Page 7 of Hearts of Fairlake

"What are you doing back here anyway?" I asked, mollified but not quite ready to be comforted yet. "You're supposed to be in the shop all day."

"Trust me, Felix can hold down the fort. I was originally coming back to check on you to make sure you'd actually got into bed since we were just passing ships in the night after you came home like a total zombie."

"And you questioned if Felix could sustain the workload when you brought him on," I said, finding some pleasure in rubbing it right in his nose. "I told you he had it down. You just had to show him you trusted him too."

"Yes, yes," Adam said with a roll of his eyes. "My incrediblypatient, amazing, brilliant husband was correct, just like he always is."

That managed to drag a laugh out of me. "You forgot handsome and sexy."

"I was going to cover those in a few hours after we got someone down for a nap," Adam said, letting his hand rest gently on Amber's head. She, however, was completely enamored with the carrots and hummus and didn't seem to notice. As far as we could tell, the hummus was because of the taste but the carrots...well, I assumed she just liked the crunch, considering how noisily she ate them.

My attention was on his words, however, and I raised a brow. "Aren't you supposed to go back?"

"I'll go back in after nap time," he said with a smile. "I'm hoping that after being with you for a little bit and getting her nap in, someone will be a little more willing to come to the shop with me."

"That shouldn't be a problem...for her anyway," I said slowly. It was kind of funny. She wasn’t a fan of loud human noises, which was going to make the upcoming festival a little tricky, but she loved industrial noises.

That had been discovered by sheer accident when Adam and I had been at work, and Chase had been looking after Colin and Amber on one of his days off. He'd been forced to take the kids with him when he went to the shop to deal with some emergency, and to his and everyone else's surprise, it had been a hit. Colin hadn't been that much of a fan, but the sound and smell of machinery had positively enamored Amber. Based on that, Adam had taken her to the shop the next chance he had, where he ran his handyman services and custom furniture business, and...again, it had been a hit.

Again, kids were weird.

"But what about you?" I asked, raising a brow. "You're drowning in orders right now ever since the dickhead—grown-up word—over in Fovel bailed out on his half of the orders."

"And we brought on some people temporarily to help," Adam said with a shrug. "Now Felix has gone through his apprenticeship and is confident; he helps me keep the ship tight and clean. Plus, everyone at the shop loves Amber to pieces anyway. Half the time, she follows Felix around like a miniature shadow."

That was news to me. "Really?"

"Yeah, barely pays attention to me," Adam said with a fond smile as he fixed her hair before she managed to get hummus in it.

There wasn't a trace of resentment or hurt feelings as he said it, and I felt a wave of love for him at that moment. For how much of a blockhead he could be sometimes, he was also good at rolling with the punches and not taking things to heart. What mattered to him wasn't that our children loved and adored us solely but were surrounded by love and felt secure wherever they were.

I remembered how much he’d fretted and worried shortly after Colin arrived, practically risking breaking his neck to get out of bed in the middle of the night whenever Colin woke up crying out of fear something had gone horribly wrong. Or he had done something wrong to lead to it. Yet here was the same man, pouring all that love and concern into these small, half-feral, weird, lovable creatures and not batting an eye that he wasn't always 'the favorite.'

"Didn't you say that she follows Julian around whenever she sees him?" Adam asked curiously.

That made me laugh. "Yeah. Or tries to anyway. Cracks Isaiah and me up."

"Of all the guys to torment, you two choose poor Julian," Adam said with a shake of his head, grabbing some baby wipes off the counter to clean Amber's face.

"Well, Isaiah's allowed. He's dating him," I said with a chuckle. "And you have to admit, it's kind of funny seeing that big guy get so weirded out because some little girl loves him so much."

It was also funny that she was so taken with Chase, who was equally bewildered by her attention but was far more gruff about it. Colin, however, seemed to take after people like Devin and Isaiah, gentler, more energetic souls. Adam liked to joke that his son was just like him, drawn to people who were his opposites. I wasn't quite sure how I felt being compared to Devin and Isaiah, but there were worse comparisons.

"Speaking of Felix," I said, changing topics on a dime as usual. "How's uh, that whole thing going for him and Luke?"

Adam's gentle stroking of Amber's face paused for a moment. "Well, it's not like he talks about it much. He's mentioned they were...trying, but other than that, I don't know."

"Hmm," I said, not sure what to say, but my heart ached for them. Adoption could be difficult, especially for a gay couple, even a gay couple in Colorado. But it was further compounded by the fact that Felix had...a history. One I didn't know completely and didn't need to know, but those things could and usually were dug up by agencies, which could prove difficult for them.

It was already kind of a miracle that Felix decided to follow through on marrying Luke last year. Even his brother was surprised. It was even more surprising that either of the brothers decided to adopt a kid, let alone Felix, who had always been the more...well, shakier, I guess. Then again, he had been actively trying to put his life back together before he'd met Luke, and the man's presence in Felix's life had only helped.

"I wish there was something we could do to help," I said with a sigh. "Did Felix ever get back to you on the offer?"

"He said he appreciates you offering, but he would prefer he and Luke get a kid on their own merits."

"That's what he said?"

"Well...he actually said gifted a child if they're worthy enough."

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