Lemon Truffles - Love Instantly by Cece Monét Page A

sight of Angela watching him.
    Her gaze appeared to be approving, but when they caught and held each other’s eyes for what must’ve been too long, she looked away first. Angela was likely embarrassed to be caught staring at her baby’s father. Cheng was getting sick of sneaking glances at the woman who’d already given birth to his son. The very idea seemed ridiculous to him and he knew that Angela was going to have to make a decision soon.
    They both knew the ball was in her court since he’d already put what he wanted all the way out there… Before Cheng could dwell on that and ended up saying something that would undo all his disciplined efforts during the last month, he distracted himself by reaching back into the bag and pulling out the last gift he’d gotten. It was a small plush toy, a rendition of one of the characters from Yo Gabba Gabba – the red one with the bumps and one eye.
    Jayden’s whole face lit up again. “Muno!” he exclaimed as he took the small toy in both of his hands. “Thank you! He’s my favorite.”
    Cheng smiled and ruffled the boy’s curly hair with one hand. “You’re welcome. So what’s next?”
    “ Um, let’s go see my room. Then we can watch the show.”
    “ Sounds good. You go ahead and lead the way,” Cheng said as he stood again from his squatting position. He followed Jayden, but glanced back over his shoulder to see what Angela was doing. She was simply following them up the stairs soundlessly. A tiny, almost amused smile seemed to barely touch her full lips. Cheng wondered what was in store for him now.

 
Chapter Nine
    Angela wasn’t sure why she’d been so worried about this evening. After all, Jayden had actually requested his father’s presence here in their home tonight. Cheng also wanted to get to know their son better and so far, so good.
    The two guys seemed to naturally have an affinity towards one another, which wasn’t that unusual given that they were father and son. So while Cheng was discovering all about the characters that populated Jayden’s favorite TV shows, books and movies, not to mention getting caught up on all the daily happenings of preschool, Angela snuck away. Cheng was handling himself well and was already playing with Transformer action figures before Angela even made it out the door.
    She rested the back of her head against the wall in the hallway. What was she doing? Procrastinating? She had finally made a decision today that she wanted to discuss with everyone tonight. She was just waiting for the right time. She hoped she was doing the right thing and that everyone could live with her choice.
    She continued down the hall and went to her master bedroom suite. She could hear Jayden’s shrieks of laughter drifting out from his bedroom as she prepared some things in her own room.
    ~
    As it turned out, having a little boy was fun, absolutely exhausting and well, kind of cool. Cheng had fallen right into a natural role as soon as he and Jayden had gotten into his son’s room. He had noticed when Angela slipped out to give them time alone together, but it was fine with him. Cheng told Jayden stories that he knew from his childhood, where he’d heard international fairytales.
    Though he’d been born in Shanghai, his father had been a Chinese dignitary originally from Macau, so Cheng had spent a good deal of time away from China as he’d grown up. He’d been to England, Australia, the US and even various parts of the Caribbean before his father had finally settled into a very cushy government job in Hong Kong. By that point in time, Cheng had been twelve years old, so he’d retained a lot of his cosmopolitan ways from his days globetrotting with his parents.
    Having been an only child where he was frequently moved around had at times been both fatigue-inducing as well as isolating. Even once his family had settled in Hong Kong, there were a lot of times that he found he just couldn’t really relate to the other local kids. Many