It was probably a weird thing to ask if he needed help. Solomon could have just let him be and maybe give him a call later that night. It was shocking that he had a kid, and he was curious as to why he never told him about it before, but he could wait for those answers.
Niko just really sounded like he was in over his head. As funny as that seemed, he kind of wanted to help him. His kid was screaming and he was sounding like he just didn't know what to do.
He had babysat before. He had even watched Maya when she was little. She had snuck over to his place even before he got custody of her. Their parents were always off somewhere else, so they never paid too much attention to her. It was Solomon that really had to teach her how to take care of herself.
He was glad that he had an extra shirt in his car. One thing that he learned quickly when dealing with children is to never wear something that you aren't afraid to get stained. Children liked to cause too many messes.
Solomon drove to the address that Niko gave him. It was a cute little one, smack dab in the middle of a cozy neighborhood. Toys were strewn on the front lawn, giving Solomon all kinds of fond memories of his past. He grew up in a little house like this one once. The dark brown colors made it stand out from the usual ones that were in the neighborhood. Solomon liked it, though. It added a bit of personality to it.
He quickly changed out of his dress shirt and into a regular t-shirt that he had in the back of his car. He had on slacks for the night, but those usually didn't get ruined too easily. So, he didn't worry about it that much.
He decided to call instead of knocking, just in case the kid might have actually been asleep in the short time it took him to get there. Niko answered and then let him into the house.
And that's when he heard the screaming.
"Are you sure you want to help?" Niko asked. He looked like he had been dressed for a date at least. This must have just come up on the spot. His kept hair was now disheveled along with the stressed look in his eyes.
Solomon couldn't help but laugh a bit. He hadn't seen Niko this way, and it was honestly pretty hilarious. He looked like any new parent would. Solomon remembered when Avi had his first child. The man was a mess. It took him a while to finally get the hang of parenting. Once he did, though, he was a natural.
"How long has he been screaming like that?"
"Probably about fifteen minutes," Niko sighed. The poor boy was still clinging onto his dad. It would be cute if he wasn't bawling his eyes out. "I was kind of hoping he would tire himself out."
"What's his name?" Solomon asked over the wails.
"James," Niko said. "But everyone calls him Jay except for his mom."
"Hi, Jay," Solomon got his attention. The little boy stopped crying for a second and looked at him. Those poor puffy eyes were a beautiful blue. He looked like the spitting image of Niko.
"W-who are you?" he asked.
"I'm Solomon," he introduced himself. "I'm a friend of your dad's over here."
"You aren't gonna take him away," he sniffed. His whole face was dirty with tears. "Are you?"
"No," Solomon shook his head. "Not at all. I'm never gonna take him away from you." He looked at Niko. His blue eyes were staring at him like he was some kind of miracle worker. He just smiled and looked back down at the kid. "But why are you crying, Jay?"
"Because Daddy was gone," he sniffed again. "And then I got scared. And then there was a loud crash!" He started crying a little more.
"Oh, don't cry," Solomon got a handkerchief from one of his pockets and started wiping his face off. "Your daddy's here now. Did that noise hurt your ears?"
Jay nodded and covered his ears a bit. He seemed really clingy to Niko. It was cute. If Niko even tried to start putting him down, he would cling on tighter to him.
"There should be some medicine for that in one of the cabinets," Niko said. "Why didn't you tell me, Jay?"
The boy just shook his head and buried it in Niko's shirt again.
"That's the fun thing about kids," Solomon told him. "Sometimes you just have to play twenty questions until you get it right."
They walked to the kitchen. Solomon knew this wasn't Niko's house, but he seemed to know where everything was. Niko grabbed a bottle of eardrops from the cabinet just above the stove and sat with Jay on the couch to put it in.
The house was a little messy, but still really nice. The only thing that made it messy were the toys that were all over the place. They must really spoil this kid for him to have so many toys. The walls had family photo's all over it. He didn't see Niko in too many of them. Most of the ones that he was in were birthday parties. The rest were with a woman that looked a lot like Jay and another man.
"He must have gotten an ear infection that Matilda didn't know about," Niko shook his head as he walked over there. He had put on a kids show on the TV and told Jay to stay down for a bit so that the medicine would work.
"Is this Matilda?" he pointed at the pretty brunette in the photo. She had a small, round face, and rich brown eyes.
"Yeah," Niko laughed nervously. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about this sooner."
"Niko," Solomon shook his head. "You act like we've been dating for two years or something. It doesn't bother me that you waited to tell me you had a son."
