Chapter Text
As a librarian, Henry Fox could not say he had to deal with babies often. He obviously had the occasional kids walking in, more often than not pushed in by insistent or busy parents, who liked to pretend that Henry’s sole job was to mind their kids as they barrelled down the aisles screaming their heads off. He had nothing against kids, really – he was pretty adamant he wanted to have some one day in a very distant future, but being seemingly forever single on top of being gay made things a little more complicated than usual in that matter.
Not that Henry really thought about having kids all the way through his twenties, but still. He was a planner, as opposed to Pez, and he didn’t exactly have enough faith in his financial or mental situation yet to even think about bringing kids into the mix in the foreseeable future. Which, once again, did not even matter as of now. Because Henry Fox was in a dry spell, and could admit (not without a certain degree of shame) that his last boyfriend had been over a year and a half ago now. Not that it mattered, really. Well. Or so Henry liked to pretend.
And what if he had no one to curl around at night, no one to hold hands with at the movies and no one he could cry to when he had one of his bad days? He was fine . He had romance books, and no man in New York City could live up to those, anyway. So, it was settled. Henry was fine . He had Mr Darcy and so many fictional men to obsess over, and he’d be damned if he’d let Pez ruin those for him.
At 28 years old, Henry knew what he liked and what he certainly never wanted in his house. He was not picky, thank you very much , he simply had standards. He’d found his last boyfriend balls deep into their neighbor one night when he came home early from work, that same neighbor he’d complained about so many times to Tim, and Henry had sworn never to find himself in that same predicament ever again. And to say that Tim had agreed on most of the –very valid, once again– points he’d raised.
In the end, he didn’t seem to mind his rude manners very much, or maybe he’d just wiped them away with one particularly well placed swipe of his dick, Henry would never know. Not that he cared very much, either. He had a full time job, wonderful friends, a life he adored in New York city, and he was well on his way to publish his first novel. The mere idea almost froze him to death every time he spent more than a few customary seconds agonizing about it, but once again, he was fine .
All of that to say that Henry Fox did not really think about babies very much, up until that cold Monday evening in January when he was quite literally faced with a quite... peculiar client.
It was minus five degrees in New York city, and the day had been pretty devoid of people walking into Henry’s bookshop. It was nearing the end of the day, the small coffee shop Pez tended to at the back of the bookshop closing slowly, the last couple of people sipping on their hot chocolate almost ready to depart and brave the cold outside. Six in the evening in winter felt like the middle of the night, and it explained the deep fatigue that had taken over Henry as he worked, pushing back a couple of books into their slots on the shelves. Winter was bad for business, or at least the last couple of weeks had been. They usually made up for it during summer, with tourists swarming in the city, eager to find a new Instagrammable place to have brunch.
Opening the cafe inside the bookstore had been Pez’s idea, and Henry was grateful for his friend every single day. On more than one level, but this one the most. Opening his own bookstore in the city had taken every dime his father had left behind for Henry, and the first few months had been rough. He’d worked more than he slept, and he’d truly believed he would have to close the place down before Pez, who still worked as an apprentice chef back then, offered to open a cafe inside. They’d given it a go, and some journalist with a huge following had posted a Tiktok of the place a couple of weeks later – and the rest was history.
Henry was proud of the place. It was his baby, his proudest achievement, and his safe place. He would not have traded it for the world. Pez had graduated, decided to come work with him, and they’d be happily collaborating ever since. All things considered, it was not weird for Pez to ask Henry the most random questions throughout the day – or even to point out a few customers he believed would be a good fit for Henry. Not that Henry agreed with such behavior, obviously. But he was used to his best friend’s antics, and nothing seemed to phase him anymore.
Until that surprising Monday evening in January, where Henry’s life tilted on its axis.
“Hen darling,” Came Pez’s voice from behind the crime fiction shelf he’d only just arranged alphabetically. “Is it hunting season in New York?”
Rounding around the corner of the new fiction section, Henry rolled his eyes. “Percy, I swear to God, if this is yet another joke regarding my sex life, I will–”
Coming to an abrupt halt, Henry blinked once, then twice.
