Clara lifted him up and grabbed his clothes. "Do you want to get dressed yourself, or should Mommy help?"
"I'll do it," Felix said, taking the clothes and expertly pulling them on.
Once dressed, he hopped off the bed and ran into the living room.
Rhys had changed into some casual clothes and was standing at the kitchen island, about to start preparing dinner.
When he saw Clara and Felix emerge, his gaze lingered on her lips for a fraction of a second before quickly looking away.
An awkward tension still hung in the air.
He had been coughing earlier that afternoon, and Clara didn't want him to aggravate his lungs with cooking fumes. She braced herself and walked over.
"You play with him for a while. I'll cook."
Rhys didn't argue. He nodded, then looked at his son. "What do you want to play?"
Felix directed him to drag a large box out of his room.
It was full of LEGOs.
Rhys stared down at the plastic bricks in his hands, but his mind was on the kitchen.
Felix held up a piece for comparison. "Does this gray piece go here?"
Rhys snapped back to the present and glanced at it.
"No, that's the right-side armor plate. This is the left-side base. The slots are different."
Felix tried it and saw that it didn't fit.
He swapped it for another piece, then suddenly asked, "What's wrong with you and Mommy?"
The out-of-the-blue question caught Rhys off guard. "What do you mean, 'what's wrong'?"
"Mommy's in the kitchen cooking, and you don't even dare to look at her. And when she walked over just now, you took a step back."
"And Mommy, she was in my room all afternoon. Did you two fight again?"
"We didn't fight."
Rhys quickly denied it, afraid his little supervisor would call his rival on the spot.
"We were just… discussing some things. We're still trying to figure out how to solve them. You haven't finished this part yet. Build this first."
Felix took the piece and said, "Oh," not pressing the matter further.
After snapping the final piece of the small bag into place with a satisfying click, Felix stepped back to admire the aircraft carrier, which was beginning to take shape. He was very pleased with his masterpiece.
He turned his head to look at Rhys, who was still studying the instructions, and generously offered, "Since you behaved pretty well this afternoon, I'll give you two points."
Rhys froze.
He turned to his son.
"Two points?"
VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABEL
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: The Officer's Runaway Wife and Secret Son