Page 25 of Instant Bond

“It’s alright,” I assured him. “I appreciate your prompt response.”

“Oh, of course. And please don’t hesitate to reach out if there’s anything else, no matter how small.”

“I won’t.”

Pulling a chair up to the door, I took a seat, crossing my ankle over my knee as I waited. Lucas was still yapping there. As I listened to security confront him, and his insistence that he was checked into the hotel too, I couldn’t help but smile. As they took him away, his outraged comments bounced and echoed off the hallway walls. Music to my ears.

My phone vibrated with a text. When I opened it, it was a picture from Cameron. He’d taken a selfie with Ty in front of a pond at a park I recognized as being right near his apartment complex. The background was filled with ducks pecking at shreds of lettuce on the ground, a half-filled bag of it clutched in Ty’s little hand. They were both smiling, with Cam kneeling down so they were shoulder to shoulder.

Do you have any idea how adorable the two of you are?

I sent the message after saving the photo to my phone gallery. It was nearly criminal that anyone could take such a cute picture. The fact that Ty looked like a lowercase version to Cameron’s capital letter only enhanced it.

Maybe… I can’t wait to talk to you tonight.

His message was light and flirty, which relieved me. It meant he wasn’t harboring stress or unhappiness from the night before. Which meant I’d succeeded in convincing him that he had nothing to worry about. I may have been a marketing executive in my career, but since I’d met Cameron I couldn’t shake the feeling that myreal jobwas keeping him safe and happy.

As soon as you’re able, I’m ready for you.

CAM

THE RESPONSE FROMKarter letting me know he’d be ready to talk to me as soon as I was able made me smile, but I put my phone away so I could be present with my kid on our little weekend excursion. I’d call him later, once Ty was in bed.

Up close to the pond in the middle of the park, it seemed every duck within a 10-mile radius had waddled up to partake in the feast we were so graciously providing them. The males, with bright green heads and curly tails had low, raspy quacks, and the females, who were brown with darker bills, let out the high-pitched, ear-splitting quacks. Ty definitely preferred those, and didn’t mind joining in the chorus. I hoped he wouldn’t accidentally say something offensive in duck language. Death by horde of ducks would be a pretty embarrassing epitaph on the tombstone.

They had no fear as they came right up to our feet, greedily vacuuming up whatever Ty threw out for them. Today's menu was a mix of cracked corn and shredded lettuce.

An older beta couple walking down the little designated path behind us, hand in hand, stopped to chat.

“Giving the duckies some bread there, are you?” The woman called out, a pleasant expression on her face. I grimaced at her words, knowing exactly how my son would react.

He whipped around, a disapproving frown carved across his round little face. “No, I am not giving the duckiesbread!” He put a hand on his hip, like he was ready to send her to bed withoutsupper. “Bread is no good for ducks! If they fill up on bread, they won’t get the stuff they need!”

Looking a bit taken aback but not offended, the woman and her husband laughed. “Is that so?”

“You better just stick to feeding them corn and peas and lettuce and grapes!” His sentence didn’t explicitly include a warning to them, but one was implied. Or else…

“I’m sorry,” I murmured, once he’d turned back around and was distracted. “He’s very… passionate.”

The man waved off my apology, giving me an easygoing grin. “Oh, he’s just fine. What a smart little guy!”

“And such a handsome thing!” The woman added. “The two of you look just alike!”

“Ah, thank you very much. That’s kind of you to say.” If it was their roundabout way of saying that I was handsome too, I wasn’t so sure I agreed. But still, the compliment was appreciated.

I told them to have a good evening, and they went on their way. Sighing a little, I came back up to Ty, putting my hand on his shoulder.

“You know, baby, you can be a little more gentle when people make a mistake about feeding the ducks bread.”

“No, Dad,” he argued, giving me the driest look a six-year-old could possibly harness. “How are they going tolearn?”

“Alright.” Even my angelic little sugar cube of a son had his breaking point. I guess I couldn’t expect him to have the maturity developed yet to grant grace to those he considered to be maliciously ignorant.

I leaned down to give him a kiss on the crown of his hair, a habit I hadn’t been able to break since he’d been a wrinkly little infant with a barely fuzzy head.

We gave out the rest of the corn and lettuce to the very satisfied horde before heading home, Ty letting his adoring,feathered audience know that we would be back soon. The sunset’s fiery blaze was already softening out to a dusty pink, stars peeking out to dot the darkening sky.

I gripped his hand tight as we made our way down the mostly empty sidewalks. “So have you made any new friends in school lately?”

---