Authors: Taylor Lewis
Tags: #Gay & Lesbian, #Literature & Fiction, #Fiction, #Gay, #Romance, #Contemporary, #Gay Romance, #Genre Fiction, #Romantic Comedy
A Memory Away (2 page)
Kyle
stared at her incredulously. “I’m sorry, weren’t you were the one just telling me to head for the hills to avoid some hideous Kramer vs. Kramer re-enactment? Now you’re saying I should tell him? Are you
insane
?”
“Well if you’
re going to stick around then you need to make sure that you’re a step ahead of him the whole way. It’s not like you could have told him about Shea before, but now you can you gotta lawyer up and know what the fuck your rights are. And what
his
are.” She slapped her hands on her curvy hips and tapped her foot as she scowled, “You gotta do whatever you gotta do to protect you and that baby.”
Exasperated,
Kyle flung up his hands and turned to go nose to nose with his friend. “You. Are. Insane. We are never going to see him again!”
“See who?” The deep, amused voice had both
Kyle and Megan freezing in place and then slowly they both turned their heads and saw Detective Jonah Goldman standing just inside the shop doorway and looking at them both with raised eyebrows and a mocking smirk on his lips. He nodded a greeting at them and asked, “Anything I need to know about?”
Kyle
blinked at him and then slowly turned to look at Megan again, gritting his teeth against the half smug, half terrified expression on her face. “If the next words out of your mouth are ‘I told you so’ you are fired.”
stared at her incredulously. “I’m sorry, weren’t you were the one just telling me to head for the hills to avoid some hideous Kramer vs. Kramer re-enactment? Now you’re saying I should tell him? Are you
insane
?”
“Well if you’
re going to stick around then you need to make sure that you’re a step ahead of him the whole way. It’s not like you could have told him about Shea before, but now you can you gotta lawyer up and know what the fuck your rights are. And what
his
are.” She slapped her hands on her curvy hips and tapped her foot as she scowled, “You gotta do whatever you gotta do to protect you and that baby.”
Exasperated,
Kyle flung up his hands and turned to go nose to nose with his friend. “You. Are. Insane. We are never going to see him again!”
“See who?” The deep, amused voice had both
Kyle and Megan freezing in place and then slowly they both turned their heads and saw Detective Jonah Goldman standing just inside the shop doorway and looking at them both with raised eyebrows and a mocking smirk on his lips. He nodded a greeting at them and asked, “Anything I need to know about?”
Kyle
blinked at him and then slowly turned to look at Megan again, gritting his teeth against the half smug, half terrified expression on her face. “If the next words out of your mouth are ‘I told you so’ you are fired.”
Chapter 3
“So, detective,” said Kyle from behind the safety of the shop counter and ignoring Megan beside him praying for aid under her breath to the Lord God, Beyonce and the spirit of Versace. “What can we do for you? Again.” His jaw clenched. “So soon after your last visit.”
Shooting him an incredulous look from the corner of her eye
Megan hissed, “Way to be casual.”
Feeling his cheeks flush with colour when
Jonah grinned at Megan’s words Kyle gritted his teeth and said, “Have you found who did it?”
“Nah,”
Jonah sauntered away from the doorway and made his way over to Kyle and Megan, noting with interest the tensing of their bodies and the way they shifted defensively closer together. “Just got a couple more questions for you.” He leaned hipshot against the counter and folded his arms over his t-shirted chest, letting his eyes drift down Kyle’s body and then back up again to meet his eyes. “Didn’t quite cover everything yesterday.”
Kyle
’s jaw dropped and he looked slightly appalled – did Goldman just
check him out
? He glanced quickly at Megan and concluded grimly from her stunned expression that he probably had. He looked back at Jonah and recoiled marginally at the dangerous quirk to the detective’s full mouth. “I can’t think of anything else we could add.” His eyes skittered past Jonah to the door and then back again. “Isn’t your partner with you?”
Jonah
let his mouth stretch into a leer and shook his head slowly. “Nope.” He straightened from his lean and nodded his head back towards the office. “You wanna go through?”
“No!”
Kyle tried to move to block Jonah’s path and was quite distressed to realise that the lazy strut that seemed to be the detective’s default setting was actually quite speedy when he put his mind to it. He found himself skipping somewhat inelegantly after Jonah in the short hallway leading to the office and leaving Megan standing gaping after them like a particularly useless shop mannequin. “Really, its fine, we can talk out here. I’m sure....”
Jonah
ignored him, flung open the office door and strolled into the room. “Coffee’d be good.”
