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At least he wouldn’t consider it a threat that Tony Wolfe had told him Zara was his kid when they’d had their conversation a few days ago.
Ren hadn’t told Zara about that conversation, but he was positive she’d overheard it. Her parents’ house wasn’t that big and they were in the living room off the kitchen where Zara was helping her mother.
“It wasn’t that bad,” she said. “You liked my family years ago.”
She was rocking Max for him with his nightly bottle. His son had been fed and bathed and it was an hour past his bedtime already. Thankfully Max didn’t seem too out of sorts with the change in his routine so much lately.
“That was before,” he said.
“Everyone is trying to put it behind them,” she said. Max’s hand was barely holding onto the bottle at this point, Zara helping. His son’s eyes were shut, but he was still sucking like a Mack truck filling up at the station for a long trip.
“Are you?” he asked.
“You know I am. I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.”
He had to stop asking all the time, but there was part of him that was wondering what was going on in her mind. She was holding back, he knew that much.
Though he looked around the living room of his rented house and saw the Christmas tree that was put up last Sunday when they returned from Colin’s. He hadn’t been thinking of that, figuring that Max was too young to know.
His plan had been to bring his son’s gifts to his mother and they’d open everything there.
Zara had other ideas and convinced him Max needed to see a tree on his first Christmas.
They bought a small one, got some lights and decorations. Enough to not make it look bare. They had to put a gate around it because Max wanted to pull it down nonstop or touch all the things hanging even though he couldn’t reach them.
He supposed it was only fitting that his son’s first Christmas would be his with Zara to wake up with too. That should mean something.
When the bottle was empty, she shifted Max on her shoulder and then gave him a few pats, but his burp came out easily along with the sound of Zara’s laughter.
“I’ll take him and lay him down,” he said, standing up.
Zara had been with them multiple times when Max went to bed, but he always laid his son down for the night. He knew how to tuck him in, where to put his stuffed monkey under his left arm and what pacifier that Max liked at night.
He didn’t want to tempt fate and have his son wake up when he was trying to get him to go through the night.
When he came out a few minutes later, Zara was on the couch relaxing with the TV on while she flipped through the channels.
“There isn’t anything on TV,” she said. “Unless you want to watch old Christmas movies.”
“Not really,” he said, going to sit next to her. “It’s been a long day and a longer week. We can go to bed if you want?”
She stood up. “Sure. That sounds much better.”
He went about shutting the lights off in the house for the night. He’d get up early and turn the lights on the tree on before he got Max. He did remember coming down the stairs as a kid to the tree lit up and finding gifts from Santa. One of those good memories he was trying to focus on.
Max wouldn’t know the difference, but he realized that Zara was right and he should start those traditions and routines now.
Going to bed with her before Santa’s arrival was one thing he wanted to continue.
“We need to put the gifts under the tree,” he said. “I should do it now rather than rushing in the morning once he’s up.”
She smiled. “I was wondering if you were going to do that or not. I’ll help you.”
They carried the ten boxes or so of things he bought for Max to put under the tree. His kid wouldn’t know the difference if he opened up a toy or clothes. He got a mixture of both and was shocked with the number of things Max got tonight from Zara’s family.
“It was nice of your family to buy gifts for Max. They didn’t need to do that.”
“They wanted to. Willow is the only baby that has been around for years. Lily and her sisters love shopping. My mother too. Consider that an acceptance of sorts. Max wouldn’t have known either way.”
