“I’m hungry, Uncle Zach,” Cody whined.
“All right, little man,” I said. “Say goodbye to Mommy, and then we’ll go upstairs and make some chicken nuggets.”
“Yay, nuggets!” He leaned down from my arms and gave Allie a sloppy kiss on the cheek. “Bye, Mommy.”
She kissed his cheek back. “Bye, sweet boy. I’ll see you later.”
We waited on the sidewalk so Cody could wave at Allie while she drove away. Then I took him up to our apartment and got the chicken nuggets cooking. I sat Cody at the table with his food and looked at the time. It was closing in on six-thirty, and Cody was just starting to eat. Damn it. I was going to be late picking up Miguel.
I pulled out my phone and called him. He answered with a happy, “Hey, baby. What’s up?”
I huffed a sigh. “I’m going to be late picking you up. Cody just started eating.”
“That’s funny,” he replied. “I was just about to call you. Liam and Marco stopped by. They’re going to meet some friends at Kim Marie’s pub later and invited us to join them. I told them what we had going on tonight, and they offered to drop me off at our place to save you time and trouble.”
“Wow, that’s really nice of them. Tell them I said thank you.”
“Will do. I’m about to pick up the food from Chef Joanna, and then I’ll be out of here. See you soon.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. Cody was not a fast eater, and I hadn’t looked forward to trying to rush him. Once he was finished, I cleaned him up and settled him in front of the TV to watchEncantofor the millionth time. I cleaned up the mess from Cody’s dinner and double-checked to make sure everything was as clean as it could be.
I heard Miguel come in just a little after seven, and he wasn’t alone. Marco and Liam came in behind him, carrying to-go bags from the hotel restaurant. I hurried to help carry some of it in. “Wow, she gave you a lot.”
“Yes, she did,” Miguel answered breathlessly as he set his bags on the counter. “She wanted me to make a good impression.” He held up another bag. “She even gave me wine to go with the meal.”
I took the bags Marco and Liam were holding. “Thank you for helping get Miguel home.” I tilted my head toward my nephew in the living room. “As you can see, he’s already mesmerized by Disney.”
Liam wandered over and exclaimed, “I love this movie.”
“Try watching it ten thousand times and see how much you like it,” I grumbled.
Marco chuckled. “That’s kids for you. My nieces and nephews all have their favorites that they watch on repeat.”
Cody turned at the sound of strange voices and his eyes went comically wide. He pointed at Marco and said, “He’s a giant.”
Liam burst out laughing. Marco rolled his eyes at his boyfriend. He went over to my nephew and crouched. “Hey, Cody. I’m Marco.”
Miguel leaned to me and murmured, “That’s pretty funny because Marco’s not that much taller than you.”
“Yeah, but he’s got thirty pounds of muscle on me,” I retorted.
We watched as Cody stood and traced his fingers over the bone frog tattoo on Marco’s arm, chattering away about my dragon tattoo. The kid had never met a stranger. Liam joined them and asked which song was Cody’s favorite, which led to a very loud rendition of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.” For the billionth time. Liam and Marco finally left after promising Cody they would come see him again.
Miguel put the food trays in the oven to keep warm and the wine in the freezer to chill faster. He held up a smaller bag and said, “She sent chocolate mousse for dessert.”
I rubbed my belly. “Yum.” I looked at our four-person dinette table. “We don’t have enough room for everybody.”
Miguel held up one finger. “Ah, but we do. This table has a leaf we can put in, and we have extra chairs, one of which is in front of your keyboard.”
“All right. You go change, and I’ll get started setting the table.”
We’d just put the last dish on the table when the downstairs buzzer sounded. We looked at each other. Miguel blew out a slow breath. “Show time.”
I kissed him lightly. “You’ll be fine. I’m right here with you.”
“And that makes all the difference,” he said with a smile.
He hurried downstairs to let his family in while I went over to Cody. “Hey, Cody. Your friend Diego is coming to visit.”
