any indication that I thought Brandon would react one way or another. At the moment, I wasn’t sure how he’d react.
“So, you have a hospital?” he asked.
“I’m a hospital administrator. My background is in psychology.”
Chase nodded.
“I design marketing logos and ads for businesses. My background is in crayons and paint,” he said.
When I looked into his eyes and started to laugh, a huge smile spread across his face. He looked so much like Brandon. There was an authentic sense of innocence about Chase. And now I understood where Brandon got it.
10
JAMES
On the drivehome I tossed around ideas on how to present this information to Brandon. With every possible idea that I had, I also needed to consider his reaction. I could picture him taking this news both well and not so well. No matter how he appeared to take it, the chance was high that it’d cause internal turmoil.
I didn’t see a way around that for him.
I walked into the house and heard Brandon singing in the kitchen, and a heavy scent of cake hung in the air. Eager to have Brandon in my line of sight, I walked through the great room and into the kitchen. He had a container of frosting in his hand as he moved around the kitchen by the island. I glanced down at the counter and saw a bunch of cupcakes; some were already frosted, while some were still bare. He used the icing spatula as a microphone as he sung the chorus to a hip hop song that I didn’t understand the words to.
Even though I had some rough news to share with him, I couldn’t help but smile as I watched him sing and dance. He tilted his head back and held the spatula over his mouth to sing into it. As he sang, a glob of icing fell off the “microphone” and landed on the side of his face. He stopped singing and stood upright, and I clapped and walked to him.
“Bravo, pup. You made that song sound much better than the original,” I said.
I wrapped my arms around him as his cheeks blushed and he laughed. He reached for the icing, but I took his hand in mine and leaned in to lick the glob off his face.
“Mmm, the frosting is good.” I kissed his lips softly and then pointed to the cupcakes. “So what’s the occasion?” I asked. He wiggled free from my arms and looked down at his sweet treats.
“Does there have to be an occasion?” he asked as he picked one up to continue to slather it in sugary vanilla frosting.
“There doesn’t have to be one, no. But it’s not every day I come home from work to freshly made cupcakes,” I answered. I pulled him into my arms again when he smiled and laughed. “And it’s not often I find you in the kitchen cooking or baking,” I pointed out.
“It’s Wednesday,” he said and then looked at me with those bright blue eyes.
“And that means?”
“Nothing. But I was thinking about how boring Wednesdays are.” He shrugged. “So I thought, why not make Wednesdays more exciting?”
My pup is in a good mood. Maybe this won’t go as badly as I fear.
“And cupcakes—”
