Page 30 of Room 1003

He frowned, having pulled out a carrot. “What’s this carrot for? Are you staying for supper again?”

“No, silly. That’s not a carrot. Don’t you know anosewhen you see it?”

It took him a second to think that through, but when he did, his grin was back, wider than ever, showing off the gap from the tooth he’d recently lost. “A snowman!”

“You got it. And there’s also a scarf in there, and some buttons that would be perfect for his eyes.”

Over the top of Kit’s head, I caught Shane’s eye, and he offered me a wistful smile. “What do you say, Kit?” he coaxed his son.

“Thank you!” Kit shouted, jumping over the threshold to wrap his arms around my waist in a giant squeeze. “Will you stay and make it with me?” he asked, tilting his chin up and giving me those puppy-dog eyes. “Pretty please?”

“Of course I will. That’s why I’m here.”

Before I could even blink, Kit was shoving his feet into a pair of boots, but Shane was a pro at managing this kid’s wild energy. He grabbed him by the shoulders and applied the brakes. “Whoa, hold it right there, little man. You’re still in your pajamas. Go get dressed first, then you can play outside.”

Kit groaned. “But Papa…”

“No buts. The faster you move, the faster you can get out there.” Shane gave him a nudge, and Kit kicked off the boots with a dramatic eyeroll.

“Fine, but be ready when I get back,” he commanded, bolting up the stairs, his feet slapping across the hardwood.

As soon as he was out of sight, Shane turned to me, his eyes hungry. “Kiss me quick before he comes back.” I was more than happy to oblige.

With a firm hand on his lower back, I jerked him in until our bodies aligned, kissing him soundly. I would never get enough of this man. I could taste their Saturday morning breakfast on his lips, pancakes or waffles maybe, something with syrup. “Mm, delicious,” I said, licking his lips then sweeping my tongue through his mouth, devouring him. He giggled when I moved to sample his neck, my beard tickling his sensitive skin. The way he squirmed in my arms brought to mind the fresh memories of him moving against me wearing far less clothing than he was now, and just like that, I was no longer thinking about snowmen.

It was over too soon. Lucky for us, Kit wasn’t anywhere close to quiet, so we heard him coming back with plenty of time to put distance between us, though I still ached to tangle my fingers in Shane’s curls, to dig into the flesh of his ass. Today was going to be a lesson in self-control.

Before I left yesterday, Shane and I had agreed that it was too soon to tell Kit about our budding relationship. While I didn’t foresee anything going wrong between us, there was always a slim chance that we wouldn’t work out. And when a child was a part of the equation, we opted to use a little more caution than we might have otherwise. There would be no diving in headfirst. We didn’t want to risk too much upheaval in Kit’s life, and it was too soon for him to start calling me Dad. I was ready to go all-in, though. I was just waiting on Shane to give the word.

“I’m ready!” Kit practically shouted as he shoved his socked feet back into his boots and stuffed his arms into the jacket his dad held up for him. As soon as he was dressed, Kit leaped at me, with total trust that I would catch him. Thankfully, I was prepared.

I threw him over my shoulder, and he flopped like a sack of flour against my back. “All right, let’s go,” I declared, taking Shane’s hand and drawing him outside with a wink, our fingers interlaced. Kit giggled the whole way to the backyard, where there was at least some grass beneath the snow. The front yard disaster could wait until spring.

The backyard wasn’t much yet, but it would be next year, I just knew it. There were empty flowerbeds around the outside, with a few trees and shrubs, and the whole thing was fenced, perfect for a dog. I wondered if that was something Shane might consider…

I hauled Kit back over and plopped him down in the middle of the yard. His excitement was contagious, his gap-toothed grin wide and bright. “Okay, little man. Your job, if you should choose to accept it, is to build a snowman. Show me how it’s done.”

We all started working on rolling balls of snow, but Kit seemed determined to steal all the snow for himself, so Shane and I slowed down and let him have it. Shane stood up, stretching his back with his arms over his head, and his shirt rode up, my eyes locking straight in on that strip of exposed skin. My mouth watered, and I swallowed thickly, aching to reach out and touch. When I dragged my eyes back to his face, he was wearing a smirk. “Busted,” he teased. “You were checking me out.”

I inched closer, nudging his shoulder with mine, and lowered my voice to a gravelly whisper. “I can’t help it. You’re just too damn tempting.”

He peeked over at Kit to make sure his back was turned, then Shane swept his fingers past mine, just the barest of touches. Even just that gentle brush of his skin set off a tingling trail of goosebumps all the way up my arm. Shane drew in a deep breath then sighed. “We should…”

“Yeah, take a breather,” I agreed, and we both stepped back, using the distance to clear our heads. “You know,” I said, trying to occupy my thoughts with anything not sex, “I was just thinking how this backyard could really be something. In the spring, once the snow melts, maybe I could build a little play structure back here. Just a slide and a swing, maybe some monkey bars. You know, so Kit can work off some of that excess energy, maybe invite a friend over to play.”

Shane was quiet, so I turned to look at him, and he was gazing up at me with a surprised expression. “You’re planning to be around next year?” He seemed nervous to ask, but the hope he felt was written all over his face.

“Of course I am. And the next year and the one after that…”

Shane’s eyes softened, glistening, and he took a step closer and reached for me on instinct, stopping himself with his hand hovering halfway between us. He pulled back with a quick glance at Kit to see if he’d noticed. Kit, however, was too busy rolling around his little ball of snow. The ball was getting slowly bigger, but the poor thing looked to be more leaves and sticks than snow. The weather channel said it would be warm and sunny again this afternoon, so the snowman might not live out the day, but we would have a whole winter of snowmen and forts ahead of us.

We hadn’t had much time to discuss the future, but there was no doubt in my mind that we had one. All of us, together.

By lunchtime, we had a miniature snowman. Sort of. The scarf I’d brought was clearly a few sizes too large when compared to the small figure, but Kit didn’t mind. He seemed to think it might keep “Mr. Snowy McSnowpants” from melting, but with the sun beating down on us, I suspected it was a lost cause. The carrot, too, was far too big, so we broke off just the tip and stuck it into his little snowball face.

“Don’t worry, bud,” I told Kit. “Next time, we’ll have even more snow to work with. Mr. McSnowpants version 2.0 will be bigger than I am.”

“Wooooow!” he said with a gasp of awe, his eyes widening. “That’ll take a billion snow. A trillion! No, agadzillion!”

---