Moving On - 19. Chapter 19 - Moving In

"Oh, Zach, I love you too, little buddy," I told him, fresh tears still in my eyes. I kissed him on the cheek and pulled back, breaking the hug.

"Now, I need to talk to your daddy for a minute. Can you go play with Tom and Sarah?"

"Ok."

Without hesitation, the boy went over and grabbed Tom's hand, dragging him out to the living room.

"I've been thinking, Noah. I feel bad about the idea of you sleeping on the couch. Um…," I hesitated before I asked the next question. "Do you want to move into my bedroom?"

Noah thought for a second, before sighing. "No, but it's nothing personal. I'm not sure either of us is quite ready for that step yet. I've never felt this way about anyone before, and I'm concerned that jumping to sleeping together so quickly will just lead to one or both of us feeling pressured to take our relationship to the next level. As much as I want to have sex with you, I want everything to be right, and I'm not sure that you're quite ready for that. Besides," he said, looking a little guilty, "I'm not sure I'd be comfortable sharing the same bed you shared with Steve."

Up until that moment, I hadn't thought about that. Granted, I asked the question more out of a sense of obligation, but I thought back and remembered the two times that I felt like someone was trying to share Steve's mattress with me. When Will had tried to share the bed, it was the last straw that drove me out of town, and when Sarah had done it, I'd practically thrown her across the room.

"You're right. I just realized that I don't want you and Zach to find an apartment. I want you to stay here. If you got a new place to live, you'd have to sign a lease, and it'd be at least a year before you could move in with me. I don't want you forced onto the couch, though."

Noah's eyes gleamed hopefully as he cautiously asked, "So you want us to live here permanently?"

"Yes. I have no idea how long Tom and Sarah will be here, and since my bedroom is off the table, at least for now, that makes this easy. You can stay in the empty bedroom, and we'll turn the office into Zach's bedroom. You still need to get your stuff from your apartment. We can just bring over the bed, as well. That way, you have your own bedroom while you're living here. There'll be no pressure to bring sex into the equation until we're both ready, and you won't feel like you're just crashing here until you find a new place to live."

"Oh, Scott; I love that idea," He said, hugging me tightly and kissing me gently on the lips. "You do know that it's not normal for a boyfriend of two weeks to completely turn his life upside like you have, right?"
"Well, since I've only had one other boyfriend, I'm not really good at doing what I'm supposed to do in the proper time frame," I said with a laugh. "Besides, this isn't a normal relationship. I came in with a ton of baggage, and you easily cut through it all. I feel that what we've gone through in the past two weeks is much deeper emotionally than most relationships I know."

Noah smiled, and kissed me again, before looking at his watch.

"Well, shit. It's now just after six. We still need to go shopping and get some dinner. I don't know about you, but I'm still tired as balls from last night."

"No, I'm fine," I said, stifling a yawn, which betrayed my statement.

Noah laughed, and playfully slapped my stomach. "Liar. Anyway, here's my proposal. We'll deal with my stuff and the office tomorrow. Tonight, Zach can sleep in what will be my bedroom, and I'll stay on the couch. But we desperately need to go get Zach some clothes. I mean, he literally only has the clothes on his back."

"Sounds like a plan," I said, pulling Noah back into an embrace and resting my head on his shoulder.

"Ugh. I don't want to go. Can we just stay like this?" I asked after a few moments in this ever-so-comfortable position.

Noah poked my sides, causing me to break the hug

"No can do, stud. We got work to do."

"Don't you mean shopping?" I asked with a laugh.

"You've never gone clothes shopping with a little boy. Otherwise, you'd know the hell we're in for," he responded with a wink.

I stole one more kiss, before we rejoined the others in the living room. Zach quickly climbed into his father's lap on the couch.

"Hi, Daddy!" he said happily.

"Hey, buddy. Are you hungry?"

"Can we have pizza? I like pizza!"

I just shook my head. I had a guess that we'd be eating a lot of pizza in the future.

"Of course we can!" Noah told the squirmy little boy. Then to Tom and Sarah, he asked, "Would you like to join us? We need to go shopping; you saw how little we were able to salvage."

"Actually, since you guys weren't supposed to be home, Tom offered to take me out for a romantic night. First we're going to a fancy restaurant, then we're taking a romantic carriage ride around the park, followed by a steamy night in a swanky hotel!" Sarah gushed.

