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Chapter Thirty-Five
LateSpring
I walked out of Colby’s room, right into Rick. “Hey!”
“Sorry, Kan. I was just getting the house ready.”
Chandler was coming for the long weekend and Rick was more than excited. He was giddy. “He’s not going to care if the towels are perfect, and the rugs are clean. He wants to see his dad.”
“Dads, babe.”
I loved that they considered me a dad, but I knew Chandler didn’t want to see me as much as Rick. That was fine with me. They’d gotten closer since Chandler and he both came out. “Whichever, I’m just glad he’s coming home.”
He was off and I had Colby coming through the door. “Want pudding.”
“No pudding until after dinner, Colby.”
“Daddy!”
He was calling me daddy as well as Kan. Sometimes both together, and each time, I felt like pinching myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I picked him up to tell him again. “After dinner, but if you’re really good, I’ll put whipped cream on top.”
He kissed my cheek then wiggled to be put down so he could run off screaming for Rick. “Daddy! Daddy Kan said! He said, so you can’t say no!”
I laughed as I headed the other way, and once I got downstairs into the kitchen, Phoebe was checking the lamb in the oven. “Kan, thank goodness. I have to go. I already told Rick, so this needs to come out and rest in half an hour! No more, no less and it must rest at least twenty minutes.”
“Got it. It’ll happen.”
“Everything is in the same pot, so it’s easy, the fresh mint jelly is in the bowl in the fridge, the wine is chilling. I’ve made a nice salad, and it’s in the wooden bowl in the fridge next to the mint jelly.”
I held up a hand while laughing. “Phoebe, this is me. I can handle it.”
“Do not let Rick do it,” she whispered. “He’s so crazy about Chan coming home, he’ll forget half of it.”
“I know, believe me.”
The reunion was all I could have asked for. Rick cried as he held his son before Chandler had made it through the door. Chandler was trying to push him back so he could breathe, but Rick held on a bit longer before he released him. “Chan, it’s good you’re home.”
“I’m glad to be back, Dad. Hey, Kan,” he said, coming to me next. I hugged him and Colby was having a fit for Chandler.
He let go of me to snatch his little brother into his arms. “Hey, buddy, how are you? Have you been keeping your dads busy?”
“Daddy Kan said I need to learn how to spell.”
“Well, you do.”
“Don’t wanna. I wanna play with my dinosaurs,” he pouted to his brother.
“Okay, how about I’ll play with you and your dinos later, then you let Kan teach you tomorrow?”
“Okay!”
Colby wiggled to be let down and I hugged Chandler again for that. “He will be going to preschool soon, but I wanted him to have a leg up.”
“It’s cool, Kan.”
We ate the perfectly cooked lamb and heard all of Chandler’s stories from school. The night was perfect, and Rick didn’t stop smiling until he went to sleep. I watched the smile fading as sleep took him, knowing that at that very moment, he was the happiest he’d been since I had known him.
His worry over his son was a daily occurrence, worrying about his being in a city so far. There was nothing to do to reassure him, at least not until Chandler’s daily calls home. I’d begged Chan to remember to do it if only so Rick could sleep.
