My feet silent on the carpeting, I headed to the living room through it, the murmurs becoming more distinct, but I couldn’t hear much of anything.
Until I hit the doorway of the kitchen. I heard them. I saw them.
And my knees went weak.
Ethan was in his jammies at the table, hair a mess, shoveling waffles in his mouth.
Merry was at the counter, jeans on, shirt on but untucked, feet bare, standing next to the waffle iron but taking a sip off coffee, his mouth curled up, his eyes on my boy.
Oh yeah. Shit.
Warm and squishy.
“So I was all, ‘kiss my butt,’ and they were all, ‘whatever,’” Ethan was saying.
I had no idea what he was talking about, but whatever it was, Merry found it amusing.
I liked this. I liked Merry making my kid waffles. I liked the fact he could do that at all, considering I’d paid three bucks for that waffle iron and it’d only worked once, so I was glad he’d fixed it. And I liked my kid having a guy in the house to babble guy shit to, getting up early to do it on a Saturday morning.
I leaned against the jamb and instantly got two pairs of eyes, my brown ones in my son’s face and Merry’s blue ones in his beautiful face.
“Mom! Cool! You’re up!” Ethan cried. “Waffle time!”
“Seems you started without me,” I noted.
Ethan smiled. “I was hungry.”
I looked to Merry. “How many has he had so far?”
Merry was still grinning but now doing it at me. “Three.”
“I’m a growin’ boy,” Ethan decreed.
“You’re definitely that considering I’m soon going to have to sell my plasma in order to keep you in Oreos,” I returned.
“I’ll sell mine too so we can double up on America’s finest cookie,” Ethan offered.
I shook my head, doing it smiling, and moved into the kitchen. I went straight to my son and didn’t push my luck with gooey. I just reached out and shoved his head to the side, but I did it tousling his hair just a little bit, hoping he wouldn’t notice.
He noticed and I knew this when he muttered, “You’re a goof, Mom.”
“Whatever,” I muttered back and moved to Merry.
He watched me and I watched him, thinking he looked right at home in Janis Joplin’s kitchen.
I got close, put a hand to his abs, and lifted up to kiss his jaw.
“Mornin’, baby,” he said quietly.
I pulled back my head but stayed close, looking him in the eye, trying to decide if him making my son waffles in my kitchen was a better “mornin’” than the one he’d given me the day before.
It was an impossible decision. I was just going to have to equally enjoy all the boons he was giving me.
I didn’t suspect this would be hard.
“Mornin’,” I replied.
“Want waffles?” he asked.
“Want coffee,” I answered, shifting away. “After teeth brushing,” I went on. “Then waffles after coffee,” I finished, wandering out of the room.
“I’ll get on that, princess,” Merry said.
I gave him a look as I hit the doorway.
“Mom!” Ethan cried again like I wasn’t five feet away from him.
I turned in the door and lifted my brows.
“Teddy still wants to go to that movie we were gonna see today. If I call him and his mom’s still up for takin’ us, can I go?” he asked.
Could my son go to a movie, taking him out of the house for a few hours on a day that Merry had off and I might be able to spend that time with him?
“Sure,” I answered.
“Awesome!” he near-on shouted. “I’ll call Teddy after I finish eating. If his mom needs it, can you drop me at their place?”
“Sure,” I repeated.
“You’re good with it, you can be lazy today and I can do it,” Merry offered.
Ethan’s eyes got big with excitement.
“Then it’s a pajama day for me,” I declared, though it wasn’t since I had to work that night, but at least during the day I could make it that way.
Unless Merry came back and my pajamas were history.
“You set it up, bud, I’ll drop you,” Merry said to Ethan, then looked at me. “I’ll come back.”
My knees got weak for another reason, and I shot him a very different kind of look before I took off to go brush my teeth.
I did this for the first time in my life, leaving two guys who meant the world to me in my kitchen.
Two of them.
A dream I’d never dared to dream.
And shit, that dream coming true made me feel warm and squishy.
* * * * *
I was still in my pajamas.
I was also on my knees.
Merry was in his jeans, his shirt, but he was sitting on the side of my bed with me kneeling between his legs.