really. They’re just so…perfect. By all accounts, they’re first-class
dads.” I sighed heavily. “They’re everything I’m not.”
“Hey,” Charlie snapped. “Don’t go doing that to yourself. You are an amazing dad.”
“I’m trying, but I wasn’t.”
“Ignore the past. What counts is the now.”
I smiled weakly. If only that were true, but Charlie knew as well as I did that the actions of our pasts loved to
haunt us.
“I think you’re a fantastic dad,” Charlie whispered. “And you’re an even more wonderful granddad.”
I sniffed. “Thanks for believing in me despite my flaws.”
“You put up with me and mine.”
“It’s not so hard dealing with a divo.”
“Jerk,” Charlie said in an affectionate tone. “I’m sorry. I’m fading here.”
“I’ll say goodbye.” I didn’t want to. I’d have happily talked to him all night, but he needed to sleep.
“Uh-uh. You promised to sing to me.”
I laughed. “That’s not how I remember the conversation going.”
“Yes, you did.”
If he’d been there, I’d have tapped his nose playfully for being mischievous. But he wasn’t, so I had to content
myself with chuckling at his silliness. I started to sing but only got a couple of lines in before he interrupted me.
“I don’t know that song.”
“It’s just something I’ve been messing around with.”
He gasped. “You’re writing me a song?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“No, but it’s what you meant. And you did promise you would.”
I had promised that but hadn’t found the right words. Yet. The song wasn’t for him, but if he wanted to claim it as
his own, I was more than happy to make it his.
“Keep singing.” Charlie yawned.
I sang the rest of the song softly. Charlie didn’t interrupt again.
“Charlie?” I asked once I’d finished. There was no response. I smiled, knowing he’d fallen asleep. “Good night,
Charlie. I love you.”
I hung up the call and held the phone to my chest. I inhaled, recalling Charlie’s scent, which only made me wish
harder that he was here or I was there with him. I sighed. The next three months were going to be a lot tougher
than I’d anticipated.
“Was this a good idea?” I asked Isaac as Jesse signed autographs.
We’d only got out of the car a few minutes earlier. In the time it had taken Isaac to put the double pram up and
lay the twins carefully in their bassinets, Jesse had been spotted.
At Phoenix Records’ request, Jesse and Isaac had released a photo of them and the twins to the media. They’d
said Jesse’s album would be delayed while he took family time and asked for privacy.
Isaac looked at Jesse, who had wandered a short distance away from us and the twins, along with his
bodyguard.
“He was going stir crazy,” Isaac said. “He can’t stay in the barn all the time.”
“No, of course not.”
“And until the twins can shift, we can’t wander freely in our animal forms.”
I knew that Jesse used his monkey form to travel incognito a lot. While capuchin monkeys weren’t the most
common animal form, we weren’t exactly rare either, unlike Charlie’s arctic fox.
“You go ahead,” Jesse called, pointing towards the coffee shop roughly two hundred yards away. “Order me a
strong black coffee.” He grinned at us, then turned his attention back to his small flock of fans.
“You heard him,” Isaac said. “Come on.”
Isaac pushed the pram as we walked towards the coffee shop. Jasper had fallen asleep in his car seat and hadn’t
woken when he’d been transferred to the pram. Colby, on the other hand, was wide awake. He stared at the world
with his dark eyes, looking far too serious for a two-month-old baby.
“He enjoys it, doesn’t he?” I asked.
“Who? Jesse?” Isaac glanced over his shoulder.
I nodded.
“Yes. He likes interacting with his fans.”
“I’m glad.”
“Feeling guilty?”
I stiffened at Isaac’s words. I might have been repairing my relationship with Jesse, but Isaac was another matter.
He’d formulated his opinion of me based on my worst behaviour, and as far as I could tell, he hadn’t changed that
opinion.
“Yes.”
“Well, don’t,” Isaac said in a grumbly tone. “Jesse might have entered Rising Stars to make you happy, but he
loves singing and everything that comes with it.”
It should have made me feel better, but it didn’t. What would Jesse’s dreams have been if he hadn’t adopted
mine?
We went into the coffee shop and ordered drinks and pastries at the counter before finding a table to sit at. The
shop hadn’t been open long, so there was still plenty of choice.
“Do you want to hold Colby?” Isaac asked. “I’ll leave Jasper to sleep.”
I smiled and nodded,