He wished that?—
The curtain twitched, and Ian stood there with Peter and Victoria.“Hey, guys.This is your dad.”
“Hey.”He gave them his best camera smile, going for friendly and not scary.“The last time I saw you guys you were just this big.”He put hands out in front of him, about a foot between them.
Victoria stared at him, head tilting.“You are the hockey-man?”
Not anymore.
Still, he nodded his head.“And you’re Victoria.”
“Uh-huh.Dis Petey.My brudder.”She hugged Peter hard.“He’s nice.”
“Hi, Peter.It’s nice to meet you again.”He waved, and Peter waved back, little fingers opening and closing.
God, that was cute.His smile widened, became more natural.
“You hurt yous leg?”Victoria asked.
“I did.I hurt it really bad.”Well, the guy who’d slammed into him had hurt it, but he figured Victoria didn’t need the details.
She frowned.“Sorry.Daddy kiss it?”
He looked over at Ian, one eyebrow raised.
“Maybe when it doesn’t hurt so bad, baby girl.”
“No, Daddy.You kiss!”
“She’s convinced I’m magical.”Ian stepped up and gently kissed his thigh.
“Thank you – it feels better already.”And maybe he’d just said it to let Victoria keep thinking that Ian was magical, but he’d be damned if it didn’t feel a little better.
She smiled, the expression arch, as if she was saying, “See?I knew it.”
He nodded, not sure what to say to them, what to talk about.
“So, see?He’s nice.He wants to get better so he can play with you.”
JP nodded.He did.He figured he could play with the twins.He was good at playing.He’d made a fucking career of it.“I like to play, guys.We’ll have so much fun.I know we will.”
They were so much bigger since he’d last seen them, but still so small.Little perfect humans.It was kind of unreal and amazing at the same time.
“Can you read us a story?”
Michael was right.Victoria was fearless.
“Sure.What story do you want me to read?”That did actually mean read and not invent from scratch, right?
Peter tugged Ian’s shirt, and his husband knelt like a goalie.Flexible fucker.He whispered something in Ian’s ear, and Ian nodded.
“How aboutDragons Love Tacos, Tori?”
“Yes!”She took off like a bat out of hell, thundering up the stairs.How did someone so bitty make so much noise?
“Dragons Love Tacos?”he asked, one eyebrow raised.This was not the storybooks of his childhood.
“It’s Peter’s favorite.It’s about dragons and tacos and what happens?—”
