"Mommy always lets me have candy right after breakfast."
I stood just outside of the doorway so I could see them but they couldn't see me. Gavin was seated at the kitchen table and Carter had his back to him, loading things in the dishwasher.
"Right, candy after breakfast. And I'm Santa Claus," Carter muttered quietly.
"You're Santa Claus?!!" Gavin asked excitedly, standing up on his chair.
Carter whipped around to face him with a panicked look on his face.
"What? No. Well, technically... Wait, no. No, no, no. I am not Santa Claus. That was just a figure of speech," he explained.
"What's a finger of peach?"
"Shit!" Carter muttered.
Gavin pointed at him.
"Awwwwww, you said shit," he accused, making sure to whisper the bad word.
"So did you," Carter argued. "Don't tell your mother."
"Don't tell me what?" I asked, walking through the doorway with a smile.
Carter sighed. "You heard that didn't you?"
I walked up to Gavin and scooped him off of the chair and into my arms for a hug.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," I told him as I kissed both of Gavin's cheeks.
"How did you sleep last night, little man?"
He squeezed me as hard as he could until I had to pry his arms from around my neck so I could breathe.
"I slept good. But you crawled into my bed wif me last night and told me never to talk to kings with smiley faces," he told me.
Carter laughed while I groaned.
I gave Gavin one last squeeze and then set him down on his feet.
"Run into your room and find your shoes, okay? We're going to see Aunt Liz and Uncle Jim in a little bit."
He let out a cheer of excitement and ran out of the room.
I walked over to Carter and leaned my body into his while he lounged against the kitchen counter.
"You look good wearing my shirt," he said as he wrapped his arms around me.
I kissed his chin and looked up at him.
"I look even better wearing your tighty underoos," I said with a laugh as I reached back and lifted up a corner of his shirt so he could see.
He shook his head and sighed.
"I can't believe you found those. My boxers made me chafe at work so I thought I'd try…"
"Don't worry," I interrupted him. "I'll make sure everyone knows you wear big boy undies now."
I laughed and wrapped my arms around his neck. He bent down and gave me a sweet kiss, sucking my top lip into his mouth and making my toes curl.
“Where are my clothes?” I asked between kisses.
“Your shirt is in the garbage. You threw it there last night when we got here and you saw the blood all over it. You said you couldn’t possibly ever wear something again that reminded you of how you almost died in a horrific accident. I took your jeans from you before you did the same to them. They’re in the dryer right now.”
I shook my head and sighed while Carter tightened his hold on me and placed another kiss on my lips.
"Move in with me,” he said suddenly.
His lips stayed against mine and I opened my eyes so I could see him. He stared at me so intently there was no way I misheard him.
"I love you," he continued quickly. "I love Gavin. I love waking up to both of you in this house with me. I don't want to miss seeing him tie his shoes for the first time or write his name. I don't want to wake up in the morning and not see you drooling on the pillow next to me."
I laughed and smacked his arm, the conversation immediately turning lighter.
"Besides, I need a woman here to be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen making me chicken pot pies every night," he said with a smile.
"Well, then we've obviously never met if you want me to take on that role."
We stood there in the kitchen, wrapped in each other's arms with Carter’s junior jockey's creeping up my ass, and I realized I had never been happier.
"Yes," I told him.
His eyebrows went up and his face lit up with a huge smile.
"Yes? Really?" he asked. “I thought for sure I’d have to resort to bribery or extortion.”
I nodded my head and laughed. "Yes! We will move in with you so I can monitor the stupid shit you say and punch you in the kidney when you suggest I should be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen again."
A few hours later, Liz and I were just finishing our paperwork at her kitchen table. Jim and Carter were sitting at the table with us carrying on their own conversation while Gavin and Jim's eight-year-old little cousin Melissa played.
Gavin was currently in the living room watching a movie, but Melissa had been running through the kitchen at warp speed, yelling as loud as she could for the past fifteen minutes. Carter and I passed each other secret looks every so often about the conversation we had in the car on the way over here. We weren't going to discipline Gavin at all the entire time at their house. We would let Liz and Jim take over and see what they did. I had first hand experience on the type of care-givers they were since they were my best friends, so this was mostly for Carter’s benefit. I knew for a fact that Liz and Jim were wonderful with kids and Carter would be more than willing to assign them as Gavin’s back-up guardians after today.
Surprisingly, we wouldn't need to discipline Gavin anyway. He was being very well behaved. Melissa, on the other hand, reminded me yet again while some animals in the wild eat their young. She was a terror. After her twenty-seventh pass through the kitchen, waving her hands above her head and screaming, Liz finally had enough.