I woke to my son’s voice the next morning. He was shaking me into consciousness, which wasn’t hard since I was a relatively light sleeper. I broke from the haze of sleep and sat up. “What’s wrong, Mikey?”
“I made you breakfast,” he said proudly.
All traces of sleep left me, “You what?”
“I made breakfast,” he shrunk away when he saw the expression on my face, “Grandma taught me how to cook and I wanted to make something to thank you. I’m sorry.”
I shook off my aggravation and took a deep breath so I didn’t blow up at him. “It’s fine, Mikey, I just don’t want you using the stove all by yourself. How about next time, you wake me up then cook?”
He nodded, still visibly frightened.
I sighed then grabbed the sides of his head and kissed his forehead, “its fine, I’m not mad.”
He relaxed and leapt into my arms, snuggling into my neck. “I’m so glad this isn’t a dream. I actually have a dad.”
I chuckled and held him close, “Yes, you do. Now let’s go eat the breakfast my gracious son has made for us.”
He released me and led me to the kitchen where I found an omelet on the table. After glancing around, I realized that not only could he cook but he could even clean up after himself. Half of my grown ass friends didn’t even know how to clean up after themselves.
“You did a good job of cleaning up,” I commended him. I took a bite of the omelet, “And I revoke what I said earlier, you are in charge of the kitchen. I was be asking for your permission to step foot inside it.”
Michael giggled, “Grandma used to let me help her cook. Sometimes, she even let me cook on my own, like when Louis was watching me, she’d tell me to cook for the two of us.”
I stopped eating to ask curiously, “Did Louis watch you a lot?”
Michael nodded, “He used to live with us. He moved out when I was six but he came around a lot to check on us.”
“Why did he live with you?”
Michael thought about it then shrugged, “I don’t know. No one ever told me.”
I nodded understandingly. How very like adults to leave the kid out of the loop. “What do you want to do today? We could go to the arcade or something.”
He brightened immediately, “Really? I’ve never been to an arcade before. We should invite Louis to come to.”
I shrugged. He said he was coming over anyway so it shouldn’t have been a huge inconvenience from him. “Sure but I don’t have his number so I can’t call him and ask.”
Before I knew it, Michael had whipped out a phone and was talking to Louis animatedly. “Hi, Louis, me and daddy are going to the arcade. Do you want to come?” He paused, “No, daddy said it was fine.”
I chuckled. He seemed to really like calling me ‘daddy.’ It was flying out his mouth left and right as he told Louis about our morning. Not once did he slip up and call me ‘dad.’ I was even tempted to have him call me Franco just to see how much that would upset him.
Michael hung up and informed me with a huge grin, “He said he’d be here around three.”
I nodded, “Do you have the keys to your grandma’s house? We can go around there and pick up some of your things before he gets here. I’m pretty sure you need a change of clothes.”
He looked down at his outfit and smiled bashfully, “I guess I do. I have keys and I know how to get there. I can show you the way.”
YOU ARE READING
Treasure Box
Romance(Spin off of Not so Bad, Just Violent) Franco was twenty-six and single. Not single by choice, single because he always managed to screw up his relationships in one way or another. Then he became single with a nine year old kid. And with the nine ye...
