“He’s perfect. It’s as if nothing bad ever happened to him. I’m thinking about adopting him permanently.”
“You should,” Charlie said. “He suits you.”
“Yeah, that’s my thinking. I’d like to have at least one dog that’s a constant in my life, y’know? Did you ever get a chance to think about adopting one yourself?”
“I haven’t-”
A high-pitched cry from Kayla cut Charlie off mid-sentence. Scott turned his attention to her immediately, fear that she was hurt making his stomach turn cold.
He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw she’d just knocked over her tower. It was only a dozen blocks or so, but for a toddler, it probably felt like the end of the world.
Charlie got back down to his knees, shushing Kayla softly and pulling her into a hug, her arms wrapping around his neck as he bent down. “Shh, honey. It’s okay. It’s no big deal.”
Scott hesitated, but then set his books down and headed over to join them, sitting on the other side of the fallen tower. Charlie looked at him, his eyebrows knitted together, but Scott knew what he was doing.
He hated to see a kid upset as much as he hated to see a dog upset. He couldn’t stand by and not try to help.
“Hey, honey,” he said softly, waving at Kayla. Once he had her attention, he picked up one of the fallen blocks and set it down, then stacked another one on top of it. “You wanna help me with this?”
Scott wasn’t sure how much Kayla understood, but she’d understand that he was playing.
Kayla split off from Charlie and took an offered block from Scott, stacking it on the ones Scott had already put down. Scott beamed, a rush of excitement washing over him at the fact that Kayla was happy to play with him.
“I’m Scott,” he said.
“Scod,” Kayla repeated. It was close enough.
Charlie laughed softly. “She must like you. She only bothers calling meCha.”
“Cha!” Kayla said eagerly, looking around to see that Charlie was still there.
“That’s me, sweetie,” Charlie said, a smile lighting up his entire face. He obviously loved Kayla.
Once Scott had helped her with the base of the tower, he let Kayla work on the rest by herself, watching her think carefully about the placement of each block with the specific kind of intense focus only toddlers could manage.
As long as she wasn’t upset anymore, Scott was happy.
“Thank you for helping me calm her down. I guess you’re good with kids as well as dogs.”
“They’re not so different.” Scott shrugged. “They just want to feel loved and wanted.”
“Don’t we all?” Charlie asked, crossing his legs under him and reaching out for Scott’s pile of books, lifting the top one and stroking the front cover. “You have great taste in fiction.”
“Thanks,” Scott said, offering Kayla a green, triangular building block.
“TheAftermathseries is really good,” Charlie added. “It was so nice to be able to see myself as a gay man in theStar Warsuniverse, you know? Sometimes I feel as though people create these huge sprawling worlds and forget about people like me.”
So Charliewasgay, then. Huh.
That was fine. Scott didn’t have any gay friends, although he supposed he kind of had one now. “Yeah, well. I’m just glad they’re making new stuff for it. I grew up with the prequel films, and they were awful, but I still loved them as a kid. I guess most kids do.”
“I’ll have to introduce Kayla someday,” Charlie said. “I think she’s still a little too young to get it, though.”
“You’re never too young for a lightsaber battle. Or too old.”
Charlie snorted. “I’m not gonna make any comments about lightsaber battles.”
Scott was confused for a second, but blushed when he realized what Charlie meant. The urge to point out that he was straight welled up again, but he shoved it back down. He wasn’t gonna be that guy. He could handle a sex joke. Even a gay sex joke.