“Pez, why is there a bear in the crime section of our bookstore?”
“Oh how I’ve dreamed of hearing you say that to me so many times.”
Glaring at him, Henry looked down at the toddler who’d taken on staring at the book they’d grabbed in their chubby little hands, big brown eyes filled with fascination.
“I don’t think this is quite an appropriate subject to bring up in front of a child,” Henry said pointedly.
Said child seemed to be entirely unaware of the panic they’d caused, wrapped in a fluffy bear outfit that squeezed their chubby little body in the most adorable way. The ears at the top of its head moved as they bent over, sitting down without grace in the middle of the section, precious prize still squeezed in a surprisingly firm hold. That outfit looked awfully cozy, Henry noticed, and he wondered if they offered them in adult size.
“Do not tell me one of your stupid exes just dropped a child off at your workplace and ran,” Pez whispered, throwing Henry a panicked look.
“I’m gay,” Henry deadpanned.
“You never know. Drunken shenanigans happen.”
“I would never be that drunk. You, on the other end…”
Before Pez could ponder on the situation, a panicked man barged into the aisle, and Henry’s heart came to a stop for a good handful of seconds. Gorgeous was not even a strong enough word for the man before them, God amongst mortals who was currently running a shaky hand through his disheveled curls, eyes flickering between Pez and Henry before they settled on the child at their feet.
“Oh, thank fuck .”
And, listen. Henry had a thing for accents, sue him. And the adonis in front of him happened to be every cowboy romance main character reincarnated in a single wet dream. The Texan drawl had never been a thing for Henry, not that he knew of anyway. But then again, he was probably going to head home and listen to his very old Taylor Swift country album on repeat and cry over his newly updated list of requirements when it came to men.
Dark curls bounced on his forehead as the stranger rushed to grab a hold of the baby, totally unaware of the commotion they’d created. He picked them up quickly, cheeks flushed red and eyes filled with worry as they settled on the baby.
“What have I told you about wandering off when daddy’s working?” he asked in a deep, rich voice that did something to Henry’s insides. “You scared the hell out of me, Nova.”
He pushed the bear-shaped hood off his daughter’s head, black curls bouncing with the movement when he pressed a soft kiss against her forehead. Up close, it was evident that the two were related. The same honey brown eyes, lashes for days and soft curls adorned both of their heads, the sole difference residing in the slightly lighter color of the little girl’s skin.
“I’m so sorry for the inconvenience,” the stranger said, and if Henry had believed he was unable to handle the sight of the other man before, it was nothing compared to having his full, undivided attention.
Silence stretched between them for a few long seconds, during which Henry pondered on digging a hole in the floor, to bury his very stupid, very gay lithe body in. Instead, he settled on saying the first thing that came to mind – practically able to hear the eye-roll that came from Pez as he did so.
“I think she’s a bit too young to be reading crime fiction,” Henry pointed out.
Dark, beautiful stranger’s eyes fell on the book, now squeezed between his chest and the bear-shaped baby. Plucking it from her grasp, Henry watched as his face turned an even deeper shade of red.
“Fuck, shit, uh. Crap. Don’t tell Tia June I said all of that,” the man said, obviously addressing the baby, not that she seemed to be really listening to anything he said. Turning his attention to Henry and Pez again, he offered a bashful smile. “I’ll pay for it, obviously.”
“Do you like crime fiction?” Pez asked.
“Uh. Not particularly?”
“You should just do like everyone else and pretend you haven’t seen your child play with it, put it back on the shelf,” Pez then suggested with a shrug. “She didn’t tear it in half or anything.”
“I’m standing right there,” Henry sighed. He could feel the headache coming, pressing at the back of his eye sockets already.
The stranger’s eyes flickered between the both of them. “It’s fine. I can pay for it.”
“Just put it back on the shelf, mate.”
When he looked back at Henry, question evident in his eyes, Henry could not do anything but cave in.
