The Teddy Bear Club

by Sean Michael

  “Okay! A lot. I had a bunch of missteps.”

  “Maybe pizza making isn’t your thing?” Dev suggested. Or maybe Aiden was trying to make frou-frou flatbreads and pass them off as pizzas. “We all have our areas where we shine. Mine, for instance, is in ordering stuff to be delivered. Everyone is happier when I stay out of the kitchen. Unless, of course, I have help, and by help I mean someone else does most of it.”

  They all cracked up, Aiden leaning hard against him, and suddenly he wanted to cry. He was a part of something—a bunch of somethings. A family of friends. A couple. A son and two daughters. He had a place here.

  Now he needed to make sure he kept it, no matter what obstacles were thrown in his way.

  Chapter Fifteen

  HIS phone started ringing, and Aiden groaned. Jesus. Where was the damn thing?

  “Linds? Have you seen Daddy’s phone?” They were trying to fit everything in the house and… well, thank goodness neither baby was walking.

  It wasn’t even like Dev had all that much. At least that’s what he’d thought, but there was a big desk with a chair and a cabinet for the office downstairs. Dev’s huge TV and his gaming system, and all the games and controllers that went with that. Dev’s big easy chair, his clothing. All of Dylan’s stuff. The guest bed was still in with Dylan’s crib and they’d have to get rid of that. They couldn’t store it for later either, because all the possible storage space they had in the garage was used up now. At least Dev didn’t have a car.

  “Linds!”

  “I don’t have it, Daddy!” she shouted it from right behind him.

  He jumped, startled, and fell over an end table, damn near hitting his head on a box.

  “Daddy! Daddy D! Daddy D! Help! Daddy falled!”

  Dev came running, nearly tripping over Linds and actually tripping over Aiden’s legs as he tried to avoid Linds. “Fu—dgecicles!” At least Dev had landed on the couch. “Aiden? You fell? Are you okay?”

  “I think so. I’ve lost my phone somewhere and….” He sighed. “Can you help me up, please?”

  “Yeah, yeah. Sure.” Dev got up from the couch, rubbing his hip, then held a hand out to him, hauling him up. “I swear I threw out or am selling most of my stuff. How can there be so much here?”

  “We’re melding two families. It’s no big.”

  “You okay, Daddy?”

  “I am.” He held his arms open for his girl. “C’mere.”

  Linds climbed into his arms, snuggling close. “I want a story, Daddy.”

  Dev sighed and rubbed his hip again. “I’m going to go finish putting my clothes away.”

  “You okay, love?” He reached out for Dev.

  Dev shrugged. “Not really. I’m screwing up your whole household. I’m putting everyone in danger. I mean, what if she finds out where I am? What if she shows up on the doorstep with the cops and demands I give U up to her and they back her up?” Dev’s voice got increasingly shrill and upset the more he talked.

  “Daddy D?” Linds blinked over at Dev, and then about the time Aiden thought she would cry, Linds threw herself into Dev’s arms. “Oh, Daddy D! I loves you. Daddy will fix it. Daddy! Fix it. Now!”

  Dev looked shell-shocked for a minute, and then he held her tight and closed his eyes, breathing in deeply. “I love you too, Linds. And that makes everything a little bit better.”

  “And if the police show up, we call Logan. We are a family and we will find places for everything, and Zack is coming to help and Dylan is happy and healthy and growing like a weed.” And he still needed to find his goddamn phone.

  And Dylan started crying, the sound coming down the hall and echoing over the baby monitor, as if right on cue.

  “He’s probably hungry. And I know you’re right, but I can’t shake the feeling that Mother is going to try something.”

  “She can try, but you’re not alone in this. She is.”

  Dev shot him a look and gave him a genuine smile. A small one, but it was definitely honest. “Yeah. Hey, Linds, can you go to your daddy, please? I need to go get U and see if he needs changing or a bottle.”

  “I go pet him while you make him his bot.” Linds hurried off, blonde curls bouncing.

  “She takes her role as big sister very seriously.”

  “She does. She’s pretty amazing.” Dev gave him another genuine smile and then hugged him tight. “I’m sorry. I know I’m a mess. I’ll do better, I swear.”