"Really?" Niko looked so shocked when he told him that. Solomon just chuckled a bit and started walking towards the living area.
"I mean," he started. "I would like to know how you got this cute little guy," he motioned towards the boy who was slowly starting to fall asleep. "But I think that can wait until everything's cleaned up and he's all tucked in."
"Oh dang," Niko looked back into the hallway. "I forgot about that juice."
"You seem a bit forgetful tonight," Solomon patted his shoulder. "I'll keep him distracted. You go clean it up."
He sat next to the boy on the couch. He looked so worn out from crying, but it only took a second for him to realize that his father wasn't there again. He was going to start crying again when Solomon shushed him.
"He's just getting things ready to tuck you in tonight," Solomon told him. "He'll be right back. Don't worry."
"That's what mommy always said," those big blue eyes looked at him with tears in them. "But then he'd leave!"
"Well, I know for sure that he'll be back," Solomon smiled at him. "You wanna know how?"
"How?"
"Because, your Dad never goes anywhere without this," he picked up the phone that he left on the coffee table. "As long as you see this, you'll know that he's not going to be far."
"But Clay leaves his phone all the time."
"Well, your dad doesn't," Solomon shook his head. "I've never seen him leave his phone since I've met him."
"When was that?" The boy was looking at him in wonder. Jay seemed like the one kid who was extremely social compared to the others. He always had a curious look to him that Solomon liked. He really wanted to learn everything that he could. It reminded him of Niko so much. That man always asked Solomon a thousand different questions about himself. He always wanted to learn as much as he could about him.
"Not too long ago," Solomon answered. "I've known him for almost two months now."
"Does this mean your going to be coming here more?" he asked. "Like Clay with Mommy?"
"Who is Clay?" he asked.
"He's Mommy's boyfriend," Jay said.
"Ah," Solomon took a deep breath. Talking about this stuff with kids was always difficult to word. "Do you like him?"
"Yeah!" Jay almost bounced when he said it. "He's cool! He takes me to all of these places to do things while Mommy's gone!"
"That's great," Solomon smiled at him again. He always wound up smiling when he was talking with a kid. Their happiness was contagious. "Does that mean that your mom has to work a lot?"
"Yeah," he shrank a little into the blanket he had. His face was now sad instead of happy. "She works a lot. Just like Daddy."
"Ah," Now he understood a little better. The poor kid didn't get to see either of his parents that much. That explained the clinginess that he had with Niko. He wondered just how much Jay saw of his dad. Considering all the time that Solomon had spent with him, he kind of felt guilty for it now. He probably took time away that he could have been spending with his son.
"Alright," Niko came out. "Everything's all cleaned up. You ready to go back to your room, Jay?"
"Maybe we should watch a movie first," Solomon said. He gave the boy a wink and looked back at Niko. "That way we could all have some fun tonight."
"Yay!" Jay bounced up again. "Movie! Movie! Movie!"
"Alright," Niko caved. He gave in so easily to Jay, it was cute. "Which movie do you want to watch?"
Solomon sat back and watched as the two of them looked through the movie collection that was there. This made up for the dinner that they were supposed to go to. As much as they were nice and romantic, Solomon really loved moments like these. The family moments were always the ones that he remembered the most in his life.
This reminded him of when he had just gotten custody of Maya. She was only ten then, and, boy was she a ball of energy. He joked with Somner that he could lose weight simply by trying to keep up with her. Somner didn't really like those jokes. But he laughed it off more with Solomon than when his father said it.
Somner's dad was just like him, only he didn't have the weight that his son had. They both argued tooth and nail about everything. But after his father had apologized for the past, they became really close. They would argue with each other no matter what, but it didn't have the same venom that it used to.
They would have movie nights with Maya a lot back then. Only, instead of Solomon sitting on the couch while he watched these two look for the right movie, it was Somner who would wait. Solomon and Maya were the ones who picked the movies. Somner usually didn't care. Half the time he would wind up falling asleep sometime around the end. Maya and him had a blast with whipped cream during the nights that he would fall asleep on that couch.
Niko and Jay found a movie and put it in before he could get too lost in thought. Solomon scooted towards one end of the couch, so that Niko could have the middle. Jay was at the other end, with his head resting on his father's lap.
"Looks like our date night wasn't canceled after all," Solomon nudged him playfully. Niko seemed to have a softer look to him. He quickly put an arm around him and pulled him close.
And, for once, he could feel the man relax.