Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17

Xavier

Receiving the frantic text of ‘ hey my brothers surprised me at the fire station’ was probably the last thing I expected to see when I grabbed my phone to check my notifications on the off chance that Kate had called me.

I was glad that things worked out for Gage and his brothers, and was happy that my intuition about them had been correct. He’d put way too much love and care into them for them to turn around and write him off in order to experience living on their own for a little bit longer.

The holidays were a special time for most families. Coming together in order to celebrate that was more meaningful than a lot of people realized. I’m glad the boys weren’t taking that for granted.

Time was so short and life was full of unpredictable ups and downs.

There was no guarantee that there would be another day, so why chance it?

“Hey, Dex?” I called from the living room.

A minute later, he popped his head out from the doorway of his room.

“Gage’s brothers surprised him at the station. You mind bunking with me so they can have one of their rooms back?”

He gave me a funny look. “I guess...”

“It’s just temporary.”

He was quiet for a moment, his expression growing more perplexed. “I’m surprised you’re not going to room with Gage? Unless they also don’t know...”

“No…” My voice sounded a little strangled while I spoke. “They do.”

“Okay, so...”

I rubbed at my cheeks, feeling them grow hot to the touch.

Who would’ve thought my own kid would be suggesting I bunk with my boyfriend while on a father-son trip?

This entire time, I thought he’d balk at the idea of him finding out I had a boyfriend, let alone bringing him to his house to crash while on our trip.

“I just think it would be easier,” Dexter explained.

“No, yeah. You’re right. I didn’t want you to feel uncomfortable.”

He shrugged. “It’s not that I don’t want to share a room with you. But I value my privacy to wind down at night.”

“No worries.” Honestly, I got that more than he knew. Decompressing after a long day of people-ing was the only way I wasn’t driven to insanity on a daily basis.

It seemed that Dexter had inherited my introverted nature. Not surprising, considering we were similar in more ways than our looks. He was smart like Kate, driven like me, and intuitive like the both of us.

He was a perfect blend of us both in the best way—the only thing good we’d ever done together.

“We’ll work something out,” I said.

“Yeah, let me know.”

Right then, the front door to Gage’s house unlocked and opened, voices filtering in from outside.

“I’m telling you, I’ll win in an arm wrestling competition any day of the week. I lift eighty pound bags of feed every day.”

“And I’m telling you, I’m in the goddamn military. I lift that shit for breakfast.”

“Hello, you’re a medic?”

“Okay, and I still have fitness tests to pass?”

Ah, that must be the twins.

Lifting myself up from the couch, I headed for the front door to greet them. Dexter ducked back into his room to hide, probably overwhelmed by their loud voices. I could sympathize in a sense—it wasn’t my forte to entertain a bunch of extroverts, but at least I had Gage as a buffer.

Who did Dexter have?

Me?

I didn’t know these two, either, so I’d be just as lost as a buffer, if not worse than not having one to begin with.

Making my way through the living room and into the small foyer, I spotted the twins lingering in the doorway. Both of them had large duffels swung over their shoulders, one of them with a military print.

Behind them, Gage was stepping up into the house, waving his hands for them to clear the doorway while he dragged another bag in through the door. He let out a loud huff of air when letting go of the strap, straightening back up to brush his hands together.

“All right. That’s everything,” he said.

“Nice,” one of the twins said, swinging the door closed behind him.

All at once, the three of them turned to me. A long beat of silence fell over us all as they took me in, their eyes curious while Gage shifted awkwardly on his feet.

One of the twins pointed at me. “Hey, it’s you.”

“In the flesh,” I said, heading over to them to grab the bag Gage had lugged inside.

It was heavy as fuck when I got a hold of it.

What the hell had these two brought home, fucking bricks?

“Wow, you’re way taller than I expected,” one of them said. “Gage, you got a type.”

“Shut up,” he gritted through his teeth, face on fire.

“Oh really…” Sue me for being curious, but I had to know. “Do tell.”

I was never one to get jealous, but when it came to Gage, all bets were off. I’d never go out of my way to beat someone up if I caught them flirting with him, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t be marking my territory with a heated kiss or something similar.

Call me a caveman.

