After a few minutes, the little boy ran over to us. Flynn gently disentangled our fingers.
“Hi.” He looked up at me before evidently remembering I was a stranger and stepping back toward his father.
“Cooper, this is my friend, Matteo,” Flynn said. “He rides a motorcycle.”
Cooper’s dark eyes widened, and he looked me over like I had just risen to superhero status. “Really?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I ride a Harley.”
“Can I see it?”
“May I,” Flynn softly reminded him.
“May I?” Cooper repeated.
“I don’t have it here today, but I’ll show you another day. I promise. Do you like this park?”
Cooper nodded.
“I don’t blame you. It’s really cool. I saw you going down the slide.”
“I’m scared to go down the real big one.” Cooper pointed to the winding slide that came out of the tree house at the top of the jungle gym.
“That one looks fun. You want me to slide down it with you?” I asked.
Cooper looked at me again, wide-eyed. He certainly was cute. With his coloring, he could be my kid. My heart flipped.
“Would you?” Cooper asked.
“Sure.”
The little boy glanced at his dad to make sure it was okay before taking my hand a little shyly and leading me to the base of the jungle gym. I crawled in after him, knees cracking as we made our way through a maze of tunnels until we came out at the top inside the tree house. Coop grinned and ran from window to window before motioning me to the door. When I ducked outside, I saw Flynn standing below, shaking his head at me and smiling. I grinned and sat down at the top of the enormous slide, which seemed a lot higher now that we were up there. Cooper looked at me, unsure.
“Come on. Have a seat between my legs. I’ll hold onto you.”
After a moment, he took my hand tightly in his and carefully stepped between my legs.
“Ready?” I asked when he’d sat down.
Cooper shook his head vigorously, grasping my thighs on each side of him.
“Okay, no hurry,” I said. “We can sit here a minute and enjoy the view.” I pointed to a hawk sitting high up in a tree. “I’ll bet Mr. Hawk wishes he could slide,” I said.
Coop followed the direction of my finger.
“Why can’t he?”
I thought about it. Why the hell couldn’t a hawk slide if he wanted to?
“Because…uh, because he doesn’t have an ass?”
Cooper started to giggle. “That’s a bad word, Ma-Mad—”
“Matteo.”
“Mad-deo.”
I smiled at his difficulty with my name. “Sorry. Butt? Bottom? Is that better?”
Cooper couldn’t stop laughing, his little body shaking against me. It was contagious.
“If he doesn’t got a bottom, how can he poop?” Cooper asked through his giggles.
Uh oh. Flynn probably wouldn’t appreciate I’d started the potty talk.
“Think we’re ready to slide now? This is gonna be fun.”
Cooper sobered. “Okay.”
“All right, then. Don’t worry, I won’t let go of you no matter what. It’ll be almost like flying.” I got a whiff of baby shampoo as I wrapped my arms around him.
“Like Mr. Hawk,” Cooper said seriously.
“Right. Just like Mr. Hawk. Okay, on three. One…two…three!” I gave a push, and we went sailing down, with me mostly on my back and Cooper pressed to my belly. I let out a giant whoop and by the time we reached the ground, Cooper was giggling again.
“I think I threw out my back,” I told Flynn as Cooper scrambled off me.
“Let’s do it again!” Cooper said, dancing around where I lay on the slide.
“I see the little friend you made over in the sandbox.” Flynn pointed. “Why don’t you play with her a while?”
Cooper started to take off, then paused and bent over me, smacking a wet kiss on my cheek.
“Thanks, Mad.” He ran toward the sandbox.
“That made it worth it,” I said to Flynn as a big kid yelled down from the top of the slide for me to get out of the way.