Page 32 of Resisting You

Lane dragged a hand down his face. “Isn’t there a policy against that?”

Dallas snorted. “Yeah, but if there is, he’s been breaking it for how long? I mean, this is Frey we’re talking about.”

“Can you please not slut shame me right now?” Frey asked, horrified by how small he sounded.

Dallas immediately folded himself over Frey and hugged him. “Shit, I’m so sorry. I was joking. I don’t think what you’re doing is bad.”

Frey let himself be comforted by his friend’s warm arms and took in a deep breath of his weird scent, which was a weird mixture of dirt and cafeteria food. It was similar to how Rex smelled when he came home from school. Dallas had just gotten a job working at the elementary school not far from Frey’s hospital, and it was starting to cling to him.

“Seriously, I am so sorry,” Dallas whispered.

Frey gave him a gentle pat as he eased back and settled his cheek on Dallas’s thigh. “I forgive you, honey. I know my reputation.” The words were the truth, but the meaning behind them wasn’t. “But it wasn’t like that. It was weird. I thought he was going to murder me, then the next thing you know, we were kissing and rubbing dicks. Sorry,” he added to Dallas.

Dallas rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to clutch my pearls over the idea of two dicks. Most of my best friends are queer.”

Frey shrugged and settled back down again. He flopped his hand over the side of the couch and dragged his nails over the carpet just to distract himself from just how much he was feeling. “I kind of…” He trailed off, afraid of the next words that were dancing on the edge of his tongue.

“What, babe?” Lane pressed very softly.

Frey squeezed his eyes shut and shrugged. “I left really quick after it happened, and I was kind of hoping he’d…I don’t know…chase me down. Beg me not to say anything.” Show any actual interest in what he’d done to Frey’s body like it wasn’t all a giant mistake. Frey didn’t want some sort of declaration of love or anything like that.

Renato was the last person in the world he could see himself with.

But letting Frey walk away like it was nothing?

“You might be reading into that a bit,” Dallas told him, soothing him with fingers running through his hair. “He was probably as freaked-out as you were.”

Logically Frey knew that. After all, he was the one who’d run. But as ridiculous as it sounded, he wanted to feel like it meant something—even if it was a bad something. Renato likely saw him as the hospital whore, though, so what did he really expect? He’d probably blame it all on Frey, even though he’d been the one to kiss him. He’d say something like, oh, he seduced me like he does with everyone.

And all the staff would probably take his side.

Frey felt sick to his stomach.

“Hey,” Lane said. He got up off his chair and plopped down on the floor beside Frey. His knees gave a loud pop, and he rolled his eyes at himself before cupping Frey’s cheek. “When do you have your next days off?”

Frey wrinkled his brow in thought. “Next Wednesday and Thursday.” He stopped and let out a soft groan. “Fuck, it’s spring break that week. I need to figure out?—”

“No,” Lane said. “Remember, Bowen said he’d take Rex for the week.”

That was true, but that was also before Rex had broken his collarbone.

Lane must have read that from his face because he scoffed and rolled his eyes. “He can handle a kid in a sling, and Briar will be thrilled to see her best friend every day.”

In spite of the way he was feeling, happiness settled over him like a soft blanket, and he managed a real smile. Before Lane had come along, the single dad group had been friendly but not really friends. Not like this. Not like…well, like family. Lane seemed to have been that missing piece of the puzzle, and now it was all different, but in the best way.

“Thank you,” he said.

Lane rolled his eyes again, then leaned in to kiss him on the forehead. “Just keep it together until next week. Take one of those days off and do something for yourself, okay?”

Frey felt a small wave of guilt for not spending every spare waking moment he had with Rex because he worked enough as it was. He shouldn’t need time to himself. But maybe Lane was right. Maybe he needed this one day.

“Promise me I won’t traumatize my kid and give him abandonment issues if I do that.”

Lane blinked at him before realizing he was half-serious. “Frey.”

“I’m just saying?—”

“You’re not going to traumatize him,” Dallas cut in. “I see my kids in school way more than their parents do all year long. Some of them go into an after-school program until six or seven at night, but they still know their parents love them and are doing the best they can. Rex isn’t going to need therapy because you took one day off for yourself. You’ll be a better parent for him if you remember that you need to be taken care of too.”

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