28

Hal.

Jesse was in the naughty corner, facing the wall.

He had on a long legged onesie with the hood pulled over his head. I was seated on the couch, a magazine opened on my lap. I pretended to be engrossed in the magazine whenever Jesse turned his head around to pout at me but I watch him when he turns back to face the wall.

I left the mess he had made so that when the time was up, he'd clean it up. My baby boy has managed to finger paint my marble floors, every color of the rainbow. After telling him to face the wall, I had taken a couple of pictures and sent some to Jeff who replied with a laughing emoji.

My phone vibrates against the couch and I looked down at it. His time in the naughty corner was up.

"Baby you can come out now." I said. I wasn't even done talking when Jesse turns around and ran right to me, giving me little time to toss the shit magazine aside and accommodate him on my lap. He wrapped his arms around my neck and pressed his nose against mine.

"Are you angwy with me daddy?" He asked and I rub my nose against his.

"Never, baby. But you were naughty."

Jesse sighed and pressed a kiss against my cheek, resting his head against mine. My adorable boy.

"Daddy can we bake a cake?" Jesse asked me and I hummed, trying to remember if we had everything we needed in order to bake. There was nothing.

"We're going to have to go shopping, kitten."

"Yeow." Jesses tried to meow and my heart grows to twice it's size.

"It's meow."

"It's yeow, silly daddy." Jesse giggled, poking my face with his fingers.

"Daddy was being silly." I agreed.

"Say yeow, daddy." Jesse said, cupping my face in his two hands. His face so close to mine, blue hair almost in my eyes. I raise my hands and adjust his hair a bit, bopping his nose twice.

"Nope."

"Pweeeeease..."

"Yeow."

"More loud!"

I chuckled at his energy but tried to say yeow as loudly as I could. He was so pleased he let out a loud squeal. It took us about ten minutes to get ready to go to the store. Jesse has refused to change out of his onesie so I made him put on some Adidas slides and held his hands as we walked out the house.

The nearest store was fifteen minutes away from the house and it was a beautiful day out so we walked. My home was five minutes away from the next house it was spaced out wonderfully with trees and flowers, quiet and scenic.

Also private.

So I let Jesse skip in front of me, his arms spread out as he turns to smile at me. Singing Show and Tell by Melanie Martinez.

"Daddy come dance with me?" Jesse asked, holding his hand out to me. I take his hand and pull him to me, I spun him around, chuckling as he laughed loudly, dancing as smoothly as he could I'm socked feet and slides.

"Baby we have to go and get the flour for your cake."

"Can't we just buy the cake?"

"You get two choices baby. We either bake or we go to a playground." I said to him and he stops dancing, his brows furrowed as he pondered what to do.

"Can we do both please?"

I shake my head. "You only get one."

"The cake. Yummy nummy cake." He sang, dragging me forward by my hand. I reached out and grabbed him by the waist, spinning him around, loving the way he squealed.

"Oh my gosh!"

Jesse kept giggling and squealing and I wanted to hear more of it. Hell, I could listen to him for the rest of my life if he'd have me. I finally let him down and he takes off into a run, me not far behind.

This silly kitten.

When I finally catch up to me, he wraps his arms around my neck and jumped, his legs wrapped around my waist. I held him up with my hands under his thighs.

"Daddy..."

"Yes kitten?"

"Do you know I'm happy?" Jesse asked and I stopped walking, looking right at him.

"It's... good to know and hear that, baby."

"You make me happy and so lovewy." Jesse said and I nuzzle my nose into his neck, earning a giggle. I continued walking, we weren't far away from the store and Jesse kept talking. Going on and on about bubbles and episodes of fairly odd parents and spongebob.

"What do you like watching?"

"The news."

I laughed when Jesse sticks out his tongue. "Blerh."

"Supernatural."

"Scary."

"New Girl."

"Dunno who that." Jesse said, a slight look of confusion on his face. He looked so adorable I wanted to coo. We finally got to the store and I place him in the trolley. There were not a lot of people around so I led him towards the breakfast aisle and Jesse quickly grabbed four boxes of pancake mix and down the bakes and food aisle, we got cake mix.

"Cereal too."

"Which one?"

"Bix!" He cheered grabbing a pack of weetabix and placing it in the trophy. From then on we grabbed a whole milk, three trifles, a pint of Hageen daaz ice cream.

Jesse also grabbed mangos and peaches and a pack of grape, even matured cheese and Fanta tropical. His eyes had gone so wide when he sees the size of the bottle.

"I'm sippy cup?"

"Alright, kitten." I said, pressing a kiss to his forehead. We go through all the aisle and Jesse somehow lucked two packs of butter scotch candy.

"Your fav."

"Thank you, baby."

He also placed four packs of golden Oreos into the trolley with a big grin, like he was very proud of himself. They were my favorite ones. Jesse's favorite Oreos were the thin ones that he liked to dip into his tea.

