Keys watched her closely for a moment. “Are you sure?”
She nodded. “It’s been a long time since anyone’s held me, Keys. I just want to be held, to fall asleep knowing that someone out there cares for me.”
Keys swallowed hard. “Yeah.Yes,” he reassured. “Of course. Why don’t you get back into bed and I’ll use the bathroom real quick? I can leave my shirt on if that makes you more comfortable, but I’d prefer to take my jeans off.”
“Shirt on or off is up to you, and pants off is fine with me.” She slipped off him and back under the covers. As he headed towards the door, she called after him, “Unthank you, Keys.”
He paused in the doorway, smiling back at her. “You’re very unwelcome, Rose.”
CHAPTER 10
“What’re you doing?”
Keys’ thumb immediately hit the Pause button at the sound of the small voice. Despite how comfortable it was in Rose’s bed, Keys hadn’t been able to go to sleep. It was just too early for him. So after cuddling with Rose for a while, and verifying she was deep into dreamland before he slipped from the bed, Keys came out into the living room to try to calm his racing mind with a video game. He’d supplied the apartment with a console and a number of games with the intent of playing with Rose.
A quick glance over his shoulder showed that Rose’s bedroom was still dark and quiet. It was just him and Oscar.
Keys wasn’t sure if he should get Rose, torn between wanting to respect her as Oscar’s mother and wanting her to get some sleep. In the end, he chose to let her sleep. Even with the late hour, maybe he could use this time to bond with Oscar.
Patting the cushion beside him on the couch, Keys explained, “I’m playing a video game. Shouldn’t you be in bed?”
“I couldn’t sleep! I thought you and Mommy might be wrestling again, and I was missing all the fun!”
Keys was so grateful that Oscar was too young to understand the double meaning of his own words, or why Keys’ face turned bright red, despite the innocence of them.
“No more wrestling tonight.” His ears and nose had been tortured enough. “Your Mommy’s asleep. Do you want me to help you back to bed?”
Oscar shook his little blonde head. “No. What’s a video game?”
“Well, it’s a game I play on the computer or television. I control my character with my controller.” He held up the double winged device to show him. “Want to see?”
Though the couch was nearly as tall as he was, Oscar managed to pull himself onto the cushion. Keys put a hand out to help, but it ended up not being necessary. Oscar scooted himself right up to Keys’ side, working his small body under Keys’ arm and staring down intently at the controller in Keys’ hands.
Surprised, but also feeling a sense of honor he couldn’t explain, Keys must have stared down at the little boy too long, because Oscar tipped his head up to look at him impatiently.
Oops. Keys quickly shook his head and turned his attention back to the game. He’d been playing with the game muted so as not to disturb either of the apartment’s occupants, but that seemed to have been unnecessary for one of them. He turned the volume up just slightly now so Oscar could hear the sound effects.
Keys barely started playing again when Oscar began asking questions, which led to Keys setting up another controller for Oscar. He also adjusted the game settings to beginner and added a second player.
But an issue arose almost immediately, because the controller was far too big for Oscar’s little hands. While both thumbs were planted firmly on the joysticks, which wastechnicallycorrect, his hands stretched awkwardly over the face of the controller. This meant that his left palm was continuously pressing down on theO-button, making his character do perpetual squats even in Pause mode.
“Okay,” Keys said, carefully adjusting Oscar’s hand on the controller. When he saw Oscar’s character stand up straight, he pressed Play. “So the first thing we want to do is?—”
Oscar smashed both joysticks simultaneously. On the screen, his little blue character spun wildly in place, ran directly into a wall, and then fell off the edge of the platform into the void below.
The losing jingle played.
Oscar turned and looked at Keys with enormous blue eyes. It looked like he was torn between excitement and trepidation that he’d done something wrong.
Keys couldn’t help but chuckle. “It’s okay,” he reassured him quickly. “Trust me when I say everyone does that their first time.”
Oscar’s jaw dropped like Keys had just revealed a top-level secret. “Even you?”
Keys winced and readjusted his glasses on his nose. “Especially me. It took a long time for me to gain any hand-eye coordination.” When Oscar continued to stare at him, Keys cleared his throat. “Yes, it happened to me, too.”
This seemed to amaze the boy. “When?”
“When I was little. Like you.”