Giving up on trying to head him off,
Kyle put on a burst of speed and shot behind his desk, snapping, “I didn’t offer.” He glared when Jonah grinned at him and then dropped down into the chair facing his own across the desk. “Look, detective, I really am very busy as I’m sure you can appreciate.”
“Sure can.”
Jonah bared his teeth at him and nodded amiably in agreement. “So the sooner you tell me what I want to know the sooner you can get on with your day.” He stifled a bark of laughter at the furious look on Kyle’s face and the way his cheekbones flushed with colour when his gaze caught on the mysterious photo frame from the day before. His eyes narrowed for a moment before he relaxed back in his chair. “You had any more thoughts why you were targeted?”
Kyle
stared at him, lounging in the chair like some kind of lazy big cat, and said shortly, “No. Is that all?” He couldn’t stop his eyes from darting again to the picture of Shea facing him, filled with irrational panic that Goldman would look at it and just somehow
know
. His fingers itched to snatch it up and stuff it in his desk drawer in darkened safety. “None whatsoever.”
“Huh.”
Jonah nodded thoughtfully and leaned forward to lean his elbows on his knees and fix Kyle with an equally thoughtful stare. “Have to say that surprises me. You seemed kind of nervous yesterday.” He looked at the photo frame out of the corner of his eye and glanced back at Kyle to see him dart another worried look of his own at it. “You seem kind of nervous today too.”
“Yes, imagine that.”
Kyle crossed his arms over his own – woefully slender – chest and tipped up his chin. “I can’t think why that would be, what with having a brick thrown through my window yesterday and everything.” His voice dripped with disdain as he glared down his nose at Jonah. “I can see why you made detective.”
Jonah
looked taken aback at the attitude for a moment before giving a wide, blinding smile of sheer appreciation. “Something tells me that not much makes you nervous, Gerritsen.” He let his gaze drift slowly and with unmistakable heat down Kyle’s body and then back up again. “So the only thing I can think of is that I make you nervous. That what it is?”
Caught between a sudden flash of heat in his belly at the low drawl and an urge to slap the damn man’s face so hard he ended up wearing it on the back of his head,
Kyle narrowed his eyes and lied, “I can think a lot of emotions you conjure up, detective, but I can assure you that nervous is not one of them.” He deliberately let his gaze drift over Jonah in a mocking parody of the heated scrutiny he’d just been subjected too. “And just to be clear, rough trade really doesn’t do it for me. I’m a little more sophisticated in my tastes.” He drew himself up to his full height and nodded towards the door. “Now, if the only reason you’re here is to abuse your position as a city employee and make a frankly pitiful pass at me then you can leave. Unlike you I actually have to put in some work to earn my living.”
Jonah
’s eyebrows shot up so far they very nearly hit his shaved hairline. “That right?” He tilted his head and studied Kyle for a moment and then nodded to himself as though reaching a decision. “That told me, huh?” Flashing a wry grin he got to his feet and brushed the seat of his tight jeans off unnecessarily. “I’ll just head out then. Go find a donut shop or something to waste some time in.”
“You do that.”
Kyle refused to let himself appreciate the play of muscles under soft cotton when Jonah stretched lazily and kept the haughty, dismissive expression on his face hoping against hope that this was going to be the last he would see of the man. He couldn’t believe that the man who had contributed half his son’s genetic material was such a complete
skank
. What kind of person used his position of authority to hit on the victim of a crime? He was so busy fuming and trying to ignore the annoying flicker of attraction in his gut that he completely missed the sudden easy swoop of Jonah’s hand to pluck the photo frame off his desk. “What are you doing? Give that back!”
Jonah
ignored him and frowned in surprise when he found himself looking down at the picture of an infant rather than a picture of Kyle and some other guy as he had half been expecting. His pre-dawn musings had led him to the theory of a recent break-up, which then morphed into a bad break-up. That had turned into a crazed ex hell bent on a campaign of terror to force a stricken Kyle back into his abusive arms which would then – naturally – lead to Jonah storming to the rescue and having a grateful Kyle Gerritsen hurl himself into Jonah’s studly arms and offer up his inexplicably hot body so that Jonah could work off his puzzling attraction to him.
Jonah
had quietly resolved to start considering de-caff and maybe making more of an effort to get back to sleep after one of his episodes – they were obviously having a completely whacked out effect on his mind.
He glanced up at
Kyle with a curious expression and was startled by the pale, stricken look on the other man’s face. “It’s a baby.”
