The Teddy Bear Club Page 3

  “We’ll get him back down. I swear.”

  “Was I that obvious?” he asked, rooting through the diaper bag and coming up with two bottles. Go him. And he hadn’t even been a boy scout. He pulled the bottles out. “Ta-da!”

  “Excellent. Let me go get her. I have a bunch of wet wipes and diapers, if you need them. You want a peanut-butter sandwich, Linds?”

  “With the crusts cut off, Daddy.”

  Dev grinned and grabbed up U, which of course had the effect of waking him up. He had the bottle right there and ready, though, and he popped it into U’s mouth, his son latching on and sucking strongly.

  It didn’t take Aiden any time to make a sandwich and cut up half an apple and pop it in front of the three-year-old. “Here, honey. I’m going to grab the baby.”

  “How come babies don’t eat?” Linds asked.

  That was an easy one. Dev told her, “Because they don’t have teeth.”

  “Oh.” She started eating her sandwich, then she put it down. “How comes they don’t have teeth?”

  Okay, that one wasn’t so easy. “Well… because if they had teeth, then they’d bite the nipple and that would hurt the mommy or break the bottle.”

  “I have teeth.” She smiled for him.

  “You do. Those are great teeth. And because you have them, you get to eat all sorts of things while the babies don’t. Like that sandwich.”

  “I like sammiches. What’s your name?”

  “I’m Dev and this is Unicorn.”

  “Unicorn? Is he magical? Does he have a horn? That’s a funny name.”

  Dev chuckled softly. “Well, I think he’s kind of magical, but no, he doesn’t have a horn. And yeah, it’s a funny name, isn’t it? My sister named him, but I’ve been thinking I should give him a name too. Something not… uh, Unicorn.”

  “I think that would be nice. I like Dylan. You should name him Dylan.”

  “Dylan, huh?” It actually wasn’t a bad name. Though Dill wasn’t the greatest nickname, but probably one the kid was going to get. He’d have to think about that. Hell, he’d been trying to come up with something that felt right ever since he realized Teresa had done a runner. “Why Dylan?”

  “’Cause that’s my favorite name from my book. Dylan and Nancy Get a Dog.”

  “Ah, that makes sense.” Was a certain little girl hoping she could have a dog? “What kind of dog did they get?” U began sucking air and he took the bottle out and set U up against his shoulder, patting his back.

  “A mutt from the shelter, but he was the best dog. The most perfectest dog.”

  “Yeah, sometimes a mutt is exactly that. And shelter dogs are the best dogs. And they really need homes.” U gave a huge burp, making Dev chuckle and Linds go into peals of laughter.

  “Daddy! The baby burped!”

  “Yeah, well, this baby pooped. I’ll be right there.”

  Linds wrinkled her nose. “Bee is a stinky girl.”

  “Yeah? So is Unicorn, sometimes.” Dev hated poopy diapers. Supposedly he’d get used to it, but so far he still thought they stank and were gross.

  “Babies are stinky. All the time. Ew.”

  “You think so? I don’t think so. Not all the time.” Most of the time U smelled pretty good. And when he wasn’t being totally colicky, he wasn’t bad to be around at all. In fact, he was sort of neat. Dev loved watching him interact with the world.

  And thank God U was a boy. He got boys. He was a boy. It worked.

  Linds finished her sandwich but ignored her apple slices. “Daddy, can I have a dessert?”

  “Have half your apple and you can have a cookie, honey.”

  “Okay, Daddy.” She grabbed an apple slice and began munching.

  “You need any help in there?” Dev called out. It seemed like Aiden had been changing that diaper forever.

  Aiden came in, a totally changed baby in his arms. “Someone was nasty.”

  “Ewwwww!” Linds wrinkled her nose. “Nasty baby!”

  Dev had to laugh. Had to. Man, he was having a great day. Maybe one of his best in three months.

  “I know! She had poo from one end to the other.”

  If he didn’t laugh, he might gag, so Dev let the chuckles continue to roll from him. “Well, at least now she’s already had her bath.”

  “She has. Go team us, and thank you for keeping Linds company.”

