The Unlikely Daddy

• 23 •

To Logan it only felt like he had been holding Alfie for a few minutes, but in reality they had both been curled up together in his bed for well over an hour. This became apparent to Logan when he heard the front door of his house click open and in scrambled his mum and little brothers.

"That'll be my mum with Leo and Levi" Logan said, loosening is grip slightly on Alfie as he spoke.

It wasn't that he was embarrassed of being so intimate with Alfie, it was more so that he didn't want Alfie to feel uncomfortable in front of his family. However, Alfie felt pushed aside as Logan moved away from him.

This thought didn't last for long as Alfie began to hear footsteps making their way up the stairs to Logan's bedroom. He tried aimlessly to work out who it was, but he had absolutely no idea.

"Logan, do you want to come out to play?" a small voice was heard before one of Logan's little brothers slammed into the room.

"Not right now, Levi" Logan tried to brush his brother off.

"Hello" Levi said to Alfie nonchalantly, then he went back to talking to Logan.

"Please, Logan" Levi whined.

He was only seven, so he wasn't quite old enough to realise that Logan and Alfie wanted some time on their own.

Before Logan could refuse Levi's request in came Leo with a handful of snacks.

"Come play with us, Logan" Leo spoke through a mouthful of cookies.

"You guys, we're busy" Logan was beginning to get annoyed.

Usually after school Logan would play outside with his brothers for a little while to appease them before going to do his own thing, so he knew they would only pester him until he caved.

"He can play too" Levi suggested, pointing at Alfie.

"He doesn't want to play" Logan rolled his eyes.

"Logan" Levi and Leo both whined in unison.

"Leave us alone" Logan started pushing his brothers out of the room.

That's when Logan's youngest brother, Leo, tripped and bumped his head on the edge of the door. Immediately he began wailing, screaming for his mum.

Alfie watched and Logan picked his four year old brother up and rock him back and forth slowly, whispering "sh sh sh" in his ear. He then walked over to his bedside table which he frantically began looking through, eventually pulling out a sage green coloured dummy that he pressed between Leo's lips.

After this it only took him a few seconds to stop crying.

Alfie looked at Leo jealously, wishing it was him being babied instead. This was a thought that Alfie wasn't proud of, but he couldn't seem to shake no matter how hard he tried.

"You guys go and play together. I'll come play later" Logan said, putting Leo down and ushering them out of his bedroom.

Finally the boys complied and left Logan and Alfie in peace once again.

"I'm sorry about them" Logan apologised.

"Don't worry about it" Alfie smiled, not wanting to come across as unpleasant.

"We try not to give Leo a dummy, but it's the only way to get him to stop crying" Logan explained.

Logan knew that Leo was too old to be using a dummy, so he felt it was important to tell Alfie that it was something he was working on.

"Levi has his blanket, so I feel mean not giving Leo his dummy when he's upset" Logan went on to say.

Alfie then began to fantasise about having his own special dummy and blanket that made him feel so safe that he didn't cry. He would have loved to have something so special to him that all of his sadness went away when he had them.