Kyle
opened his mouth soundlessly and then closed it again.
Completely at a loss as to why
Kyle was staring at him like he was expecting to be facing a firing squad at any moment, Jonah looked back at the picture and squinted doubtfully down at it. “Cute.” In truth the kid looked like a small, angry prune wrapped in white wool but Jonah had learned over the years not to share his opinions of other people’s kids after an unfortunate incident with an assistant ME that led to him being chased out of a mortuary and Jennifer Crawford swearing if he ever spoke to her again she would give him an up close and personal experience of an autopsy – whilst he was still breathing. “Got a name?”
Looking like he wanted to pass out,
Kyle stared helplessly at him and forced himself to croak, “Shea. His name is Shea.”
“Right.” Shrugging,
Jonah casually replaced the frame back on the desk and scowled when Kyle still stared at him like he was expecting imminent death. “Chill out, dude, I wasn’t going to do anything to it. It’s all good.” He frowned harder when Kyle remained frozen in place and said, “He your brother or something?”
“I...”
Kyle’s eyes flickered down to Shea’s picture and then back up to Jonah’s face. He really, really wanted to lie but couldn’t bring himself to deny his son not even in the midst of his almost overwhelming fright. He shook his head and squared his shoulders, praying his voice wouldn’t sound as shaky as he suspected it would. “He’s mine. My son.” He drew himself up further when Jonah’s eyebrows shot north again in surprise and repeated firmly, “Shea is my son.”
Feeling his jaw drop,
Jonah stared incredulously. “No shit?” He picked up the frame again, ignoring once again Kyle’s yip of protest, and looked at it more closely. “Doesn’t look much like you.” He glanced up at Kyle’s milk white face again and felt a stab of bewilderment at the wide eyed expression on the other man’s face. “You don’t seem....” He bit off ‘the type’ that wanted to trip off his tongue and finished awkwardly, “Old enough. You don’t look old enough to have a kid.” In fact, he thought privately, Kyle looked barely old enough to be out of high school let alone have his own obviously successful business and a child of his own.
Kyle
stared helplessly at him and then at the frame still held in his hand.
“Well, okay.” Keeping his eyes on the other man as he realised that
Kyle wasn’t going to answer him Jonah replaced the frame on the desk and nodded shortly. “I think I got all I need for now.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder and said, “I’ll see myself out.” He felt a stab of annoyance at the look of almost pathetic relief on Kyle’s face and told himself it was only that which made him add ominously, “I’ll be back.”
Kyle
waited until the door closed behind him before giving into the weakness in his legs, collapsing into his chair, and burying his face in his hands. “Oh my God. Oh my God, oh my God
, oh my God
.” He squeezed his eyes shut so tightly that spots sparked behind his lids as his body started to shake in reaction. “This is a nightmare.” He jumped when the door crashed open again and looked up as Megan dashed into the room, looking frantic and more than a little crazed herself. “This is a horrible, horrible nightmare.”
Megan
flung herself around the desk and then her arms around Kyle in a hard hug. “No kidding!” She squeezed him tighter and said, “What happened? What did he say? Does he know? Kyle, sweetie, what did he say?”
“No, he doesn’t know.”
Kyle shuddered and wrapped his arms around Megan waist as she whooshed out a breath of relief. He almost wailed into her ample cleavage, “He said he’d be back. Megan, he’s coming
back
.”
Megan
was an excellent friend. She had been Kyle’s main support and comfort for more years than either of them cared to remember and she loved him with a bone deep surety that was only matched by his love for her. Nonetheless even being the stalwart friend that she was she couldn’t stop herself saying after a horrified pause, “Can I say I told you so now?”
Kyle
spluttered with reluctant teary laughter, “You are so fired.”
~*~*~*
When he finally got home at just past six that evening, Kyle was seriously flagging and in need of several medicinal cocktails and a long hot soak in the bath. Unfortunately what he got was hit by a small, solid bundle of boy the moment he stepped through the door and the remnants of a half-eaten banana smushed into his Gucci pants. “Da!” Shea proclaimed triumphantly as he wrapped himself around one of Kyle’s legs and beamed up at him with a sticky face and a bite of banana in danger of slipping out of his smiling mouth. “Da, da, da!”
Kyle
froze, closed his eyes in momentary horror at the mess that had been made of his previously immaculate pants, and then opened his eyes again to smile down into Shea’s excited face. “Shea.” He bent down and scooped the little boy into his arms, pressing enthusiastic kisses all over his son’s giggling face. “Shea, Shea, Shea!” He laughed when Shea shrieked with joy and felt a little of the tension he had been carrying inside him ease as his son bounced in his embrace. “Missed you, baby. Have you been good today?”