“It’s fine. She didn’t do anything with it. Just… put it back on the shelf.”
Slowly, the stranger did so.
“I’m really sorry. I was just trying to find a book for my sister, which she doesn’t seem to be able to live with for another day, and this one escaped. Honestly, I had an easier time taking care of her when she didn’t know how to crawl and hoist her way up everywhere.” Words spilled out of his mouth at an alarming speed, the dust of pink on his cheeks never disappearing. “That makes me sound like such a terrible dad, but honestly I just picked her up from daycare, and I needed a new law textbook too and I couldn’t find it, so I was just running around the place and I put her down for two seconds and that’s literally all it took for her to disappear. I’m sorry.”
Never before had Henry wanted to hug another human being that hard.
(That was a lie. He’d once wanted to hug the shit out of Mr Darcy through the pages of his book, but that was another story entirely.)
“Dude,” Pez said eventually, “You’re doing great.”
The stranger’s shoulders shagged with barely concealed relief. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to inconvenience you both. I’ll just go now.”
“Did you find your books?” Henry asked, his brain to mouth filter seemingly inexistent.
“Uh?”
“For your sister. And your law textbook? Did you find them in the end?”
“Well, uh. I kind of abandoned the idea when my child went missing.”
And that was how Henry found himself strolling down the aisle minutes before closing time with what happened to be the hottest guy he’d ever seen — and his one year old daughter.
“This section's been refurbished a couple of weeks ago,” He explained, waving at the law textbooks he’d stacked on the shelves not too long ago. “You might find what you’re looking for there”
“Fuck, that’s exactly what I’m lookint for.” His gaze was set on one of the books Henry had gotten in his latest deliveries. “Would you mind holding her for a second? I just- I gotta check that one chapter, it’s been updated last year and I just wanna make sure I have the correct version. My teacher was very insistent, and he’s kind of an asshole so…”
And so Henry found himself with an armful of baby. Big brown eyes looked up at him in surprise and curiosity alike, the padded weight of the little wriggly human unfamiliar but strangely comforting.
“Hi,” Henry said. The baby just stared. Her eyelashes resembled her father’s, plush pink cheeks dotted in small baby freckles that made her look like a porcelain doll, and the mess of curls at the top of her head had no business looking that adorable.
Henry was not even that into babies, but he could have just ran away with her.
When he looked up from her face, a little self-conscious at the thought of being caught staring, the beautiful stranger seemed not to have paid him any mind. Henry realized he was still talking as he flipped the pages, going on about his classes and daycare and a lot of things Henry did not even catch in the stream of words pouring out of his mouth.
“And my sister’s just been wrecking my head with her Jane Austen, and I was late picking Nova up from daycare. I still have a whole essay to write for tomorrow, and hopefully this little lady will sleep long enough for me to finish it. I had to switch shifts with Hunter as well, because Nora’s not here to take care of her because of work, and I can’t afford a nanny, so… yeah.” Slamming the book shut, Alex offered him a blinding smile. “That’s perfect, exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.”
When he took the baby back and checked out his book, all the way through, Henry could not keep his eyes off the man. Destiny was cruel, he thought as he disappeared through the front door, the little girl looking back at Henry with what looked like a smile.
Maybe a gas.
The next time he saw him, he was wandering in the middle of the romance aisle like one of Henry’s wet dreams personified. Quite shamefully, Henry had to blink his surprise away before he could make a move, drinking in the sight of the man strolling down his favorite aisle with his hands deep in his pockets, curls bouncing on his forehead as he tilted his head to the side to take a better look at the book titles.
“No Nova today?” Henry asked, trying not to startle him. The other man simply looked up with glee, like he’d been expecting him to show up like a leprechaun in the middle of the Irish countryside.
Quite to his utter demise, Henry got a dashing grin in response. “I should have known you’d only like me for the baby.”
“Well, she is quite cute.”
“You should see her when she gets hungry in the middle of the night. I swear she’d wake up the entire neighborhood, I’ve become a master at heating up baby bottles in a record time.”
