Payden blushed and seemed at a loss for words, so I went ahead and answered for him.
“He is,” I said. “He wanted to go on a train ride, and he didn’t want to do it alone.”
Griff nodded and gestured towards the stage I’d been up on a short time ago. “Yeah, you made that abundantly clear in that song, which slayed, by the way.”
Now it was my turn to not know what to say.
“That means it was good, right?” Payden asked, leaning around me so he could see Griff better.
“That means it was beyond good,” Griff told him.
“Thank you!” Payden declared, nudging my side.
“Yes, I know. You told me not to stress about it, you told me it would be fine, and it was,” I said. “So I will be waking up extra early in the morning so I can go out and find all the sundae toppings and ice cream we will need to have dessert for breakfast in the morning.”
“Yay, dessert for breakfast!” Payden squealed.
The moment was perfect. The only noise in the room was the rumble of voices mid-conversation, which his cheerful cry couldeasily be heard over, prompting someone else to holler, “Hell yeah. Dessert for breakfast.”
I heard Shadow chuckle and looked over to see the corners of his lips twitching.
“The next band better hope they’re more appealing than dessert for breakfast or they are going to have a hell of a time keeping the crowd entertained,” Shadow said, as dessert for breakfast became a rallying cry across the room.
A couple guys on the opposite side of the club added a deep bass growl to the words when they started yelling "Dessert for breakfast!”
Snickering, I shook my head and gazed down at Payden. “See what my little uni started?”
“Yup,” he replied, a sassy grin on his face as he sat up taller. “Another tick mark in the best day ever column.”
“Then that’s all that matters,” I replied.
“Daddy,” Payden asked, pressing his head against my shoulder, “will you write a dessert for breakfast song for me?”
“Of course I will,” I replied, kissing him on the forehead.
“Awe,” Lucas said, though Griff chimed in too and dragged it out longer.
“What, are we back in kindergarten now?” I asked, turning to stare at Griff.
I should have expected that answer. Why I didn’t just shut the fuck up and sit there, I'll never know.
“Yup!”
Groaning, I just hung my head while Payden and Lucas giggled.
“Give it up,” Shadow said, looking grim now. “You’ll never win. Trust me on that.”
Chuckling, I had to agree.
Steve took the mic again as the last dessert for breakfast cry echoed through the room. “Sorry, folks, we don’t have dessertfor breakfast here tonight, though I know some of you out there are industrious enough that they’ll probably be playing here in a month or two.”
Laughter and hoots went up around the room, though one large, red-headed guy stood and proudly announced that he was a drummer looking for a band.
“My point exactly!” Steve declared. “Now sit down so I can bring Anarchist Dreams out here!”
The lights went up, amid the tapping of a drum beat, before the guitarists joined in. The one on the right side of the stage was solid, if a little dull and uninspired, and almost immediately, I turned my attention to the other one, who didn’t sound half bad.
“Why is he staring at his hands when he plays?” Payden asked, leaning in so he could speak directly into my ear. “You don't play like that.”
