THE ALARM rang shrilly, and Brock groaned. Fuck, it felt like he hadn’t had any sleep at all.
Someone reached over, turned the sound off. “Bee, it’s Saturday, man. Do you have to go in?”
He rubbed his face. “Got a call at noon I have to take.”
“I’ll wake you at eleven. I promise.” A soft kiss closed his eyes, easing him right back into sleep.
He nuzzled into his pillow and let himself drift into dreams.
Before he knew it, there was the scent of eggs and bacon, coffee, and a tiny hand patting his cheek. “Daddy Bee. Daddy Bee. Breakfast!”
He blinked his eyes open and there was Josie, face right in front of him. “Hey, honey.”
“Mornin’. Daddy bringed your breakfast.” She pointed to the bedside table, the tray there.
“Wow. Breakfast in bed. I can’t remember the last time I had that.” He sat up and arranged the pillows so he could lean back comfortably.
“I help?” She crawled up next to him.
He couldn’t help but wonder how helpful she’d been with Eric. Or how much Eric had pushed himself. Was the man out there in a chair, pale and sweating and panting?
He reached for the tray and put it on his lap. “It looks really good, honey.”
“Daddy made eggies.” She picked up a fork and handed it to him, then picked up a tiny one and started eating a little plate of eggs herself.
He waved his fork for a moment and then dug in. “Hey, these are good.”
She nodded, eating happily, periodically jabbering at him. There was fruit, coffee, juice.
“So what’s Daddy doing now?”
“Is out there.” She pointed to the bedroom door.
“Do you know what he’s doing?” He put his tray on the bedside table.
She shook her head. “Daddy said, eat with Bee.”
“Okay, honey. You keep eating, I’ll be right back.” After he found out what Eric, who was supposed to be on bed rest but had made breakfast anyway, was doing. Eric, who was not even supposed to lift five pounds, but had brought him breakfast in bed. Eric was leaning against the kitchen wall and drinking a cup of coffee, eyes closed, more than a little pale.
“I am going to dig out those handcuffs we bought that time at the adult shop and cuff you to the damn bed. Make you pee into a bottle.”
“What? How was breakfast?”
“It was good. I hope it was worth it.” He went over to Eric and wrapped his arm around the man.
“It was. You deserved breakfast.” Eric leaned into him, leaned hard.
“I can live without you making me breakfast, Eric.”
“I know.”
“Then why did you?” He half led, half dragged Eric out of the kitchen.
“Because you deserved it. Where are we going?”
“You’re going back to bed. I’m going to have to see about getting weekend help if you’re going to insist on getting up and doing things.”
“Nonsense.” Eric let him take them to the bedroom, where Josie was waiting, eating berries.
It was only as he helped lower Eric onto the bed that he realized he hadn’t even considered taking Eric to the hospital bed in the living room.
“Daddy!” Josie smiled, leaning over to kiss Eric. Brock shot one hand out, making sure her little hand didn’t push against the healing flesh.
“Did you eat?” he asked Eric. There was still some egg and toast left on his plate, although it was probably cold at this point.
“I had some fruit and coffee, yeah.”
He grunted and handed over his plate. “Have some toast or something.” Fruit wasn’t enough to heal on, right?
Eric took one piece of toast, nibbled slowly, eyelids heavy.
“You look tired, baby.” Was Eric getting enough rest here? Did he need to hire a nanny in twenty-four seven until Eric was a lot better?
“I’ve been up a while.” Eric settled back.
Josie watched him with a fond smile. “My daddy.”
“That’s right. He needs to sleep, though, so why don’t we go and color or something.” He glanced over at the clock. He had over an hour before his conference call.
“Okay.” She nodded and scrambled off the bed. “Love you, Daddy.”
“Mmm-hmm. Love you, Jo-jo.” Eric was already dozing, head bobbing.
Without really thinking about it, Brock found himself bending and kissing the top of Eric’s head before following Josie out into the living room.
