“How so?”
“We were visiting Harry Potter World, and suddenly he was gone.” Sam's eyes got huge when he told me what had happened. “Caden nearly lost his mind, and I was so scared.”
“But we found him again, Baby.”
Jakob stepped behind Sam and hugged his back to his chest. Of course, Sam, the little worrywart, would have been scared if his friend had been missing.
“Henry just saw a neat store that sold custom wands. He signed where he was going without making sure that someone saw it. Then he ran off.”
“He could barely sit during breakfast the next morning.” Of course, Josh would find that funny. But Darrell caught his smirk even if he couldn’t see it.
“If you think that’s funny, I can spank your ass and see how you’ll sit through breakfast. Then we’ll see how funny you think it is.”
Jakob and I were the only ones who laughed at Darrell's statement. Josh just squirmed, while Sam blushed. Sweet, innocent Sam. But they were right. I’d missed them.
Clapping my hands together, I interrupted the little banter. “How about we all sit down now. I have dinosaur nuggets and fries for everyone.”
“Yaaayyy. Dinosaur nuggets,” Josh exclaimed while Sam cuddled into his Daddy’s arms.
“Can’t we have ice cream?” Sam turned in Jakob's arms to look at him. “You said we would have ice cream with sprinkles.”
“I did, Baby, and I’m sure Uncle Des will let you have chocolate ice cream after you eat all your nuggets and fries.”
Jakob kissed Sam, and then Jakob looked at me. I almost laughed out loud at the desperate look in Jakob’s eyes. The Daddies would kill me if I didn’t have ice cream and sprinkles for the Boys. Not that I would ever run out of ice cream. Or sprinkles for that matter. The Littles would run amok if I ever ran out of them, and I could not handle a Little rebellion. Reaching out, I ruffled Sam’s hair.
“How about this. You help me with our lunch, and you can have extra sprinkles on your dessert.”
That earned me the brightest smile from Sam. “I’ll be the bestest helper.”
“Hey, what about me? I can help, too.”
“You can set the table.” Darrell stepped in before I could say something about Josh helping as well. “And while you’re doing that, you can think about making fun of other Littles.”
“I wasn’t making fun of Henry.”
Jakob and I exchanged a look. Not every Daddy could deal with a brat like Josh. But for Darrell, he was perfect. For Jakob and me? Not so much. We both preferred our Boys sweet and obedient—lots of cuddles and snuggling and fewer fights and fewer punishments. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Josh, but he could be a handful. While I watched him with his Daddy, Sam came over to me and took my hand.
“Can we go to the kitchen now? I don’t want to see Josh getting spanked. Again.”
“Again, huh?” Laughing, I looked at Sam, who rolled his eyes.
“Yeeeees. We didn’t even make it through the airport, and Josh got into trouble.”
“That’s not true,” Josh exclaimed.
Darrell sighed. “Joshua.”
“Uh, oh.” Sam tugged at my hand. “Come on, Uncle Des. Josh is in real trouble if Darrell calls him Joshua.”
Laughing, I let him lead me into the kitchen, where I had already started prep on our lunch.
Ten minutes later, Sam chatted happily about their trip, while he arranged individual salad into bowls. It was a Daddy rule to have the vegetables or salad for the Littles. With Sam’s aversion to most veggies because of how they looked, I decided that a side salad would be the best choice.
“Hey, Sam.” I interrupted his chattering. “Can you please hand me over one of the big bowls from over there?”
“Yes, Uncle Des.”
“Thank you, sweet Boy.”
“What do you need it for?”
“For our food. I thought it would be cool to serve our food family style. We put the food into big bowls. Like they do in Italy.”
“Oh, wow. I’ve never been to Italy. I bet they have the best spaghetti there.”
“What? Better than mine?” Laughing, I put salt on the fries and set them aside until I had a bowl.
“Umm, Uncle Des?”
“It’s okay, sweet Boy. I won’t be mad if you think that other spaghetti is better than mine.”
“Deeeeessss?”
Okay, Sam was not worried about my reaction and curious I turned to look at him. He stood at the shelve where the bowls were, but his eyes focused out the window. It was one of the few windows in the building, and it faced the back alley.
“What’s wrong, buddy?”
“Why is there someone sleeping in the alley?”
“What?”
Frowning, I wiped my hands on a dishtowel and walked over to where Sam stood. It wasn’t unusual for homeless guys to hang out in the back alley. They knew that they could always get a free meal or a hot drink in the winter, but no one ever slept there.
“I…I think he’s hurt.”
As I stepped up behind Sam and looked over his shoulder, I could see he was right. On the other side of the alley was a guy on the ground, his head tilted back against the brick wall. And he seemed to be hurt. Dark, dried blood stuck to his dirty blond hair, and from where I was standing, I could see dark bags under his eyes. He wore dirty gray sweatpants and a stained t-shirt, and as far as I could see, he was barefoot. What the hell?
“Hey, buddy, can you please get your Daddy and Darrell?”
“He’s not dead, is he?” Sam’s voice quivered; his eyes were as big as saucers.
“No, but it looks like he needs our help. So please get your Daddy and Darrell, and you stay with Josh in the pub, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Thanks, sweet Boy.”
Sam spun on his heels and rushed out of the kitchen while I opened the backdoor and prayed that the guy wasn’t dead. Jakob would kill me if Sam found a dead body under my
