Absolutely. Be right there.
I smiled as I went to tack Jaina up. She was excited to be doing something, while the sun was shining through the occasional cloud, which meant we wouldn’t get too hot.
The yearlings Gemma had pointed out were perky little things, and I bet they’d be fun. With Jaina and Shooter showing them how to be horses, yeah… I felt like this could be a really nice afternoon.
Crew showed up when I was about done with Jaina. Since we were alone in the stock barn, I gave him a quick kiss on my way to grabbing a radio from the charger.
Since he’d taken a detour and had Shooter with him, I waited for him to tack him up, and we walked the horses to the yearling barn.
When we went past Ezio, he snorted, then whinnied surprisingly softly. Shooter didn’t give a crap, but Jaina glanced over at him and gave him a greeting back. Ezio kept watching us as we went past.
“That boy has a crush,” Crew stated, chuckling.
“Oh yeah….” I shook my head. “At least he’s a good boy, you know.”
About ten minutes later, we were on our way with the yearlings. They looked tiny next to our horses, but they were pretty standard size for quarter horses that young. The colt I was leading was a bit spookier, but he took his cues from Jainaand didn’t seem worried once we got to the route Crew thought might work best.
“Okay, this one fears absolutely nothing.” The filly at the end of his lead was practically prancing around, looking curious and at ease.
“That’s a good start. As long as she doesn’t get overconfident, she’ll be golden.”
We rode slowly, letting the babies do their thing. The conversation was slow, too.
We were nearing the creek when I asked, “So, would you like to come have dinner and maybe have a movie night with Pay and me at some point?”
I hoped to sound casual, but I wasn’t. This was more than a friendly dinner. It was me trying to… I don’t know. Integrate Crew into my little family as more than a friend? Yeah.
Because I’d realized something important. I couldn’t go all in with Crew, hell, I could hardly go any further than we had so far, if I wasn’t sure he wouldn’t be ready to be with a guy who had a kid.
The truth was that we could have a dozen “date nights,” like we’d had. I could start falling in love with him for real. But if he couldn’t see himself as being a second parent for Pay one day in the future, I needed to take a step back and figure things out.
Screw my heart being broken, but hell if I’d let another person in my son’s short life break his heart by leaving us behind.
Chapter 18
Crew
Could he be any cuter? The shy smile and hesitant tone coupled with the fierce determination in his eyes just did it for me. And I understood the connotations. I got the implications behind his seemingly casual words. He was inviting me to spend time with his kid and that was anythingbutcasual. It was one thing for Pay to spend time with any one of us. It was another entirely to do so as “Daddy’s date.”
“I’d be honored. In fact,” I added, my mind working, “what are you doing tonight?”
Mal blinked. “Uh, we…we don’t have any particular plans.”
“Great! So you and Pay can come to my place then?”
He cocked his head, studying me. “You know, traditionally, whoever does the inviting is the one who handles the details.”
I waved that off. I wanted to rein Shooter in closer so I could touch him, maybe kiss him, but the filly was in the way, so Isettled for shooting him a wink. “Maybe. But I have a plan. Will you let me handle it? This time anyway.”
He considered that for a long moment, gaze bouncing all over my face. I stared back, letting him look, hoping he would find whatever he was looking for. The silence stretched between us for at least a minute or two before he gave a single nod.
“All right. Fine.Thistime.” He pursed his lips. “Why do I get the feeling it’s going to be something over the top and possibly ridiculous?”
I did my best to look affronted. Mal narrowed his gaze and I broke into a chuckle.
Mal sighed. “Crew—”
“I love to hear you say my name, but maybe not like that. Don’t worry. It’s not too over the top.”
