Sam didn’t look entirely convinced though and moved his hand down to Derek’s thigh. “Panic attack?”
Derek shrugged, glancing away, but he knew he couldn’t lie to him. He was never a great liar, and Sam was kind of like the shop’s human lie-detector anyway. “Yeah, bad one, but it was fine.” When Sam looked skeptical, Derek waved his hand. “Seriously. There was a guy in there and he helped me breathe through it. Once I had calmed down, we sat, and he kept my head busy so I couldn’t think about being stuck.”
Sam smirked at him and lowered his voice so Maisy wouldn’t hear. “I sure as hell hope you don’t mean the head of your dick, man. Those things have cameras. With back-up generators. Last thing you need is some kinky, tatted up douche bag sex tape going viral.”
Derek punched him in the arm. “My brain, fuck you very much. Communicating was a little difficult so it was like…you know when you give Pepper one of those puzzle balls to keep her from getting all worked up and bored?”
“Are you comparing yourself to my dog?” Sam asked with a huge grin.
“Oh, you know what,” Derek started, but Sam squeezed his thigh again, quieting him.
“I get it. So, what was he like?”
Hot like burning, sweet, amazing, and I’m torturing myself for letting him go, he let himself think. “Uh, he was really nice and helpful. He was also deaf, so we had to type on his phone, and it kept me distracted. I showed him my gallery.”
Sam’s grin spread further. “Yeah, I bet you did.”
“Jesus Christ,” Derek whispered. “I’m leaving before this can get any more absurd.” He started to push to his feet, but Sam’s hand caught his wrist and dragged him back down. He frowned at his friend. “Seriously, don’t you need me out of here?”
“Yes, I do,” Sam told him, “but I also need to know you’re okay.”
Derek licked his lips, then felt pretty good about the fact that he knew he could be honest. “I’m beat down, and I only got a couple of good hours last night, but I’m way better than I was the last time I had a break-down. Seriously, the guy really helped.”
“Okay,” Sam replied after a beat, then let him go. He finished packing up Maisy’s bag, then handed it over before reaching for his chair and using his arms to lift his lower half into it. “Come here, munchkin,” Sam called to her.
Maisy immediately dropped he doll and launched herself into Sam’s arms. It was in the moment, with the two of them together like that, Derek could see the intense familial resemblance between them. Maisy shared Sam’s dark brown hair, and high cheekbones—though hers were still hidden under a soft layer of baby fat—and the heart-shaped mouth. For all anyone might have guessed, she was his biological daughter. And for as much as Sam loved her, she may as well have been.
“You need to be good for uncle DeDe, okay?” Sam told her, stroking a few stray waves back away from her forehead. “I’m going to pick you up when I’m done, okay?”
Maisy appeared to consider this, looking between Derek and Sam, then nodded. “Yeah. I could behave.”
Sam kissed her forehead. “I know you will, sweetpea. I’ll see you in a little bit.”
Maisy slid off Sam’s lap, then marched up to Derek and held both arms up in a demand to be picked up. Derek obliged—generally unable to say no to her which was probably why he was her favorite—and he hitched her up on his hip. “Can we go in your twuck?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Uncle Sage has the truck today, so we’re going in the zoom car.” He drove a Mini which she found delightful—like some sort of old Roger Rabbit-style cartoon car kids couldn’t get enough of. “Is that okay?”
She thought about it, then nodded. “Okay. Can I bwing my oh-fant?”
Derek shrugged and let her slide to the floor so she could race to her room and collect the elephant she couldn’t live without. He caught Sam’s grin and he fought the urge to flip him off. “At least I get to give her back,” he snarked.
Sam shrugged. “Hey, I’m not complaining here. If I didn’t have you guys, I don’t know what the fuck I’d do.”
“But you do, so there’s no point in letting this freak you out,” Derek reminded him. “We’ve got this. All of us.”
Sam relaxed a fraction, and even managed a smile by the time Maisy came out of her room with her arms stuffed full of dolls and animals. With a sigh, he unlocked the brake on his chair and rolled toward her. “One,” he said in a stern voice.
Her bottom lip poked out in a pout sad enough that Derek almost cut in on her behalf. “But…”
Sam shook his head. “You’re not going for very long, May. One doll. We talked about this.”
She looked furious, and in a fit of toddler rage let them all tumble to the ground at her feet. “Fine!” She turned on her heel and started running for the front door. It was Sam’s clever thinking and a lot of experience which had prompted him to have installed child-safety locks on all the doors, so neither of the men hurried to go after her.
“Want me to help tidy before I go?” Derek offered.
Sam rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Nope. It’ll give me something to do before Beth gets here.”
Derek shrugged, then leaned in to give him a quick one-armed hug. He could hear Maisy stomping by the door and attempting to pull it open, so he grabbed her pack and elephant and headed after her in an attempt to stave off the toddler tantrum. She didn’t cry as he got her out the door and buckled into the seat, and by the time he had her zooming down the road, she’d calmed down almost completely.
