Even though Sydney didn’t feel well last night, Bailey texted me this morning that she had never thrown up and felt fine to go to school today. I arrive early to pick up Todd in hopes that Bailey will be here a few minutes early, too. As I see his car pull into the parking lot, I grab the medium-size, heart-shaped box of chocolates off my passenger seat, jump out of my car, and jog to his before he can get all the way out.

“Bailey!”

“Clark, hello. I was hoping you’d be here early, too.” The smile on his face carries clear into his eyes, assuring me that he’s as caught up in me as I am in him.

As soon as I reach him, I lean down and kiss his cheek before presenting the Valentine’s chocolates to him. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

His cheeks go that rosy hue that sets off his eyes and is now my favorite color in the world before he says, “Oh good, now I don’t feel dumb.” He turns and reaches down into his car, pulling out a brown gift bag with red hearts all over it. “This is for you.”

It’s not very heavy and as much as we talked last night, I can’t imagine that we really know each other well enough to get something too personal. When I move the pink tissue paper out of the way, I discover that I’m mistaken. “Wow. This is perfect.”

“You don’t have that one, yet, do you?” I pull out the box to get a good look at the puzzle Bailey picked out for me. Smiling, I shake my head no. “You said that Todd’s favorite things are his dog and puzzles, so I figured getting you a puzzle of all different puppies was something he’d enjoy doing with you.” The thoughtfulness of his gift is another indicator of how much Bailey understood me last night. Getting me something that allows bonding time with my son is the best kind of gift.

“It is.” After putting the puzzle back into the bag, I bend down and give Bailey a hug, nuzzling his neck with my nose. He wraps his arms around me and snuggles in. “This is pretty good though, too.”

“Mmm… I agree.” We stand holding each other close for several minutes, until the chill of the air is too much. Plus, it has to be close to the time for the kids to be dismissed. Right as we pull away from each other, other parents begin to pull into the parking lot.

When we walk into the classroom, the kids are all hyped up and screaming which isn’t surprising. They had their Valentine’s Day party today, which included a card exchange and special snacks. Todd and Sydney are together again, but this time they’re sitting with a larger group of kids. “I don’t understand.” Although, Todd is sitting on the edge of the group, he’s still with them.

“Clark?” Bailey asks.

Before I can explain to him why I’m borderline hyperventilating, Ms. Sue is in front of us, smiling ear to ear. “I told you he was doing better, Clark. Didn’t I?”

Confusion and censor in his voice, Bailey asks Ms. Sue, “Do the kids usually exclude him?”

I answer for her. “No. Too many people, even if they’re kids, in his bubble overwhelms him. He’s never been able to handle it. I’ve only tested how he’s doing with that here and there as he’s gotten older because the anxiety-attack that follows takes years off my life every time.” I cut my eyes to Ms. Sue. “I appreciate this so much, but I can’t believe you even tried it without me here.”

“Oh, I didn’t try anything. I would’ve definitely gotten your permission first. I explained to the mothers who came in to do the party today to leave Todd to himself and not force him to participate in any of the activities they had planned. When Darren and Sydney had their little incident, I’d explained a little about Todd’s discomfort levels and how it may seem strange to another four-year-old, but I wanted his parents to understand so they could help me translate it to Darren better. Well, Darren’s mom is one of the ones who came in, and she’d been concerned the group activities would be too much for Todd and brought him a set of Valentine’s blocks and a mini-puzzle for him to do so that he wouldn’t feel excluded.”

Blinking back tears, I say, “That was very kind of her. Is she still here? I’d like to thank her myself.”

“She is. She’s finishing cleaning up a little, but when she’s done, I’ll bring her right over.”

Apparently, the sight of my child, maybe not interacting, but at least sitting with so many other children has my brain not operating properly, because it’s Bailey who asks, “But how did he end up there? With all of them?”

“As soon as they were done with their art project, which was finger-paints…” My eyes jerk from my son to widen at Ms. Sue in horror, to which she scrunches her nose and nods. “I know, so messy, there’s no way he’d have been okay with that. Anyway, once the kids were all cleaned up, they moved to the floor over there. Sydney was talking to a couple of the other kids she’d sat with to do her project and yelled for Todd to come sit with her. I’d like to say the earth shook, but it didn’t. He simply grabbed his things and walked over and sat at the edge. Sydney scooted from the middle of the group so she was closer to him, and that was that.”

