Boy got huffy again. “I can’t help that my impulsiveness is attached to my credit card. And also…I’m very ambitious two months in advance. Wanna go skydiving in two months? Heck yeah! Then, the day before,that ain’t happening.”
I felt my shoulders tremble with laughter, and he finally inched back from his hiding spot with a cheeky grin.
“With some exceptions,” he added. “I know that I never, ever wanna go running with you and James in the mornings.”
Oh, James barely wanted that either, but he’d asked me to drag him out when I had time. More often than not, we opted for golf or gym time.
“You’re a real Sportypants,” he told me. “James said you’ve tried a million sports over the years.”
“James isn’t the type of man who will throw out amillionunless he’s telling me the story of when youse visited the Arctic Circle and were attacked by mosquitoes.”
He widened his eyes. “We saw abajillionof them! Locals were like, silly Americans, don’t come here in the summer. Well,excuseme for having the midnight sun on my bucket list.”
I grinned.
“But don’t derail me, Mister,” he added quickly. “Were you a jock in school?”
I tipped my head, weighing the answer. “Maybe half a jock? I played football, but it wasn’t my whole identity. I wasn’t working toward a scholarship or tanking my mediocre grades to spend more time on the field.”
He pursed his lips and nodded thoughtfully. “That tracks. What’s your favorite sport?” He put a hand over his heart. “Mine is testing hamburgers and reviewing them. And live tracking the migration of some birds, naturally.”
“Naturally,” I laughed. “My favorite sports are the ones I can participate in with my kids. Following my beloved Philly teams aside—and religiously keeping track of our national teams in various sports—it’s more about something that we can do together.”
“Like playing golf with Dylan?”
“Like playing golf with Dylan.” I inclined my head. “Mikey’s apparently taken an interest in chess, so that’ll be fun to get involved in.”
“And Hallie plays soccer, correct?”
Was this really what he wanted to be doing? Talking about my kids?
“She used to,” I said. “She quit recently in order to focus on her grades. Now she goes swimming with Nate and Dylan sometimes. Or she goes running with me.”
Man, I missed those days. As a family, we’d tried everything. We’d mixed things up. From shooting hoops to shooting arrows, from throwing footballs to throwing darts. Swimming, soccer, golf, drone racing, orienteering, skiing, snowboarding, diving, baseball, climbing, bouldering…
I sighed.
Jordan was about to say something, but two knocks on the door cut him off before the first word was out. James was here. And Jordan didn’t look freshly fucked at all.
Was that the plan?
“Did you distract me, boy?”
He smirked and climbed off my lap. “That was just a bonus.”
“A bonus as a side to what?”
“The mental lists I’m making so I can anticipate your needs,” he replied with a shrug, then closed the flap on the back of his PJs. I wasn’t sure I approved of that part. “I mean, I’m plain interested too. But knowing the people you love is to know you. And vice versa. Poetic, right?”
I…didn’t know what to say, and he was already heading for the hallway. But Christ, where had this boy come from? He couldn’t claim I was the only one working to become a good partner.
Oh, and he was definitely a switch. The Little in him was always present or very easily drawn out, but it was going to be interesting learning the ways of someone who was a subbie with dominant tendencies.
A sweet, mischievous Little who was a natural at making decisions and taking charge?
He’d keep me on my toes, for sure.
He was in for a rude awakening at some point too, because I couldn’t be bossed around.