Tom simply blushed. I wasn't surprised to see a romantic side of Tom. His twin was a hopeless romantic.

"Well, you two have fun! I guess we'll see you guys tomorrow afternoon at some point," I said, winking knowingly at Tom, who just turned a deeper shade of crimson. I turned serious for a moment. "Whenever you get back tomorrow, I was thinking maybe you could help me go through the office. I want to turn it into Zach's bedroom, but I don't want to go through everything alone. Maybe it'll be good for you, too. Plus, you'd have a better sense of anything that your parents might want than I would."

"Fair enough," Tom said, as Sarah began to forcibly drag Tom towards their bedroom to get changed.

We hollered our goodbyes at them. We headed outside, where I switched the booster seat into my car. I noticed as I was doing so that Noah was looking at me questioningly.

"Oh, sorry, I should have asked," I said apologetically. "I want to drive, if that's ok with you."

Noah just laughed it off. "No reason to apologize; it's perfectly fine. I just wasn't sure what you were doing at first.

I drove to one of my favorite local pizza places. We sat on the patio, and I ordered a kid's meal for Zach, just so he could get his pepperoni pizza, but I wanted something more. For Noah and I to share, I ordered one of their specialty pies, which was a white pizza with arugula and a lemon-vinaigrette on top. It was my favorite, but I hadn't had it since Steve's death, since it was his favorite, too.

After the waitress walked back inside, Noah voiced his concerns about the order.

"Are you sure? That seems a little…well, weird. I mean lettuce on a pizza?"

I squeezed his leg, which caused him to jump a little.

"Calm down there, jumpy. Just trust me, it's delicious. Steve and I used to come here all the time for this. I've been craving one ever since I got back to town, just never got around to getting one. Besides, maybe I'll be able to convince Zach that pizza doesn't have to have pepperoni on it!"

"Never!" The eavesdropping boy chimed in defiantly.

True to his word, Zach looked on with alarm as the waitress placed the pizza mounded with greens on the table with a chipper "Here's your pizza!"

"That's not pizza!" He quickly informed her.

She responded almost like a dog would when it hears its name; her head cocked to the side, braids flopping briefly behind her.

"I know you think that," I quickly jumped in. "That's why you get your very own pizza to eat. With pepperoni," I added as an afterthought

"I do? Yay!"

I mouthed sorry to the waitress, who just shrugged it off and disappeared again.

Halfway into his first bite, Noah managed to get out, "Oh wow! You were right."

Giggling and picking up my own piece, I merely said, "I know."

Zach was watching us eat this bastardization of pizza with a mixture of fascination and horror. When I finished my piece, I decided to try to push him a little.

"Do you want to try a bite, little buddy? It's really, really good."

He tapped his finger to his chin, his eyes filled with apprehension.

"Do I hafta?" He asked, apparently concerned that I was going to force him to do something he didn't want to do.

"No, but I think you'd like it."

"Oh. Ok, I guess."

I cut off a small piece of my next slice and put it on his plate. With a little hesitation, he picked it up and ate it. His first response was the same as any young child when forced to eat vegetables, but that was quickly followed by a big smile.

"That was ok. But I still like pepperoni on MY pizza."

I decided to chalk his response up to a win.

Noah elbowed me before whispering, "You know, if you wanted to prove to him that pizza didn’t have to have pepperoni, you could have just gotten ham or Canadian bacon. Those look similar enough that he would have accepted it blindly."

"Oh, I know, I just really wanted this pizza. Besides, what do you think of it?"

"I don't know if it's the best I've ever had, but it's definitely way up there. You were right," He said before mumbling, "Like usual."

I laughed. It came across as a joke, but I wasn't sure if part of him seriously felt that way. I decided not to pry, and instead kept it light.

"Well, when you spend years with a die-hard foodie, you tend to discover all sorts of foods that just seem 'weird'."

"Very true," Noah responded, nodding. "By the way, you do know that I was just teasing, right? For a second a look flashed across your eyes like I thought that you were always right, which might imply that I'm always wrong."

I held up my hands in mock surrender. "You caught me. I didn't think I actually reacted, though."

Noah stuck his tongue out at me in response. "Well you did, so this time, I'm right!"

I playfully punched his shoulder, before returning to my delicious pizza.

