“Here, taste this.” I hold the wooden spoon to Leo’s supple lips and try not to imagine her wrapping those lips around something else. I need to keep my dirty, dirty thoughts away since Rune is here with us.
But then she moans, and it goes straight to my dick.Fuck. Down, boy. Not in front of your kid.
“Oh, that’s good. What’s in that?” She’s sitting at the kitchen island and peppering me with all kinds of questions.
“It’s a secret. If I told you, it wouldn’t be my secret recipe, now would it?”
“But we aren’t keeping secrets anymore, remember?” She raises her brow in a flirtatious way, but I’m not falling for her tricks.
“Fine. I’ll tell you. When I’m on my deathbed. Now it’s not a secret, just a surprise for later.”
She scrunches her nose up at me. “Oh, you suck!”
“No, pretty bird.” I lower my voice and let her read the desire on my face. “But you can later.”
“What are you guys doing later?” Rune’s voice pops up out of nowhere, and I jump.
“Jesus, kid. Scared the shi—”
“Nothing, little bird.” Leo sends me a warning glare and wraps her arm around Rune’s cute little head, running her fingers through his golden curls. It’s been really fucking difficult not cussing around Rune. I’m trying, but I wasn’t slowly integrated into changing my language like Leo was.
But let’s be honest, he wouldn’t be my kid if he didn’t have a diverse vocabulary, right? Especially once he starts hanging with Uncle Ga—
Fuck. That hurts.
Damn. Even as mad as I am, I could never keep Gage out of Rune’s life. We’re brothers. I need to talk to him, but every time I look at Rune and see all the years I missed, I can’t help but be angry with Gage for taking four of those years from me.
“Later, I have a surprise for you and your mom. But I’ll need your help. Operation Seize Hummingbird is underway. Are you up for the challenge, recruit?” I lean into him and put on my best James Bond voice.
Leo giggles, and Rune’s face lights up.
“Duh! I want to size a hummingbird!”
I’m still getting used to what words Rune can understand and pronounce. I’m not sure he understands the mission.
“Rune. This mission is the most important mission you will be tasked with. In this mission, our objective is to make Mommy fall inlove with Dr. Giraffe. Do you think we can accomplish this together?”
“Yes, yes, yes!” He’s hopping up and down now like a little kangaroo. “We have to! I want you to be my daddy!”
Leo and I look at each other, both our faces dropping. Part relief and part dread circle through my stomach. How is Rune going to handle it when we tell him that I am, in fact, his dad? Will he hate me for being gone for so long? Will he be mad at Leo? Rune is her whole life. If he’s upset with her over this, it will ruin her. She already holds so much guilt. I want to fix this, but I have a feeling that no matter how we approach this, Rune is going to be hurt. I just hope that we can help him through it and this isn’t a trauma he will carry with him the rest of his life.
I walk around and whisper into Rune’s ear so Leo can’t hear. “After dinner, I need you to take mommy for ice cream. When I give you the signal, go into my wallet and grab some money. Then sneak Mommy away, and when you return, I’ll have the surprise ready. Can you do that?”
He vigorously nods, his excitement leaking from him. I smile and then give Leo a kiss to the cheek, now whispering in her ear the plan so that she knows Rune’s task.
“You are crazy, you know that?”
“Crazy about you.”
She slaps my shoulder. “That was so cheesy.”
I grab her by the nape of the neck and pull her lips to my own. “But you loved it.” Then I kiss her, hard.
Rune runs off and then a few moments later arrives from his room with a plastic fireman’s helmet, knee pads, a turtle stuffy, and a wooden sword.
I peel my eyes away from my stunning little phoenix and look to Rune. “Nice, bud. I think you’re ready. But first we must fuel our bodies for our mission.”
I plate up my famous chicken parmesan for all of us, cutting Rune’s up into small pieces, and meet them at the table.
