Page 10 of My Addiction
The second Mom steps up beside them, Ollie reaches for her, too. Dad passes him over without hesitation, and Ollie immediately grabs her face the same way he did Dad’s, babbling away like he’s telling her something important. Mom’s laugh catches in her throat. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her smile this big. She looks lit from the inside out, holding Ollie against her chest like he belongs there.
And when I glance over at Colton, he’s smiling too. A real smile. Soft, surprised, and a little overwhelmed. Something warm settles low in my chest at the sight of it.
“He’s never like this with anyone,” Colton says quietly. “It must be something about your family.”
“Hold that thought until he meets my three brothers.”
“Wow, that’s a big family. Are you close?”
“ Yes. We also have a cousin and his fiancé, Xavier.” I watch for any change in his expression when I mention Xavier. There is no negative reaction from him. He only smiles. Fucking dimples. I shove my hands into my pockets before I do something stupid, like reach out and trace one with my thumb.
“Colton, when Ronan said you were bringing the baby in today, I had some things brought in for him. I wanted you to be able to concentrate on Ronan. I have it all set up right down the hall in the conference room. If you would allow Kieran and me, we would love to watch him while you two discuss things.”
“I’m really not sure that is a good idea. He’s not used to being away from me. He’ll probably scream his head off. It’s the main reason I work remotely and freelance.”
“How about we try? Come with me, and I will show you where we will be, and let’s see how he does. Ronan, please bring the diaper bag.”
“The what?” I ask.
“The diaper bag,” Mom says. “The one with the dinosaurs on it.”
Of course, it’s a diaper bag. I glance between the two bags again. His messenger bag is old and worn at the edges, the kind of thing that’s probably been used for years. Maybe secondhand. But Ollie’s bag is new. So are his clothes. Ollie’s outfit fits perfectly, right down to the tiny shoes on his feet.
Colton’s button-down and slacks look nice enough, but they’re a little too big on him, like they weren’t bought with him in mind. I think about the day at the center, how he only picked outclothes for Ollie and never once looked at anything for himself. His priority is always the baby. Always Ollie. And I can’t stop wondering if anyone has ever made Colton a priority.
We follow my parents out of my office and a couple of doors down. When Dad opens the door, Colton stops so abruptly that I walk right into him. I catch him around the waist before either of us can stumble. The second I pull him back against my chest, everything inside me goes quiet. The constant noise in my head fades. Something deep inside me settles with a strange sense of certainty. This is where he belongs.
I lower my head just enough to breathe him in, catching the clean scent of his hair and the warmer smell underneath that is just him. It does dangerous things to me. I force myself to let him go before I forget where we are.
When I finally look past him into the room, I understand why he stopped. Mom completely transformed it.
The conference table and chairs are gone, replaced with shelves of toys, a crib against one wall, and a padded changing table beside it. Stuffed animals are piled high in one corner. A racetrack rug covers the middle of the floor, and little cars are already lined up at the starting line. There’s even a ball pit.
Ollie lets out that excited squeal again and wiggles until Mom puts him down. He tears across the room in a blur, bouncing from one thing to the next so fast I can barely keep up with him. Then he runs back to Dad, grabs his pant leg, and points at the ball pit.
Dad picks him up and lowers him into it. Ollie’s laugh fills the room. And somehow, impossibly, I don’t find the sound annoying at all.
“This is insane,” Colton whispers.
He turns slowly, taking in everything in the room, his mouth parted just a little in shock.
It’s excessive. But then, everything Mom does is excessive.
“No,” I mutter. “This is my mom.”
“She did all of this because you told her I was coming in for a job and bringing a baby?”
“Yep.”
There’s more to it than that. A lot more. But I’m not ready to explain that to him yet. Not when I’m still trying to figure out how to explain it to myself.
“I think he’ll be fine here,” I say instead. “Plus, you really don’t want to disappoint Alessia Murphy.” He glances over at me.
“Dad doesn’t like that.”
For a second, he just stares. Then he laughs. The sound hits me like a drug straight to the bloodstream. I would do just about anything to hear it again.
Chapter 5