“Huh.” Eloquent I know, but I have no words. Pulling out my phone really quick, I snap a picture of the group so I can remember this moment forever. I’m glad we were amongst the first parents to walk in so that I could witness this with my own two eyes. I probably wouldn’t have believed Ms. Sue if she had told me.

As Ms. Sue moves to talk to other parents, I say to Bailey, “Your daughter is a miracle worker.”

When I glance at his face, his eyes are on his daughter and he’s smiling fondly. “She’s a good girl. I’m not sure she’s a miracle worker, but I’m proud of her.”

“You should be.”

“Dad, are we there, yet?”

“Todd, I told you to quit calling me Dad. And how would we be there already? We just left the house.”

“But I want to play with Sydney.”

“You’re going to, little man. They don’t live that far. We’re on our way, now pipe down back there.”

“Okay, Dad. Drive fast, drive fast, drive fast!” His chanting sets off Snickers, who’s in the back next to him, making his own doggy noises.

No one who only sees my son in public would believe that he’s ever loud, but when it’s just us, he has no volume control. I remind myself for the thousandth time since I picked him up from school today that I’m thankful he can be himself with me. He’s progressed way beyond what the doctors’ initial warnings of what his quality of life could end up being.

Bailey and I both agreed last night that we needed to spend Valentine’s Day with our kids separately, but that we would all get together tonight for the scheduled playdate. As happy as I am for Todd to have a friend and be on his way to his first playdate in the history of his four years of life, I’m equally pumped to spend some more time with Bailey. Those few hours with him the night before last and the hour-long telephone conversation last night aren’t cutting it.

After we put the kids to bed last night, we talked and agreed that we needed to be careful about how we handled dating. Todd hadn’t realized where I was going the other night, hell, I hadn’t known I had a date until Bernadette ambushed me at her front door, but Sydney did know her dad was going out and we think that’s what set her belly off. She was fine until she wasn’t going to sleep in her own house where she knew exactly where her father was. So for now, we’re going to do most things as a family, and if we go on a grown-up date, we’ll both return home to our own kids.

The temperature dropped even more today, so I hustle Todd and Snickers to the door of Bailey and Sydney’s condo as quickly as possible, stopping once along the way from visitor’s parking to their door for Snickers to pee and mark his territory. Even Todd gets impatient with him when he tries to stop for a second time. “Snickers, come on! You’ve gotta meet Sydney!” The dog barks and we’re back in motion.

The complex they live in is one of the nicest ones I’ve ever seen with garages actually built in under the unit. They’re nice and practical which I can see Bailey liking, but he needs a house with a yard. I can only imagine how cute it would be. After he lets us into his unit, I see that I’m not wrong. On one hand, their place is immaculate, but bits of Sydney are everywhere. Tucked under the counter seating in the kitchen is a Sydney-sized kitchen set complete with an apron and a chef’s hat. On the wall where you’d expect a nice piece of art, is a tastefully arranged collage of Sydney’s artistic achievements. And when Sydney runs down the hall yelling for us to hurry and come look, we walk into a bedroom designed especially for a little princess.

“Wow!” I can hear the wonder in Todd’s voice.

Apparently Bailey can, too, and his face heats as he rolls his eyes in that self-deprecating way he does. “Between me and my family, we may have gone a little overboard on her room.”

“No, Bailey. It’s perfect.”

Pinching the side of his hip, I smile down at him before addressing Sydney. “This is quite the room you have here, little miss.”

She plants her little hands on her hips, traveling her fierce, green-eyed gaze from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. “How come you’re not wearing workout clothes? You’re not sexercising today?”

I hear Bailey squeak next to me, but I keep my eyes trained on Sydney as I hunch down to her height. “I’m sorry, am I what?”

“Dad says you sexercise. That’s why you wear what he wears ta bed for work, right? ‘Cause you sexercise?” She walks right up to me, regarding me with curiosity.

