Sweet Love 2x: Miss Ruthless CEO for our Superstar Uncle

Chapter 405: When You Grow Up

Leo moved closer beside her. He leaned over to look at Lexx, asleep against Arianne’s chest. His dark eyes studied the baby’s face with the focused attention he brought to everything that mattered to him.

"Baby didn’t see Daddy," he said. His voice was soft and careful, the gruffness of new speech present in every word. "On the TV. Baby was sleeping."

Arianne smiled. She looked down at Lexx, his tiny face slack with sleep, his fingers still curled against her collarbone. "He was too full from his milk. He couldn’t stay awake."

"Too much milk."

"Much too much. But he’ll have more chances. When he’s older, he’ll be able to watch his daddy on the screen. All the seasons. All the movies. He’ll have a lot to catch up on."

Leo nodded, satisfied with this answer. He reached out and touched Lexx’s hand with one finger. The baby’s fingers twitched but didn’t wake.

Lily slid off her end of the couch and came around to join them, squeezing herself into the space between Arianne and the armrest. She looked at Lexx, then at the television, where the entertainment segment was wrapping up and moving on to other news.

"What do you think Lexx will be like when he grows up?" she asked. "Will he be like Uncle Franz? Or like you? Or like someone else?"

"I don’t know," Arianne said. "He’ll be whoever he wants to be."

"Everyone always says that. But what do you think?"

Arianne considered the question. "I think he’ll be kind. Like his father. And stubborn. Like me. And he’ll probably be very good at arguing, because he’ll have you and Leo to teach him."

Lily looked pleased. "I am very good at arguing."

"You are. It’s one of your best skills."

Arianne adjusted Lexx’s weight against her chest, settling him more securely. "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

"I want to be like you," Lily said immediately. "And like my daddy. Alex. You both look so cool in business suits. I want to wear business suits and tell people what to do and make companies better."

"That’s a very specific goal."

"I’ve been thinking about it for a while. I have a plan. I’m going to start with a small company and then work my way up to a big one. Leo can be my partner if he wants."

Arianne turned to Leo. "What about you? Do you want to be Lily’s partner?"

Leo shook his head. "Don’t know," he said. "I’m still a kid."

"That’s all right. You don’t need to know what you want to be yet. You’re both young. All you have to do right now is grow up healthy and kind. The rest can come later."

"Healthy. Kind," Leo repeated. "That’s all?"

"That’s everything. The rest will figure itself out."

Leo considered this. Then he nodded, a small, serious motion. "Okay. I can do that."

"Me too," Lily said. "I can be healthy and kind and also a CEO."

"You can be all three."

"I will be all three. I’ll be the healthiest, kindest CEO in the whole city."

"I believe you."

The entertainment segment had ended. The news had moved on to other stories: weather, sports, something about a local election. The room settled into the murmur of the television and the soft, even sound of Lexx breathing. Outside, the evening had deepened into darkness. Franz would be home soon, finished with the promotional event, ready to shed his public persona and come back to them.

Arianne looked down at her son, asleep against her chest.

She thought about the woman she had been the first time she watched Franz on a morning show, promoting the first season of The Second Cut. She had been guarded then. Wary. Learning, by small increments, how to let people in. She had sat on this couch with the twins beside her and watched a man she barely knew talk about his work, and she had not yet understood what was coming. That she would love him in a way that had taken her a long time to name. That they would have a son.

She understood now. She understood all of it.

She didn’t have to wait long. She heard the front door, then Franz’s voice in the hall saying something to Aunt Estella, low and brief. Then footsteps, and he appeared in the doorway of the sitting room, wearing what he’d worn to the event, his jacket over one arm.

He took in the scene: Arianne on the couch, Lexx asleep against her chest, Lily tucked into the armrest, Leo with his whale and his tablet. Something in his face settled, the way it always did when he came home to this.

"You watched," he said.

"Lily insisted," Arianne said.

"You burned pancakes," Lily said from the armrest. "That’s what I told Mommy Aria. About the smoke alarm."

"I told them it was toast," Franz said, setting his jacket over the back of a chair. "I’m very good at toast."

Leo nodded. "Toast," he repeated. There was something close to approval in his voice.

Franz crossed the room, leaned down, and pressed a kiss to Arianne’s forehead. Then he looked at Lexx, his son asleep against her chest, dark-haired and perfectly unaware of the evening’s events.

"He slept through the whole thing?" Franz asked.

"He was well-fed. He had no interest in television."

"Smart boy." Franz sat down beside her, his arm going around her shoulders, his other hand resting on Lexx’s back. "He’ll appreciate it when he’s older."

"That’s what I told Leo."

Franz looked over at Leo, who was watching him with the focused attention that meant he had been thinking about something and was deciding whether to say it. "Leo," he said. "What’s on your mind?"

Leo held up the whale. Then he typed something on his tablet and turned it to face Franz.

The screen read: BABY HAS YOUR HAIR.

Franz looked at Lexx, at the dark unruly hair sticking up in every direction against Arianne’s collarbone. He looked back at Leo. "He does," he said. "Poor kid."

Leo typed again. MINE TOO.

"Poor us," Franz said.

Leo’s mouth curved. Not quite a smile, but close enough.

Lexx stirred, made a small sound, and settled back into sleep. Lily was already talking again, something about the proper way to run a company, her voice bright and certain in the way it always was when she had decided something. Leo was listening, the whale in his lap, his dark eyes watchful.

Arianne sat in the middle of them, her son warm and heavy against her chest, her husband’s arm around her shoulders, and let the evening settle around all of them.