Shea
shrieked again and threw the rest of his banana onto the hardwood floor in answer. Kyle looked down in time to see their black miniature poodle Lady Ga-Ga come shooting out from under the piano that stood in the corner of the large family area and snap up the dropped food. He sighed, gave her the stink eye – which she ignored as she started to sniff hopefully at the smears of fruit on his pants – and made for the kitchen at the back of the house where the tantalising smells of dinner were wafting into the air.
“Hey!” His housekeeper cum nanny,
Louise, looked up as he walked into the room with Shea still screaming ‘Da!’ at the top of his lungs and Ga-Ga trying to lick his trousers as he walked. “Thought I heard you pull up. Good day?”
Kyle
smiled at her and resisted the urge to yell at the top of his lungs just how very terrible his day had been. Instead he crossed to the sink where an ever present stack of clean cloths were stacked, dampened one under the tap and began the seemingly never ending labour of cleaning his son. “Fine.” He ignored Shea’s joyful crowing of his name dwindling into angry little splutters as he briskly scrubbed away slimy banana and some drool and asked, “What about you? Any problems?”
“So, detective,” said Kyle from behind the safety of the shop counter and ignoring Megan beside him praying for aid under her breath to the Lord God, Beyonce and the spirit of Versace. “What can we do for you? Again.” His jaw clenched. “So soon after your last visit.”
Shooting him an incredulous look from the corner of her eye
Megan hissed, “Way to be casual.”
Feeling his cheeks flush with colour when
Jonah grinned at Megan’s words Kyle gritted his teeth and said, “Have you found who did it?”
“Nah,”
Jonah sauntered away from the doorway and made his way over to Kyle and Megan, noting with interest the tensing of their bodies and the way they shifted defensively closer together. “Just got a couple more questions for you.” He leaned hipshot against the counter and folded his arms over his t-shirted chest, letting his eyes drift down Kyle’s body and then back up again to meet his eyes. “Didn’t quite cover everything yesterday.”
Kyle
’s jaw dropped and he looked slightly appalled – did Goldman just
check him out
? He glanced quickly at Megan and concluded grimly from her stunned expression that he probably had. He looked back at Jonah and recoiled marginally at the dangerous quirk to the detective’s full mouth. “I can’t think of anything else we could add.” His eyes skittered past Jonah to the door and then back again. “Isn’t your partner with you?”
Jonah
let his mouth stretch into a leer and shook his head slowly. “Nope.” He straightened from his lean and nodded his head back towards the office. “You wanna go through?”
“No!”
Kyle tried to move to block Jonah’s path and was quite distressed to realise that the lazy strut that seemed to be the detective’s default setting was actually quite speedy when he put his mind to it. He found himself skipping somewhat inelegantly after Jonah in the short hallway leading to the office and leaving Megan standing gaping after them like a particularly useless shop mannequin. “Really, its fine, we can talk out here. I’m sure....”
Jonah
ignored him, flung open the office door and strolled into the room. “Coffee’d be good.”
Giving up on trying to head him off,
Kyle put on a burst of speed and shot behind his desk, snapping, “I didn’t offer.” He glared when Jonah grinned at him and then dropped down into the chair facing his own across the desk. “Look, detective, I really am very busy as I’m sure you can appreciate.”
“Sure can.”
Jonah bared his teeth at him and nodded amiably in agreement. “So the sooner you tell me what I want to know the sooner you can get on with your day.” He stifled a bark of laughter at the furious look on Kyle’s face and the way his cheekbones flushed with colour when his gaze caught on the mysterious photo frame from the day before. His eyes narrowed for a moment before he relaxed back in his chair. “You had any more thoughts why you were targeted?”
Kyle
stared at him, lounging in the chair like some kind of lazy big cat, and said shortly, “No. Is that all?” He couldn’t stop his eyes from darting again to the picture of Shea facing him, filled with irrational panic that Goldman would look at it and just somehow
know
. His fingers itched to snatch it up and stuff it in his desk drawer in darkened safety. “None whatsoever.”
“Huh.”
Jonah nodded thoughtfully and leaned forward to lean his elbows on his knees and fix Kyle with an equally thoughtful stare. “Have to say that surprises me. You seemed kind of nervous yesterday.” He looked at the photo frame out of the corner of his eye and glanced back at Kyle to see him dart another worried look of his own at it. “You seem kind of nervous today too.”