Imagining a sleepy Alex, all soft around the edges, as he rocked a crying baby to sleep should not have been as endearing as it was. Yet all Henry could do was smile.
“Well. I’ll take your word for it.” Gesturing at the aisle they were standing in, Henry tilted his head to the side curiously. “Were you looking for something in particular?”
“Ah, yeah. My sister’s looking for the newest Ali Hazelwood book, if that means anything to you? She was quite mad at me for not bringing it the other night.” Shrugging, he smiled even wider. “She’s babysitting for me right now, so I better get her that damn book for allowing me a couple of hours of rest. Do you have any idea where I can find this book? I’m not gonna lie, I don’t even know who Ali Hazelwood is, and what she writes about. Care to help a distressed man in dire need of a good night’s sleep?”
Henry bit back a smile. “Well, let’s see. You’ve asked a librarian’s help in his favorite section, I think that can be arranged, yes.”
Silence fell between them for a handful of painfully long seconds, during which Henry wondered if he was meant to stare at any human being with so much intent without aching to marry them in a flash.
Finally, the stranger broke the tension with a little awkward wave, his cheeks turning a deeper shade of red as he did so. “I’m Alex, by the way.”
“Henry. Nice to meet you, Alex.”
Never before had Henry been so keenly aware of someone’s steps behind him as he searched for the book Alex was looking for, brain scrambling to work as he pressed the tip of his pointy finger into the spine of the books, failing to achieve a task as simple as going through an alphabetized list of authors. The silence that stretched between them was neither unpleasant nor uncomfortable, but Henry didn’t want their conversation to end. Ali Hazelwood hadn’t written nearly enough books for him to be looking for those forever, and the idea of Alex slipping through the door and disappearing again was simply not as attractive as the thought of him staying here and talking to Henry.
And so Henry did what he did best in times of immense pressure: he gay panicked. And yes, Pez had officially named the term, it was a thing.
“Is Nova named after her mother, then?” He heard himself ask, mouth scrambling to pick up the conversation where they’d left off.
He could have slapped himself.
“Uh?”
“I’m sorry, you mentioned Nora, and I couldn’t help but think… Sorry, this is none of my business. I’m sorry.”
“Oh! No, no.” with a chuckle, Alex shook his head from side to side. “Nora’s my sister’s girlfriend. We used to date a lifetime ago, but that’s… yeah. No, she’s good for June, and so is June for her. Nova was a choice on my part because I’ve always been fascinated by stars and galaxies growing up, you know? She’s my little star.”
A knot in Henry’s chest loosened.
“Nova’s mom is not in the picture,” Alex kept going, unaware of the hope that bloomed inside of Henry’s chest. “She never was, really. We slept together one night, and she got pregnant. Stacey was nice and all, but we were not meant to be together. She grew up in a pretty conservative family, and she didn’t feel like having an abortion. She didn’t want the baby, either, but I couldn’t…” running a finger through his hair, Alex shot Henry a lopsided smile. “I couldn’t leave my baby up for adoption knowing I was there, and perfectly capable of taking care of them. So I told her I wanted to keep it, and she gave up Nova’s rights the moment she came into the world and made me the sole guardian. She moved to Australia a few months ago now, and I know it was best for her.” His eyes became distant, lost in a dream Henry could not touch. “I don’t regret my decision, you know? I know I’m only 27, and I know this is probably going to be extremely hard. Hell, it already is. But I want my daughter to know that I’ll always be there and never leave her behind.”
There was more to the story, Henry realized when he caught the clench of Alex’s jaw at the words, his eyes turning cold for a split second. It wasn’t his place to ask, but he had a feeling Alex’s choices had been influenced by more than he let on.
“It was very brave,” he said instead, fighting the desire to reach out and lay a hand on Alex’s arm. “And I’m sure you’re a great dad.”
Alex chuckled. “Well, I certainly try. It’s hard, and I know I couldn’t do any of it without my sister and Nora. I can’t take all the credit for it.”
