His Little Sunshine by Della Cain

Chapter Fourteen

Quinn

I don’t know what surprised me more, Declan and Holden inviting us to Collared or Brad wanting to go. It was a huge step, even if that step was only into the wading pool. That, paired with the shirt, told me he was accepting this was a side of himself he wanted to explore and not just something flitting around in his brain.

No, that wasn’t fair. Things didn’t flit around in his head. He just had too many things racing around in there at once. Declan had mentioned that Brad could keep track of everything for work all at once. Brad didn’t seem to realize keeping that up all day for work made his downtime more challenging to manage because that kind of focus wore him down.

When he fell into little space for the first time, it was going to be a game changer for him.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” I held his hand tightly as we stepped outside into the cool night air.

“It’s just dinner.” He leaned into my side.

He was still in the afterglow of shower frotting, which was in the afterglow of me sucking him until he cried out my name. We had made excellent use of our limited time, if you asked me.

“And besides, it will be good for me to see how it is with people, since I need to be there for the event.” The adoption event. Ryder had been “adopted” at one of them and tried to get me to go to last year’s.

But I hadn’t been looking for a little or to date, especially someone from the city. Or maybe I’d already set my eyes on Brad and hadn’t fully accepted it yet. It was the latter. Who was I kidding? I’d been drawn to him from the day we met. How could I not be? He was sweet and funny and adorable and talented and caring.

“I was invited,” I told him. Marion had sent me an invitation, no doubt because Holden asked her to.

“Oh. Okay.” It took me a second to figure out the left turn his thought process had taken.

“I mean, I was invited to the event by Marion. Not that I have a date. I was hoping you would give me that honor.”

He pushed up on tiptoe and kissed my cheek. “I’d like that.” He kissed me again. “Sorry I jumped to… We never said we wouldn’t, but we never said we would, and…”

“Oh, Sunshine.” I dropped his hand to pull him into an embrace. “I’m a one-man man.”

“And what about when you’re the daddy?” He whispered so softly, I had to strain to hear. “Because I read sometimes it’s not like that, and I know you aren’t mine or anything, but will you be someone else’s?”

“When you’re ready for one, I’ll be the first to apply,” I promised.

“And if I never am?”

“Then I won’t need to fill out any paperwork, will I?”

Holden pulled up to the curb.

I lifted a hand from Brad’s back and waved. “Our ride’s here.”

He stood upright. He didn’t seem to mind in the slightest that we were hugging earlier in front of all the world, but he got embarrassed in front of our friends. I knew that was rooted in his family. He hadn’t told me much about them, but what he did had my blood boiling. He deserved so much better than them.

“If it’s too muc—”

“Then we’ll take a rideshare home. Just ask me about my elephant, and I’ll know.” He would be surrounded by friends, but sometimes it was nice to have an escape plan nonetheless.

We got in the back seat of the car and listened as Declan and Holden regaled us with the tale of mixed-up dates and traffic jams. Neither of them said a word about driving up on us being all coupley. Which was good. Brad was nervous enough about this step without being embarrassed on top of it.

We found a parking lot fairly easy. Collared tended to get busy later on, but we were on the cusp of that “late” part of things.

Once inside, we left our phones and updated my license in the database pretty quickly.

“This is quite crowded,” Brad noted. I didn’t correct him. This was really chill for a Friday night. But, even if it became packed, the area we were going to be eating in would not. There could be no more people than there were chairs to seat them, and with the ambience they were going for, those tables were not close to congested.

“It’s Friday,” Declan said.

We were seated at a corner table, one of the most private they had, and I offered Brad the corner seat. I thought about the old movie where they said something about not putting someone in the corner. Brad wouldn’t see it that way. It gave him the opportunity to not have things behind him calling his attention.

I’d read up on attentional issues related to intelligence, and boy was that a rabbit hole. A rabbit hole that had me less of a fan of his parents than I’d been before. I was one of those kids who grew up thinking it was the really smart kids who got all the As, and there was some truth to that. But it was “school-smart kids who did well,” which wasn’t always the same as “IQ smart” as one of the articles called it.

There were so many little things they could have done to help him feel accepted and loved instead of a failure for being the amazing person he was. They just sucked. Full stop.

I sat beside him and across from my cousin.

The server took our drink orders and told us the specials. Unlike at Diner Time, I listened to them, which was good because some of them took fancy things I didn’t want to eat to a whole new level.

“The menu’s fun,” Declan said with a knowing smile as we picked them up.

He was not wrong.

They had fancy things, typical steakhouse fare, and two whole pages devoted to adult “kid’s meals.”

“I’m having steak.” Holden set his menu down, his announcement shocking no one. “How about you, love?”

“I’m thinking about possibly a steak as well,” I sassed back. Declan chuckled at my antics, Brad just watching in amusement.

“I’m going to have a Little T-rex.” Declan set his menu down. It was basically steak, but unlike the adult steak and chicken meals, it came on an adorable plate, and you had the option to have it pre-cut or not. “Cut.”

I’d seen Holden cut up his boy’s food before. He loved that role. Declan made that choice not for himself but for Brad. To give him permission, as it were, to order it himself. Being here was a huge step. He didn’t need to be pushed.

I settled my hand on his knee, seeking to give him comfort.

“Are you thinking about one of the specials?” I asked.

“I was leaning toward the mushroom ravioli.” He rubbed his nose. “But also, the crab cakes sound delicious.”

“We can do a half portion of each.” The server startled me. I hadn’t even noticed her return.

“Then I would like that, please.” He handed her his menu, and she went around the table taking our orders.

We had a great time. The food was magnificent and, while we were at Collared, it was far enough removed that Brad relaxed in the space, and it was just four friends eating together. Sure, one of us had ordered a kid’s meal, but other than that, it looked like every other double date there was.

Eventually, as was the way of things, we had to move on to allow for another gathering to enjoy their meals.

“Thanks for the invite.” Brad held onto me. I loved it. “I…it’s nice seeing it not empty.”

“We were thinking of hanging out for a bit. You’re welcome to come with us or to take my car,” Holden told us. Two positive outcome solutions. My cousin was always Daddy even when it wasn’t in his daddy/boy dynamic.

“Elephants are cool. Don’t you think, Quinn?”

I was officially beaming with pride. He let me know with clarity what he needed, not skipping a beat.

“They are. I just saw a documentary on them. Let’s take a rideshare back to your place, and I can show it to you.”

“Sure you don’t want my car?” Holden didn’t even like driving that thing. He had it for Declan’s comfort. Both of us preferred our trucks, even in the city.

“We can’t cuddle while I’m driving.” I made a face at my cousin. “Call me when you have details on departure times and all of that.”

He promised he would, and they walked us out citing the need to grab something from the car. That something was Declan’s little bag. Much more of this evening had been planned than I had realized. Heck. I wasn’t even sure if the ticket story was fiction or not at that point. Not that it mattered. Brad had had a great night, and that was all I cared about.

“I’ll call us a ride.” I took out my phone and opened the app. “Did you want to go straight home, or were you wanting to do something else tonight?”

“The only thing I want to do tonight is you.”

And that answered that.