Once we finished, I paid the bill. We hopped back in the car, and I drove across town to the mall. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, we only had about 90 minutes to shop, so I knew we'd have to be quick and efficient. We raced to one of the department stores and headed directly to the kids section.

We had Zach try on a single shirt, a pair of shorts, and a pair of pants, grabbing the first things we could find.

"But I don't like kitties!" he whined loudly, indicating the shirt I grabbed.

"It's ok, sport," Noah told his son, quickly. "We just need to make sure we get the correct sizes for you. After we know what sizes you want to wear, you can pick out whatever clothes you like."

"Really?!" he asked excitedly.

"Yep. Really." Noah said, then corralled him into a dressing room to see how they fit.

Apparently his first guess was correct, as the two came out a few minutes later all smiles.

"Alright, Zach. Have Scott help you get clothes. Scott, don't go too overboard," he cautioned me.

I just shot him a 'who me?' look, as Noah wandered off to towards the underwear.

Zach was like a kid in a candy store, grabbing at nearly everything we walked past. Once my arms were full, I knew he needed to work on a little restraint.

"Hey, Zach, why don't we choose just a few of these clothes? We can always buy more if we need to."

His shoulder slumped, and as he turned to face me, I saw tears welling in his eyes.

"Was I bad, Scott? Daddy said I could get whatever I wanted."

"No, buddy," I said, putting down the clothes and pulling him into a hug. "You weren't bad at all. You're just excited. But do you need three of the exact same purple shirt?"

He thought for a second before replying, "I guess not, but I WANT three of them."

"I understand that, but why don't we do this: you can have any fifteen shirts you want."

He looked at me like I had two heads for a second, before I realized that he didn't understand what I meant by 'fifteen'.

"How about this, you can have this many," I said, holding up all ten of my fingers, before closing them and putting up the fingers on my left hand a second time.

"Oh, ok."

It took a few minutes of counting on fingers and deliberating over a few shirts, but we eventually figured it out. Noah returned while we were doing this with a few packages of underwear.

"What are you guys doing?" He asked, looking at the piles of clothes surrounding us.

"Counting, Daddy!" Zach said, excitedly.

I explained how I'd set a limit to how many shirts he could choose, and now he was deciding.

"Well, I'm glad we're not going overboard! I got you new undies, Zach. I wasn't sure what you wanted, so I got packages of Spiderman, Superman, X-men, Batman, and Mario. Is that ok?"

"Yeah," he responded without looking up, still trying to decide if he wanted a second purple shirt or not.

"And you told me not to go overboard," I chastised jokingly.

"Joke all you want, I'm sure Zach'll go through these quicker than either of us suspect. I also got some socks. I was going to get new shoes, but I wanted him to try them on. What he has will be fine until we have a chance to come here without being rushed."

"Scott?" Zach asked, abruptly ending the conversation between Noah and myself. "What happens if I pick my fif-tine shirts and then find another one I like?"

"If you find another one that you like, you can get it, too," I responded. I had to cut him off though, as he was about to go on another grabbing spree, "BUT, if you pick another one, you have to give up one of the shirts you already chose, because you can only have fifTEEN," I warned, adding slight emphasis on the proper pronunciation.

Zach's bottom lip stuck out a little as he pouted and responded with, "Fine."

Noah realized that he was beginning to get frustrated with the situation.

"Zachy, tell you what, why don't you and I go find ten pairs of shorts for you? You can pick them out!"

"Ok! Yay!" and the two of them were on their way, while I sorted through the mess of shirts on the floor.

After a moment's hesitation, I added the second purple shirt to the fifteen he'd already picked out. He'd done such a good job at counting, and I suddenly realized that he was far more patient than I would have expected a four-year-old to be. I tried my best to fold the shirts correctly, but quickly gave up and pawned them off on the nearest employee, feeling a little guilty.

By the time I'd arrived to where Noah and Zach were, they had already picked out the shorts. Apparently telling him how many he could have from the beginning was much more effective, and he had loudly counted each time he grabbed a new pair. When he changed his mind about one, he even counted backwards with a little coaching from Noah.

Now ladened with clothes, we carried Zach's choices to the register, where we were rung out, Zach happily bouncing along behind us, empty handed. Before Noah had a chance to even get his wallet out, I handed over my credit card. I completely missed the hurt that flickered across Noah's face, as it was gone by the time I'd turned around.

