Page 38 of Ghost of a Chance
“I don’t know how you did all this, and so quickly, but… you take my breath away,” he said looking down at his mate.
“I’ll be sure to do that again later.” Brad winked. “Now come and meet my parents.”
Lionel rubbed his hands on his jeans as he went toward the two people who were standing by the grill. The man was huge, easily as tall as Lionel, and he had a big wide smile.
“The name’s Charlie.” He held out his hand. “Welcome to our home, son.”
Lionel could barely speak as he shook the hand offered to him. Charlie wasn’t just shaking his hand, he pulled him in for a full hug. “Don’t ever think you haven’t got family, boy,” Charlie said gruffly, keeping his voice low. “You’re going to need a bit of help coping with our Brad as he can be a bit precocious, and I want you to know, we’ll always support you.”
“Don’t go warning him about our son before he’s barely had time to enjoy their mating.” The woman next to Charlie nudged the big man away, wrapping her arms around Lionel’s waist. “You’re a big one, aren’t you. Perfect for our son. You can call me Mom or Gigi, it’s entirely up to you. Welcome to the family, dear.”
“I think I’m going to faint,” Lionel said with a bit of a chuckle. “When Brad said I was going to meet his parents, I wasn’t expecting all this.”
“Argh, you’ve had a bit of a rough week,” Charlie said. “That’s the best time to have a bit of fun, and you’ve got some great friends who think the world of you. They’ve been telling me all about what you got up to growing up.”
“Oh, no.” Lionel groaned as he let Gigi go and reached for Brad’s hand. “Divide everything you’ve heard in two and throw out half of it. I wasn’t that bad.”
“You haven’t heard all the stories I’ve been storing up about Brad.” Gigi rubbed her hands together. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for years.”
It was Brad’s turn to groan. “Let’s go and greet some of your friends,” he suggested, tugging at Lionel’s hand. “I haven’t had a chance to meet many of them yet.”
“I’ll be proud to introduce you.” And Lionel was.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Brad
Brad stood across the garden watching Lionel holding Maisie’s baby, rocking and cooing at him. Euphoric was the only way to describe how Brad felt in that moment. His eyes misted with tears as Lionel brushed a kiss over the child’s forehead and then wore a silly grin when a tiny fist came up and touched his cheek.
“He’s a wonderful man.” Mom nudged his shoulder.
“He is,” Brad murmured, meaning it from the bottom of his heart.
The acceptance from Brad’s family and Lionel’s friends had relaxed him in a way Brad hadn’t fully witnessed before. It fed Brad’s desire all afternoon and evening. His mate glowed with happiness, and it competed with Morty’s pregnancy glow.
Morty and Hector had left an hour ago when Morty started to tire. Brad put aside his concern that Morty would give birth before they had completed the building's work. It was a worry for another day, today was all about Lionel.
He walked over to his mate as Lionel handed the child back to Maisie with what looked like reluctance. “I thought for a minute you might kidnap him,” Maisie said, tucking the baby into her chest as Ian approached.
“You know Lionel is a kid magnet.”
“I am not,” Lionel blustered, going a dark shade of red.
“Then why is it wherever we go, you always find the one child and make friends with them?”
Brad liked Ian, he was an affable guy with a ready smile. “Is that so?”
“Don’t listen to him,” Lionel answered before Ian did, hooking his arm through Brad’s and tugging him away. “They are talking nonsense.”
Brad didn’t think so, but he didn’t say more as they moved around the garden, chatting and laughing as they ate their body weight in food.
He watched the sunset as Lionel pulled him into his side while talking to Dad about his business.
“That’s a lot of work, must mean a lot of late nights and weekends.”
Lionel shook his head. “I’ve got a wonderful secretary and spreadsheets that feed into a database I created to keep track of the interest trends, so it helps predict when changes might be required. I haven’t worked an evening or a weekend in years.”
“Oh, that’s a great idea. I use spreadsheets for the accounts, but building a database, that’s next level,” Mom enthused after coming over to join them.
