Veronica’s kid?
Our kid.
Jesus, I had to stop thinking that way. She wasn’t looking for her forever guy, just a milkman delivery. And while I wanted to play her milkman, I wasn’t so sure I could walk away if she was carrying my kid.
Not just wanting to be in his or her life, but their mom’s. Their mom was my focus right now and the nebulous idea of a child was like a flash out of the corner of my eye. Just out of my eye line, but I knew something else was over there.
Something that could be amazing.
I shut it down as the kids pushed by me to check out the clubhouse area we’d set up. Their parents already had furniture from the original blueprints of the treehouse. We’d followed the plans and simplified some of it to get it done in a day.
I was pretty sure the kids wouldn’t care about the octagon windows and other fussy things on the original plans. They just wanted the big window to push open and talk down to their parents. They wanted the big cable spool we’d taken from another job and used as the table. They were more than happy with the boxes of games they could play.
It was the perfect hideout for a pair of boys.
I peered down to see the father looking up at us longingly. I tapped Gideon on the shoulder. “Want to let the dad up?”
“Oh, yeah. Hard to look away when they’re having so much fun. You were right about that big old spool. It made the perfect table.”
“And now we don’t have to look for a way to get rid of the beast.”
“Thanks to that pulley system you made up on the fly.”
I shrugged. “Will be perfect for their mom to send up food.” I laughed and flipped open the secret door, wrapped my foot in the rope, and lowered myself to the ground.
“Cool!” I heard from above me.
I waved up at them and turned to their mother. “Sorry about that. They’re probably going to want to do that.”
She waved me off. “Oh, that’s okay. I’ll make sure it’s Max and Taylor-proofed by tomorrow. I do love it though. I can send up food or homework.” She threw her arms around me. “You made them so happy. And my husband is thrilled.”
I patted her back. “Glad we could help. I’ll stop back tomorrow to do a few finishing things, but it’s pretty much all done.”
“I can’t believe you guys did all this.” She stepped back, her eyes shining in the limited light. “Thank goodness it’s a warm night. I think I’ll go find their sleeping bags and let the three of them sleep up there.”
“That sounds really nice, Mrs. Bridgers.”
“Thank you so much.”
“You’re very welcome.” I stretched my back out with a few exercises I used for working at my desk all day. Being a guy well over six feet, I had to do a lot of crouching to make a treehouse. I was sore, hungry, and beat.
The laughter from above was worth it though.
A squeak and a whimper dented the laughter. “Gideon?” I shouted up.
“Yeah?” He peeked out.
“Everything cool?”
“Yeah, can’t you hear them freaking out in here?”
“Yeah. I just thought I heard something else.” I looked around and when the sound came again, I headed deeper into the edges of the brush near the Bridgers’ property. The
closer I got to an overgrown lilac tree, the louder the sounds got.
Little distress-filled squeaks.
Crap, I hoped I wasn’t disturbing a wild animal den. A family of foxes wouldn’t be out of the realm in this area. There was just enough brush and trees to make a perfect home for them.