Page 56 of A Little Bit Naughty

Izzy nodded wisely. “Big dinosaurs need big flowers. They even had really big bugs.”

Phew. Crisis averted. “They did! Do you think you can plant these dinosaur flowers for me?”

Izzy jumped up happily, going through some mysterious process of determining the right place to put each one. No, not so mysterious when he hopped between them, his heels barely making it to the edge of the next one. Some of the toys shook on the shelves with the force of each impact and the dinosaur slides collapsed, but Remi figured it was harmless.

Remi had never envisioned the space being used like this, but what was the point of having a toy room if you couldn’t play? Izzy was such an active person, and Remi’s mind was already racing. Could he install a climbing structure inside? Surely there had to be a way. Maybe one of those plastic rock-climbing walls? Or monkey bars on the ceiling?

Then he shook his head. It was frighteningly easy to forget that Izzy wasn’t staying. When he got new rugs, Izzy would probably never see them.

At least Izzy seemed plenty happy with these, singing a jumping song as he made one impressive leap after another.

On the last one, he tumbled into Remi’s arms. “Did you see my jumps?”

“I did! They looked like big dino jumps.”

“They were.” Izzy made his first two fingers on each hand into claws. “Roar!”

“Shall we keep working on your city?”

Izzy scowled at it. All of the carefully stacked blocks had crashed to the ground. “I broke it!”

“It was a very small city and you are a very big dinosaur,” Remi reminded him kindly. “Do you want to take a break with a story and then you can build it again?”

“OK, Daddy.”

They snuggled up into the bed, and then one book became three became a dozen, until Izzy was dozing beside him. Remi was a little tired, too, but he felt like he didn’t want to miss any of this. He’d been waiting so long to have his own boy in this room.

He counted each of Izzy’s freckles while he slept, pressing soft kisses to the fluffy tuft of blond hair that pressed against his cheek. He needed to memorize this. To seal it into his memory stone like he’d suggested to Izzy. His little sleeping dinosaur.

When nearly an hour had passed, he woke Izzy with gentle caresses and the promise of a snack.

“I always wanted a kitchen like this,” Izzy told him when they made it downstairs.

“Oh? Like what?”

“With an island in the middle and little stools so you can swing your feet.”

Remi laughed. Everything about Izzy just made him so damn happy. “Well, you can come visit my island any time.”

Izzy gave him a shy look, but didn’t say anything. Was he thinking about Remi’s offer to visit over winter break? Remi didn’t say anything though, and neither did Izzy as he dove into his apple slices and peanut butter.

They’d just made it back up to the playroom and started to rebuild the city when the doorbell rang. Remi left Izzy engaged with his construction project while he met Brick and Tommy at the door.

He didn’t know Brick well, but he would have recognized him anywhere with his thick, muscular body, mahogany skin, close-cropped hair, and easy manner. The man was as huge as he was gentle, and he couldn’t imagine anyone better for a friend of Izzy’s.

“Hey, man,” Brick greeted him with a grin. “It’s been a while.” They gave each other a quick, genuine hug, without any of the backslapping or posturing.

“Good to see you. And you must be Tommy.” He turned to the lanky, dark-haired boy, who gave him a sweet smile, practically bouncing with excitement. He’d half expected Tommy to be black, since Brick was, but his skin was a light hazel color, suggesting he was mostly white with perhaps some Mediterranean or Central American ancestry. “I think every tenth word out of Izzy’s mouth this week has been your name.”

Tommy chuckled. “I think every other word he’s said to me has been Daddy, so there you go.”

“Come on in. I would offer you drinks or something first, but I bet you want to go find Izzy, right?”

Tommy was looking around the living room like Izzy might be hiding behind anything larger than a book. “Yes! Where?”

“Manners,” Brick scolded.

“Can I please go see Isaac, Mister… Isaac’s Daddy.”