Each time she says sexercise, I have to bite my lip to keep from laughing at Bailey’s embarrassed squeaks and moans behind me, but I don’t want Sydney to think I’m laughing at her so I keep a straight face. Before I can answer her, Todd is by her side. “Dad, I thought you help people exercise for your job.”

“I do, bud.”

Todd turns to Sydney. “Yeah, ex-er-cize,” he enunciates it out just like I’ve done with him with a million words over the years.

Sydney practices until she’s got it right, shrugs, and says, “Okay.” Then she makes a stern face at me. “I wanna brother, and I want it ta be Todd. So, you have ta date my dad, fall in love, then you can get married. ‘Kay?”

“Oh god.” I check over my shoulder right in time to see Bailey disappearing back down the hall.

Turning back to Sydney, I say, “That’s a very specific set of instructions.”

“Dad told me that’s how it works. You can do that, right?”

“Oh, sweetheart, I’m well on my way.”

“Well, Dad says it takes a while. Can you make him hurry up?”

Todd’s eyes dart between me and Sydney before he pipes in, “Yeah, hurry up. I want Sydney to be my brother.”

Sydney cracks up, throwing her fiery red hair back as she laughs. Once she calms herself, she says to Todd, “No, silly. I’ll be your sister, and you’ll be my brother.”

Todd says, “Okay,” shrugs and spins to survey Sydney’s room.

“Will you two be alright in here if I go find your dad?” I ask her.

I must pass her test because she finally gives me a full-toothy smile and says, “Yeah, go kiss Dad. We’ll be fine.”

As I walk out of the room and back toward the direction Bailey disappeared, I hear my son, “Eww. Why they kissing? Kissing’s gross.” A part of me really wants to hear the sage wisdom of the precocious Sydney, but more of me wants to kiss her father.

“I am so sorry. Oh my god, I’m so embarrassed,” is the first thing out of Bailey’s mouth when I find him hovering in the middle of the living room. I grin, but stalk toward him so that I can get my kiss. Right as I reach him, his phone rings. Glancing down, he says, “Hold on really quick.” Then he puts it on speaker. “Hi, Julian. I’m so sorry I forgot to call you yesterday morning, and then I didn’t want to call last night because I knew Vaughn made plans for you guys—”

He’s cut off by the voice coming over the line (Vaughn’s boyfriend, if I’m remembering names correctly). “I don’t care about my date with my amazingly wonderful boyfriend last night; I want to know what that text meant that said your date with Mr. Hottie got interrupted by Sydney getting sick. First, what’s wrong with Sydney? Is she okay now? And second, Mr. Hottie, sexy-athletic-wearing-hottie Daddy?”

Face on fire, Bailey hides his eyes behind one hand, muttering, “Kill. Me. Now.” Which makes me bark out a laugh.

The voice on the phone says, “Oh shit! Crap, is Sydney there? I meant shoot. Is he there? Who answers the phone on speaker when they have a date? No one does that. Okay, call me when you’re alone.” Then the line goes dead.

“He’s got a point, Bailey. I think that’s like, dating 101.”

“I know, but I was going to introduce you two because that’s how I met Julian when he and Vaughn started dating, so I thought he’d get a kick out of it. I didn’t expect him to answer rambling like that. He sounded more like his best friend, Chuck, then himself. Ugh.”

Not wanting him to feel self-conscious, I move in again for my kiss. Right as our lips are about to touch, there’s a crash from the other room followed by two little people yelling, “Dad,” simultaneously. Penelope hisses and Snickers starts barking. I decide I’m going to steal a quick kiss anyway when Snickers comes darting into the room to settle his butt right on top of my feet, Penelope jumps up on the back of the couch making mewling noises, Sydney comes stomping in with one hand on her hip and the other pointing back and forth between the two animals yelling about how they’re going to be brother and sister so behave, and my son is right behind Sydney laughing so hard he can hardly breathe.

As quietly as I can, I say to Bailey, “Are we really going to do this?”

And his breathy response of, “Absolutely. This is wonderful,” makes my heart melt as my cock goes hard. Fantastic.