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He giggled. “No they’re not, silly. They’re really simple. They eat, they poop, they cry, they play. They need for you to love them, hold them, and pay attention to them. Simple.”
“You make it sound simple. Can I?” I nodded toward Petey.
“You have to know the answer was yes, whatever it is. You don’t have to bother with asking me.”
“Of course I do. You’re the expert here.” Riley gestured for me to go ahead. I used a finger to gently touch Petey’s silken hair. The last thing I wanted to do was wake him up. I did at least know getting babies to sleep, then keeping them asleep, was a complicated process. “I never hear him cry at night.”
Riley chuckled. “You’re too far away.”
That made my eyebrows raise. “You’re right. I never even thought about that.”
“It’s kinda weird, right? How whatever family lived in this house before you decided they wanted their kids so far away they couldn’t hear them.”
“That’s not right. I don’t like it.” I whipped out my phone. “Give me a second, please.” I stepped out of the room so as not to wake the baby and rang my executive assistant.
She answered on the first ring. “At your service, sir, what can I do for you?”
“Diana, I need to move Riley and the kids into my chambers effective immediately tomorrow morning.”
“Intoyourchambers, sir?” Her voice was full of mirth.
“You know what I mean.” I snuck a glance through the door at Riley, who pretended not to listen. What would he think I meant? It was strange for anyone to make me feel nervous, but this little squirrel shifter did. It was a good kind of nervous. It felt more like anticipation of good things to come.
I heard the smile in Diana’s voice, and she was not someone who was quick to smile. “If you want my opinion, I think this is a good thing.”
“What is?”
“All of it.” Now she was holding back a laugh.
“All of what?”
“You taking in young Peter. Hiring Riley. His son being a companion to Petey. Moving them all closer to you. Spending more time with Riley...the kids, too. All of it.”
I saw what she was getting at, and inwardly I kicked my self for being so obvious. At the same time, I had a good thing on my hands. I wanted to see where things went, and I had the power and opportunity to do so. I wasn’t about to miss my shot.
Still, I gave Diana a hard time.
“I didn’t ask for your opinion,” I said in a light, joking tone. She was practically breaking down from laughter on the other end of the phone. It was nice to hear her so unserious for once.
“No, sir, you did not.”
“Any otheropinionsyou care to share?” Diana ran my life, so her advice was solid gold.
“Yeah. Don’t fuck up.”
I burst out laughing. “When have you ever known me to fumble the ball?”
“Never. Besides, you have me to back you up. I’ll keep you on track like I always do.”
“Thanks, Di.” I hung up with her and came back into the room.
“Okay. We’re making some changes that’ll better suit the baby. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.”
“You’re so humble,” Riley said, so low I almost couldn’t hear. “I would never have expected that.” He was nervous, making little jerky movements in his squirrel way. He gathered himself, then spoke again. “You said you wanted to be involved. In order to be involved, you have to do things differently. Some changes to your schedule for sure. You need to work less, Brennan. You’ll miss everything otherwise. You’ll blink and Petey will be grown up, and he’ll be resentful that you didn’t spend more time with him.”
I let his words rest heavily in my chest. “You’re right again. I need to make time for him.”
“I know you’re usually up early, um-” he swallowed, trying his hardest not to stare at my still-bare chest, “working out before you go to work. Maybe you could find an hour in there somewhere to have breakfast with us. Just an hour.”