Looking at my watch, I realized that it was right at nine, and I wanted to try to make it to the toy store. I told Noah my plan, and he scooped up Zach as we took off at a jog. We arrived just as the manager was closing the gate.

"I'm sorry, sirs, but we're closing now. Please come back again tomorrow."
"Is there any way you can give us just a few minutes?" Noah pleaded.

"I'm sorry, but we close at nine," the manager responded, slightly agitated, as if it wasn't clear already.

"We both know that, sir," I responded, "but this little boy lost everything he owned except a few toys in a fire last night, and I just wanted a chance to get him a couple new ones."

The manager thought for a second, and I couldn't help but feel a little guilty for pulling heartstrings.

"Tell you what," he said, "I already closed out and shut down the cash register, but if you can pay cash, I'll make an exception for you. I'm sure a few new toys would help."

We agreed, and he lifted the gate back up and let us in, shutting it again behind us, since the store was actually closed. Zach turned to Noah and asked, "How many, Daddy?"

"You can have three," he said, holding up three fingers, "Ok?"

"Ok!"

We both followed behind him, ready to clean up any destruction left in his wake, but he quickly reached his quota. I interjected when he chose a Lego kit, because I wasn't sure he was quite ready for that yet. Before he could get upset, I pointed out the Duplo's, which was a more than acceptable substitute, apparently, and the Lego's were forgotten. In addition to the building set, he also chose a stuffed animal, and a doll.

I was about to point him away from the doll and towards the trucks, but Noah stopped me. He walked over to Zach and knelt down.

"I see you found a doll!" He said, keeping his tone light. "Is that what you want?"

Zach nodded shyly before saying "Uh-huh. Can I get her, please, Daddy? I like dollies and Mommy would never let me have one. She said only fa- umm…bad-word played with dollies."

I couldn't see any visible reaction to what Zach had said, but Noah took a moment before responding.

"Well, what did I tell you when we came in here?"

Zach tapped his fingers against his chin for a moment before responding, "You said that I could have three toys."

"Is the doll a toy?"

Again, the young boy tapped his fingers against his chin, as if this was a truly difficult question.

Before Zach responded, the realization of my reaction hit me. This four-year-old boy didn't have any sense of what was 'appropriate' for a boy. And I wasn't sure that I wanted him to. After all, at the moment he had two fathers. The concept of gender-normative roles was something that would largely be lost on him as he grew up. Hell, I remember finding my mom's old Barbie dolls one day when I was a kid. I played with those things for weeks until Mom found out and took them away. Granted, most of the time, I used them to supplement my soldiers on the battlefield, but occasionally, I did play house with them.

I was pulled from my reminiscing as Zach responded with a simple, "Yes?"

He looked at his father hopefully, his eyes wide with excitement.

"Then you can have the doll if that's the toy you want," Noah said simply.

"Yay!"

I got the toys from Zach, and took them up to the manager, while Noah grabbed Zach and held him in his arms.

Without even really looking at what I was purchasing, the man bagged up the toys and told me, "That'll be twenty dollars, sir."

"Are you sure? The construction set alone was around forty."

"I know, I just feel like I'd be taking advantage of you, considering you're just trying to bring a little joy back into the little one's life after losing everything. Besides, I'll just write it off as 'charitable donations' anyway," he responded, and I was pleasantly surprised with his honesty but was slightly irritated nonetheless.

"Trust me, you're not taking advantage of us. He lost everything, but largely because his mother is completely unfit, burning down her own house for petty revenge. Zach's just moving in with us, so we don't have to worry about replacing anything other than his stuff. Here," I said, pulling five twenties from my wallet, "That should more than cover the purchase. I don't care if you pocket it all and write the whole thing off, or whatever, but I don't feel right accepting charity, especially when I don't need it."

The man stammered for a moment before finding actual words to respond with. "Sir, I'm sorry, I didn't mean any disrespect, honest. I just know how expensive clothes and toys can be, especially when children don't have any sense in what things cost. I hope he enjoys his new toys, and hopefully you'll come back to see us again."

"There are no hard feelings on my part. I think I'm just tired and a little overwhelmed by everything. I'm sure we will be back. I just wanted something to tide him over for a little until we can get a better sense of what all we need to get. Also, since he's in a strange house, hopefully having more stuff that he knows is his will make him feel a little more comfortable."

"Let me just give you one last piece of unsolicited advice," the manager said.