Josie waited for him, grabbed his hand, and walked with him, singing some silly song that was making her laugh and laugh. He couldn’t help but smile, that little laugh infectious. For all she was a lot of work, it was nice to have her around, cheerful.
She settled to coloring easily, humming under her breath, little feet kicking. It didn’t take much to make her happy.
He grabbed his briefcase and pulled out the file he was supposed to have already gone through for the noon call. Josie let him read most of the file before she came to him for juice and help in the bathroom and help getting a doll from the toy box. They puttered through the rest of the hour, and when it was time for his meeting, Eric was sound asleep, so he put her in front of the television with one of her movies and sat down to dial in.
They were two hours into negotiations when he noticed that Josie was gone and his bedroom door was open. God, he hoped she hadn’t done anything to hurt Eric. She’d never do it on purpose, of course, but…. Thank God for cordless phones. He got up and headed that way to check things out.
Eric was sitting on the bed with her, reading her a book, her cheek on his bandaged chest. Neither of them saw him, they were just focused on the story, on being together.
“Daddy! Look! Daddy Bee!”
Eric nodded. “That’s right, Jo. That’s the knight who’s coming to rescue the princess from the dragon.” Eric grinned. “But what happens before the knight comes?”
“Princess tells dragon, be nice and have a cookie!”
“That’s right, Jo. She does it…”
Josie finished. “All by herself.”
Brock chuckled.
“What was that, Mr. Vencenza?”
He backed away and cleared his throat. “Sorry, go on.” And on and on and on. He was ready for this call to be over.
Eric looked up at him, eyes twinkling, then winked. He bit the side of his cheek to keep from laughing out loud.
Eric met his eyes, then mouthed, “You’re still hot.”
“Vencenza! Are you still there?”
“Um. Sorry, I think I’m having issues with my line. You’ve had my input on what you needed, right?”
“Yes. Yes. Thank you for your help.”
“You’re welcome. I’m sorry I have to duck out early.” He hung up the phone without listening to any of the other pleasantries.
Eric grinned at him, unrepentant. “You deserve Saturdays off.”
He shook his head. “I deserve—you say that a lot.”
“It’s true.”
Josie was being very quiet. When he looked down, she was sound asleep.
He sat on his side of the bed. “Your hero, huh?”
“Yeah. You think I’m the world’s biggest moron?”
“I think you’re forgetting all the reasons why you dumped your hero.”
The smile faded off Eric’s face, just slid away. “No. I haven’t forgotten. I’m just… enjoying you.”
And didn’t he feel like a heel for making that happy smile disappear? “Sorry, baby. This whole thing has thrown me.”
“You don’t have to apologize.” Eric patted his hand. “Let me get her into her bed and I’ll get out of yours, huh?”
“Why? You both look comfortable as you are, and it’s not like I’m going back to sleep anytime soon.”
Eric sighed, the sound soft, low. “I’ll leave her here, then. She’s gotten heavy.”
“She’s going to get heavier.”
“I’ll be able to lift her soon.”
He narrowed his eyes and pointed at Eric. “You make sure you’re actually able to before you try.”
Eric’s lips parted. Fuck, that was still sexy.
Brock bit back his groan. “You want to watch a movie or something?”
“Uh-huh….” Eric was staring at him, watching him closely. That stare was unnerving. Arousing.
He got up and moved to the TV, grabbing the remote and tossing it back on the mattress. “What do you want? Action?”
“If there are explosions, we’ll have to move her.”
He wasn’t sure moving her was going to be a good idea. It would leave them alone.
“We could watch a black-and-white.” His one weakness—Eric was the only one who knew of his soft spot for the golden age of Hollywood.
“I would love that.”
The funny thing was, Brock knew Eric meant it.
He put in Top Hat and went back to the bed, ready to watch Fred and Ginger as he and Eric had done more nights than he could remember. He slid in next to Eric, who relaxed against him. He put his arm around Eric’s shoulders, refusing to think about what this might mean.