Page 24 of Slice

She laid her hand on his cheek. “I’d given up hope of a man and a family, and then you showed up on Christmas Eve. Best Christmas present ever. I love you too—so much. My heart couldn’t be any fuller.”

Gabe rolled beside her and pulled her onto his shoulder. “I know you need to pee, and we need to clean up, but I want to savor this moment. You’ve made me the happiest man ever. I can’t imagine anything better.”

Faith smiled at the fact Gabe was thinking about her but wanted to snuggle and savor this. She’d deal with sticky thighs in a minute. Gabe had said he loved her, and there was nothing that was going to ruin this moment.

Chapter Sixteen

Slice dished up the chicken nuggets, french fries, and cut-up apple for the boys. Faith had a teacher meeting tonight, and Slice had picked LB up from daycare. The boys had finished the little bit of homework they had and played for a bit.

Since making Faith his a week ago, Slice had been walking on air. After they’d made love, he and Faith had talked about how to proceed with the boys. Slice had spent almost every evening with them for supper and hanging around, but he still slept overnight at the clubhouse.

He and Faith wanted to take it slow with the boys so they’d be comfortable with him before they changed the dynamics. The boys were still adjusting to LB being there.

“Slice, can we play games after supper?” Micah asked.

“Yep. What board game should we play?” Slice asked. Micah’s forehead scrunched at Slice’s reply. Slice had wondered if the kids would try to convince him that video games were okay this evening.

Faith let them play video games on Friday nights and the weekends, but on weeknights, they played board games or read books.

“Don’t want to play a board game. Wanna play a video game,” Micah said, pouting.

“Well, house rules say video games are for Fridays and the weekends. We can read books, play board games, or we could build Legos,” Slice said. He sat down, dunked a nugget in honey mustard, and popped it in his mouth.

Faith and he had discussed that the boys were in a honeymoon period with Slice and would eventually try to push his boundaries. Slice waited to see if tonight was the night the boys would.

“Video games,” Micah yelled, stood up, and ran toward their room. Slice let him go and continued eating.

“Isaiah, did you try dipping the apples in the caramel? We make it fresh at the diner. I think I got the consistency right, but I need your opinion,” Slice said.

“What’s consis-siscy?”

“Consistency, the way I used it, is the thickness or smoothness of the caramel. I want it thick enough to stick to the apples but not so thick that you can chew it. I also don’t want it so thin that it drips off the apple slices like syrup.”

Isaiah dipped his apple slice in the caramel and stared at the piece as he brought it to his mouth, then took a bite and chewed.

“It’s good. It didn’t drip on the table. Micah, come taste the caramel?” Isaiah yelled.

Micah peeked around the wall from the hallway. “Can I come back?” he asked.

“Of course you can. You chose to leave, and you can choose to come back. I need multiple opinions on the consistency of the caramel,” Slice said, completely ignoring Micah’s temper tantrum.

Micah sat down and picked up an apple slice, dipping it in the caramel.

“Is it thick enough that it stays on the slice without dripping off?” Slice asked Micah.

Micah brought the slice to his mouth, chewed, then swallowed.

“It’s thick enough.”

“When we make caramel, the temperature and the time matter. Too hot for too long, and the caramel becomes the consistency of a rock. Too cool and too short, the caramel runs everywhere and is messy.”

Micah took a couple more bites of his nuggets and stayed quiet. Slice thought he’d waited long enough.

“Are we playing board games tonight or reading or building things? Why don’t you each choose one thing, and we’ll divide our fun time tonight.”

“I want to play games,” Isaiah said.

“Could we read more of the book we started yesterday?” Micah asked.

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