“Shit. That’s a lot to process.”
“No kidding.”
“Do you know what you’re going to do next? What he—”
A knock at the door halts his next words. “Let me get it,” he says, moving to answer the door. Jordy is on the other side, freshly showered, his hair still wet. His eyes narrow at the sight of Jae, but soften when he spots César in my arms behind him.
“Hey, can I come in?” He barely acknowledges Jae’s presence.
I nod and have to tug on the back of Jae’s shirt when he doesn’t step aside to let Jordy in.
“Yeah. Follow me. We can go to the living room.”
I lead him through the house where César’s cartoons are still playing. Jae takes a seat on the sofa, a wary look on his face as he sizes Jordy up. I’m not sure what he’s looking for, but whatever it is, he doesn’t find it because his expression only seems to darken as the seconds go by.
“This is my friend, Jae. Jae, this is Jordy. César’s—”
“Bio-dad. Got it,” he bites out.
I scowl at him, not sure where his hostility is coming from, but also not having the energy to deal with it right now. “Do you think we can get together later?” I ask. “Jordy and I…” I pause. What do we need to do exactly? Talk, I suppose. I’m sure he wants to meet César. Play with him, maybe.
“I can stay if you’d like,” Jae suggests, but I don’t miss the narrowing of Jordy’s eyes. “It might be good to—”
“That’s okay.” I cut him off. “This is probably something I should do alone.”
His jaw tightens, but he nods and climbs to his feet. “Okay.” He kisses the top of my head before doing the same to César. “Catch you later, little man. And Jo,” he hesitates until I look up and meet his gaze. “Think about what I said. Okay?”
“I’ll consider it,” I tell him, watching as he leaves. I wait for the sound of the front door closing behind him before I turn and face Jordy.
“Something I should know about?” he asks.
I shake my head. A part of me knows he would have a problem with me living with Jae and it’s not something I want to argue about right now. Not when we should be focusing on César. “No. It’s nothing.”
His nostrils flare but he doesn’t push the topic.
I take a seat on the floor, César in my lap, and hand him a few blocks to play with. “He takes a few minutes to warm up to strangers,” I tell him, immediately regretting my choice of word. “But if you give him some time to adjust, he’ll make his way over to you on his own and hand you blocks or cars to play with him with.”
Shoulders stiff, Jordy nods and lowers himself to the ground across from me. He shrugs out of his coat, laying it on the sofa behind him. His shirt stretches across his broad shoulders, the fabric hugging his muscular form. I wet my lips and wring my hands in my lap.
César captures his entire attention, his gaze never straying from our boy. I watch emotions play over Jordy’s face. Curiosity, wonder, joy. He’s enamored with him already, and a fist squeezes my heart inside my chest as I see the open affection he already has for him.
We both watch our son toddle around the room, one second crawling and the next walking as he collects his toys into one pile before throwing them as far as he can—which isn’t that far—across the room one by one, laughing as they hit the hardwood floor.
“He’s kind of a terror, isn’t he?” Jordy asks, affection clear in his voice.
I smile. “Yeah. He likes the sound the blocks make when they hit the floor. It’s his favorite pastime these days.” One block lands particularly close to Jordy, and César crawls toward him to retrieve it. Jordy freezes when César sits up on his knees, brown eyes curious, as he holds the block out in his hand for Jordy to take.
“That for me?” he asks. His face is the softest I’ve ever seen it as he looks down at our son, carefully taking the toy from his tiny fingers. “Thanks.” César stares at him a moment longer before crawling right into Jordy’s lap and turning himself to the side to get comfortable. He reaches for the block in Jordy’s hand and he gives it to him, both arms winding around César’s small body and a wonder-struck expression on his face.
César doesn’t allow Jordy to hold him long before squirming in his arms to get back on the ground to play, and Jordy reluctantly releases him.
“So…” I begin, because there are a lot of things we should probably talk about. “We should talk about, um, what it is you want.” God, even to my own ears that sounded lame.
His dark brown gaze finds mine and anger flashes for a split second before he nods once, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah. Well, I figured it’s pretty obvious.” He looks to César and his jaw clenches. “I want to be in his life. I want to be his dad.”
Okay. That sounds good and all, but…
“And I want regular visitation.”
