Page 53 of Dreams Do Come True

Yeah he does, handsome. That’s the hard part.

Kean wraps his arms around us and hugs us for a moment. Lyric is now snuggled up against me, still crying but now at a normal level.

“We should go and join the others. I’ll even let you have half of my cupcake,” I offer.

“Thanks, honey. Let me clean up the mess in here, and I’ll join you both,” he says, giving me a quick kiss.

I nod and take a breath before walking out of the toilets. There is no way the family didn’t hear Lyric. As I walk back toour table, I notice that a few more customers have arrived. They smile at me as I pass. I sit back at our table, which is surprisingly quiet.

“Hello, grumpy Gus,” Enoch says, turning to look at Lyric.

Lyric looks at Enoch and sniffs.

“We could all hear you shouting out here. You’re loud, did you know that? You were also kind of mean to Titus and Kean, you know that, right?” he tells him. “You should probably say sorry to them, don’t you think?”

Lyric wiped his nose on my shirt and sniffed. He looked from Enoch to me. “Sorry,” he says, leaning into me.

I drop a kiss on his head and turn him to look at Kean, who, as Enoch was talking, came back to the table and sat down. He holds his arms out to Kean. “Clean,” he says softly.

Kean picks him up and stands him on his lap so they are facing each other.

“Sorry, Clean,” he says, before launching himself at Kean and hugging him.

“Thanks, Enoch,” I say softly, looking at him.

Enoch grins at me. “Boys are hard work; you should have adopted girls.”

I burst out laughing. “Bit late now.” I look around the table and see the concern on some of their faces. I shake my head. I can’t deal with questions or sympathy right now.

“He’s right, you know, raising boys is tough,” Sly says, grinning at Xander and Enoch.

“Hey, we’re perfect,” Xander tells him, licking his fingers clean.

“You wish,” Ebby replies, sipping his coffee.

Ebby and Sly are raising Ebby’s younger brothers after they rescued them from their abusive father.

“Yep, girls are much easier, aren’t you, princess?” Jude strokes his daughter’s head.

“You say that now, Jude, but I can’t wait to see what happens when Connie wears makeup for the first time and has her first romance,” Temp says, laughing.

Jude shakes his head. “That will never happen. Connie’s going to be a nun, aren’t you, princess?”

I’m not the only one who laughs at that.

“And if she decides not to be a nun, I’m a true witch, I can turn romantic partners into toads,” Sal adds.

As we chat and laugh, I break my cupcake up and feed some to Kean. I break a bit off the bottom and hold it out to Lyric. “Here, little man, want some?”

Lyric nods and takes it from me, grinning. He eats it and then holds up his hand. “Five Tus.”

I laugh and high-five him.

We finally leave the tearoom.Lyric has fallen asleep, so Kean is carrying him. Adhan leaves with us, and Justice, Sal, Ernest and Alfred all go back to work.

“Are you both alright?” Adhan asks gently.

“Yeah,” I say on a sigh.