Page 53 of Breaking the Code

“What are ye doing? And why are ye out here?” I ask.

Tavish swivels toward me, his eyes blown wide open. The move unveils the bags o’ sour cherry candy, sour gummies, and an enormous bag o’ wavy potato chips behind him.

His mouth opens and closes and he glances between the food in my hands and the junk on the desk behind him.

“Tavish?”

He turns back to the junk on the desk. He yanks open a drawer, moving to swipe the open bags into the desk.

“Stop.”

His back stiffens, and he looks back at me over his shoulder, his eyes even wider, if that’s possible. “Umm, I needed a snack.”

I place the plate o’ food I made him down on the desk before him. “That is not food, lilla du.”

He looks up at me through his lashes, then back down at the plate as he mumbles under his breath. I dinnae ken what he mumbled. I pull a chair close to the desk so I can sit with him while he eats.

“This was really nice of you. Thank you,” he whispers.

“You’re welcome,” I reply, waiting for him to eat.

“Do you not like it?”

“I don’t know.”

Confused, I look at the food. It’s nothing exotic or out o’ the norm.

“Tavish, what is wrong?”

“Aren’t you going to eat with me?”

Realization dawns and I sigh. “I ate while I made yers, mo ghille donn. Do ye want me to leave while ye eat?”

“No!”

“Okay. Then eat. Ye need calories, and nae the kind ye’ve got sitting on your desk.”

More grumbles, but Tavish picks up the utensils. He pushes the food around on the plate as he glances at his junk food.

“Lilla du, eat.”

“What’s that mean?”

“Eat.”

With another small huff, he starts eating.

“Iffn I’m gonna be yer Daddy, and yer gonna be my boy, lilla du, then we need to lay out some ground rules. We’ll add them as we go, but here are the first two…ye will eat three meals a day. Nae junk. Meals. And ye will sleep eight hours. I’ve noticed ye dinnae do either o’ those things.”

“Yes, I do,” he sasses.

“No, ye dinnae.”

He huffs, his arms crossing over his body, the brat in him coming out to play. I couldnae be more excited. The more time I spend with Tavish, the more I realize that he’s exactly what Simon and I always wanted to add to our dynamic. It makes me miss him even more, but I ken he would kick my arse iffn I dinnae take this chance because it’s what I would do iffn the situations were reversed.

“I want a list o’ things you like to eat,” I tell him.

His eyes bounce toward the chips and candy.

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