  “Uh, you just moved.” He stopped for a second, then asked what he’d been worrying about. “You’re not regretting it, are you? Coming here? Me?”

  The look Dev shot him was genuinely shocked. “What? No! I love you and the kids and being here.” Dev frowned. “Are you regretting inviting me in?” The words shot out quickly, like Dev had been holding them in.

  “God no. This has been a dream come true. You, Dylan—we needed you both.”

  Dev hugged him tight and rested their foreheads together. “Okay. Okay. That’s good we still feel that way even when things aren’t going so great.”

  The sounds of Linds talking to Dylan came over the baby monitor, his cries fading.

  “She’s a good big sister, huh?” He was proud of her. She was going to be strong and caring, brave and fierce.

  “Yeah, she really is. She could have hated me and U moving into her home and becoming her family just like that, but she doesn’t. She loves us both. She’s special, all right.” Dev slid his arm around Aiden’s waist. “Come to the kitchen with me—I have to prep his bottle.”

  “Yes. I have to prep myself a Coke. You?”

  “I could totally have a Coke. I’ll do two bottles in case Bee wakes up. Well, for when she wakes up. I’m surprised she slept through U crying.” Dev held on to him all the way to the kitchen, all the way to the fridge, in fact, like he didn’t want to let go.

  “We need a break anyway. You think Linds would like grapes and crackers or cheese and apple?”

  “How about grapes and cheese? I could use some of that. I love the sharp cheddar with the sweetness of grapes.” Dev got out two bottles and the formula, along with the bottled water, working with ease. He might not be able to cook, but he put together a mean bottle of formula.

  “Sounds good. One milk, two Cokes, enough grapes and cheese for a hungry crew. Perfect.”

  Dev measured in the formula by eye, added the water, and sealed the bottles. Then he shook them hard. “It does sound perfect.” Smiling, Dev closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I feel better already. Not as good as I’m going to feel once I have the paperwork proving that I’m U’s daddy, but good enough.”

  “Well, that’s good. We needed a catastrophe and a snack.” And he still needed to find his phone.

  “That wasn’t too bad of a catastrophe,” Dev noted. “I think I can handle them if that’s how they’re going to be. Okay, I’ll go rescue U and tell Linds there’s snacks in the kitchen.” Dev leaned in and gave him a gentle kiss on the lips.

  “Holler if you see my phone, babe?”

  “You want me to call it?” Dev tested the bottle on his wrist and seemed satisfied with the results.

  “Please. In a minute.” He was cutting slices of cheese and washing grapes. Right now it would do no good.

  “’Kay, be right back.” Dev disappeared and a moment later, his voice joined Linds’s on the monitor. “Hey, you. Did you know that you’re a very good big sister? You take such good care of baby Dylan.”

  Dylan cooed and grunted, sounding excited at seeing his dad. It was no doubt the bottle that elicited the sounds.

  “I is good. Bee too? She’s watching.”

  “Is she awake in her crib? And yes, you take good care of her too. Shall we go get her for Daddy? If I can figure out how to carry both when one’s feeding….” Their voices faded.

  “I’ll be right there!” he called. The last thing they needed was another fall.

  “Okay, Daddy.” Dev’s voice came over the monitor. “Daddy’s making us grapes and cub
es of cheese for a snack. Are you hungry?”

  “Uh-huh. I is.”

  “Am.”

  “What?”

  Dev laughed. “You said ‘I is’—it’s ‘I am.’ And it’s also ‘thank you.’ Or ‘please.’ One or the other would have worked in this case.”

  “Okay, Daddy D.”

  Aiden chuckled softly as they came into the kitchen. “Come on, Linds. You and Daddy D can sit, and I’ll grab Miss Bee.”

  “Daddy!” She threw her arms around his waist and squeezed. “I helped make Dylan happy.”

  “She sure did.” Dev smiled at him, lines around his eyes eased for now as he held Dylan, feeding the baby his bottle.

  “You are the best big sister ever. I’m going to fetch your sister. Feed Daddy D some cheese.”

  “Okay, Daddy!” Linds climbed onto her chair and grabbed a piece of cheese, and Aiden made good his escape, headed for Bee’s room.