Now that Henry looked a little closer, past the beautiful curls and swoony smile, he could see more than Alex had let on before. The deep dark circles under his eyes were almost purple, and he wondered when he’d last had a full night’s sleep. The muscles of his jaw were working as he fidgeted and swooned his body from side to side, restless and full of dying energy, and he didn’t have to ask to know that the takeaway coffee cup clasped in his hand was not the first of the day.
“You should give yourself more credit,” Henry finally said, trying as hard as he could to convey the weight of his words in a small smile. “You’re doing great.”
“The first time you saw me, I had lost my child in a library.”
“And all’s well that ends well.”
“Okay, Taylor Swift.”
Reaching for the book Alex had been looking for, he shoved it into his chest playfully, aware of the laugh that danced on Alex’s lips all the while.
“My savior,” Alex swooned. “My sister will not hate me for leaving my child with her for two hours after all, and my upcoming murder will simply be pushed back to another rainy day.”
“I don’t know your sister, but strangely, I don’t think she’d hate you either way.”
“I know. I just love being extremely dramatic. Nova is obsessed with her aunt.” There was a certain tenderness behind the words when he talked about his daughter, his face easing into a smile that softened his features. “Hopefully, she’ll be worn out and let me study a bit tonight.”
“Did you get your essay done then?” Henry asked. “The one you talked about last time.”
“Oh, yeah. Got an A for it and all. As I said, I was just being a little dramatic.”
Somehow, Henry didn’t think ‘dramatic’ was a good enough word to convey the whirlwind of emotions that had been going through Alex’s body that night.
“You know,” he heard himself say, “you could always study here. I could take care of her when you do. It’s not like the library has been insanely busy lately anyway.”
Now, Alex had no reason to trust him with his child. He’d only seen the guy once, and Henry looked awkward enough as it was. He had no idea why he’d just offered it, too. Once again, Henry had never been a baby person, or at least never thought about it long enough to make his mind about tiny humans who only just learned to crawl and put everything they came in contact with in their mouth.
If Pez were here, he would have made fun of Henry’s penchant for the dramatic, especially when it came to getting dick — his own words, not Henry’s. He did have a tendency to put himself in the most insane of situations to get men’s attention, and he definitely would not forget about that 2017 drag incident any time soon. But there was more to his purely physical attraction for Alex; for once, Henry was deeply desperate to help.
“I couldn’t ask that of you,” Alex replied immediately, hands coming up to work as he spoke, nervousness pouring from his pores. “I don’t need sleep anyway, and Nova’s so close to sleeping through the entire night nowadays.”
Henry hummed. “I’m not saying you need the help, I’m saying that I’m ready to give it if you ever felt like it.” He smiled reassuringly, gesturing at the book with a tilt of his chin, “Now, how about bringing this to June? You wouldn’t want to make her wait, would you?”
Henry had been fully prepared not to see Alex again after that. It had been weird enough for him to offer his assistance with babysitting a child he’d seen once – but he was also pretty sure he’d been clocked in as trying to get inside Alex’s pants, which tended to freak straight men out in the best of times.
Pez had only shaken his head at him with a disapproving frown when he’d told him – which, Henry thought, was pretty ballsy, because he’d done much, much worse in the past. Henry still vividly remembered that time he’d pretended to be a chef to impress Dwayne, who also happened not to be able to cook an egg.
Henry had never been really proud of his attempts at flirting, but well. Once again, he’d long stopped antagonizing about his very disastrous love life, and the fact that the term ‘gay disaster’ seemed to have been invented for him.
So it was a genuine surprise that took over his face when, a couple of days after that disastrous interaction with Alex, the man walked inside the library with his daughter. The first thing Henry thought when he laid eyes on the pair of them was that he missed the bear costume – the second being that Alex looked even more tired than before, even if all the more dashing. Wild curls fell onto his forehead, still slightly wet as if he’d just walked out of the shower and barged in to make Henry’s poor little life a living hell.
