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“I’m learning that,” he said.
They made their way upstairs, he got some clothes that he’d need, winter boots that he’d forgotten to pack last time and any other winter gear. He’d be in Mystic for two and half more months or so.
He’d made arrangements for someone to plow his driveway here and take care of the sidewalks. Colin was stopping over a few times a week to look the house over and make sure there weren’t any leaks he had to worry about.
He did have access to his furnace on his phone so he’d know if the power went out or that wasn’t running. There were security cameras on his front and back door also. He could see some of what was going on but not much more.
He’d look at it no differently than someone who was retired and went to warmer weather during the winter.
“What do you need for Max?” she asked. “Can I say this room is adorable?”
“Thanks,” he said. In the past few months he’d painted it and decorated it in a transportation theme. Cars, buses, planes, motorcycles. All the things he loved to play with as a kid or had an interest in he could remember.
He wasn’t trying to turn his son into some manly creature but more that he had no clue what to do and went by things he remembered liking as a kid and hoped it was good enough.
It’s not like he was given an instruction manual when his kid was dropped off and Rachelle left thirty minutes later.
He was lucky he’d gotten through the first night and wouldn’t have if Dee hadn’t come over to give him a crash course and then checked in with him hourly for days.
Hell, he couldn’t even change a diaper and had to look it up on YouTube. Talk about mortifying.
The internet and searches had become his best friend, but he was finding that having an actual person to talk to was much better.
“Do you want me to go through and get anything I think he might need?” she asked. “Or show me his list?”
“Oh,” he said. “Sorry. He needs more clothes. The stuff he has he is already growing out of. The bottom two drawers are things in the next size. I do that. When he outgrows something I get rid of it and then move up the other sizes and then fill that so I’ve got things on hand when needed.”
She smiled and turned to him. “That is very practical. Do you want me to grab it all since you’ll be in Mystic for a while?”
“Yeah,” he said. “That was my plan.”
She pulled the clothes out of the drawers and took care of them while Ren got the rest of his clothes in his room and brought them down.
“This is a bigger pile of things than I thought,” he said. He had a bag full of clothes with his stuff in it and then the bag he’d given Zara to put Max’s stuff in.
“I’m sure we’ll get it all in there. The bouncy seat will take up the most room, but we can make it work.”
He wondered if there was a double meaning behind those words and then told himself to not be crazy.
He had to stop looking into things expecting them to be more than they were. It wouldn’t be good for either of them.
He had over two months to work on a relationship with Zara and he was going to use every minute of that time to his advantage.
14
Cozy and Practical
“He’s still sleeping?” Zara asked Ren when they were back at his place in Mystic.
They’d packed up everything he needed, and then he’d walked around his house to make sure it was set. They’d found some bread he was going to throw out and decided on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and emptied the jar in his fridge, then scrambled some eggs with the remaining few he had left.
She’d also suggested they get rid of other things that wouldn’t last long and brought the trash with them to Mystic.
She wasn’t going to consider that a date, but it was a meal and they were alone.
“Yeah. She said he went down late so it’s barely been an hour,” Ren said.
“He won’t always keep on a schedule,” she said. “Especially if your mother is playing with him and lost track of time. Or maybe it’s a new place he’s still not used to.”