  She was awake but not upset yet, her big eyes taking everything in, and she lit right up when she saw him, gurgling and kicking.

  “Hey, chickadee. How’s it going? Should we change your butt and go have a snack with everybody else?”

  She grunted, her little arms stretched out to him. God, she could make the rest of the world disappear.

  He scooped her up, changed her diaper, and then wandered into the living room.

  “Daddy?”

  “Yes, Linds?”

  “I finded your phone for you.”

  “Oh, thank you. Where was it?”

  “On the table.” She pointed to the coffee table, which didn’t even have anything else on it at the moment aside from her snack bowl.

  Dev chuckled and nodded. “Talk about being hidden in plain sight.”

  “Yeah. Lord.” He sat, laughing as his hungry girl eyed Dylan with his bottle and started squealing, expressing her displeasure.

  Dev’s chuckles got louder. “She doesn’t think that’s fair. You’d better be quick with her bottle.”

  Yeah, it was a good thing Dev had made the second one up.

  “Your Daddy D decided to get Dylan before you,” he teased before pushing the nipple into her lips.

  Dev snorted. “That’s because the crying baby gets the bottle. Next time I’ll grab her and let you deal with whiny butt here.”

  “Whiny butt!” Linds started giggling, then settled, feeding her baby doll a grape.

  “Did you look and see who called?”

  Dev shook his head. “I turned my ringer off—I don’t want to talk to anyone. And Linds is the one who found your phone, so why would I look?”

  He could see the worry there, hiding in Dev’s eyes, and the tightness of his shoulders. He looked and it was Logan—a phone call, a voicemail, and two messages. He checked the messages first.

  Dev needs to call me ASAP.

  Dude. Found the sister. Got the paperwork signed. CALL ME.

  “Dev. Dev!”

  Dev looked up from feeding Dylan, entire body going tight as he watched. Dylan spat out the nipple and started crying, wailing, his daddy’s sudden distress translating right to him.

  “They found your sister. The paperwork’s signed, babe. It’s signed. You can adopt him. She signed her rights away.” He reached out, took Dylan with his other arm. “Linds, come help me.”

  Dev’s eyes got wet, and he blinked again and again. “Really? She did?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, yeah, she totally did. You need to call Logan and get to his office, get the paperwork started.”

  “She signed without even talking to me? Without wanting to see him again? Why wouldn’t she want to see him again?” Dev touched Dylan’s head, stroking his baby-fine hair so gently. “He’s mine. He’s really mine now.”

  “Don’t question, honey. She’s young, she’s scared, and she can’t handle it. Maybe this is her way of taking care of him.”

  Dev nodded. “It makes me sad for him, you know? He’s going to have so much love here, though. He’s got two daddies and two older sisters. Even if one is almost the same age as him. And lots of people who are ready to love him. I should call Logan, eh?” Dev smiled, though he looked more poleaxed than happy. It was clearly going to take a moment to sink in.

  “Yes. Call Logan before the man has a stroke. You know he’s called Zack too.”

  Dev grabbed his phone and winced. “There’s a lot of missed calls.” He stood and hit a few buttons, began pacing. “Logan! Hi! Yeah… yeah, sorry, we were unpacking and trying not to worry and stuff. Yeah. Aiden told me. That’s so great. So do I—yeah? She did? Oh wow, that’s great. You want me to come in now? Okay, good. Yeah, I can bring him. I’m sure he’d love to sign as the witness. We’ll be there soon. Thanks so much.” Dev disconnected the call.

  “Do I need to get Miss Linds into her shoes, honey?”

  “Yeah, yeah, you do. We need to do down and sign the paperwork. She didn’t only sign away her parental rights, she specifically signed them over to me. Apparently she was pretty adamant that I was the one to get him. She doesn’t want Mother anywhere near the baby. And I was right—that woman doesn’t even know his name. But yeah, you have to sign as the witness for the paperwork for me to formally adopt him. And change his name. And by end of day tonight, he’s legally mine.” Dev bounced from thing to thing, buzzing with it.

  He grinned and laughed. “Come on, Linds. Let’s go see Uncle Logan at work.”

  “Why?”

  “Because we have to change the baby’s name to Dylan and make him all ours.”

  “Dylan! Dylan! Dylan!” She got up and danced around.