“Yes, imagine that.”
Kyle crossed his arms over his own – woefully slender – chest and tipped up his chin. “I can’t think why that would be, what with having a brick thrown through my window yesterday and everything.” His voice dripped with disdain as he glared down his nose at Jonah. “I can see why you made detective.”
Jonah
looked taken aback at the attitude for a moment before giving a wide, blinding smile of sheer appreciation. “Something tells me that not much makes you nervous, Gerritsen.” He let his gaze drift slowly and with unmistakable heat down Kyle’s body and then back up again. “So the only thing I can think of is that I make you nervous. That what it is?”
Caught between a sudden flash of heat in his belly at the low drawl and an urge to slap the damn man’s face so hard he ended up wearing it on the back of his head,
Kyle narrowed his eyes and lied, “I can think a lot of emotions you conjure up, detective, but I can assure you that nervous is not one of them.” He deliberately let his gaze drift over Jonah in a mocking parody of the heated scrutiny he’d just been subjected too. “And just to be clear, rough trade really doesn’t do it for me. I’m a little more sophisticated in my tastes.” He drew himself up to his full height and nodded towards the door. “Now, if the only reason you’re here is to abuse your position as a city employee and make a frankly pitiful pass at me then you can leave. Unlike you I actually have to put in some work to earn my living.”
Jonah
’s eyebrows shot up so far they very nearly hit his shaved hairline. “That right?” He tilted his head and studied Kyle for a moment and then nodded to himself as though reaching a decision. “That told me, huh?” Flashing a wry grin he got to his feet and brushed the seat of his tight jeans off unnecessarily. “I’ll just head out then. Go find a donut shop or something to waste some time in.”
“You do that.”
Kyle refused to let himself appreciate the play of muscles under soft cotton when Jonah stretched lazily and kept the haughty, dismissive expression on his face hoping against hope that this was going to be the last he would see of the man. He couldn’t believe that the man who had contributed half his son’s genetic material was such a complete
skank
. What kind of person used his position of authority to hit on the victim of a crime? He was so busy fuming and trying to ignore the annoying flicker of attraction in his gut that he completely missed the sudden easy swoop of Jonah’s hand to pluck the photo frame off his desk. “What are you doing? Give that back!”
Jonah
ignored him and frowned in surprise when he found himself looking down at the picture of an infant rather than a picture of Kyle and some other guy as he had half been expecting. His pre-dawn musings had led him to the theory of a recent break-up, which then morphed into a bad break-up. That had turned into a crazed ex hell bent on a campaign of terror to force a stricken Kyle back into his abusive arms which would then – naturally – lead to Jonah storming to the rescue and having a grateful Kyle Gerritsen hurl himself into Jonah’s studly arms and offer up his inexplicably hot body so that Jonah could work off his puzzling attraction to him.
Jonah
had quietly resolved to start considering de-caff and maybe making more of an effort to get back to sleep after one of his episodes – they were obviously having a completely whacked out effect on his mind.
He glanced up at
Kyle with a curious expression and was startled by the pale, stricken look on the other man’s face. “It’s a baby.”
Kyle
opened his mouth soundlessly and then closed it again.
Completely at a loss as to why
Kyle was staring at him like he was expecting to be facing a firing squad at any moment, Jonah looked back at the picture and squinted doubtfully down at it. “Cute.” In truth the kid looked like a small, angry prune wrapped in white wool but Jonah had learned over the years not to share his opinions of other people’s kids after an unfortunate incident with an assistant ME that led to him being chased out of a mortuary and Jennifer Crawford swearing if he ever spoke to her again she would give him an up close and personal experience of an autopsy – whilst he was still breathing. “Got a name?”
Looking like he wanted to pass out,
Kyle stared helplessly at him and forced himself to croak, “Shea. His name is Shea.”
“Right.” Shrugging,
Jonah casually replaced the frame back on the desk and scowled when Kyle still stared at him like he was expecting imminent death. “Chill out, dude, I wasn’t going to do anything to it. It’s all good.” He frowned harder when Kyle remained frozen in place and said, “He your brother or something?”
“I...”
Kyle’s eyes flickered down to Shea’s picture and then back up to Jonah’s face. He really, really wanted to lie but couldn’t bring himself to deny his son not even in the midst of his almost overwhelming fright. He shook his head and squared his shoulders, praying his voice wouldn’t sound as shaky as he suspected it would. “He’s mine. My son.” He drew himself up further when Jonah’s eyebrows shot north again in surprise and repeated firmly, “Shea is my son.”
