Page 27 of The Birthday Manny

I wasn’t worried about where we’d put them. The whole house had been overrun by everything Lexi since before she was even born. Since she was already completely distracted by her new toys, I stepped closer to him. “She's going to think she can keep them,” I hissed. “And what if she loses some or breaks them?”

CJ moved in closer, leaving us in the same position as that first night at Rafters. Close enough that the warmth from his body felt like it was reaching for me, trying to draw me in closer. Maybe that was just me, wanting to be enveloped in his heat. “These are a gift for her to do what she will. I don't expect them back.”

My eyes widened. “CJ, you can't do that. You said your mother kept them for your children.”

His gaze slipped from my face to my daughter, where she happily drove two cars toward each other. “You should have seen her face when I brought them in from my car this morning. It was magical.”

I stared up at the side of his face and wondered if he understood just how magical I thought he was. This man was upending my whole world with his kindness, the way he doted on my daughter, how he fixed all of our meals and paid so much attention to us. Jesus. What was I going to do with him?

“Kevin, is this okay?” He searched my eyes, concern written all over his face. “Did I overstep?”

“No.” I shook my head. “It's just…that was just really so considerate of you.”

Looking pleased, he gripped my bicep. “You had me worried there for a second.”

The urge to raise up on my toes and thank him with a kiss or perhaps drop to my knees and give him an even more pleasurable thank you clawed at me. CJ’s orbs darkened to a gray-blue, and I shuddered.

“Daddy, come pay.” Lexi’s little voice dragged me out from the midst of the storm of emotions I’d been battling since last night. The low of him leaving, the sheer relief of him coming back so quickly, the confusion of my own thoughts, and now something that felt like more than simple gratitude at his presence in our lives. Taking the reprieve my daughter offered, I imprinted the feel of CJ’s fingers wrapped around my arm into my mind. I’d been so worried about being his employer and doing something wrong physically that it hadn’t occurred to me that I might actually be the vulnerable one here.

* * *

CJ

“Is someone knocking at the door?” I asked as I opened the box in the middle of the kitchen table. At the four-week mark, Kevin had declared Wednesdays pizza night.

“Door, Daddy.”

With confusion stamped across his face, Kevin rose from his seat at the table. “Who the heck could this be?”

Lexi jumped down and sped ahead of him. “Come on, Daddy.”

He chuckled as he followed her, then I heard the sounds of him unlocking and opening the front door. “What are you guys doing here?” floated back to me, along with Lexi’s squealed, “Aunt Margie.”

An unfamiliar masculine voice said, “What kind of greeting is that? Aren’t you happy to see us?”

Kevin sputtered, “Of course I am. But why are you here?”

“I told you we should call first,” a woman's voice said, humor in her tone.

“Come on, Aunt Margie.”

The woman's laughter grew closer, and I turned to face their direction, sad that our dinner was interrupted. Kevin had guests now, so I'd take my pizza upstairs so they could visit uninterrupted.

Lexi reappeared in the arms of a pretty blonde woman who was followed closely by a man who appeared a few years older than Kevin. Both smiled in my direction as he came toward me with an outstretched hand. “Hi, you must be CJ. I'm George. We thought it was about time we met the man spending so much time with our niece.”

“Uh, hello.” As I shook his hand, I flipped a glance at Kevin.

He looked all kinds of embarrassed as he shrugged his shoulders at me, walking over and slumping into his normal seat. “We're about to have pizza. You might as well join us.” I bit back a smile at his pouty tone and how much it reminded me of his daughter when she didn’t get her way. Did this mean he was as upset at our typical evening being interrupted as I was?

The woman huffed. “I know my husband is rude, but aren't you going to introduce me?”

Kevin straightened quickly. “I'm sorry, Margie. CJ, George is my ex-best friend and boss, and this is his wife, Margie. Normally, I'd say she's the nice one, but she did let him show up without calling first.”

She rolled her eyes, then, holding Lexi in one arm, she reached the other out and shook my hand as well. “Nice to meet you, CJ.”

“Hello.”

Lexi grabbed the woman's face between her little hands, squishing her cheeks. “CJ's my manny, Aunt Margie. I wove him.”

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