“Hi,” he said, breathless, stopping in front of Henry obnoxiously. His cheeks were slightly redder than before, probably from the cold outside. “I hate to sound so rude but would your offer still stand?”
In his arms, Nova wriggled unhappily, her little face contorted in a frown. Without thinking too much about it, Henry nodded.
“It’s just, she won’t stop crying if I put her down, and Nora and June are on a date, and I feel terrible about this already. I’m just… I just need 20 minutes of peace and quiet to study.” Alex’s voice broke on the last word, big brown eyes that made Henry so weak so close to tears.
Holding out his hands, Henry tried what he hoped to be a reassuring smile. “Can I?”
On any other occasion, Henry would have worried about the eagerness with which Alex handed him his daughter. The baby was as light and wriggly as the first time, curious brown eyes set on him as soon as she came in contact with his arms. Henry had never really held babies before, freaked out by their cries as soon as he did as much as look at them, and holding a near stranger’s baby during his work hours had never before been his idea of a good time.
But he had to admit that Nova was cute, and not only because she resembled her father in every point. She seemed to settle as soon as she was in contact with him, frozen in utter fascination of his face, little fists curled on his shoulder and holding tight.
“Are you a baby whisperer or something?” Alex asked in a joke, but it fell flat in the circumstances. “I swear she’s been yelling like a banshee every time I as much as tried to put her down somewhere.”
All Henry could do was shrug. “Maybe she’s bored.”
“I don’t know, man. Do you think ADHD is hereditary?”
“Uh. I wouldn’t be able to say?”
Against his neck where she’d nestled her head, Nova sighed. Her little body shagged a little further into the embrace, fist still curled tight in the fabric of Henry’s sweater vest, as if begging not to be put down. Henry kind of understood the eagerness of it, too. Focusing his attention back on Alex, Henry found him looking at them with a thoughtful expression on his face.
“I won’t leave your sight,” he assured, mentioning at the empty tables in the cafe with his chin. “From here, you have a view inside the whole library.”
Alex’s shoulders shagged with relief. “You’re a lifesaver. I genuinely do not know how to thank you for this.”
Henry had a very precise idea of what Alex could do to thank him, but none of them were innocent enough to be spoken out in front of a child. “Try and get some studying done, and we’ll see about the rest later.”
When he walked back to the checkout counter with a baby in his arms, Henry watched as Pez’s eyebrows disappeared comically into his pink hairline. He was elbows deep into dough behind his own counter in the cafe, which explained why he didn’t immediately rush to Henry’s side to hoard him with questions. His hands stilled for a few seconds still, eyes jumping from Henry to the baby in his arms, then back to Henry again. Finally, a cheshire grin took over his entire face, and even from his other side of the library, Henry could hear his cristaline laugh.
“So, you’ve decided on adopting the baby bear to get the papa bear,” Pez said later on, sliding behind the counter with so much ease Henry wondered if he needed to put a bell on him. “Smart move. Very 1960s housewife, if I might say.”
“I hate you,” Henry whispered, careful not to jostle Nova. Her breathing had deepened, little puffs of air caressing the side of his neck in time with her breathing. He had no idea what precisely had caused her to fall asleep on his now slightly sore arm, but Henry took the sleeping baby over any tears any day.
“No you don’t, because you know I’m right.”
Sparing Alex a glance, Henry frowned. “I’m helping him out, because he looks like a good person.”
“And because he could definitely bench press you and give you the exact type of hard fuck you need.”
“ Pez ! I’ve got a baby in my arms!”
“And you look very good with it. 10 out of 10 would recommend the hormonal soup he must be going through right now.”
Turning around to hide his quickly reddening cheeks, Henry took a deep breath. “I am not trying to get into his pants.”
Pez frowned. “Why not? Babes, he’s gorgeous. He’s even more than gorgeous, he’s lethal.”
“And he’s got way too much on his plate right now to be worrying about me oggling him.”
“Or,” Pez argued, rolling the ‘R’ very dramatically, “he’s feeling wanted and cared for for the first time since baby mama left. Just think about it, Hen. Don’t shut yourself off to any possibility.”