Feeling his jaw drop,
Jonah stared incredulously. “No shit?” He picked up the frame again, ignoring once again Kyle’s yip of protest, and looked at it more closely. “Doesn’t look much like you.” He glanced up at Kyle’s milk white face again and felt a stab of bewilderment at the wide eyed expression on the other man’s face. “You don’t seem....” He bit off ‘the type’ that wanted to trip off his tongue and finished awkwardly, “Old enough. You don’t look old enough to have a kid.” In fact, he thought privately, Kyle looked barely old enough to be out of high school let alone have his own obviously successful business and a child of his own.
Kyle
stared helplessly at him and then at the frame still held in his hand.
“Well, okay.” Keeping his eyes on the other man as he realised that
Kyle wasn’t going to answer him Jonah replaced the frame on the desk and nodded shortly. “I think I got all I need for now.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder and said, “I’ll see myself out.” He felt a stab of annoyance at the look of almost pathetic relief on Kyle’s face and told himself it was only that which made him add ominously, “I’ll be back.”
Kyle
waited until the door closed behind him before giving into the weakness in his legs, collapsing into his chair, and burying his face in his hands. “Oh my God. Oh my God, oh my God
, oh my God
.” He squeezed his eyes shut so tightly that spots sparked behind his lids as his body started to shake in reaction. “This is a nightmare.” He jumped when the door crashed open again and looked up as Megan dashed into the room, looking frantic and more than a little crazed herself. “This is a horrible, horrible nightmare.”
Megan
flung herself around the desk and then her arms around Kyle in a hard hug. “No kidding!” She squeezed him tighter and said, “What happened? What did he say? Does he know? Kyle, sweetie, what did he say?”
“No, he doesn’t know.”
Kyle shuddered and wrapped his arms around Megan waist as she whooshed out a breath of relief. He almost wailed into her ample cleavage, “He said he’d be back. Megan, he’s coming
back
.”
Megan
was an excellent friend. She had been Kyle’s main support and comfort for more years than either of them cared to remember and she loved him with a bone deep surety that was only matched by his love for her. Nonetheless even being the stalwart friend that she was she couldn’t stop herself saying after a horrified pause, “Can I say I told you so now?”
Kyle
spluttered with reluctant teary laughter, “You are so fired.”
~*~*~*
When he finally got home at just past six that evening, Kyle was seriously flagging and in need of several medicinal cocktails and a long hot soak in the bath. Unfortunately what he got was hit by a small, solid bundle of boy the moment he stepped through the door and the remnants of a half-eaten banana smushed into his Gucci pants. “Da!” Shea proclaimed triumphantly as he wrapped himself around one of Kyle’s legs and beamed up at him with a sticky face and a bite of banana in danger of slipping out of his smiling mouth. “Da, da, da!”
Kyle
froze, closed his eyes in momentary horror at the mess that had been made of his previously immaculate pants, and then opened his eyes again to smile down into Shea’s excited face. “Shea.” He bent down and scooped the little boy into his arms, pressing enthusiastic kisses all over his son’s giggling face. “Shea, Shea, Shea!” He laughed when Shea shrieked with joy and felt a little of the tension he had been carrying inside him ease as his son bounced in his embrace. “Missed you, baby. Have you been good today?”
Shea
shrieked again and threw the rest of his banana onto the hardwood floor in answer. Kyle looked down in time to see their black miniature poodle Lady Ga-Ga come shooting out from under the piano that stood in the corner of the large family area and snap up the dropped food. He sighed, gave her the stink eye – which she ignored as she started to sniff hopefully at the smears of fruit on his pants – and made for the kitchen at the back of the house where the tantalising smells of dinner were wafting into the air.
“Hey!” His housekeeper cum nanny,
Louise, looked up as he walked into the room with Shea still screaming ‘Da!’ at the top of his lungs and Ga-Ga trying to lick his trousers as he walked. “Thought I heard you pull up. Good day?”
Kyle
smiled at her and resisted the urge to yell at the top of his lungs just how very terrible his day had been. Instead he crossed to the sink where an ever present stack of clean cloths were stacked, dampened one under the tap and began the seemingly never ending labour of cleaning his son. “Fine.” He ignored Shea’s joyful crowing of his name dwindling into angry little splutters as he briskly scrubbed away slimy banana and some drool and asked, “What about you? Any problems?”
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