The woman at the check out doesn't even blink an eye. She checks out everything in the card, printed out my receipt when I tapped my card against the screen and hands it to me.

I ended up pushing my cart all the way outside, Jesse hopping out of the cart and helping with the least heaviest bags.

"Daddy I want a bath."

"After we bake, angel." I said, winking at my perfect boy. The walk back to the house seemed shorter that it wa before. I let Jesse go in first and he just flings his slides wherever and runs straight into the kitchen and I go after him.

I found Jesse waiting for me.

"You're too slow, Daddy bear."

"Or you're just too fast angel." I said and placing the bags with me on the kitchen counter. Jesse helps place the cartons of milk in the fridge while I put up the cereals and other stuff.

We quickly get the cake done and pushed in the over, the timer set and then it was bath time. I set the same timer on my phone and Jesse sings Dance Monkey by Tones and I as we made our way to the bathroom.

This time I used another lush bomb, the smell of peaches in the air and the color of the water almost that of the color of peach. Jesse waits patiently for me to have the water drawn up before helping him out of his onesie.

I let Jesse sink into the water, feeling proud and happy at the look of glee on his face.

"Daddy can you please read me that book? The sad one."

"Before the sun sets?" I asked him.

Once I got the book, I dimmed the lights, making everything look like soft gold with my baby boy humming in the bath tub, his gaze never straying away from me.

I made myself comfortable beside the tub, the book laid out on my lap as I read out from it. We were at the part where Adam and Jensen had gotten divorced.

"Do you think that would happen to us?" Jesse asked.

"Never." I said, looking up from the book.

"You never go way?" Jesse asked in his adorable little voice. I pushed my fingers through his hair and pressed a kiss to Jesse's temple.

"Never going anywhere. You're going to have to beat me off with a stick if you do get tired of me." I said and Jesse shakes his head. Jesse moved closer to the side of the tub and placed his hands on the rim of the tub, resting his chin on his arm.

"Never gonna let you voosh..."

"Voosh?"

"Go way."

I put the book aside and grabbed the shampoo and conditioner, squirting a bit on Jesse's hair and washing it, chuckling as Jesse squirms in the water. Jesse kept moving around and we kept talking about everything and anything.

I could just sit and listen to him. I could just sit and watch him. It was one of the things I loved about our relationship. The way he smiles and it reaches his eyes was one of the things I loved about him.

Like his laugh, his ever growing confidence, the sound of his giggles, how he always smells like home to me. Home.

My alarms go off and I got Jesse out of the tub and into a bathrobe, a towel wrapped around his head. By the time we got to the kitchen, the oven went off and I took the cake out.

"I wanna color the cake."

We had gotten the ready made frosting and sprinkles. We spent the rest of the time decorating the cake once it was cool.

"Daddy, are you happy?"

"When I'm with you, kitten." I said and he smiled very big.

"Me too."

"Can we eat the cake now?"

"After you put on clothes, lovely." I said and Jesse cuddles up to me, he wraps his hands around mine and we walk to the bedroom. He picks out one of my graphic shirts and slipped it over his head and one of his lacy shorts, his blue hair falling into his eyes, no longer dripping.

"You look adorable." I said and he blushed so prettily. Cheeks a lovely shade of pink. Jesse turns from side to side, giving me his best pose. As a man who cannot deny his angel anything, you better believe I took a lot of pictures.

Jesse wraps his arms around my waist and looked right at me.

"Daddy..."

"Yes, kitten?"

"Cake time? Then nap time?" He asked.

"Let's go then, kitten. Cake waits for no one." Jesse took my hand in his and I let him drag me to the kitchen and gasped loudly at the cake like he hadn't been the one to decorate it.

"It's so pretty."

"But not as pretty as you." I said and felt my heart swell twice it's size at the sight of his pink cheeks. I cut him a large piece and placed it on his blue plate with tiny clouds on it. I let Jessie sit on the kitchen counter and fed him the cake.

"Lemme give you."

Jesse grabs the spoonful of cake and raised it to my lips.

"Daddy say ahhhhh..."

I shake my head fondly at my baby but do as he says. Jesse feeds me the cake, doing a little wiggle dance on the flat surface. I moved closer and Jesse wraps his legs around my waist.

He drank from his sippy cup until he was full. I wiped his face off with a napkin.

"Thank you, daddy bear." My kitten looked like he was fighting back a yawn.

Jesse wrapped his arms around my neck and leaned closer. So close that his eyes cross. This adorable kitten. I take him over to the couch and we cuddled up next to the tv.

I flipped on the tv, a rerun of friends playing in the background as Jesse's eyes droop. He looked like he was fighting a yawn. I didn't even notice I started humming, stroking his skin softly as he drifted off to sleep.

My perfect little.