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“Why did you never say anything?” Colby blurts out, looking at Jalen with wide eyes.
Jalen looks confused as he brushes back a blond lock of Colby’s hair. “Because you need a Daddy, silly. I’ve told you that all along. I’m not a Daddy. But I’m a pretty great Daddy’s assistant.” He flashes a grin, but then he frowns at Colby. “Besides, you never said a thing, either.”
Colby blushes and tries to make himself smaller. “Because you’re far too fabulous for me,” he mumbles, and my heart breaks. I wondered if it was something like that.
Jalen’s jaw drops. “What?” he shrieks. “Are you insane? You are the most perfect little boo-boo boyfriend anyone could ever wish for!”
Colby’s shaking his head, so I reach over and squeeze his knee, snapping him out of it. “Little one,” I say softly. “Jalen doesn’t need another Jalen. Do you think the world could cope with that?”
That startles a laugh out of him, which was my intention. But I’m also correct. Even Jalen knows it. “This is it, right here,” he says, waving his hands at me. “Daddy-O has all the facts.”
“You know they say opposites attract for a reason,” I continue kindly. “The only thing getting in your way was you guys.”
But Colby frowns and shakes his head as he grabs my hand. “No, Daddy. We needed you to bring us together. That’s how this works the best. All three of us are just as important as each other.”
I sigh happily as I look at him and then Jalen, who has his hands on his chest and gives me a dramatic little nod. “These are also facts,” he says sweetly. “We needed a Daddy. I thought that meant a Daddy each, but sharing is a million, billion times better.”
I couldn’t agree more.
“There we go,” I say, closing the matter. “No more worrying about that. We’re all in this together. Equal partners, boyfriends, a family, however you want to call it.”
“Those all sound good, Daddy,” Colby says shyly.
I grin, then place a mug of hot chocolate on the table in front of each boy and open up the mince pies. “Come on, then. These are for you, and I think it’s past stocking time.”
Jalen squeals and attacks his one, having already pulled out his shark from yesterday. Along with the hard rock candy are the things I sourced back in Sydney. Mostly they’re silly things like mini notepads with sparkly rainbows on the cover and cat-themed socks. I also got them each a pack of cheap plastic dinosaurs that obviously aren’t from Jurassic Galaxy, but these ones all have Santa hats on.
That makes them howl with laughter, and Jalen immediately jumps up to start placing them all over the living room among their other decorations. Colby, though, comes over to me. I think he intended to perch on the arm of the squishy chair I’m sitting on, but I pull him into my lap. He giggles, then immediately tucks against me, his small, soft body feeling so good against mine.
“It’s time for your presents now, Daddy,” he says.
“Yes!” Jalen cries, spinning and jumping like he’s a ballerina. “I’ll go get them! You two stay there.”
That’s fine by me.
“I need my laptop!” Colby calls out after him.
“Will do,” Jalen yells back, already on his way.
As he charges up the stairs, I nuzzle my nose against Colby’s cheek before capturing his mouth in a sweet little kiss.
“Is that all right?” he whispers, looking up at me with wide eyes. “Without Jalen.”
I rub his side soothingly. “I think we should all feel free to touch each other whenever we want. We’re all equal, remember?”
He bites his lip, but he’s smiling. “Okay, Daddy.”
A wolf whistle makes us look up and laugh. Jalen is jogging back down the stairs with Colby’s old laptop as well as a very messily wrapped present. It’s basically a lump of screwed-up Christmas paper with about twenty bows stuck onto it.
“I tried,” Jalen says with a wince as he hands it to me. Colby shifts so he’s sitting more upright and takes his laptop from Jalen, who perches next to me on the arm of the chair.
“Baby, it’s the thought that counts,” I tell Jalen earnestly.
He snorts. “So you agree it looks like a car crash.”
I hum. “No comment,” I say with a wink.
He huffs and crosses his arms dramatically. “Just open it already, Mean Daddy!”