Before I could protest, he added, "Get used to it, because if you're a parent, every other parent in the world will tell you how you SHOULD be doing the job. Kids, especially when they're around his age don't need nearly as many toys as some people think. They have such active imaginations that they can, and will, make anything into toys. That's a trade-secret, now. Don't go telling anyone that I said to not buy their kids toys!" he finished with a laugh.

I laughed as well, and then shook his hand, thanking him again for allowing us to shop as he let us out of the store. As he closed the gate behind us, I caught Zach letting out a big yawn just before I noticed that Noah's face was hard as if he was upset about something.

"What's wrong?"
"Nothing," he said, tersely.

"It's not nothing. Did I overstep, or something?"

"I'm not exactly sure what I think, but we'll talk about it later. Right now, we need to get back home and unpack all Zach's things that you bought him. Don't we, champ?" he responded and quickly diverted attention to his son, still in his arms.

"Is this about the money? You know it's not like I have to worry about money, and I want to spend it."

Noah just sighed. "Look, yes, it's about the money, but we're going to talk about it later. It's something that we'll talk about, just the two of us. AFTER Zach's gone to sleep. Sorry, I'm trying really hard to keep it bottled up, since there's no reason for Zach to witness this."

"Daddy?" Zach piped in, hearing his name. "Are you and Scott mad?" His eyes were wide with fear, and his bottom lip had begun to tremble.

Both Noah and I responded "No!" simultaneously. Noah put Zach down on a nearby bench, and sat next to him, while I followed suit on the other side of Zach.

"Sometimes when two people disagree about something, they get a little upset. Right now, I'm a little upset at Scott, but we're going to talk about it later, and everything will be fine, I promise," Noah explained to his son, gently rubbing the boy's back.

Zach looked up at his father, a glimmer of hope spreading through his face.

"You mean it? I don't like when people get mad, because when Mommy gets mad, she gets mean."

"He means it, little buddy, we're not going to get mean. I think this is all a misunderstanding," I added.

Noah nodded his head in agreement before responding, "That's probably the case. We're in uncharted water in our relationship, Scott. We just haven't had time to talk about issues before they come up yet. Now, I know a little boy who probably wants to get back to the house and play with his new toys!" He added, changing the subject.

"That's me!" Zach said excitedly.

He scooped up his son, while I gathered up all the bags we had accumulated, and we headed out to the car. The entire way, Zach was regaling us with the order he was going to play with his new toys, which seemed to change constantly. Noah strapped Zach in, and we pulled out of the parking lot. By the time I turned onto the road, I noticed Zach was quiet. A quick glance to the backseat confirmed he'd already fallen asleep.

As I drove home, I held Noah's hand, but the silence was a little uncomfortable. It reminded me of a time that Steve and I had gotten into an argument on the way to a dinner party, but hadn't made up by the time we got there. The entire time, we were trying to act as if nothing was wrong between the two of us.

"Are we ok?" I asked him quietly.

"Not until we have a chance to talk. I just didn't realize how much it would bother me, but we'll be fine."

"You know that I'm not entirely sure why you're upset, right?"

"Yeah, and the rational part of me is working overtime to keep the irrational side from holding that against you. I'm sorry. I was going to bring it up later; I just didn't want to start something in front of Zach."
"I know," I responded, squeezing his hand. "We'll talk once we get him into bed. I don't think he's going to wake up again tonight. I'm actually impressed he made it this long considering all we've been through."

"Yeah, I think he's down for the count. That was a good idea telling him how many of each thing Zach could have. It made him choose what he really wanted instead of us having to be the bad guys. I shouldn't have given him free range like that," Noah said with a smile.

"No, it was perfect, besides, I thought of it a little too late. The system worked a lot better when you told him how many he could have from the beginning. And you handled the doll a lot better than I would have."

"I noticed your reaction. Even with my limited opportunities, I learned quickly that rule number one as a parent is that if it makes a child happy, and isn't going to hurt him, then his happiness is the top priority."

I squeezed his hand again. Silence settled back in the car, but it was more comfortable. There was still a little tension, but it was far less than it had been. I knew that whatever the issue was, we'd deal with it and come to a solution.

When we got home, Noah carried Zach into the bedroom. He woke while Noah was undressing him just long enough to say, "Night-night Daddy. Night-night Scott. I love you," before he drifted away again to dreamland.

