Page 63 of Sugar

Swallowing heavily, he gave in to his fears and opened his call log, tapping on Piper’s name. He picked up after two rings with a quiet laugh in his voice. “I need you,” Juno said.

Piper’s demeanor changed instantly. “What’s wrong?”

“Please come back to the room. I need you.” Then he hung up.

Piper was at the door in less than two minutes. From where Juno sat, he could see a faint dusting of color in Piper’s cheeks, and all the lightness and joy from their time together was gone. Juno hated himself for doing it, but he didn’t want to read all of this by himself.

He couldn’t.

Piper dropped to his knees beside the bed and placed his hands on Juno’s thighs. “Talk to me.”

“My DNA results from that test thingie are in.”

Piper blinked in shock. “That was fast.”

“I didn’t read them. I’m…I think I’m afraid. I don’t know why. I mean, I knew some of my family, and I know why I was dumped. But it feels like it’s too much.”

“What can I do?”

Juno let out a tense laugh. “Log in to my account and read them for me?”

He could see the hesitation in Piper’s face. He knew what his lover wanted to say—this was too personal. Too much to ask. But Piper had made it very clear that he would do anything for Juno, and in this moment, he was going to take advantage of that.

“Please,” he added.

Piper stiffened, then nodded. “Where’s your laptop?”

Grabbing it from his bag, Juno made room for Piper on the bed, then buried his face in Piper’s shoulder as it booted. He offered out his finger so Piper could use it to log in, and then Juno gave him directions to his email.

He listened as Piper typed. As he clicked. As he hummed in thought.

The lack of words was threatening to drive him insane.

“You have a lot of Norwegian in you,” Piper said.

Juno barked a laugh without looking up. “Yeah. From what I know, my mom was second generation.”

“There’s also a lot of French and some German in here.”

“Milky white,” Juno said.

Piper let out a soft laugh and kissed the top of his curls. There seemed to be a mood shift after that, and Piper cleared his throat after a long beat. “You have family members.”

“Are my parents…”

“No,” Piper interrupted. “There’s…it looks like an aunt. And so many cousins I can’t count.”

He was holding something back. Juno squeezed his eyes shut tighter. “Just tell me.”

“A brother. Half brother,” he clarified.

Juno’s heart began to pound so hard he could hear it in his ears, feel it on the sides of his tongue. “I don’t know how this site works. Can you click on his profile, or…?”

“His name is Roe Broderick. There’s a profile photo, but it’s blurry. I think he looks like you.”

Juno swallowed past the lump in his throat. “What else?”

“He’s thirty-eight. He has a link to his Facebook and LinkedIn.”

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