And with that he was gone, leaving Henry with even more questions than before. Typical.
Looking down at the book opened in front of him, Henry chewed on his bottom lip thoughtfully. He never went straight for Jane Austen except for times of troubles, and the worn out copy of Pride and Prejudice stared back at him accusingly from the desk. Alright, so maybe he’d been a bit too quick to accept the heavy responsibility of caring for a child that was basically a stranger’s when he’d been in dire need of a generous soul. Maybe it had a little bit to do with the full-blown wedding Henry had already planned for the both of them on Pinterest in a drunken haze. Maybe.
But truth be told, Henry had always been a pretty good judge of character. He’d know that his exes were bad people the moment he’d met them, but he was self-aware enough to realize that he’d gone through those pointless relationships because he needed the thrill of proving his homophobic grandmother wrong. Alex had been different from the moment he stepped inside the library – and even outside of his attraction for the man, Henry had felt a strong pang of compassion for him from the first day.
Helping Alex out might not be entirely out of the goodness of his heart, but he hoped that Alex realized it was also, still. Truthfully, Henry thought as he looked at the overworked single dad pulling at his hair in Pez’s cafe, Alex seemed like he was too much of a mess to be able to do anything but survive his classes and go through another day right now.
Lost into his contemplation, Henry did not realize that Alex had slammed his textbook shut, thanking Pez profusely for the extra dose of caffeine in the same breath. Jane Austen had that effect on him, always had, and he’d forgotten all about the outside world save for the rhythmic breathing of the fallen baby on his chest and the words in front of him.
“I will call you a baby whisperer,” said a soft voice, tearing him from his reading.
Alex from afar was gorgeous, but Alex from up close never failed to make Henry’s chest constrict.
“Maybe it’s my natural charm. Seems to work on her so far.”
A little smile tugged at the corner of Alex’s lips. “Oh, I do get that.”
What was that supposed to mean? Did Alex not realize that he would agonize over this heartfelt comment for weeks to come now?
“I’ll free you from the shackles of fatherhood now.” Reaching for the baby with gentle fingers, Alex managed to detangle her from his arms without rousing her. His face turned a little softer when she snuggled against his neck, big arms cradling her body with so much tenderness Henry felt like looking away.
“Thank you for this, truly.”
Henry looked up, surprised. “Of course.”
“How can I make it up to you? You’ve just single-handedly saved my semester.”
“I—“ Words died on Henry’s throat, Pez’s voice ringing in his ears. He’d been right, of course, but Henry was not blind. Alex had other things to worry about than a date. “Honestly, you’re fine. I’m glad you got work done. I’m happy to have helped.”
Something akin disapponment flickered on Alex’s face, but it was gone before Henry could ponder on it too much. “Alright. Thanks again, Henry. I’m gonna go and put this one to bed now, because she’s probably going to wake me up around four, and I’d like to catch some rest before then.” The sly grin he offered Henry made something within his chest constrict, a pang of longing seeping deep into his bones.
“You do that. And try to actually get some sleep, yeah? No more studying for tonight.”
It was hard to hold back his laughter as Alex tipped his imaginary cowboy hat, winking at him. “Can’t promise anything, sweetheart.”
Watching as Alex walked out of the door after leaving Pez a tip that amounted twice the amount of coffee he’d consumed and robbing another little piece of Henry’s very fragile heart with him, he wondered if Jane Austen had written about longing out of experience. Right now, Henry could have written sonnets about the ache in his chest, only caving in slowly with every step Alex took towards the door.
“Hey Henry?” Alex called by the door, looking every bit as adorable as the first time he’d walked in the library looking for his disappearing daughter. The light he’d seen shine bright earlier was back, basking his face with hope as he carried his body from side to side, rocking Nova almost subconsciously.
“Yes?”
“Would you wanna go on a date with me one of these days?”
And just like that, with the flicker of a hopeful smile and the sight of a curly haired man with chin dimples, Henry was utterly lost.
“I think I could be convinced.”