“Yes, then everyone will know you are my dad.”
“You are not worried they will not know Emma is your mom?” Kon asked, like the words were drawn from him.
“No. She’s always been my mom. She tells everybody.” Mickey frowned. “But some people won’t know she’s yours too. She has to stay with us, Dad, in our place.”
Emma knew it! Mickey already had her married, even if the wedding hadn’t taken place yet, much less her agreement to it.
“I do not belong to your dad,” Emma told her son, but the words felt like a lie.
Instead of getting upset that she’d disagreed, Mickey rolled his eyes. “You’re my mom.”
“Yes.”
“He’s my dad.”
“Yes.”
“You belong to each other because of me.”
“Mickey, you know some parents are not together.” He’d known the Jensens, seen the parents separate and divorce. More than that, he’d had friends in his preschool that came from unconventional families where the mom and dad had never even been a couple.
Mickey shrugged. “You and Dad are together. You kissed. Everybody saw you.”
She knew that would come back to bite her. Only she couldn’t regret that Kon had shown her affection in that moment. It had felt so spontaneous, so right.
“Yes, we kissed, but we aren’t engaged, or anything.”
“Mom, I think you need to figure out your feels.”
Oh, man. He was so right. Emma needed to figure out her feelings for sure, but right now she still had to deal with Mickey’s need for her to stay in Kon’s apartment with him and his father.
Kon’s stifled snicker said he agreed with their son.
She gave her Prince a pointed glare. “I agree, Mickey. I do need to figure out my emotions and having my own space will help me do that.”
“You can have my bedroom in Dad’s apartment.”
“Why give up your bedroom when I have a perfectly good suite across the hall?”
“Because we’re a family,” Mickey replied stubbornly.
“I hear you, Mickey, and I care very much that you feel secure in our new environment—”
“She talks like this when she’s going to say no,” Mickey told his father, interrupting her. “Don’t say no, Mom. I don’t wanna be scared.”
“Scared, why scared?” Kon asked.
“I don’t know.” Mickey’s eyes filled with tears. “I just know I want you and Mom both safe in our place.”
“The whole palace is safe, I promise you,” Kon said, his tone filled with reassuring calm.
“Please, Mom. Please,” Mickey said, clearly unable to express why he needed this so badly.
Emma hugged her son tight. “Listen, Mickey, I don’t understand why this is so important to you. I don’t think you understand it either, but what I do know is that you’ve had a lot of changes in a short amount of time. And maybe that has you feeling insecure. I’ll sleep on Kon’s couch if that will make you feel better.”
She wasn’t a prima donna who needed her own suite of rooms.
“I will have an extra bed brought into my room, there is plenty of space,” Kon said, all autocratic prince.