Page 65 of The Cowboy's Bullfighter
“Uncle Coop doesn’t tell us stuff like that unless we ask,” she told him, which made him blink a little, because there had been a pretty good gap in the conversation.
“Well, I asked him for Thanksgiving, but we were busy in between. So, I’ll talk with him today.”
“Cool. I made him a scarf. It’s a little lopsided, but I crocheted it myself. Do you think he’ll like it?”
“Sweetie, if you made him something by hand, Coop will be over the moon. He thinks the sun rises and sets by you lot.”
She giggled. “I like when you say stuff like that. And I liked that thing you made last week with the beets.”
“They call it beetroot in Oz, you know.”
“Well, it is a root.”
They walked back into the house to find Mason, Johnny, and Mina in the kitchen. There were cookie sheets lined with parchment already, the oven was pre-heating, and the bowls were sitting out.
“Man, you guys were ready.”
Mina grinned at him. “Uncle Coop helped. But then he went to feed the dogs and stuff.”
“Cool.” His belly rumbled. “Let me make up some eggs and toast. Anyone else want any, or was cereal fine?”
There was a chorus of pleases, so he made a second breakfast for everyone, and a double first for him and Coop, who was back in time to eat it.
“Uncle Coop? What do you like to do for Christmas?” Lucy asked immediately, stuffing eggs in her mouth.
“Uh.” Coop raised his eyebrows at him, and Brooks shrugged. “I like to watch silly Christmas movies. And my family always put on Christmas music and sang, and we left it and the tree lights on all night.”
“Oh, can we do that?” Mina asked. “I like Christmas songs. And I can sing.”
Brooks hid his grin. Mina bellowed like a truck driver, out of tune and ten octaves lower than her speaking voice. She was a hoot.
“We can. I think that would be great. And we’ll have cheese and pavlova tonight for our snacks.”
“What’s pavlova?” Johnny asked. “Is that like Pavlov’s dog?”
“More like Schrodinger’s cat,” Coop murmured. “If it’s mostly air is it still food?”
“You hush and eat your eggs, babe.”
Coop winked broadly at him and twirled an imaginary moustache.
He stuck out his tongue before he realized the kids were watching them like people would watch a tennis match. Then his cheeks heated, and he bit into his toast to keep his mouth shut. Lord help him, he didn’t need to show his ass in front of the kids.
Coop’s low chuckle didn’t help. It slid over him, making him warm as anything. Like seriously. But that wasn’t a bad thing.
“Johnny said that you’re getting married.” Mina stared at them. “Which one of you is going to be the mommy?”
Brooks pondered just sliding underneath the table and staying there. It seemed like the most logical thing to do.
Coop arched an eyebrow, glancing at Benji, but it was Lucy who came to the rescue. “That’s not how gay works. One of them is not the girl. And they can get married if they want to.”
Mina frowned deep. “But somebody has to be the mama, right?”
“No, if you have two dads, you have two dads. And neither one of these are our dads. These are our uncles.” Lucy was as straightforward and logical as all get-out.
“So they’re just Uncle Coop and Uncle Brooks?” Mina asked, and Lucy nodded.
“Yes, they’re just Uncle Brooks and Uncle Coop. That’s it.”
