After Christmas ended on a sour note, Simon and I ended up spending New Year’s Eve alone. And naturally, Vicki couldn’t be bothered to call. Maybe I should have opened up to Todd and shared my frustrations, but we weren’t together like that and it had seemed unfair to Victoria to discuss her so casually.

Whatever fragile peace we’d been building had ended abruptly when I’d left his apartment that night. Oh, sure, Todd had been nothing but polite for the past six weeks, but with Valentine’s Day fast approaching and him six months pregnant, I knew I needed more. I wanted him to greet me with the same casual affection that he gave Simon. Was it bad that I was jealous of a five-year-old?

Yeah, probably. Okay, definitely. Whatever. Daddy deserved hugs too.

I bent to pick up a handful of stones as I walked along the creek’s edge, stopping every so often to idly skip one or two across the surface. When I came around the bend and found Luisa and her sisters standing there with expectant smiles as if they’d been waiting to see me, I tossed the last of my rocks back to the ground and gave a friendly wave as I approached.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Keller. As always, it is lovely to see you.”

I smiled at Luisa’s earnest face. “Good afternoon to you too, Miss Luisa.” I turned to bow playfully to her sisters, each in turn. “And a good afternoon to Miss Luisa’s sisters as well.” The other two girls tittered while Luisa merely smiled. “Actually, I’m glad I ran into you ladies. I have a favor to ask of you.”

Luisa tilted her head to one side. “Was there something you required of us, Mr. Keller? I’m not certain as to how much we are allowed to assist you, but we would be happy to make an attempt on your behalf.”

I shook my head. This girl and her almost old-fashioned, overly polite speech killed me every time. “I ran out of my supply of apple juice from the orchard next door. I was thinking that while my special cider is off season, I could take a chance and tinker with the recipe a little. Since you ladies seem to live nearby, I was wondering if maybe your parents owned one of the competing orchards? The favor is that I was hoping you might be willing to introduce me to your dad.”

She stared blankly at me. “Our dad? I’m sorry, I do not understand.”

“You guys live nearby, right? All of the surrounding properties are owned by different orchards, so I figure your folks must own one of them. If you wouldn’t mind letting me follow you home, maybe I could talk to your dad about getting some apple juice.”

Luisa shook her head, her eyes wide with apprehension. “Oh, no. We’ve never been over to the surrounding properties and we were never allowed to meet the neighbors. It wouldn’t be proper to do so unescorted. Our father has been gone these many years, although I’m not certain that he could have helped you either. My apologies, Mr. Keller, but I am quite unable to assist you in this matter.”

I blinked in confusion as I tried to make sense of what she’d said. I turned in a full circle, scanning the area to try and figure out where they could possibly be from if they weren’t from any of the neighboring orchards. When I turned to face them again, I found that I was standing alone. This time, there hadn’t been any giggles echoing through the trees as they’d left. Good grief, those girls were some mighty odd ducks.

When I started to head back toward the restaurant, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. Pulling it out, I almost groaned when I saw Victoria’s name on the screen. I took a calming breath and answered the call. “Hi, Vicki. What’s up, girl?”

“Hugo? I hope you’re sitting down because I have the most astonishing, exciting, and wonderful news to share.” I hadn’t heard her this over-the-top happy-crappy-joy-joy since… well, ever.

“I’m almost afraid to ask, but what’s your big news?” Yeah, because I was on the edge of my seat to hear about my ex-wife’s life.

“Try not to sound so excited, stud.” She paused a moment and then began to speak in a rush. “I know this is beyond trite, but I’m in love and I don’t care what people think. We’ve decided to get married on St. Valentine’s Day.”

“Okay, congratulations, I guess.” I really didn’t know what I was supposed to do with this information.

“Thank you, but that’s not why I’m calling. You see, Vincent and I plan to take an extended honeymoon for the next three months. I wanted to let you know in advance that I won’t be able to take Simon for spring break like we’d planned. After you got so irritated the last time I forgot to cancel, I figured I would do it ahead of time. This way you’ll have time to break it to him gently and he won’t be disappointed. I’ll have let you know about summer when the date gets closer. It all depends on whether or not I’ll be back from my trip, but I should be able to still fit his next visitation week in. But I’ll have to let you know, so consider it on standby.”

