Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 81358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 407(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 407(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
“So much fun!” Jake quickly pulled away. He looked at the flowers in Dev’s hands, nose wrinkling. “Did you bring me flowers?”
“No!” Dev laughed. “They were a gift for me.”
Jake grinned at him and looked at Kai. “What are you doing here?”
“Jake!” Dev gasped. He could feel his cheeks turning red. He’d taught his son to be more polite than that.
Kai just smiled at him in his quiet way. “I kept your dad company while you were out of town, and I thought I would welcome you home today.”
“Ha!” Jake thrust both arms into the air and laughed. “I told you he’d like it if you visited.”
“You were right.”
“Are you going to stay for dinner?” Jake suddenly asked. “Dev promised to make my favorite as a welcome-home dinner. Lasagna. Do you like lasagna?”
“I love lasagna. I would be happy to have dinner with you if it’s okay with your dad,” Kai replied, with a wink at Dev.
“That’s fine with me.”
“And cake. You made cake, right, Dev?”
Dev could only smile at him. Jake was a whirlwind of energy, the words just sort of pouring out of his mouth. “I haven’t made cake yet. I figured you might have had enough cake at camp.”
Jake moaned and dramatically slumped. “No! Of course I didn’t have enough cake. We had only a little square with yesterday’s dinner since it was the last night.” He held up both hands forming a square so small that Jake could barely look through it. “Besides, camp cake is not as good as your cake.”
“Do you hear this?” Dev said, looking over at Kai. “He’s back less than two minutes and he’s already buttering me up for cake.”
“He has told me that you make excellent cake.”
Dev shook his head. He didn’t think it was possible to feel this happy again. “Not you too.” He pointed in warning at Kai, but he couldn’t keep a serious expression. “Let’s get your stuff and then we can discuss things like cake on the way home.”
Jake started to take off toward the buses while Dev threaded his fingers through Kai’s again. His son didn’t get more than a few steps away before he turned back. If he noticed or thought it was strange that Dev and Kai were holding hands, he never let it show.
“Did you know that I saw Justin in a tree while I was at camp?”
Deep and free laughter erupted from Kai, placing the man off balance and causing him to bump into Dev. Apparently the assassin hadn’t been as stealthy as he’d thought. A chuckle left Dev and he shook his head.
“I can’t wait to tell him,” Kai gasped.
“Can we go see him and Gabriel in Colorado later this summer?”
Dev groaned and pointed toward the buses. “Get your stuff first. Then we discuss cake and maybe a shower for you. Then we might talk about Colorado,” Dev said, pointing the flowers in his free hand toward the buses.
Jake moaned like only a child exasperated by his father could and hurried off to where they were unloading all their bags. Dev looked over at Kai, who was smiling broadly. “Regretting your new life choices yet?”
“No, and I never will. This is the best day of my life.”
Dev leaned in and claimed a quick kiss. “And it’s only the beginning.”
Epilogue
One year later
Kai paused near the connecting door. The giggles of Jake and his best friend, Kyle, had died down. It was likely the two boys had finally passed out after their incredibly exhausting day. It was good they were asleep. Tomorrow was an early flight home.
He picked up the bottle of champagne he’d ordered with their room service snack and carried it out to the balcony where Dev was currently lounging with his feet up as he watched the fireworks exploding in the sky. The white castle was lit up in a variety of colored lights, but at least they were away from the crowds at last.
For his love of Dev and Jake, Kai had conquered the most terrifying place on earth.
Walt Disney World.
In his nearly two decades as an assassin, he’d infiltrated palaces, killed world leaders, and escaped from locations that most would have deemed impossible. He’d survived gunshots, explosions, and even a couple of poisoning attempts. Nothing had prepared him for the chaos that was a week-long Disney vacation.
They’d brought along Jake’s friend, thinking that he’d have more fun if he had another person his own age to explore the parks with. As a result, they’d spent a good chunk of their time running from one thing to the other while weaving through enormous crowds. Luckily, the heat had kept the boys returning to the hotel pool for a chunk of each day.
But out of all of them, Dev had to be the most exhausted. Not only was he stuck trying to wrangle two nine-year-old boys, but he had to keep an eye on a former assassin who had less civilized ideas of how to deal with annoying people.