Dinner went very well even though Claire had to remind Gavin every ten seconds to stop talking and eat. I've never heard a kid talk so much in my life about anything and everything and I enjoyed every second of it. After dinner was over, I sent Claire and Gavin to the spare bedroom while I cleaned up the dishes.
A few seconds later I heard Gavin's yell.
***
I grabbed Gavin's hand and we took off towards the back of the house where Carter said the spare room was. I thought it was really sweet that Carter had made up a room for Gavin.
We got to the door and I pushed it open. Gavin took a step inside and let out a yell.
"WHAT THE FRIGGIN' HELL?"
He immediately ran into the room and I stood there with my mouth open, unable to muster up the ability to tell him to watch his mouth.
Carter had Toys R Us in his spare room. There was a f**king tree house in the corner! A tree house! How did he even get that in here?
I slowly took in every inch of the room and then did it again just to make sure I wasn't seeing things. Nope, there was definitely a pile of at least one hundred stuffed animals in the corner, a bunk bed with race car blankets, three Hotwheels tracks that intersected all over the room, a pile of puzzles, a drawing table filled with coloring books and crayons, and a shelf filled with multicolor bins that held cars, monster trucks, army men, leggos and God knows what else. Gavin zipped all around the room, touching everything.
"Holy shit," I muttered.
Gavin stopped his climb up into the tree house and looked at me.
"Mom, you can't say shit," he scolded.
I laughed hysterically.
"Oh yes I can. I can say shit. I'm an adult for shit's sake. You're the one that can't say shit. Shit! Shitballsack!"
I could feel the burn in the back of my throat and a sting in my eyes that indicated I was going to cry. Shit! That did it. Now I was in love with the jerk. He bought my...our son a f**king toy store. He wouldn't have done this if he wasn't serious. I know he told me he was - several times. I wanted so much to believe him, but I didn't just have myself to think about. I couldn't really move forward and turn this into something real until I was one hundred percent certain he would never leave Gavin. He could leave me, he could change his mind about us and I knew I'd survive. But I would never, ever let my son be hurt like that. Looking around this room, thinking about how easily he let us take over his life and change whatever plans he had for his future, I knew without a doubt I wanted him to be Gavin's dad. He wasn't just a sperm donor anymore. He was a father. And I knew he would be a damn good one.
I let the tears slip out of my eyes and run down my cheeks as I smiled at our son, happily checking out all of his new toys. I heard a throat clear behind me and I whipped around to see Carter standing there sheepishly with his hands in his pockets.
"So, um, how much trouble am I in? I didn't plan on getting this much but once I got to the store, I couldn't help myself. They make Hotwheels that change color in the water, Claire! And a garbage truck named Stinky that moves on its own and picks up toys and then burps. Did you know there was something called Moon Sand? Oh, oh and Aqua Sand that strangely looks like siding insulation when you put it in the water but when you pull it out..."
I launched myself into his arms and cut off his words with my lips. He was obviously surprised but caught me easily in his arms and returned my kiss. I poured everything I had into that kiss, all of my happiness, all of my trust and all of my love. I let him know with my lips just how thankful I was to have been blessed with a man like him in my life. I could have kissed him for days and never come up for air. The only thing that made me stop was the sound of absolute silence in the room behind us.
I broke from the kiss and Carter let out a groan of complaint which made my girly parts tingle knowing that he didn't want to stop. Keeping my arms around him, I turned my head around.
"Where's Gavin?"
"Ooooh this is warm. And it makes my hands tingle," we heard Gavin say from another room.
I sighed. "Shit, what did he get into now?" I muttered as I reluctantly pulled out of Carter’s arms.
Carter started to smile but immediately got a horrified look on his face. He turned and raced out of the room before I could ask him what was wrong. I followed after him and was right on his heels when he rounded the corner to his bedroom. It was like something out of a movie. Carter jumped up and dove through the air, arms stretched out in front of him like Superman. He sailed across the room and landed on his stomach on the bed right next to Gavin, but not before smacking something out of his hand. I just stood there with my mouth open, trying to understand what the hell was going on.
"Heeeeey," Gavin complained with a frown.
Carter was face down on the bed, his shoulders shaking so hard that Gavin's body was bouncing. Was he crying? Oh my God, was he having a nervous breakdown?
"Carter, what the hell?" I asked.
"What the hell, Carter?" Gavin repeated.
"Gavin!" I scolded while Carter continued to have a seizure or whatever the hell he was doing.
"But Mooooom, he took my lotion," Gavin pouted.
I walked up to the bed to see what Gavin was pointing at. A small tube of something was by Carter’s hand on the bed. As soon as I got close enough to see it, Carter grabbed it and flipped over on his back. And now I could see that he wasn't dying from an epileptic seizure, he was laughing his ass off.
"It's not funny, Carter. You took my lotion," Gavin complained.