Page 66 of Forgotten Prejudice

And although I wanted nothing more than to get under the sheets and join them, I turned around and stepped out of the room, making sure not to wake them. After all, we’d have tomorrow to find out how serious I actually was about making Ash mine again.

Kai

“Where do they poop?” Paris asked while sticking his nose to the glass separating us from the seals’ tank.

“I don’t know, kiddo. In the water, maybe?” Despite how cool it was seeing the seals swimming by up close, I put my hand on his shoulder and tried to pull him away from the glass, which looked dirty as fuck with all those handprints and smearing.

“Mommy said that if I need to go potty, I need to get out of the water first.”

Ash chuckled from beside us, and I side-eyed him before crouching down and poking Paris’s nose.

“Well, you’re not a baby seal, are you?”

Shaking his head, Paris flashed me a toothy grin. “Nope.”

“A baby lion, then?”

He laughed. “No, Daddy.”

Pursing my lips, I hummed. “How about a baby monkey?”

Paris placed his small hands on my cheeks and leaned close until we were nose to nose. “I’m a baby goat,” he whispered.

Ash was cracking up on the sidelines, and I had to hold back from doing the same before I picked Paris into my arms and lifted him to sit on my shoulders.

Checking my phone, I saw it was already past noon, meaning it was lunchtime. We had so much fun that I didn’t even notice how late it had gotten.

“Do baby goats eat hot dogs for lunch?”

Paris roared a yes while kicking his legs and pulling my hair. What a little bundle of joy that kid is. And with a quick glance at Ash, who was still laughing, obviously enjoying the show, we started walking in search of food.

“Why don’t you save us a table while Paris and I go buy some hot dogs?” Ash asked as we reached the lunch area. Since it was packed with other families, it sounded like a good idea.

“Sure.”

Before I could say another word, Paris had already dashed toward the hot dog booth, with Ash chasing him down. My kid was a runner, and the first time he escaped us this morning, Ash nearly had a heart attack. It was funny—dangerous, but funny. Besides, he never ran too far, and I almost always caught him easily. Except that one time at the spring festival… which is better not to mention to Zoe.

I didn’t plan for us to go to the zoo, but Ash had suggested it this morning over breakfast when Paris kept asking about elephants. Apparently, he dreamed about being one. Since it was Saturday, and I’d taken the day off work, we came here. And thank God for that because so far, it was the perfect fucking day. Especially because it felt like a date, and Paris, without even knowing it, was the perfect wingman. Or wingkid, for that matter. I won’t lie and say I didn’t take advantage of the opportunities he got us into, like taking the family ride on the zoo’s train or hugging them both super close in each and every photo we took. We were all having a great time so far, so I could comfortably call it a win-win.

Squinting, I tried spotting them in the crowd and did. Paris was currently in Ash’s arms while pointing over the image menu, showing what he wanted. It was amazing how fast they’d gotten along, but not at all surprising. After all, if Paris was my kid, which he was, loving Ash Sage ran in his blood.

“Hey,” someone said, taking my attention away from my boys.

Turning my head, I saw a guy standing beside me. He looked a bit familiar, but not enough for me to remember his name. Noticing that, the guy pointed at himself.

“Andrew. We used to go to the same gym?”

Oh shit. Now I knew who he was. We’d fucked a few times after working out.

“Oh yeah. How are you doing, man?” To be fair, I was more familiar with his ass than his face, so no wonder I couldn’t recognize him at first.

“I’m good. It’s funny I met you here.” He smiled and then pretended to look around before returning his eyes back to me, not being modest about checking me out. “You look really good. You know, I was so sad when you left the gym.”

Not interested in having this conversation, I faked a smile while rubbing the back of my neck. “Yeah, well, I didn’t like the vibe there. But I found a better place, so it all worked out.”

He stepped a bit closer. “Oh, really? What place? Maybe I’ll check it out?”

Now I also remembered why I’d stopped contacting him. The dude was clingy AF. Thankfully, before Andrew could sign up to my new gym, Paris ran toward me.