"No? Are you saying you don't kiss Super Manny, Officer Cakey?" Mindy was having too much fun with this.
"I am going to kick both your asses," growled Drake.
"Bad word!" shouted Christian.
Drake rolled his eyes. "When we get home."
Mindy started laughing, hard.
"Oh, I'm so glad you're home, Mindy. Things are so much more peaceful now…" Slayde couldn't help the tease.
"You are so lucky the kids are here and it's too hot for push-ups," she informed him.
Now it was Drake who cracked up.
"There's a cold front coming tomorrow," he pointed out. "Good thing we've got the ice cream for today."
"Ice cream!" Christian hooted, doing a wild Watusi dance.
"Lord." Drake shook his head and they got to the van. Thank God. It was air conditioned.
Mindy got Jenny buckled in, Drake got Maggie in, Christian buckled himself in, and Slayde got the van cooled off.
"Good thing the manny-mobile takes six comfortably," Drake noted as he climbed into the front passenger seat while Mindy settled in back with the kids.
"You're having way too much fun with this, man."
Drake grinned at him. "Payback."
"You get to help Christian with his chocolate sauce." He knew from payback.
"Oh, someone wants to sleep alone tonight."
They both chuckled, and he winked over. Right, like either one of them was going to sleep alone. "My door has a lock, though…"
"God, I love that lock."
They pulled out of the parking lot, heading back out toward the house. Slayde looked up into the rearview mirror, where Mindy was talking to Christian, Maggie holding her hand.
Christian was talking a mile a minute, Maggie gazing at her like she might disappear any second.
Everybody was home. Slayde smiled, and for a second, he thought he could hear Jerry laughing, right along with Christian.
He met Drake's eyes and knew this family was forever.
Epilogue
Drake couldn't believe how quickly the last six months had gone. It had, though, and Mindy was officially retired as of this afternoon.
"Don't you think you have enough snacks, baby?"
Slayde was in full on Super Nanny mode -- the house was spotless, the drinks were sitting in tubs of ice, the kids were clean and dressed, and there were eight thousand home-made, gluten-free snacks.
Joey laughed at his question. "Drake, honey, Slayde's motto is there are never too many snacks."
"Hush and chop radishes." Slayde looked exhausted, with hummus and cheese dip on his shirt.
Drake put his hands on his hips. "No. There's enough food. And if we run out someone will go get chips."
Trevor carried in a huge cake, putting it on the table. "You have to admit that's hot, Joey, when Cake gets all puffy like that."
He flipped the man off. He couldn't believe the fucking nickname had stuck.
"Totally hot. Let me see the cake."
"I am not cake," Drake growled and pointed to the actual cake on the table. "That is cake. And I am not puffy, I'm studly. So there." God knew he did enough pushups with the kids riding his back.
They all headed over to see the huge chocolate cake that was sectioned in to four parts. One had an American flag with "Congrats to our Hero". One section was decorated with a map of California and said, "Happy Moving Day." One had a rainbow logo with "Mannies, Inc."
Then in the bottom right corner there was just a heart and "Happy 1st Anniversary Cake and Slayde."
He was going to lose his shit. "You put me down as Cake on the damn cake?" He was never, ever going to lose the nickname. Never. If he didn't love Slayde so fucking much, he'd be actually upset about it and not just growly out of habit.
"I can't believe it's been a year. Damn." He looked over at Slayde, catching his lover's gaze. So they were fudging a little, there were another couple weeks until it was a year, but then they weren't actually moving for another three, either.
Slayde chuckled, shook his head, then started to laugh. "It's gone fast, huh? Zoomed by."
He put his arm around Slayde and took a kiss -- he loved the ones filled with laughter. Oh, who was he fucking kidding? He loved all of Slayde's kisses, even the sloppy, quickie kisses when the man was busy and distracted.
"Uncle Cake is kissing Uncle Slayde again! Oh, is that the cake?" Christian bounced in, wearing a Superman cape.
He ended the kiss and leaned their foreheads together. "We're just on occasional babysitting and playing uncles duty in California, right?" Not that he didn't love and adore the kids, but there were times he wanted to tear Slayde's clothes off and not have to worry that there might be little eyes watching.
"Our house is three blocks away, love. Our house."
He grinned. "Our house. That sounds good, doesn't it?" Shit, a year ago he was a lone wolf. He'd never imagined he could have a life like this, with a lover, a family. People who accepted him for who he was.
He should have come out fucking years ago.
Slayde nodded, then spun around, Super Nanny himself saving both a tray of cheese and Jenny, who was about to have it fall on her.
Maybe not. Maybe he'd been waiting for just the right man.
Or just the right manny.
End.
Mannies Incorporated Page 19