Noah finished tucking him and shut his bedroom door as I started washing Zach's new clothes. Once they were going, I joined him on the couch. We sat there in silence for a few minutes before I opened up the conversation.

"So, I'm not exactly sure what upset you. You know I'm not doing anything intentionally to hurt you, or to come between you and Zach."

"It's not that at all. The way you acted with Zach, pushing him to try new things, helping him choose shirts and suggesting a more age-appropriate toy, were all perfect. You seem to be a natural at being a father. No, it's about the money."

Before he could continue, I cut him off.

"Look, Noah, you know I have plenty of money, and I want to spend it on you and Zach," I explained.

"I know, and that's not the problem. My issue is that I have some money, enough to support me and Zach for a little while, at least. However, I don't have a job, and I don't really contribute anything financially to this relationship. Now you want us to move in, and you're paying for everything. I'm just a little worried that I'm going to become some houseboy or something. Sorry if that sounds stupid."

"It doesn't sound stupid. Well, maybe a little," I added with a little grin, hoping he would realize I was joking. He smiled as well, so I knew he did. "I'm just used to paying for things, and it's not like it bothers me at all to do so. But I don't want you feeling like you're just a kept man. I know you didn't finish college. What is it you want to do? Maybe getting a job will make us a little more even in terms of what we bring to the table."

"I want to get into graphic design, but I really want to get a degree in it first. I was just always worried about the time and financial commitment. I didn't want to have to take out student loans, and have to spend the next decade struggling to pay them back. Also, I was worried I'd have to move, or would have to give up some of my time with Zach."

"Well, how about a practical solution. Now that you have sole custody, and I don't expect that to change anytime soon, you don't have to worry about losing time with Zach. You can look into taking courses online, so you can work from here. You may be busy, but at least you'll be around if Zach ever needs you for anything. Hell, I'll even pay."

"No!" Noah responded, a little too emphatically. "No, I don't want you to pay. I really want it to be something I do for myself. The idea of online classes, however, is genius. Besides, since you work from home, I'll get to spend lots of time with you," he added, with a little bit of a sappy tone to his voice.

"What about a compromise. Instead of you taking out student loans, I can loan you the money. I can even charge you interest, if it makes you feel better. We'll draft up an agreement and everything. The money gets put to a good use, and you aren't feeling like you're reliant on me for anything. How does that sound?"

"Actually, that sounds great," he said with a big grin. He leaned over and kissed me gently. "Just promise me that I can pay for things sometimes."

"That I can do; just please realize that I WANT to spend my money on you and Zach. I know that we're just starting out, and things like financials issues can eat away at a relationship. While we're living together, I'd like for you to think of the money just being for the three of us – not just mine. I do understand that it may be difficult for you, though."

"I'd like that, too. As I start looking at schools and start feeling like I'm doing something with my life, I'm sure it'll become easier. We ARE just starting out, even though we seemed to have skipped a lot of the normal early dating steps. However, you," he said, grinning, "are far from normal," leaning in to kiss me again.

I responded to the kiss, and slowly the passion began to grow, as he slipped his tongue into my mouth. I leaned back, pulling him on top of me, as we began to make out on the couch. I could feel his excitement as we slowly rubbed our crotches together, and I'm sure he could feel mine.

After a few minutes, I broke the kiss and let out a big yawn.

"I'm sorry, but I'm exhausted. We've had a crazy two days, and I think I just need to get some sleep."

As if on cue, Noah let out a large yawn of his own. "Yeah, that was nice though," he said, leaning down to kiss me again.

"That it was," I said, blushing a little.

He climbed off of me, and I stood up. "Let me get you some sheets, or something. Hopefully the couch will be comfortable enough. If it's not, you can always conquer Sarah and Tom's bed for the night, since they won't be home. Tomorrow, we'll get the rooms squared away, and you'll have a real bed."

As I walked away, I jumped as he squeezed my ass.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist," Noah said with a giggle.

I laughed, turned around and gave him another kiss, squeezing his ass. It was much firmer than I expected.

"Turnabout is fair play," I said as he jumped.

I found an extra set of sheets and a pillow for Noah, and gave him one last kiss goodnight. As I was heading back to my bedroom, I remembered the laundry, and moved it to the dryer. I'd deal with wrinkles in the morning. I quickly got ready for bed and fell asleep almost immediately.