Page 137 of The Flirty Vet

Six-year-olds don't understand many things, chief among them that twenty-six-year-olds who are in love for the first time in their lives with a guy they're on the verge of losing forever aren't in the mood for getting kicked out of bed first thing in the morning.

At least my pillow fort system is working. My back is definitely thanking me right now for lining the bed with a million pillows to cushion my inevitable fall.

Two sparkling blue eyes gaze down at me. "Morning, Uncle Wilby!"

I put on the scariest-looking scowl I can muster, which only makes him giggle. "Morning, Kolby."

"Why do you always fall out of bed?"

"Because some sneaky, stinky munchkin crawls in here and kicks me out."

He lets out a merry laugh, and while I would have appreciated another hour—or six—of sleep, how can I be mad when I've got the cutest little six-year-old nephew in the world?

There's a knock on the bedroom door.

"Come in," I say.

The door opens slowly, and Col enters. He looks at Kolby, then at me, angling his head until our eyes meet. "Am I interrupting something?"

"Just our morning routine." I probably should get up, but I'm still knackered after the drive home last night. We didn't get in until after one. "Everything okay?"

"Uh, yeah." He goes over to the window and swings the curtains wide open.

I shield my face to protect myself from the onslaught of sunlight…only, there's nothing there. The room lightens a bit, sure, but it's nowhere near as bright as normal.

"What's going on?"

I untangle myself from the doona that fell with me as I slid to the floor and hoof it to the window.

"Holy fucking shit."

Heavy, dark clouds blanket the sky, stretching as far as I can see, and the ground is wet.

"It's been raining."

"It has," Col says, smiling. "You didn't hear it?"

"I was zonked. The world could've been ending, and I wouldn't have stirred. You know what this means?"

"No school?" Kolby asks excitedly, joining us.

"No." I chuckle. "You definitely have school, mate."

"Aw, drats."

I turn to Col. "It means we did it. We broke the drought. This rain is here because of our epic duet last night."

He snickers, shaking his head, looking slightly skeptical. "Sure it has nothing to do with, I don't know, the weather system?"

"Weather-shmeather. It's us. I know it is. And nothing, no science or facts or anything, can convince me otherwise. Plus…" I rub my hands together. "I'm in for a lifetime of the best meat pies ever!"

He laughs. "You're an idiot."

He tops it off with a quick kiss, so I don't bother fighting him on it. But I do manage to murmur into his lips, "I'myouridiot."

When I next glance over at Kolby, he's looking at the two of us. Shit. He's never seen me kiss anyone before. I'm pretty sure he knows I'm gay, but he's six, so it's not like we've had the chance to get into any deep and meaningful discussions about human sexuality.

He looks up at both of us, blinking and smiling. "If I can't have Col's name, can he be my second uncle?"