Loving Logan - Sammi Cee Page 0,36

encouraged me from our first session to talk about J.J. and Haley and keep their memory alive for Jakey. Since my first meltdown with Creed, I’d sprinkled in stories as we went through our nights, but it had still been more of a purge of my feeling of loss.

Here, with this easy acceptance, sitting with my new man while my nephew colored peacefully, I found myself sharing stories of growing up with J.J., adventures that we’d gotten up to with Haley, and even more about Jakey’s early years. They took turns peppering me with questions and rotating who sat next to Jakey, and when he got sleepy—since we definitely didn’t leave by nap time—I swallowed back tears of joy as he scrambled down from his chair and lifted his arms for Creed to hold him. He nestled into the man’s lap and promptly fell asleep. Not even his brother teased him when he got misty-eyed. In fact, I think we all blinked back moisture.

As the day wore on, they convinced us to stay for dinner. Through the afternoon Conrad told me embarrassing stories from Creed’s childhood, Shane countered it with how lucky he’d been to have him for a best friend and told me about their school days, and then Davis stared adoringly at the other two as he shared the story of how the three of them ended up together. They were clearly besotted and absolutely perfect for each other.

Davis eventually went into the kitchen to begin prepping dinner, and Shane and Conrad took Jakey outside to show him the backyard. Creed held my hand between his, and asked, “Are you having a good time, baby?”

I rested my forehead against his and answered honestly. “I was so nervous. I thought today would be the day that you figured out that being with me wasn’t going to work for you. Maybe they’d decide to do something this afternoon, and because we have a toddler with us, you wouldn’t be able to go, or maybe your brothers weren’t going to approve of you getting a family in one shot, but…”

Creed laughed, his lemony breath washing over me. “If your mom didn’t scare me off when I first met her, then there isn’t anything that could chase me away.”

True. “Your brothers really are great.”

“You're great,” he said, then he kissed me. While we took a few minutes alone, kissing and hugging, I marveled at how much my life had changed in a month. With Creed’s presence, I’d begun to truly grieve for the two most important people in my life, and with that came the healing I’d desperately needed. Jakey had always been a smart little boy, and it was becoming more obvious that even though I tried to hide it, my grief had been keeping him stuck, too. Life wouldn’t ever be the same, but maybe it’d be better than I’d imagined.

We broke from a particularly passionate kiss when Shane stomped in yelling, “Davis, Conrad cheated! He bought bubbles and didn’t tell me.”

Creed laughed against my lips. “Welcome to our circus.”

Chapter Twelve

Creed

After eight weeks together, Logan and I had developed a nice little routine. I only spent the night on either Friday or Saturday because I still didn’t want Jakey to ever feel like I was intruding on their space. Other than that, I had dinner with them several nights a week, and as long as work permitted, I visited Logan for lunch each day. Vonda teased me all the time that since I spent so much time there, and with my outgoing personality, if I wanted a job, she’d put me on the schedule. I hadn’t admitted it to anyone but Shane, but I thought it was probably a good thing that we had to be mindful of Jakey’s needs or I probably would’ve suffocated Logan with clinginess. I’d gone from a guy who could barely make it dating the same woman for longer than a week, to wanting to see this man every minute of every day.

And then there was Jakey. He may have been Logan’s everything, but my world was starting to rotate around the little boy as well. His somber eyes or his appropriately placed giggles showed his quick wit; he didn’t need words. With only one more week until he turned three, I was pretty positive that he was the smartest kid alive.

We now had it down on the nights I went over that we’d leave the dishes for later and hang out in the living