you're the little thing, my saving grace

Chapter 17

"Vegas, listen to your mom and, please, you have my phone number, if anything — call me right away."

"Hey, hey, he's going on vacation with his mom, not with a sttarange. Why these instructions?"

Pete rolls his eyes, looking with a bit of disbelief at Layan, who for no reason at all decided to take their son on vacation. I would like to believe that really with his mom, and not with a stranger, flashes through his head.

"Let it be so. But I'm in touch. Is it clear to both of you?"

"Yes!" Layan and little Vegas exclaim at the same time.

When the ferry taking them away disappears in the distance, Pete turns around at the footsteps behind him.

Vegas.

Pete still blushes, remembering how he woke up that morning after a night of drinking champagne and found Vegas sleeping next to him. He just stared at him for a while, and then his hand involuntarily went to Vegas' cheek. Pete only stroked it affectionately a couple of times, but - Murphy's law - Vegas's lips curved in a grin:

"If the morning starts with such pleasures, the day promises to be wonderful."

Immediately withdrawing his hand, Pete blurted out the first thing that came to his hungover mind:

"The hair was stuck. I put it away so it wouldn't get in your eye."

"You've never been good at lying, Pete," Vegas's hands got on his waist in no time. "Especially if you need to disguise your feelings."

"Don't talk nonsense," Pete objected then, gently trying to free himself from Vegas's hands.

But at that moment, a cheerful voice sounded outside the door:

"Dad! Dad! I taught Pistachio to give me the right paw! Let's go and look!"

"Vegas, stop!" Pete responded in a panic, abruptly pulling away from Vegas and pushing him to the floor.

"Why?" Vegas giggled, rubbing his back, which was painfully pressed to the floor. "You could have been gentler."

"Under the bed, Vegas! My son must not see you here! What will he think?! The children already know everything now!"

"Well, that's fine. It will save us the need to explain ourselves."

"Are you kidding me? There's nothing to explain here. And if you don't hide, I won't talk to you for a week, even over any working stuff!"

Vegas made a face at him and did what he was told anyway. But little Vegas, who ran into his father's room, suspected something anyway, looking around curiously. So Pete quickly escorted him back out the door, promising to come later and see what their smart cat had learned.

Pete is chasing those memories away from himself, but it was clear from Vegas' smiles that he was not going to forget what Pete might have told him there.

"Answer honestly: I said something unnecessary… Oh, Vegas, don't grin at me, I'm seriously asking."

"How can I say…"