  “No problem. We were coming up with alternative names for U.” He supposed it could have been worse. Teresa could have named him One or Baby Boy or something.

  “Yeah? What are our choices so far?”

  “Your daughter thinks Dylan is our best choice.” He still hadn’t found anything he really liked.

  “Dylan is a cool name for a guy. Solid, easygoing, I like it.”

  “I do too. It’s a big thing, though, choosing a kid’s name. I mean this is for his life.” What if he chose the wrong name?

  “Uh… it’s got to be better than Unicorn, you know….”

  He chuckled. “Yeah, but I don’t want him to have to change it again later on, you know?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, I mean…. You know, I have to admit, you’re the first guy I’ve met with this problem.”

  “I’m the first person, guy or girl, I know of with this problem….”

  “Yeah. Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Aiden walked over suddenly and hugged him, squeezed him tight. “You’re doing good, though.”

  Dev had to blink back tears at the sudden contact, surprisingly touched. “Thanks. I’m trying to do the right thing.”

  “You’re making it. You’re doing it.”

  “Thanks. You need any help with dinner?” He was bouncing slightly, keeping U quiet.

  “I will, absolutely. Did he eat?”

  “Like a total pig and then he burped. I’m surprised you didn’t hear it.” He grinned, happy U wasn’t crying. God, everything was about the baby now. Everything.

  “Yeah. This one needs her bottle, and then I’ll start the grits.”

  “Sounds good. Do you always make different food for Linds and yourself?”

  “No, usually I don’t, but she’ll be too sleepy to eat because I waited too long to start cooking.” Aiden shot him a quick grin, a wink. “I was chatting with this guy….”

  He grinned right back. “Yeah? A cute guy?”

  Aiden gave him a long look. “Yeah. Yeah, you could say that.”

  He felt something warm in his belly at Aiden’s look, at his words. “Yeah? What a coincidence. I was chatting with a cute guy too.”

  “Are we flirting with each other? I’m not sure we’re allowed to do that.”

  “Probably not. I like it, though.” He couldn’t keep the smile off his face.

  “It’s something to pass the time, huh? Because we have so much free time.” Aiden put the little one in a seat and started feeding her. She had to be older than U because she was twice his baby’s size, easy. And there was the rice cereal. U wasn’t ready for that yet. The doctor had said six months, and he was only five. He seemed hungry a lot too. Dev didn’t know—this was all so new to him.

  “That’s all we have is free time, right?” He chuckled.

  “Yeah. It’s worth it, though.” Aiden offered him a supermodel grin. “And if we say it enough, it’ll come true.”

  “Okay, I can keep saying it.” He settled U down in his stroller, not actually cheering, though he wanted to, when U stayed down. This was usually a decent time for him. The colic would start up later in the evening.

  Bee cooed and kicked, and he found a little rattle to hand over.

  Linds ate most of her apple, then tugged on Aiden’s pants. “Cookie?”

  “I can get it for her,” Dev offered.

  “In the cookie jar. Thanks.” The Tardis cookie jar made noise and lit up when he lifted the lid.

  “Oh, this rocks.” He kind of loved that Aiden was a geek like him. Chocolate chip cookies. Cool. He took out three, one for Linds, one for Aiden, and one for himself. He passed L
inds one of them.

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re very welcome.” What a charming little girl.

  “You want to give one to your daddy?” He offered her one of the two he had left in his hand.

  “After he feeds the baby. Babies don’t eat chocolate chip cookies.”

  “No, they don’t eat much of anything, do they?” He nibbled on his cookie, returned to the little table. “There’s a cookie for you when the baby’s done,” he teased.

  “Ah. Linds is a slave driver.”

  “Yeah, she really is.” He sat, slowly munching. “So what’s your evening routine?” He didn’t exactly have one yet. It was pretty much get as much sleep as he could while still getting work done and taking care of the baby.

  “Lindsay eats at five, bath at six, cartoons from six to six thirty, then she goes down at seven, and the baby goes down about half an hour after that.”

  Boom, boom, boom—seriously? He would never be that put-together. Never. Not even if U was the perfect baby.

  “Well, U is asleep, so let me know how I can help.” Because it was his experience that once U was up after sunset, all bets were off.

