It wasn't for nothing though. Danny had fun and Rob did too, or maybe he just liked being close to Julian. For Danny's sake, they made heating up frozen dinners into something like the cooking they saw in the videos. Good thing the little guy was easily impressed.
"He's mixing!" Danny said.
"You can do some mixing too," Rob told him and got another wooden spoon for him. "Just be careful. Do it gently." He held Danny's hand as he stood on a chair and stirred very carefully.
"We cooked it," Danny said when they set the table and sat down to eat.
It didn't turn out too bad, and it made both Danny and Rob feel good. Cooking with them, sitting to eat dinner with them – it filled Rob with so much warmth, but still with an edge of worry when he thought about how much he didn't want to give this up.
At the end of their improvised dinner, Julian checked his phone and frowned.
"You have more work to do?" Rob could see that he did even before he nodded. "I'll clean up."
"Thank you, but I didn't expect you to have to do that by yourself," Julian said as Rob stacked their plates.
"Danny will help me, right?" Rob told him as he went to the sink with the stack of plates.
"Yes," Danny agreed as he followed him carrying a single spoon.
Julian went off to his office, and Rob looked for something for Danny to do. He had noticed that the trash was full, so he asked. "You want to help me take out the trash?"
Danny nodded. When Rob tied it off, Danny tried to hug the trash bag so he could lift it.
Rob pulled it back. "We don't want to get too friendly with the trash. Why don't you open the door for me?" Rob told him.
Danny ran and held the door open for him then went along with Rob and held on to the bag. When they came back, they both washed their hands.
"So I guess you're old enough to do chores now," Rob said as he helped Danny dry his hands. "We can tell Julian. He is going to be so proud of you."
Done with the dishes, it was Rob's turn to get busy on the phone and Danny asked him, "Are you working?"
"No, but this is my sister calling me." Rob showed him her picture then he answered. "Want to talk to her? Hey Christie, someone wants to talk to you." Before she could say anything, Rob had her on the phone with Danny.
Rob could hear her saying, "Hi. Hello? This is Christie. Who's this?"
"Hi. I'm Danny," he said shyly then he launched into the most important thing he had to tell her and everybody else. "I have a doggie. His name is Lenny. We 'haved' a picnic. And there was water. Lenny was drinking it."
Rob could hear Christie laughing. "I saw Lenny's picture. He's really cute and so are you."
Now Danny got shy and clammed up. With a helpless look, he turned his eyes to Rob. "What do I do now?"
"You can say, 'Bye, Christie'," Rob told him.
Danny did that then he went to report the news about his epic phone call to Lenny. With the two of them under the kitchen table, Rob stepped to the other side of the kitchen to talk.
"Danny is all talked out now. So why am I getting an actual call when I've been texting you nonstop."
"You know I like to hear your voice," she said. The rest was understood between them. It was so she could make sure that he was really all right and not just putting on an act. When Christie had gone off to college, Rob checked on her the same way. They both did the same thing whenever one of them went away.
"So how are things?"
"So far so good," Rob told her.
"I can see from the pictures of your picnic. Very nice. My boss never takes me on picnics," she said. "Oh. I just remembered what my boss looks like. He doesn't look anything like your boss, so never mind."
"There's more to Julian than just looks," Rob told her.
She gasped then hissed at him, "Don't you dare fall in love with him."
