Page 21 of A Little Christmas! 4: Song
“Might be fun to do a full body check just to make sure you don’t go to work with a glittering eyebrow.”
“Why do I suddenly feel like my eyebrows will be the last thing you’ll worry about checking?”
“Because you’re an astute man who knows when someone is plotting something nefarious.”
“Easy enough to spot the signs around you; you’re always plotting something nefarious.”
“Precisely.”
“At least it keeps things interesting,” Cooper said, giving up on further attempts at bantering with him.
“See, isn’t it way more fun when you think of things that way?”
“It is,” Cooper admitted.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me for a moment, I’m going to find a hammer and a nail so I can make a spot for Song’s stocking to hang once it dries.”
“That was a sweet thing Zachy did, making one for him,” Cooper said, eyeing the three stockings hanging in a row to the left of where the tree would go when they set it up.
Last year, Zachy and Cooper hit the Christmas shop hard and bought all kinds of gingerbread-themed ornaments and other decorations. He couldn’t wait to see them all out and adorning the house once their vacation hit. He’d missed out onall but trimming the tree, but this year he planned to be on hand for everything, including the baking of the gingerbread for the gingerbread house.
Which reminded him that he’d yet to follow through with his plan to add some additional gingerbread-themed items to the collection they’d already brought. Slipping his phone from his pocket, Cooper got to work paging through an online holiday website, adding things to his cart, including Lego gingerbread house kits that would allow Zachy to have houses on display all year long.
As his fingers hovered over the third one in a line that looked big enough to create a village, he found himself wondering if Song enjoyed Legos too and made a mental note to find out when he was here for the weekend. Just thinking about adding a new boy to their dynamic sent a thrill surging through him. For years, his career had been his primary focus, but after meeting Zachy, he’d started to look forward to the evenings they spent on the video chat, where he’d read stories to his boy and watch his eyes light up at seeing the pictures.
Bedtime was one of his favorite parts of being a Daddy. Not because his little would soon fade away into dreamland, but because of the soft intimacy that came with it. Bathing him, combing and drying his hair, helping him into his onesies and sleep pants, holding him snuggled in his arms, and doing the voices for the characters in the stories he read to him had become as soothing for him as it was for Zachy. The one-on-one time they shared in those moments, while Gage was shutting down the house for the night, had become sacred to him.
Would Song enjoy story time too?
What kind of books would he enjoy having read to him?
Would he enjoy the puppets Cooper sometimes broke out, especially if they’d come with the story he intended to read that night?
Would he turn puppy dog eyes on Cooper and plead for a second book if the first was a short one?
Those questions and more flashed through his mind as he scrolled through the website. If Song joined them, he could have them each choose a book for him to read. He could see the collection of children’s books growing as he came to learn what Song enjoyed.
The musical toys had already been a big hit, and like Zachy, Song absolutely enjoyed getting to take part in making dinner. Even in little space, he’d happily chattered away at the table, adding a new dynamic to their evening conversations.
Gage was right; integrating him into their relationship would be no different from the way he, Zachy, and Gage had slowly melded their lives into functional chaos. Even after the worst of days in the office, coming home to them brightened his spirit and lightened even the foulest of moods. Had the Christmas fates placed Song in their path because he needed the same sense of home and security Zachy had? He’d yet to say anything about his parents, but his sister, Solo’s protectiveness, had shown through during their brief meeting. There had to be a reason for that.
Opening his heart to another would just make Cooper’s life fuller than it already was, and frankly, he saw nothing wrong with that. He knew it wouldn’t be easy. There would be missteps and obstacles like there were in any relationship, but if Gage had taught him anything in the last year they’d spent together, it was that there was nothing that couldn’t be solved with love, understanding, and conversation.
Despite his other shortcomings, those, at least, were three things that Cooper was confident he could excel at. With a smile on his face, Cooper pulled up the Lego site and found a whole collection of stages, musical instruments, and rock starcharacters, including a Lego drum set that he hoped Song would fall in love with when he unwrapped it.
Never a man to argue with fate, he decided then and there that if Song was meant to be theirs, he’d learn to be just as good a daddy for him as he was for Zachy.
No more second-guessing himself.
No more attempting to talk himself out of it.
If the fates pushed things in that direction, then that was that.
Done deal.
Because Cooper was already smitten, just like Zachy and Gage.
The only concern that still weighed heavy in the back of his mind was whether Song would be willing to let them love him and one day come to love them back.