The twin with the shorter hair laughed. “We have stories for days. You want to hear what it was like when he had a crush on the cashier at the mini-mart down the road? Oh, or how about that time he was trying to hit on the guy at the gas station who was buying a bunch of junk food ‘cause he had the munchies and could barely understand Gage because he was so high.”

“Asher. Shut up,” Gage choked out.

Oh, this was too good. “You guys up for long? I’ve got all weekend.”

They both grinned at me.

“Hey, I like him,” the one with the longer hair said, nudging Gage in the ribs.

“Greyson,” Gage said in a monotone, gesturing to one twin and then the other. “Asher. This is Xavier. Behave. ”

“It’s nice to meet you two,” I said.

“Likewise,” they both said at the same time.

“I’m so sorry ahead of time,” Gage said to me.

“I think you might be needing that sentiment more than me.”

He answered me with a groan.

“Wait, where’s your little dude?” Asher said, glanced around.

“He’s taking a breather.” Forcing my kid to be social kind of felt wrong, especially after the intense morning we’d had. If he wanted to hide for a bit while these two got settled, I wasn’t going to tell him no.

Asher nodded sagely. “Respect.”

Behind him, Gage rolled his eyes. “Okay, you two. Stop interrogating him. You’re going to scare him off.”

My face twisted into a smile. Not likely, but they could damn well try. I had a feeling we were going to get along fine. I had a few tricksters to deal with back home, so this wasn’t much different. As long as they respected Dexter, we’d be all good.

“You guys have a long flight?” I asked, leading them back into the living room.

“Not too bad,” Asher answered first. “Grey had to wait for my plane to land while I got to sleep like a baby on my flight over.”

“I hate that you can pass out on anything even remotely comfortable,” his brother said, tossing his bag down by the hallway leading back to the bedrooms.

“I think the word you’re looking for is ‘envy’.”

I felt an arm snake around my waist from behind, tugging me back while the boys headed for the kitchen together. Gage nuzzled his face into my neck, breathing me in while he had a tight hold of me.

“Quite the surprise,” I said once we were alone.

He kissed my neck. “You okay with this?”

“Your house, babe.”

He nipped at my skin. “Be serious.”

“I am. I’m glad they’re here. I had a feeling they’d surprise you, actually.”

“Really?” Gage pulled back from me, a bemused expression falling over his face. “What gave it away?”

“You raised them.”

His eyes shimmered slightly. “Aw, stop. That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said.”

I couldn’t help but reach over and cup his face, pulling him into a chaste kiss. “I mean it. Your giant heart reflects in them.”

“Ugh.” He leaned into me again. “I love you.”

Whatever our weirdness from before was about, I was glad that it’d seemingly been forgotten about. I had half a mind to ask him about it while we were alone and in our own little bubble, however, spoiling the mood in order to talk about something that seemed a little more serious felt wrong.

I’d bring it up to him before we left, for sure. For now, though, I wanted us to enjoy the time we had together now that there was going to be a full house.

The soft sound of a throat being cleared had us both untangling ourselves immediately. Dexter was standing just beyond the start of the hallway, his eyes averted while he squinted at the wall.

Jesus, to go from us not touching each other in front of him to getting caught practically making out—how fucking embarrassing. We really needed to get it together.

“Dexter!” Gage clapped his hands together. “How was your campus tour? Did you like it?”

He cleared his throat again. “Good. Fine. Walked a lot.”

Gage nodded slowly with a forced smile. “That sounds fun. Er, I’m glad it went well.”

The sound of something crashing in the kitchen had us all whipping around toward the noise, a faint ‘oops’ following right after.

“Oh my god,” Gage mumbled, storming into the kitchen.

Maybe Gage would have his hands too full for us to get caught like this again. The thought was a little depressing, considering all I wanted to do was touch and hold him, but if it saved us from an awkward situation like this, then I was all for it.

Turning to my son, he slowly wandered over to me. “They seem... excitable.”

“Yeah. Look, Dex, I’m sorry?—”

He cut me off. “Can I tell you something?”

I was scared to ask. “Yes?”

Dexter shook his head at me. “You got it bad.”

I held back a guilty smile.

I really, really did.