Crazy Love (mxm)

Chapter Five

Carter's POV

I woke up in bed alone, which was typical. What wasn't typical was the smell of pancakes and the sound of my son chattering away.

I launched myself out of bed and stumbled into the kitchen. I was fully prepared to either kick the shit out of my intruder, or give my mother another lecture about boundaries.

I stopped short when I saw who it was.

James Folan, dressed in my sweatpants and nothing else, was standing over a griddle. "Look, it makes a Mickey Mouse."

My first thought was: holy shit, that's an amazing body.

Then I regained my sanity.

Ronan was next to James, standing on a chair to watch him cook. His black hair was a little too long, growing over his ears, and he was wearing his dinosaur pjs. Ronan audibly gasped after James poured the pancake, bouncing on the tip of his toes. "Whoa!"

"And voila!" James flipped the pancake and Ronan jumped even more.

"Make Do-Duck?" Ronan whispered excitedly.

James paused, probably confused. "Donald Duck?" he asked, and Ronan nodded excitedly. "Well, that one might be a little confusing, little man. Here, how about you finish Mickey and I'll make you Donald after?"

"Otay." Ronan held his hands up and James picked him up.

"Oh." James turned and saw me standing there. "Morning, hotness. It's already 11."

I was in the twilight zone.

Ronan's face lit up. "Daddy!" James put him down and he hustled over to me. "Game make paycake! He—he did Mick Mow!"

James raised his eyebrows. "What did any of that mean?"

I rolled my eyes at James and picked Ronan up. "That's awesome, Roney Baloney." He laughed at the nickname and I smothered his face in kisses. "Eat your Mickey Mouse pancake, okay?"

I plopped my baby down and James gave him the special pancake. I grabbed syrup and cut up his pancake into small bites for him.

"I'll make you one too, sexy," James chirped. I glared as he went ahead and put a few more pancakes onto the griddle. "Chocolate chips for a guy as sweet as sugar?"

"Seriously?" I growled. "Ronan does not need to hear that word."

"Ehxy!" Ronan giggled. I poked his stomach.

"Sorry, babe." James started screwing around with the batter, drizzling it in random directions. "We have one Donald Duck coming right up, little man."

I smiled, hated myself for smiling, and tried to frown before James looked back at me. James came over with another plate of pancakes, gave me and himself one, and showed a weird one with a ton of blobs to Ronan.

Ronan wrinkled his nose. "No Do-Duck."

James scoffed. "Excuse me!" he said with enough gusto to make Ronan giggle. "It is Donald Duck. Listen— you can hear him talk." He held the plate close to Ronan and made a garbled Donald Duck quack.

Ronan burst into laugher. "Nooo."

"Yes!" James did it again and Ronan laughed.

Was James trying to be super hot? Because it was absolutely working. I bit my lip and tried to pretend like the shirtless guy entertaining my kid wasn't super attractive.

He ended up sitting down to eat pancakes with us, so it kind of felt like a little family breakfast. Except with a stranger. Who I'd tried to have sex with. What was wrong with me?

"Biwwy Bee, Daddy?" Ronan asked around a mouthful of pancake, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I hummed. "I guess we can go to Billy Bees today." Ronan tossed his arms up and screamed in delight. "We'll have to say goodbye to our new friend James first, though, won't we?"

James looked pissy.

"Bye Game!" Ronan waved.

James clapped and grinned at Ronan. "I know! Maybe James can come too! Wanna ask Daddy if I can come?"

Ronan smiled and pointed at James. "He come, Daddy?"

James folded his hands together and made puppy-dog eyes.

"I don't know why James wants to come to Billy Bees with us, Ronan."

Ronan was completely lost at this point and started picking up pancake pieces with his own hands.

"Well," James said. "James wants to get to know sexy Carter and sexy Carter's cute little nugget of a kid."

Ronan was a cute little nugget.

I wanted to pretend that I had no interest in James whatsoever, but I couldn't deny that we had a bit of chemistry. But it wasn't fair to Ronan to bring someone into his life who was unreliable and likely to leave.

"I have a son," I stressed. "If I—When I ever find guys interesting, they don't get to meet him. Until like four months in."

James propped his head onto his chin and grinned. "Go ahead and keep spewing bullshit, sexy. Your friends told me that you haven't ever had a real boyfriend."

They were such assholes.

"Don't swear in front of my kid," I said, ignoring James' sentence. "That kind of stuff just shows that you aren't the kind of influence my son should have around. Plus, if you're really just here to get laid, I don't want Ronan getting attached."

Ronan looked up and held a blob of pancake out to me, eyes inquiring.

"I have my own, but thanks peanut," I said. Ronan nodded and resumed shoving pancake back into his mouth.

When I looked back up, James was looking at me with an expression I couldn't decipher. All I knew was that those handsome brown eyes were narrowed in on me. "I'm not just here to get laid," he snapped.

I raised my eyebrows. "Oh really? That's not what you were saying last night."

James grimaced. "I'm an idiot sometimes. I mean don't get me wrong, I want to get laid. You're..." his eyes roamed my body and he made an obnoxious groaning noise. "Yeah, I wouldn't hate that."

Ronan offered James a fistful of pancake and syrup. "Hap paycake?"

James blinked. "Little man, you're gonna have to start enunciating."

I guided Ronan's hand back to his plate. "He's full. Thank you anyway, Ronan."

"I'm coming," James decided, setting his shoulders and everything. "We're gonna hang out with your kid and then I'll leave, because I am not here to get laid, Carter."

My heart beat a little faster, because I was a glutton for crazy decisions. He shouldn't have made me react that way, especially when his words really weren't all that romantic.

But bad boy James with his apparent cocaine hobby and weirdly charming glasses had my attention. Against all better judgment, I gritted my teeth and nodded. "Fine. But only one hour of play time, then you leave."

James' smile wasn't quite infectious — I had more self-control than that — but it made my heart beat quicker all the same.