As I listened to her self-absorbed babble, something inside me snapped and all of a sudden I understood why Todd had been so angry at me on Christmas night. “You know what, Victoria? Congratulations again, maybe this time you will be able to make the marriage work. I mean, it’s almost like a double V for victory when you put Vincent and Vicki together.” I was being sarcastic, but didn’t really care if she picked up on it or not. I was just getting going. I had a lot of years of frustration boiling over. “As for your son? Why am I not surprised that you are blowing off his spring break after you almost forgot him at Christmas, and only called as an afterthought? And about your week this summer, don’t overtax yourself trying to squeeze him into your busy fucking schedule.”

Victoria gasped indignantly. “That’s not fair, Hugo. Now you listen to me—”

I had no interest in listening to her, so I cut her off and finished my thought. “In fact, it occurs to me that your visitations are entirely at my discretion. If you’ll recall, that was your idea. Perhaps it’s time for me to put Simon first and do what’s best for him instead of what I think should be best for him. Because you know what, doll face? You suck as a mother and you aren’t what’s best for my son right now. Have fun on your honeymoon, but don’t call us until you’re ready to grow up and think about Simon instead of yourself for once in your damn life.”

Ending the call before she had a chance to respond, I shoved my phone into my pocket and trudged back to work. Even though I was officially done for the day and Simon was having his weekly cooking session with Todd, I needed to go putter around with my beer for a while. Relationships were messy. Life was impossible. A simple fermentation process? Now that was something I could control.

I was still fuming an hour later, although I’d calmed down enough to realize that I needed to talk to Todd—if only I could figure out how to do it. My best idea was that maybe I could say something when he walked Simon out.

When I heard shrieks of laughter, I glanced up to see Simon and a few other children go running down the employee hallway. I lifted a questioning brow when I walked out and found Tom and Todd talking outside of my brewing room. “Are you guys having a party and my invitation got lost in the mail, or what?”

While Tom got distracted by his daughter running up to ask a question, Todd gave me a rare, friendly smile. “Tom showed up with the kids and I told them they could play hide-and-seek back here since it’s raining outside. I hope that’s okay. I’m sorry I didn’t ask for your permission.”

Somehow or other, I found the courage to step a little closer. “You don’t ever need permission to play with my son, Todd. In fact, I’d like to thank you for taking the time for him that you do.”

Todd’s cheeks flushed a light pink as he smiled almost shyly. “I could never do anything less; I adore that little boy.”

And just like that, I fully understood why he’d been so angry. I thought I’d understood before, but I hadn’t seen the complete picture. Comparing Todd to Victoria, I realized what had been occurring to me more and more—Todd was a better parent to Simon than his actual parent was. The difference was that while Victoria merely had an affectionate relationship with Simon, Todd truly cared about him and his needs. How the hell had I been so blind? I started to say something, but I paused when I realized that Todd was counting.

When he reached a hundred, Todd smiled regretfully. “I’m sorry to take off on you, but like I said, the kids are playing hide-and-seek right now—and I’m it.” He took a few steps away before yelling, “Ready or not, here I come, I’m gonna get you guys!” He wandered down the hall, pausing to look in different rooms along the way. “I’m gonna find every last one of you, I hope you little stinkers know that. It’s just like Pokémon, I’ve gotta catch ’em all.”

Almost the second that Todd stepped out of earshot, Tom turned and wagged a finger under my nose. I’d never seen the guy angry, but I had to admit that this fierce version of Tom was more than slightly frightening.

“I don’t know what you did, but you need to fix it. If you don’t work your shit out with that sweet boy, it’s going to be too late and you’ll only have yourself to blame. Are you going to be a stubborn ass and lose your shot at having a complete family?” He held up a hand when I opened my mouth. “No, don’t bother to answer. Just think about it.”

He stalked off while I went back to work, my mind buzzing with the things he’d said. Twenty minutes later, Todd came rushing in.

“Hugo, we can’t find Simon anywhere. He may have just hidden really well, but I’m starting to freak out. Tom went to sound the alarm so we can get all hands on deck to help search, but I came to you first.” He blinked back tears as he stepped out of the doorway when I rushed over. “I’m so sorry, I can’t believe this happened on my watch.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll find him. Trust me, once you’ve misplaced a toddler in Walmart on Black Friday, it takes a lot more than a hide-and-seek game gone wrong to make you freak out. Or, wait. Is that just me?” I snagged his hand and gave it a comforting squeeze as I pulled him along with me.

