Page 69 of More than Need

“It’s a little early to be worrying about any of that,” Riley said. “Lucia can’t have been dating him that long.”

“It’s not like I’m not doing the exact same thing, so I can add hypocrite to my list of transgressions.” He gestured at Riley and Dawson.

They hadn’t tucked Hudson inorread him a bedtime story—what kind of story was it?—but he understood what Gideon meant. It was a new world for both parents to navigate.

Dawson added pressure to Gideon’s jaw, getting his full attention. Gideon had the most beautiful brown eyes. The shade of colour changed depending on whether he smiled, frowned, laughed, got turned on, and even when he came. So expressive and open.

“It’s easy to see how much he worships you. No one will ever take your place in that regard. He’syourson, and you’re doing a fantastic job raising him. I only just met him today, and I know that. Today he’s interested in the new shiny bauble and making garbage with his playdough, and tomorrow it will be something else. Know what won’t change? Thatyou’rehis hero, and you’re his dad. It’s kind of like us, right?”

“In what way?” Gideon asked.

“There are three of us. Unconventional, and with room for jealousy. But there is none, because none of us are taking each other’s place. We’re finding room where we all fit. Maybe this guy willbecome important to Hudson. That doesn’t threaten your place with him, or whereyoufit. It’s just moving pieces.”

Gideon kissed him, hand gliding into Dawson’s hair, clenching. “I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I didn’t mean to unload all that on you.”

“It’s not the first time you’ve unloaded on me,” Dawson said, the corner of his mouth tugging up. He certainly hoped that Gideon got the double entendre.

Gideon burst out laughing. “How lucky for me that you’re so gracious about it.”

“I’m here for you.” Dawson brushed the pad of his thumb over Gideon’s stubble. “For anything.”

“Thank you.”

Dawson swallowed around the lump in his throat. He nodded, unable to voice everything that he felt. The fear from knowing this would all be snatched away soon grew every day.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” Gideon said, settling back between them, “but I’m a bit of a mess. I can’t even get myself unpacked, and I’ve been living here over six months.”

“It’s okay for things to take time,” Dawson said. He played with the strands of Gideon’s short hair. “It took me years to unpack the last of my stuff when I moved out of home.” Laziness, mostly, but he hadn’t missed anything in the boxes that he and Sadie had stacked into the shed for unpacking “later.” A mysterious word that could mean in ten minutes, tomorrow, a month, or six years from now. There were still some in there that they hadn’t looked at in years. A lucky dip.

“This place was meant to be temporary while I sort myself out. What I really want is to get a place with a backyard for Hudson. Maybe get a dog. Like I have time for a dog. I barely have time for my own kid.”

“People can have busy lives and still have animals.”

“Says a man who hasn’t been with someone who gets called up at two in the morning and then doesn’t get home till almost midnight the same day,” Gideon said dryly. “The unpredictable hours are the reason that Hudson doesn’t have many sleepovers.”

“That’s why you befriend neighbours,” Dawson said reasonably. There were always ways to work things out if he really wanted to get a pet. “Or like… you can hire those services that come around and walk the dog while you’re at work?” Hell,Dawson would look after it during the day if that’s what it took to make Gideon smile.

“I’m a cop. Letting some stranger have a key to my house so they can go in and take my dogout of itis not something I’m willing to do.”

“I have to agree with that,” Riley said. “I’d say no to the neighbours for the same reason. Roommates are out too.”

“So paranoid,” Dawson teased.

“We’re homicide detectives,” Riley said.

Dawson hadn’t considered that. They didn’t investigate robberies or minor crimes. Instead, they saw the worst of humanity and just what people were capable of doing to each other.

“You’ll figure it out,” he said confidently. Both of them were successful, accomplished, and ridiculously mature adults. If they couldn’t figure it out, who could?

Dawson wanted to be by their side, figuring it out together.

Gideon hadn’t come tosee him once that day. Riley checked the time on his computer. Nearing two in the afternoon. Even before they’d started sleeping together, something would have come into his inbox by now that made his eyebrow twitch. Or a knock at his door with a request that ended in, “Get out of my office right now, Gideon, before I fire you.”

Riley knew his increased workload, while partnerless, kept him busy, but that didn’t make it any less unusual that Riley hadn’t heard anything from him.

He might have counted himself lucky if things were normal. They weren’t normal. While he wouldn’t give Gideon special treatment or allow either of them to use the relationship to theiradvantage, they couldn’t deny that their relationship shift had changedsomething.

Riley threw down his pen, unable to concentrate. For fuck’s sake. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Their professional lives were separate from their personal ones. They had to be, in order to make this work and to keep it secret.

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