Page 72 of A Little Bit Naughty

But that was exactly the problem, wasn’t it? Remi had outright told him that he couldn’t handle a long-distance relationship because he needed to be more involved than he could manage over the phone.

And Isaac needed someone to hold him right now. Someone with big, strong arms and a thick, round belly and chocolatey brown eyes who smelled just right.

“A phone call wouldn’t work.”

“I swear to God, Isaac. Do a video call. Want me to ask him what app to use?”

“Maybe. It still won’t be the same.” Wouldn’t it be better to see Daddy’s face again though? At least once? His voice would be so comforting.

But that would probably kick off everything again.

Then Isaac thought about Remi worrying. He didn’t want him to worry. He needed to at least tell him that he was alright. He made a kind of murmured sound of agreement.

“Good. Give me a second.” A few faint beeps came through the speaker. Isaac rolled onto his belly. Then onto his back again.

If Tommy set everything up, it wasn’t like it was his choice, right? OK, obviously it was, but he didn’t want to think that way.

His tears had dried, though, like just the idea of having Remi back would make everything better. That was good. If he was talking to Remi, he didn’t want to be a crying mess.

And he definitely didn’t want to be little. He was feeling far too raw and vulnerable for that, when the little boy crying inside him couldn’t have everything he wanted.

“Can you tell him five minutes? I want to wash my face.”

“Good thinking. Maybe use your computer, too. He’s going to text you his info.”

Isaac sighed. “This is going to be a disaster.”

Tommy chuckled. “It’s not going to be a disaster. You should see how excited he is. There are, like, a dozen exclamation marks in his text. And I don’t think he’s the type of person who usually uses a lot of exclamation marks.”

That brought a little smile to Isaac’s face. Ok, maybe a huge one. After a full week without contact, when Isaac had maybe gone to sleep every night dreaming about him, Remi was still excited to talk to him, too.

He brought the phone with him to the bathroom, gave his face a good scrub so that it at least looked flushed and wet instead of red and blotchy. The whole time, Tommy was giving him a pep talk. About how Remi was worth making some compromises for. About how Isaac could just tell him whatever he was feeling.

It all sounded so easy when Tommy said it.

He finally got back to his laptop and scooped it up to settle onto the bed. It only took a few minutes to get everything set up. “Tommy?” he interrupted. “I’m gonna call him now. Thank you.”

“Yay! Love you! It’ll be great! Do it!”

Isaac smiled. “Love you, too. I still don’t know if this is a good idea. But thank you.”

Tommy made kissy noises into the phone and hung up.

Now all he had to do was press the call button.

He was calm. (Mostly.) He didn’t look like a disaster. (Very much.) He could do this.

Remi’s face filled the screen, a look of concern breaking into a wide smile. “Ba… Isaac!”

Isaac pushed back a grin. Remi had been about to call him “baby boy.”

He wanted to lick up every inch of his sexy profile, to press himself into the screen until he came out the other side. To just fall asleep feasting his eyes on Remi and wake up to him every morning.

But that wasn’t the agreement.

“Hey. Um… Thank you for calling. And, um, for the presents.” Now he felt awkward. Horribly awkward.

“Did you like them?” Remi’s expression went soft and adoring. It was that special Daddy expression that made Isaac feel like he was the most important person in the universe.