change of heart

15

Tommy and Marc were incredulous when Jacob explained the plan.

"Why didn't you just talk to him?" Marc asked.

"Really?" Jacob scoffed, "Oh hey, Troye! Sorry for not wanting you and your baby, how are you? Ya that'd go over well."

Tommy laughed and before the friends knew it, they were outside the club. Jacob took a deep breath and pushed through the door. Suddenly he came face to face with a woman holding a toddler.

"Can I help you?" She smiled.

"We are here to see Brandon," Jacob said.

"Oh great, he said you were coming. I'm Dani, I help with operations," the woman said.

"I'm Jacob and this is Tommy and Marc."

"Who's this little guy?" Tommy said and reached out and took the toddlers hand. Jacob smiled, Tommy was so good with everyone. He wished he was more like Tommy.

"This here is Storme," Dani answered.

"Oh he's so cute!" Marc gushed, "how old is he?"

"Oh, he belongs to one of our employees. He turned a year in June so about 18 months now."

Jacob's face paled and it also hit Tommy and Marc at that point that they were face to face with Troye and Jacob's child.

"It's a boy," Jacob said mostly to himself.

Dani laughed, "Ummm yep. I guess Storme can go for any gender, but this little guy is a boy. His dad is working on some choreography and I just stole him for a little because he's too cute."

"Can I hold him?" Tommy asked. Jacob shot Tommy a look.

"I don't see why not, he's really good for everyone. He was sick yesterday though, so if he coughs or anything I apologize in advance," Dani smiled and shuffled Storme to Tommy.

Storme looked at Tommy and said, "Hi!"

Tommy gasped.

"He can talk," Jacob said in surprise.

Dani laughed, "I mean he can't hold a conversation, but he is pretty advanced in his speaking, Baby said that the doctor was really impressed. Storme will sometimes even string a few words together and many 18-month-olds only know like 20 words."

"You sound very involved," Marc said.

"Oh, well we all adore Storme's daddy very much and love when he can bring Storme here with him," Dani replied.

"Kind of a weird place for a baby," Jacob said.

Dani frowned, "His dad would never bring him here during club hours, only like when he comes in like this for staff meetings or training or choreography."

Jacob nodded and looked back towards Storme. Storme looked at Jacob and smiled. Jacob couldn't help but smile back. The boy had bright blue eyes like Troye, curly brown hair- darker than Troye's natural color, but lighter than Jacob's- he had a darker complexion than Troye too, much more like Jacob's. Jacob couldn't help but think how the little boy was a perfect mix of them both and it made his heart hurt.

"He seems tall," Marc chimed in.

"Oh he is, like in the 90% or so. The doctor said he is long and lean. We tease Baby that Storme will be bigger than he is by next year as Baby is like so tiny. But, he said Storme gets his height from his 'sperm donor'," Dani said putting the last two words in air quotes and whispering them a bit so Storme didn't hear her as well. And Jacob went from having his heart hurt to feeling the air knocked out of him.