  Dev laughed and scooped her up, twirling with her. “Yes!”

  “Our baby, Daddy D?”

  “Yeah. He’s ours. We need to go see Logan and sign some papers.” Dev looked over at him. “Maybe we can go out to supper to celebrate after. We can invite Logan and Zack and the girls?”

  “Zack’s girls are at their grandmother’s, honey. He’s coming over tonight to help. So is Logan. Let’s order in something wacky, maybe?”

  “Yeah, okay. What’s your definition of wacky?” Dev grabbed a diaper bag and threw everything out of it, then started repacking. “Come on, we have to go!”

  “Lindsay, please get your shoes before Daddy D strokes out.”

  Dev stopped. “I’m not going to stroke out.” He took a breath. “I’m just excited. We get this paperwork signed and she can’t get U. No matter what.”

  “I’m only teasing, love. Let’s do this thing.” He winked over at his lover. “You know, you’re going to have to start calling him Dylan now.”

  “You think? I kind of like U. It feels like who he is.” Dev had enough stuff for both babies in the diaper bag. “Anything else we need?”

  “The kids. My wallet. The keys.”

  Dev found his wallet and the keys, handed them over. “And we’ve got the kids.” Dev came over and grabbed Dylan from his arms as Linds came running back in, shoes on her feet.

  “I ready, Daddy! Can we have ice cream?”

  “You just had a snack!”

  Dev laughed. “Maybe for dessert after our wacky dinner. Which you never said what wacky consists of.” Dev led the way to the garage, practically vibrating.

  “Uh. Greek?” He’d ask Logan.

  “Greek? I don’t know, maybe the excitement has me all twisted up, but that doesn’t sound like wacky.”

  “Uh. Maybe we’ll have fried chicken and mashed potatoes. Wackiness disguised as blasé.”

  “I don’t even care what we eat, to be honest. I simply want to be with my family and celebrate, you know?” Dev put Dylan into one of the car seats.

  “I do.” Thank God. He’d look at his restaurant app at Logan’s office.

  They got the kids all buckled in, and Dev climbed into the passenger seat.

  “Let’s go get things all buttoned up.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  BACK at home after everything was signed, Dev sat on the couch, holding his boy. His. Boy. He smiled do
wn at Dylan. “Did you hear that? You’re all mine now. A hundred percent, and it doesn’t matter who thinks it shouldn’t be. Your mom wanted me to have you, and I do. For always.” God, Dylan was beautiful.

  “He’s a softie, man. You sure you’re going to keep him?”

  Dev was going to pop Logan in the nose, but at least Aiden answered immediately with a “yes!” He tore his attention away from Dylan long enough to stick his tongue out at Logan. When he turned back to Dylan, his boy had his tongue out too. Laughing, he stuck his tongue out again and once again, Dylan copied him.

  His son.

  Oh thank God. Hell, thank Aiden for giving him a family to share all this with.

  He stared at his son, his eyes prickling with tears. He tried to keep from letting them fall, from sniffing. He was being a wuss and he knew it, but his heart was overflowing between his new family and his boy.

  “Daddy D? Will you read me a story tonight? Please?” Linds was a little clingy tonight, a little worried.

  “Of course I will. Do you know what story you want?” He put his arm around her and tucked her into his side.

  “Ni-night Moon.” She kissed his cheek. “You’re Daddy D and you love Daddy and Dylan and me and Bee!”

  “I do. I love your Daddy and Dylan and Bee and you, my sweet bug.” He kissed her cheek in return. “And now we’re all one family. Are you happy, bug?”

  “I happy, Daddy D. I like to have family.”

  “Yeah, me too.” He looked over at Aiden and his lover caught his eye and smiled at him. He smiled right back. He really did have it all now.

  “You two are insufferable,” Logan teased, and Zack cracked up, applauding as best he could with coffee cups in his hands.

  “They are. Do you want these up with the other cups?”

  “Yeah, please. Everything that’s for storage is already out in the garage. All the rest is to be integrated as best we can. If there’s too much, I can cull a few more things. I guess.” Integrated. He was integrating with his new family.

  “We’ll work it out. I’m not worried.” Aiden was sweet, but Dev knew better.