Page 15 of Love’s Patient Journey (The Relinquished #2)

“How about I check on Zac and make us all some breakfast? Your dad called your cell this morning, and I told him that you’ve been down with the fever. He said to keep your ass at home and keep your germs away from the office.”

“You talked to my father on my cell? God, Ryan, why not just stick a sign on me that says that we’re having sex?” Ryan laughed and kissed her forehead.

“Honey, I think your parents have figured it out. My brother and your sister are both pretty shitty at keeping secrets.”

“Shitty,” both Ryan and Jenna turned at the curse, to find Zac smiling at them.

“Ryan, this is why we don’t curse in this house.” She sat up and saw that Ryan was trying to hold in his laugh. The man was seriously a five-year-old sometimes.

“It’s okay, little guy, sometimes we men just need to cuss. But how about if we don’t say that word again, at least for the next twenty or so years.” He walked over and scooped the giggling toddler up. At least one of them was feeling better.

“Let’s change your diaper, Z Man, and then we’ll make mommy some breakfast.” Zac stopped giggling for a split second to agree with Ryan’s plan.

“Pancakes, Ry?” Great, the two men in her life had come up with adorable nicknames for each other. She guessed that worrying about her son getting too attached to Ryan was a moot point because he already was.

“Sure, little man. We can have pancakes.” Ryan turned to Jenna with an adorable questioning expression. “We have pancake mix-right?”

She laughed, “Yeah, and syrup.” Ryan and Zac both cheered, causing her another giggle.

“You take a shower, honey, and we men will handle everything else.” Ryan was pretending that Zac was a plane, and her son seemed to love it.

“Yeah, honey Mommy, you take a shower.” Zac parroted Ryan. She was going to have to have a talk with Ryan about watching what he said around Zac. Although she only had a problem with her son picking up curse words.

Ryan laughed and flew Zac into his room. She could hear Zac’s squeals of laughter followed by Ryan’s own deep, sexy laugh. She never knew that changing a diaper could involve so much joy. She must have been doing it wrong these past couple of years.

She decided that a shower seemed like a good idea.

Sometime during the night, her fever broke, and she was a sweaty, sticky mess.

She slowly got up and padded into the bathroom.

Jenna turned on her shower and laughed to herself at the noises still coming from Zac’s room.

It amazed her how Zac and Ryan seemed to take to each other.

She was so worried about the two not getting along.

She never imagined that they would be best friends in just a few short days.

She wondered why it seemed to be so hard for someone like Jake to be a good father to his son.

Jake didn’t even want a relationship with Zac.

Yet Ryan, a man with no blood ties to her son, seemed to have fallen completely in love with him.

Maybe it had more to do with the man and less to do with blood.

That was just the type of guy Ryan was he loved with his whole heart and wasn’t afraid to let others know how he felt.

She wished it came that easily for her. She wished she could just admit her feelings for him and be done with all this doubt and drama.

Taking care of Zac and then catching the virus herself made her realize just how much being alone sucked.

She had recounted her and Ryan’s conversations that led up to her asking him to leave.

She was a fool for kicking him out. She wanted him to stay.

She wanted to tell him that she loved him too, but she was a chicken.

Was protecting her heart more important than telling Ryan how she felt about him?

She showered and quickly dressed, deciding that Ryan deserved to hear how she truly felt about him.

As soon as Zac went to pre-school, she was going to pour her heart out to Ryan and let the chips fall where they may.

When she got down to the kitchen, she found Ryan and Zac with pancake mix coating most of their faces.

She giggled and grabbed a towel to wipe Zac’s little face.

He tried to shake her off, making Ryan laugh too.

“No wipe, mama.” Zac tried everything in his power to escape her attention, but she stepped back from Zac, happy with the amount of pancake mix that she was able to mop off her toddler’s face.

“Zac, why don’t you get the syrup out of the pantry for Mama?” Jenna pointed him in the direction of the pantry, knowing that she had about a ten percent chance of him coming out with syrup and not a box of rice. She headed over to Ryan and wrapped her arms around his waist.

“Thanks for everything you did for us last night,” she said, squeezing him. “I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

Ryan flipped the last pancake on the griddle and turned in her embrace. “Honey, you won’t have to worry about doing anything without me from now on. We’re a team, understand?” He looked at her so seriously, she believed him.

“Yeah, I’m starting to get it. I am just used to taking care of Zac and myself. Please be patient with me, I promise I’m a quick learner.” Ryan kissed her, and she quickly backed away.

“Ryan, you will catch this yucky virus.” Ryan laughed and pulled her in for another deeper kiss. He released her, a little breathless, “Honey, I’d catch just about anything to be able to kiss you.” Jenna walked to the pantry, shaking her head as he swatted her ass.

“Zac, baby, did you find the syrup?” Jenna opened the pantry door to find her son eating from the big bag of chocolate chips that she kept hidden for when she needed a quick hit of chocolate.

“Zachary Ryan, those are not yours! You can’t eat chocolate this early in the morning. Put them up and let’s have pancakes.”

Zac screwed his little face into a scowl and slipped the bag of chocolate behind his back. “No, Mama, I have chocolate chippies for breakfast.” Ryan pushed his way into her too-small pantry and laughed at the two of them.

“Zac, how about we put some chocolate chips on our pancakes?” Her son seemed to love Ryan’s idea, jumping up and cheering while spilling chocolate chips all over the floor.

Jenna decided to let the two of them handle the pancakes while she cleaned up the mess in the pantry. After breakfast, Ryan cleaned up the kitchen while she rested on the sofa.

“I’m gonna take a shower and get Zac dressed. Then, I’ll run him to school. If you feel up to it, we can run to see my friend, Tom. He has time today, and we need to get a handle on the Ashbrook’s’ threats before they get too out of hand.”

Jenna rolled her eyes, “They are already out of hand. They have no claim to him, but they seem to always get what they want. I won’t let them have Zac!

I’ll be ready when you are, thank you.” Ryan leaned down to kiss her forehead, and she automatically felt calmer.

It was amazing to her that her life could change so much in just a few days.

Ryan had already changed her, and Zac’s lives for the better; now he wanted to help her with her ex-in-laws.

Why Ryan stuck around was beyond her, but she didn’t want to jinx what they had now.

“It will be okay, baby. I won’t let them have Zac either. We will figure something out.”

Yeah, Jenna could get used to being part of a “we” now.