Kurt gasped, his eyes going impossibly wider. “For me?” He reached out a tentative hand toward the hilt, but didn’t quite touch it. He turned instead toward her, face questioning, as if he were afraid he was being punked.
“For you,” Corinne assured him. “But,” she added as his hand darted to pick up the saber, “these are not for playing with inside Grandma’s house.”
“What about here?” Tucker asked, his eyes sparking with amusement.
“Yeah, what about here, Mommy?”
They both looked at her, the two men in her life, desperate intention written clear on their faces. She glanced around the wide, empty lobby of The Babylon. “Don’t go near anything breakable.”
“Yes!” Kurt snatched up the lightsaber, immediately turning it on with whooshing laser noises.
Tucker held out his hand for her saber. “If I may, Princess?”
Corinne handed it over without question. The pair of them launched into an epic duel, as if they’d been fencing together for years. Her heart squeezed hard at the identical, delighted grins. How had she gotten so lucky?
“Some men are born to be daddies,” Mama Pearl observed.
The idea of it kicked her hard in the gut. She wasn’t thinking along those lines. Or hadn’t been until Mama Pearl said it. After divorcing Lance, she’d had no intention of marrying again. At least, not for a good long while. That would require dating, which would require time and trust she didn’t have. Except she’d made time, and Tucker had consistently worked to earn her trust.
Too much, too soon. She needed to dial back to the simple, where they were still easing their way along. They weren’t even actually dating yet.
Still, it was impossible to deny Tucker was great with Kurt. He’d make a good father. Someday.
“That’s rather putting the cart before the horse, don’t you think?” She was saying it as much to herself as her boss.
“Not rushing things to know the kind of man you’re letting into your life. Into your son’s life. I’d expect it’s a comfort to know, should things head in that direction.”
“It’s something,” she agreed, throat thick with an emotion she didn’t want to name. “Anyway, it’s a comfort to know he’s got your stamp of approval. Even if you did do everything but lock us in a room together and throw away the key.” Corinne shot her a knowing look.
Mama Pearl appeared completely unaffected by the accusation. “Been watchin’ that boy watchin’ you since you came back. All I did’s nudge you to look back.”
I’m certainly looking now. And she definitely liked what she saw.
From across the lobby, Tucker’s eyes met hers, warm and sure. Until Kurt almost ran him through with a lightsaber, forcing him to break eye contact as he danced back and executed some fancy footwork on the stairs.
Even as Corinne laughed, the fullness came back in her chest. It was stupid, really, to feel this much over the two of them horsing around. But she just needed a minute. “Can you make sure they don’t get too rowdy? I need to run to the ladies’ room.”
“Raised six. I can handle two.”
Corinne made her way past the huge curving staircase and down the hall toward the bathrooms. They were blessedly empty, so she had the opportunity to collect herself before she did something completely sappy and bawled because her son and her…whatever Tucker was…legitimately enjoyed one another. Kurt’s own father had rarely looked at their son with anything more than annoyance. He’d given up all his parental rights last year without a qualm, already moving on to her replacement. Couldn’t have a rugrat messing with that, now could he? Kurt hadn’t had a male role model in his life since then, and Corinne hadn’t worried too much about it, what with all the more practical worries. But it would be good for him to have a truly good man to look up to as an example. Right now, she couldn’t think of a better one than Tucker.
She’d have to give some thought to that. Kurt was primed to get attached and if things didn’t work out between the two of them, she didn’t want her son to be an inadvertent casualty. Tucker would be annoyed she kept looking for the end of things when they’d barely gotten started.
More cart before horse, Corinne.
As she was wrestling her costume back into place after taking care of business, the door opened. She stilled as she heard someone come inside.
“—I know you’re upset but—”
Corinne couldn’t make out the words of the person on the other end of the phone, but she could detect the furious tone well enough.
“I know you asked me to—”
Corinne recognized the apologetic tone and she tensed with memory.
Pacify. Diffuse. Redirect.
Staying silent, she shifted until she could see through the thin crack in the tall door at the front of the stall. A delicate, long-fingered hand rested on the edge of the marble vanity. Even from this distance, she saw it shook.