The thought makes me smile as Nicole slides some photos out of a folder she has on the bar. There’re pictures of the little boy that my Kayden had. Chains is holding him and even I can see he’s wrapped up in the little boy.
“Doesn’t seem that long ago we were holding Dom, does it Mama?” I ask, looking down at the little miracle in the photo.
“Time moved fast,” she admits. “But it has been good, hasn’t it, Dragon?” she says softly.
“The best, Mama. The abso-fucking-lute best,” I admit and then I take her in my arms and kiss her, unable to stop.
“You t-two are st-starting early,” Thomas says, interrupting his old man—damn it.
I turn to see him coming out, an arm around Lyla. They’re fully dressed and I didn’t miss the overnight bag packed by the door earlier. Nicole might not be happy when she finds that out. I’m going to have to smooth things over with Lyla’s old man soon. Shit, I hope he doesn’t get on my nerves. Maybe Thomas will take pity on his old man and visit us enough that I won’t have to drag my ass to Virginia much.
“You always did like cock blocking me,” I grumble, laughing when I hear Nicole’s horrified gasp. I’ll be paying for that later. She swats me hard across the stomach as Lyla and Thomas laugh and I wink down at her.
“Dragon. We’re trying to make a good impression for Lyla,” she chastises.
Lyla giggles. “You raised Thomas. You can’t make a better one than that,” she says, proving she might be giving my son the same sweetness his mother gives me. There’s not much more a man can ask for his kids. That’s for damn sure.
Nicole looks up, stunned for a minute and I don’t know if the kids see it, but I do. There are tears glowing in her pretty blue eyes. Lyla has no idea how happy she made Nicole with that comment, but I do. Shit. I’m going to have to play nice with her father.
The shit I put up with to make my family happy. Fucking hell…
“Where’s Dom?” Thomas asks.
“He had to head to the club this morning. There was some shit he had to handle.”
“I was hoping to say goodbye to him. We had a kind of tense meeting,” Lyla says, her pretty cheeks blushing.
“My boys can be a lot like their old man,” I warn her. “You’ll catch up with him later. Did you see my namesake’s first pictures? I think the boy has my smile.” I hold out the photo of Kayden’s little boy to Lyla.
“Aww, look, Thomas. He’s even prettier on film than he was in person,” she croons.
“You should have held him last night. He’s beautiful close up,” Nicole brags, joining in. “He’s going to be a heartbreaker, I think.”
“It had been a long trip and I really needed a shower,” Lyla says, her cheeks deepening with color.
Her gaze travels up to Thomas’s and I see my boy smirk, his eyes sparkling in a way that reminds me of when he was a kid at Christmas. As if he feels his old man’s eyes on him, he looks up. I can see the laughter on his face. I take it in. Fuck, it feels good. I have been so worried that Thomas wouldn’t have this. I worried that something in my blood passed this thing with his speech on to him. I had a similar issue when I was young, but it went away. Every single time I looked at Thomas, the guilt would carve at me. It was my fault, my blood making my boy struggle hard to carve out the good in this shit world. Seeing him now like this….
Motherfucker, I thought I used up all my good when I got Nicole and the kids. Seems like the love Nicole continues to give me keeps bringing more and more miracles. I’m not a big believer. I have blood on my hands, so I figure there’s no hope for me. Still, it seems someone up there is looking out and I’m damn grateful.
“He’s a chip off the old block,” I join in, taking the picture when Lyla hands it back.
“Let’s hope not. You were horrible when we first met,” Nicole mutters.
“Say what?”
“Oh, come on, I was pumping gas—”
“Barefoot. I remember, Mama. There’s nothing I don’t remember about that day.”
“Apparently you forgot the part where you also checked out Dani,” she grumbles. “My grandson is not going to be fast and wild with his women. He’ll be like his daddy,” she says, grinning at Lyla.
I put the picture down and take Nicole in my arms. “Do you remember how I didn’t look at another woman after I kissed your lips, Mama? How you broke my damn dick so it wouldn’t work unless I was near you?”