Page 42 of Restorations

“Yes, Hayden. I really did it.”

He chuckles, not caring that my tone is annoyed. Baz runs around the pool.

“Baz, slow down, buddy.” He stops and giggles as he looks over at me but heeds my warning and dips his feet in the water, sitting down by the edge of the pool. Viv will never let me watch him again if he busts his head open on the cement.

“You’re going to have like fifteen of those running around tomorrow,” Hayden chuckles, but he’s just giving me shit. Although I hate to admit it, he’s one of my closest friends these days.

“I’m ready.”

“You’re crazy.”

I laugh, watching Baz and feeling nothing but excitement for tomorrow. If those kids are half as cool as my nephew, I'll be fine. “What? You don’t like kids, Hayden?”

He chuckles, tucking his hand behind his head. “I like Baz.” I smile, rolling my eyes because it’s not hard to like that kid. He has us all wrapped around his little finger. “But I don’t think I could take being in charge of fifteen of him.”

I shrug. “I’m always up for a challenge.”

“Yeah, I like that about you.”

I roll my eyes, not being able to resist giving him a hard time. “Jesus, man. If you want to blow me, just ask.”

He raises an eyebrow, a lazy grin plastered on his face. “Oh, you’d do that to your sister, huh?”

“Likeyouwould, you pussy-whipped motherfucker.”

He chuckles at that, and it’s weird . . . I haven’t known him long, but if you know Hayden, you get the sense he spent a lot of his life being unhappy. Not now though. He’s blissfully happy, and I know it’s because of Lola. And vice versa.

“So, you gonna marry my sister, or what?”

He shrugs his shoulders, looking up at the sky, squinting from the sun. “No rush. She’s mine, and I'm hers.”

I roll my eyes and grunt when Baz runs over, flopping his wet body onto me, but I don’t care and let him snuggle. “I’m tired.”

I laugh when I hear him yawn and then look down to see the kid is already out. The kid plays hard. Hayden lowers his voice, smiling down at Baz asleep on my chest. “You wore him out.”

“Yeah, hopefully it won’t mess him up when he has to go to bed early tonight.” Viv might be a little pissed about this, but I'm not waking him up. Little man is cranky when he’s sleepy.

Hayden shrugs. “Eh, he’s been swimming and running around for hours out here. Surely he’ll be wiped out tonight too.”

Viv, Lola, and Penelope are having a girls’ day. And Hayden and I were happy to watch Baz. It’s no hardship.

“So . . .” I look down at Baz, who’s totally out and then lift my gaze back to Hayden. “You have no barbaric need to claim Lola as yours?”

His eyebrow lifts again at my description of marriage, but that’s what it is, right? “No, that need is definitely there, and I will. But we have time.”

“You don’t worry about it?”

“About what? Marriage?”

I lift my arm over my head, uncomfortable with the serious shift in our conversation, but I trust Hayden for whatever weird reason. “Yeah. Marriage. Being with one person forever. Or promising to be at least.”

He smiles easily. “Not with her, I don’t.”

I shake my head, not understanding that at all, but maybe that’s how I know things will never be right with Viv. I would worry constantly about committing fully to her, about fucking it all up. But Hayden doesn’t seem worried in the slightest.

“Asher.” I didn’t realize I had looked away from him until I hear my name and turn around to look at him. “It’s a choice to be faithful. To love with all your heart. It’s a choice.”

I roll my eyes and fake gag because I'm not mature enough to handle this conversation, and thankfully, he only snickers at me and slips his sunglasses on over his eyes.

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