Page 17 of Wanted: Unwavering Daddy

“It is,” I agreed, squeezing our palms together.

“I’ll drink to that,” Dylan said, raising his glass. We all followed his lead, and it was one of the best nights we’d ever had.

Chapter Seven

JOHN

Iwas lying in bed reading a book when I heard Will shriek, “Daddy!”

He came running into the room and hopped onto the bed next to me. “You stayed at Hayden's pretty late, boy. I thought we had a conversation about you getting home earlier. Did I not make myself clear?”

“I know. I know. But a bunch of the other guys showed up to see how it was coming along, and so we ended up putting the cribs together.” Hayden's surrogate’s due date was moving closer, and Will had been spending as much time as possible over there helping him plan and decorate the babies’ nursery. I was proud of how much time and energy he was investing into this, but he was turning into a workaholic.

I chuckled. “You didn't leave Waylan that honor?”

Will scoffed. “If I'm going to do this for them, I'm going to do it right. I want to be just as hands on getting their room ready as I am when I redo rooms in our home.” He pouted. “You can't bemad, Daddy. I'm almost done with the project and then…” He trailed off.

Reaching forward, I grabbed his hand.” And then you'll be bored again, right?”

He shrugged. “I'm sure it'll be fine. I figure Hayden's going to need help with the babies when they come home. But…Waylan will be home with them for the first six weeks, so…” He trailed off again.

“I guess having something to do every day has really shown you how bored you really were before, hasn’t it?” He grimaced, so I knew I was right. “Tell me, have you thought anymore about what you'd like to do?”

He shrugged. “I don't know, Daddy.” He flopped down on the bed next to me, scooting close and throwing one leg over mine. “The only thing I really love is interior decorating, and what am I going to do, go through my friends and ask all of them if they have a room they want redone?” He groaned. “They’ll think I'm so annoying.”

“Or maybe they'd love your help, but they don't want to take advantage of you by not paying you.” Which I thought was probably the case. A few of our friends had mentioned wishing they could find someone with Will’s talent to come into their home and update their space. It always went right over Will’s head, but looking back on it from a different perspective, I thought there might’ve been a whole lot of hint, hint, in there.

He sat up abruptly. “I can't believe I forgot to tell you. Hayden's trying to pay me. Can you imagine? I'm his friend, and I'm helping him out.It’s not like I’m a professional. I told him toconsider it my gift to the kids. It's not even like I paid for any of the materials. What is he thinking?”

I held in a sigh. Whether he liked it or not, he was getting paid for all of the time and effort he’d poured into the nursery. Waylan and I had discussed it several times, and if Will wouldn’t name a price, Waylan planned to give him what he decided was fair. I knew my friend, and that would be a whole lot more than Will was comfortable with. He really wasn't getting how talented we all thought he was. I’d promised myself to let him work it out on his own, but it was time to help clear the path.

“What if you did this for a living?” I asked nonchalantly.

“What?” he asked, clueless to the fact I was still discussing interior design.

I chuckled. “Come here, boy.” I pulled him down into my arms and held him close. Stroking his back, I kissed his temple, then said, “I think what you should do is exactly what you've been doing all these years, except reinventing our home over and over, you should let other people pay you for your expertise and do theirs.”

“But I'm not a professional or anything, Daddy,” he mumbled into my chest.

“You've taken plenty of classes over the years.”

He leaned up on his elbow. “But that was just to learn specific things that I wanted to use here in our house.”

“But didn't you learn other things along the way? In fact, haven't you completed multiple online certification programs?”

He wrinkled his nose. I finished one. The other one just pissed me off. I have no idea why they thought their designs were soamazing. I can tell you a million little things I would've done differently.”

I stifled a laugh. Yeah, this was exactly what he needed to be doing. “What if I helped you?”

His eyebrows rose on his forehead. “Help me what?”

“What if I…” I stopped, collecting my thoughts. I had to word this perfectly so that he didn’t think this was just about him being mine, instead of me wanting to invest how seriously talented I thought he was. “Okay, I’ve helped Roland with the Honey-Do Handyman,” correct?”

“Yes.”

“And would you say I've done a pretty decent job guiding him?”

“Yes, of course. Everyone's saying how amazing you’ve been. Roland sings your praises to anyone who will listen.”

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