  “You want to pull the shrimp out of the fridge?”

  “Yeah, I totally can.” He went back to the kitchen and poked through the fridge. There was a lot of healthy food in here, the shrimp easy to find. It still had the shells on it. Ew, right? “Uh. You didn’t buy them all cleaned?”

  “Nope. I don’t mind doing it, and they stay fresher.”

  “Okay….” He set them on the counter. “There anything else I can do?” Please don’t say clean the shrimp.

  “We can clean the shrimp together if you want, after I bathe the child.”

  “Sure.” He’d cleaned poopy diapers, he could handle a bit of crustacean skeleton. Of course there was a poop chute too, wasn’t there? “You want me to read a story to Linds or something?” He didn’t want to just sit there while Aiden dealt with his kids—the guy had two, after all.

  “Oh, she’d love that!” Aiden burped the baby with one hand and snarfed down a cookie with the other.

  “Cool. Hey, Linds, you want me to read you a story?”

  “Yes!” She jumped up and down and grabbed his hand. “You gotta read Green Eggs and Ham, but you can’t skip parts. Daddy tries, but I always know.”

  “I would love to….”

  She dragged him down the hall to a delightful little bedroom, all painted pink. “I’ll get it.”

  “Sure.” He sat on the edge of her bed and grinned as she brought him the orange book. She settled in next to him, and he started reading. He remembered this one from when he was a kid. He loved the building rhythms.

  She followed along, laughing happily and clapping as he made two different voices.

  When they were done, he closed the book. “You have another one?”

  “Uh-huh. Can you do Goodnight Moon?”

  “Sure thing.” He had that one, believe it or not. He’d read through that to U a few times. One of the parenting books he’d consulted said it was never too early.

  He read it twice, and by the end, she was sound asleep, resting hard against him. Oh God, so sweet.

  He carefully maneuvered her over onto the mattress and slipped out of the room to look for Aiden.

  Aiden had put both babies into a crib together and was singing to them, soft and low. Damn, it was adorable, and he leaned against the doorjamb, watching quietly. He wondered if U would sleep better with another baby in the crib with him. It couldn’t hurt to see. God, he’d become a man obsessed. Who could blame him, though. He’d read somewhere that a person could live longer without food than they could without sleep, and God knew he’d been sleep-deprived over the last couple of months.

  The song faded off, and then Aiden turned, grinned at him, and gave him the thumbs-up.

  He returned it, then stepped aside to let Aiden out of the room, and they headed for the kitchen.

  “You wanna lay odds as to how long he sleeps for?” Dev asked, praying that he actually stayed down a few hours before needing to be fed again, then went back down easily.

  “I’m hoping for a nice long nap, for your sake.”

  “Me too. With a lack of screaming for yours.” He was almost getting used to it. “Now what can I do to help, because I’m starving.”

  “First we’ll get the cornbread in the oven. Then we can get the grits started and clean the shrimp. Easy-peasy. Is Linds asleep?”

  “Yeah, out like a light during the second reading of Goodnight Moon. Is it okay that she didn’t get her bath?” His stomach growled at the thought of all that food, and he found himself licking his lips.

  “One night’s not going to kill her. She wasn’t as stinky as her sister anyway.” Aiden winked, making Dev laugh.

  Dev watched, fascinated, as Aiden moved around the kitchen like a dancer, sort of. He’d hardly had any adult company in the last three months, barring today. Hell, he hadn’t had a ton of it in person before that, but at least he’d been able to go out to eat or whatever and see other people before he’d… inherited U.

  “So, what’s your favorite meal ever, man?”

  “Ever ever? Fried chicken with french fries and macaroni salad.” He surprised himself answering it so quickly, but that was the first thing that popped into his head. “We used to be able to choose anything we wanted for supper on our birthdays, and I always had KFC. Every year until they kicked me out.” And maybe sixteen was too old for KFC for his birthday, but it meant celebration in his mind.

  “When’s your birthday?”

  It really was like a first date, despite the kids in tow. “May 12. And I’m twenty-eight. You?”

