Page 75 of Bossy Baby

And he had Hayley to thank for bringing him back. For bringing him hope.

It was now Mac’s job to take care of Hayley in return.

He rose, making sure he didn’t jostle his boy too much.

Hayley slept on, still suckling his thumb. That probably should feel as good as it did. And Mac didn’t even know where it came from. He’d been thinking of how much Avery’s binkies calmed him and had followed his instincts.

Hayley’s eyes had widened, but the trick seemed to work.

Walking into the bedroom, Mac laid Hayley down in the king-sized bed.

He’d enjoyed waking with Hayley that morning. He didn’t ever want to spend another morning without his boy in his arms.

Hayley was adorable all sleepy and rumpled.

Mac pulled the blanket from the end of the bed and covered Hayley up. He kissed his forehead before backing away from the mattress, then headed into the playroom to clean up.

Keeping a tidy house was important to Hayley. If Mac could help ease Hayley’s stress, his boy would heal faster.

Mac had been doing a lot of research on what he could do to get Hayley back to one hundred percent. Not that he minded taking care of his boy, but Mac did not like seeing Hayley in pain, though.

Today had been hard.

If Mac could take the pain away, he would have.

He’d break every bone in his body if that meant Hayley didn’t feel even a touch of pain.

And that was just morbid thinking.

Love made people strange, or gave them strange thoughts, anyway.

Mac should be thinking of ways that he could hurt other people. That was what he’d been trained to do.

Not this caretaking.

Taking care of his boy was so much better, though.

Leaving the bedroom door open, Mac headed back downstairs. He needed to clean up the lunch he’d tried to feed Hayley before his boy had thrown a tantrum.

A cute and pathetic tantrum.

Hayley was not the type of boy to throw fits.

Mac probably shouldn’t have found Hayley so adorable.

After stepping into the kitchen, Mac straightened up when his cell phone rang. He was glad he’d left it in the kitchen so the call didn’t wake his boy.

He didn’t recognize the number.

“Hello?”

“Who is the kid working in your boy’s store?”

“Lance?”

“Yeah.” There was a pause. “Who’s the kid?”

“That’s Hayley’s brother, Jayme. Why?”

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