Page 40 of Manny Included

“Garlic is hot!”Belle told him.“It’s spicy.Only Pete does spicy food.He likes all the spices.”

“I do like my stuff spicy hot.But I save that for times when I’m eating by myself.I wouldn’t want to offend your delicate sensibilities.”Pete offered Belle a wink and a smile.

Fuck, Pete was a good-looking man.And the fact that he cared so hard for Bay’s nephews and nieces made him even sexier for some reason.Bay was so fucked.Or not fucked as it happened because he couldn’t make a move on Pete no matter how much he wanted to.The man worked for him, after all.

They all sat down and began eating.Pete focusing on the baby before he ate himself.There was a lot of laughter from the kids, chattering about their school and spelling and reading and just general family stuff.

All this was because of Pete.Backing off of his attraction, no matter how strong it was, was the right thing to do.

Pete cleaned the table off once they were done, and Belle headed to her room to read, Eric settled in for his half hour of cartoons, and Merida came to Bay with a stuffie.

“Him’s hurted.”

“He is?”Bay took the stuffie, looking for a torn limb or a hole or something.“What’s wrong with him?”

She pursed her lips, obviously thinking.“Hims has a boo-boo on his nose.”She pointed to her nose, then grinned at him.

“Oh, yeah, look at that.Does he need a nose bandaid?”A nose bandaid?Where had he come up with that?

She nodded.“A nose-aid.A bandnosie… yes.”

Bandnosie.Oh man, he was going to bust a gut laughing if he wasn’t careful, and he didn’t want to hurt her feelings.“A bandnosie?”he asked, looking over to Pete for guidance.

Pete nodded, then he reached up, opened a cabinet in the kitchen, and pulled out a little, round, tiny Band-Aid.It was pink.

“There you go, one Bandnosie.”Pete didn’t even crack a smile.

“That is amazing.”He put the Bandnosie on the stuffie’s nose.“There you go.All better.”

“Sank you!”She blew him a kiss and then wandered off.

“I’m going to go put the baby down, and then I’ll come back and start the bath process.If you want a piece of chocolate pie, you’re welcome to it whenever.It’s in the fridge.”Pete offered him a quiet smile and a nod.

“Thanks, Pete.As always, you’re the best.”Man, he had screwed up their relationship badly.He should have just ignored the attraction, and just quietly backed off when he realized he was flirting, just stopped and not made a big deal of it.Pete had said he was attracted first, though, right?He’d just been trying to stave off a problem.It felt like excuses, no matter how he put it.

Pete didn’t answer, just took the baby off.

After a few minutes, Merida came in, wearing her nightgown, hair damp.“Time for bed!Read a story?”

He sighed softly but nodded and took her hand, leading her up to her room.“What story do you want today?”

“Octopuppy.”She grabbed it from the bookshelf.

“You got it.”He put her in bed, sat next to her, and read her the story.And two more before insisting it was bedtime.

By the time he got out, he gave kisses to bathed Eric and Belle, finding the kitchen spotless, all the leftovers put away and a dessert plate and fork left out for him.

The pie looked amazing, but he didn’t want to eat it on his own.And whose fault was that?His.Totally his.He’d made that proclamation and then stopped hanging out with Pete.What kind of message did that send?

He sent a text to Pete.

The three dots lingered quite a while, and then,

Bay took a deep breath.Okay.Okay, that was a start.

He found another plate and a fork and sliced up the pie, dishing them each out a piece.