  “January 18. I’ll be twenty-eight this year, and my favorite food is pizza.”

  “What kind of pizza?” Because some people put bizarre shit on pizza dough and claimed it was pizza, but that didn’t necessarily make it so.

  “Pepperoni and mushroom is my favorite, but I’m easy. I love flatbread.”

  “No, that’s good. That’s a pizza. You start putting pineapple and shrimp and crap on it and it’s not a pizza anymore.” He watched the cornbread mix up easy as you please, Aiden throwing it in the oven. “So, do you get a lot of downtime to game?” It was an important question.

  Aiden laughed softly in response. “I don’t do it as much as I used to, because babies and work, but the setup in the basement is great, and it doesn’t bother them.”

  “You have one of those baby monitor things?” Because a few hours of playing with Aiden might be exactly what the doctor ordered.

  “You know it. All of the rooms up here are wired for intercom, and it funnels downstairs.”

  “A great child-minding setup. Cool. Maybe we can play after supper? You got any cooperative first-person shooters?”

  “Totally. We can head down and explore our options.”

  “Sounds great.” And if it also sounded a little dirty, well, he put that down to lack of grown-up companionship of late and the fact that Aiden was a good-looking man.

  “It does, actually. Have you ever cleaned shrimp?”

  “Nope. I’ve never made it at home. Only ever had it at a restaurant. I mean, I like it, but I never have made it myself.” He had a feeling it wasn’t the easiest thing in the world, but he was willing to pitch in and help.

  “Well, let’s do it. It’s not difficult.” Aiden’s laugh was warm, soft and happy. “You like music?”

  “You bet. Classic rock, metal, Japanese. Basically, if they use it in gaming, I like it. What about you?” He washed his hands in the sink because he might not know how to peel shrimp, but he did know you washed your hands before handling food.

  “Would you believe I’m a classical music fan? I love how you can let it pour through you.”

  “I think that’s cool. You don’t see many guys our age who like it. I’m not a huge fan, but I don’t mind it at all.”

  “My mom was a music teacher.”
<
br />   “Hey, my mom is a teacher too. Second grade.” It always made him a little sad to think of his mom. He didn’t think he’d ever forget the look of disappointment on her face when he’d come out.

  “Yeah? You said you guys were on the outs, huh? That’s a shame. I think my folks would have adored the kids.”

  “Well, I’m not so sure my mom would, seeing as she supposedly kicked Teresa out. I say supposedly because she also said she was only leaving U with me for a day or two so she could arrange for a place for them to live. I don’t know if Mom even knew Terry was pregnant. Given what happened with me, I wouldn’t be surprised if Terry decided she couldn’t tell her.” He did wonder sometimes how life would have been different if his parents had accepted him as he was, rainbow-colored socks and all. He tried to head himself off whenever his thoughts ran in that direction, though, because obviously they hadn’t, and he couldn’t go back and do it all over again. He gave himself a little shake. “So. This shrimp-peeling thing. You’d better show me how it’s done before I decide it’s too scary to learn.”

  “Right on.” Aiden washed up and they started peeling, the man showing Dev how to split the back and devein it.

  He didn’t think about what the deveining really meant because it would totally gross him out. He just did it, like he changed poopy diapers, thinking of it as clinically as possible. It wasn’t that hard to do, just messy and fishy. He knew the end result was going to be more than worth it, though. He loved shrimp.

  “You’re doing great. Seriously.” Aiden bumped shoulders with him. “It’s nice to have company.”

  “Yeah, it really is. I don’t think I realized how much I missed at least the possibility of it until that was gone.” He smiled at Aiden. “Not that I want to be here just because you’re adult company. I like you.” God, he was a dork—had he really needed to blurt that out?

  “Thanks, honey. Seriously. I’m glad to make a new friend.”

  Yeah, him too. “Favorite TV show?” he asked, continuing the get-to-know-you portion of the evening.

  “Old-school CSI. You?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. Yeah. I love all the crime shows. But the original CSI was one of the best. I like the real-life ones too, like 48 Hours and Cold Case.” He put the last shrimp in the garbage bowl and the shells in the shrimp bowl by accident. “Whoops.” He switched them around.