People were rushing all around us, running in and out of the different rooms while searching high and low. All of a sudden, I remembered the wonky doorknob on the control room. “Come with me, I think I know where he might be stuck if he accidentally got locked in somewhere.”

Todd looked concerned as he followed me into the storeroom, but it was empty. Davis’ voice rang down the hall. “We found him! Turns out, none of us thought to check the bathroom.” Todd and I both heaved a sigh of relief and headed toward the door. Just as I reached to pull it wider, a gust of air came out of nowhere and blew it shut, right in our faces.

“What the actual hell?” Todd looked spooked as he looked around the room, but whatever air draft had caused the door to close had now disappeared. I reached for the knob and tried to open the door, but all I could do was get it to rattle in my hand. We were locked in.

“As soon as someone finds us, that knob is getting replaced.” Todd frowned at the door and looked around the room. “I don’t mind being locked in here, but can I just ask why there are no chairs in here?”

“Because this isn’t a room that was made for hanging out in?” I chuckled but was already looking around to see where, if anywhere, he could sit down. “Come on, hot stuff. We can sit right there on the floor. I’ll help you up when someone finds us, I promise.”

Todd pulled his cell phone out, only to shake his head when he found out what I already knew—there was no signal in this room thanks to the solid concrete walls and competing signals from the equipment. He only hesitated briefly before finally letting me help him down onto the floor. We sat with our backs against the wall and pretended not to be watching each other whenever we thought the other wasn’t looking. Mostly, we just sat in awkward silence for a while. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore.

I cleared my throat and turned to look at him. “I owe you an apology for Christmas. You were right, Vicki did need to be put in her place.” I chuckled humorlessly and told him about my phone call. “…so like I mentioned earlier when I thanked you for caring for him, it occurred to me that you are better at parenting him than his real parent. And you don’t even expect anything in return. Hell, I can’t say you’re doing it to get my attention when you won’t even agree on a date to have our date.”

Todd grinned. “A date to have a date, huh?”

“What can I say? I have a way with words.” I smirked. “Seriously though, can you fucking believe she’s blowing him off for spring break and then saying that summer is up in the air too? I’m trying to figure out how I’ll break it to Simon. This news is going to hit him hard, as you know. I keep telling her that one of these days he’s going to quit trying with her, but today is not that day.”

Todd rubbed his belly as he chewed his lip for a long moment. “You know what? What if it were his idea to stay home for break? We’ve been needing to tell him about becoming a big brother anyway. Maybe instead of making him think that his mom didn’t want him for spring break, we can get him excited about the baby instead and let it be his idea to stay home.”

“You do realize that once we tell him, he’s going to assume that we’re getting together. Be prepared for that one,” I warned him gently.

Todd surprised me by shrugging like it didn’t matter. “I don’t know, maybe we can rethink the whole date thing now that I don’t have to be mad at you anymore. Anger is such a wasted emotion, you know?”

As I leaned in, Todd met me halfway. After a tender kiss, I broke away just enough to speak. “Will you be my valentine this year?”

He pretended to think about it for a moment then smiled against my lips. “I’ll be your valentine, Hugo Keller. But you’d better be prepared to romance the hell out of me.”

I was still laughing as I pulled him onto my lap. “Don’t worry, I know I have a lot of making up to do. But it just so happens that I have mad skills in that department.”

Todd leaned in for another kiss. “Oh yeah?” His voice was husky as he spoke. “Tell me again about those mad skills.”

We kissed for what felt like hours, but could’ve been minutes, who knew? The sound of giggles and a dull bang had us breaking apart and looking around to see what had happened. The door to the room stood fully open where its knob must have banged against the wall from the force of its momentum.

Todd shivered in my arms and rested his forehead against mine, his fingertips toying with my beard. “Can we pretend that one of the kids were able to turn the knob from the outside and fling the door open on their way by? And it was their giggles we heard?”

I tilted my head and lightly brushed my lips over his. “Sure, hot stuff. We’ll go with that.”