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Chapter Twenty-Six
Ian
“Do you know what this is about?” Hudson asked as Ian dropped onto the couch next to him.
“Not a clue,” he replied. “All I know is that after she’d been coloring for like an hour this morning, she handed me a card that asked us to be at a meeting at two o’clock today in the living room. And you don’t say no to a little girl who used a dozen different glitter pens and some of her best stickers to make you an invitation.”
“No you don’t,” Hudson murmured, settling his arms across his chest.
It was curious. Either one or both of them was always with Coco so if she’d wanted to talk about something, why hadn’t she just…come out with it? But that was whathewould do. Hell, it was harder to keep his thoughts to himself than it was to puke them all over everyone around him. But Coco wasn’t like that, even though she was so much more comfortable now.
Even though it was probably fine, Ian had gotten a few pangs of worry. Was their babygirl unhappy? Did she want to leave? Had they done something to upset her? He didn’t think so, but she could play things awfully close to the vest.
Maybe she wanted to get in touch with her parents—that would be great. They’d asked her a few times over the past couple months and she’d always been emphatic that not yet. She didn’t want to see them yet.
Maybe it was about school? She loved to play school with her stuffies and sometimes he wondered if she wanted to finish high school, maybe go to college. Hudson had thought about asking her but Ian had told him not to—he didn’t want to pressure her, make her feel like she was disappointing them.
It was hard fucking work for her to get through the day, to take baby steps. She’d walked all the way around the block with them and they could leave her alone for a few minutes at a time now, and Ian thought that was pretty great. They would support her in anything she wanted to do but he wasn’t going to press. Not after only a couple months and maybe not ever.
At exactly two o’clock, Coco walked out of the kitchen where they’d heard her rummaging around. She was holding a tray that had cheese and crackers and two glasses of grape juice on it.
She was so cute he was going to die.
Carefully, Coco set the tray on the table and handed them each a glass of juice. Ian would’ve rather had a pint of Hud’s latest batch of Dunkelweizen but he appreciated the effort his little sweetheart had gone to.
She didn’t sit down with them but instead stood across the coffee table, knitting her fingers together and looking as nervous as a hen at a fox convention. Of course she also looked precious in the soft pink jumper she had on over the onesie he’d snapped her into this morning and her Care Bear slippers. Her paci was clipped to one of the straps of the jumper and she reached for it but didn’t tuck it into her mouth. She was so much braver than he’d ever been.
Coco cleared her throat and he and Huds both sat up straighter on the couch. She had their full attention and he wanted her to know it.
“Daddy, Papa…” Coco took a deep breath and clenched her hands in her skirt, probably trying to keep from using her paci. Not that either of them would mind, at all, but she was trying so hard to be a big girl.
“I—I wanted to have a meeting because I wanted to ask you something.”
“Okay,” he said, drawing it out, because he didn’t get it. “You didn’t have to—Oof!”
Huds had elbowed him hard in his side and damn did that smart. Sometimes the big man didn’t realize his own strength. Or maybe he did and was just being an asshole.
“What Papa meant to say,” Hud said, giving him that crunch-browed glare he knew only too well, “was that it was very nice for you to make us such a tasty snack and we are all ears for anything you want to talk about.”
“’Kay.”
Nervous little bunny took a hard swallow and looked at them, standing as straight as she could. Her rainbow knee socks were too freaking cute.
“I know we talked about before that I didn’t have to work on being independent yet. But that was a while ago and I think I should start trying harder.”
“Okay,” Huds said carefully. “What did you have in mind?”
Not that it mattered. Whatever it was, they’d help her do it. She wanted to be an astronaut? Ry knew someone who worked at NASA from when he’d been a physics major as an undergrad. Actress? Eric was friends with Hollywood’s current It guy, Braeker Thompson—surely he could make something happen. Lawyer? She’d already met Saoirse Sullivan and Arthur Tyndall, two of the best attorneys in town.
“I thought of four things. First, I thought we could try going on longer walks, and maybe I could go with just one of you.”
Hudson nodded his encouragement. “That sounds doable.”
“Second, maybe we could go on field trips. I…” She huffed a little breath out of her nose, seeming impatient with herself.
Ian cupped his hands around his mouth and did his crowd-goes-wild voice, saying, “Go, Coco! You’re amazing! You can do it!”
Huds elbowed him again, but definitely not as hard. Probably because Coco cracked a smile.
