Page 27 of Loving You

“Was it okay?” Bronx was suddenly unsure. He’d woken Monty with gentle kisses before wordlessly asking to suck him off. But he was nervous now. He wasn’t sure he knew him well enough for that.

Monty just smiled and nestled closer. “It was perfect.”

Bronx closed his eyes and breathed in the scent of him. “We definitely need a shower.”

Laughing, Monty buried his face against Bronx’s thick chest hair and rubbed his nose back and forth. “We do. I have one that can fit two people if you’d like.”

“Mm. Just don’t expect too much from me. I don’t have the stamina of a younger man anymore.”

Monty snorted and pulled back. “Neither do I. But it’ll be nice to have someone in there if I go limp. At least I can trust you to catch me.”

“You absolutely can, darlin’.”In more ways than one. That was a dangerous road to go down, even in his own head. But fuck his life because Bronx couldn’t help it. No matter how hard he tried.

“And where the hell were you, young man?”

Bronx froze with his foot halfway through the front door before he realized it was his son talking, not his brother. Lucas and Dallas sounded incredibly alike, which was something he hadn’t noticed until a year ago as Lucas moved through the last vestiges of his puberty shift.

He shut the door behind him, and without the glow of the morning sun, he could only just make out Lucas on thecouch, holding a sleeping Audra on his shoulder. “Is your uncle here?”

“No. He asked me if I could babysit while he goes to an IEP meeting at the school,” Lucas told him.

Bronx walked over and plopped down next to his son. “Did your uncle ask where I was?”

Lucas snorted. “Yeah, he did. And I lied and said you were at the store, so you totally owe me.”

“Sure. Add it to my tab.”

“Bruh.”

Bronx elbowed him gently, his own personal version of a glare that he could use on his son. Lucas laughed quietly, obviously not trying to wake the baby. “How long has she been asleep?”

“About an hour. I need a piss though. Help me out?”

Bronx carefully lifted the infant into his arms. She was heavy with dead weight and didn’t do more than stretch a bit before settling in his arms. “Take your time,” Bronx said. “I need some baby cuddles today.”

“That bad?” Lucas grinned in his direction before hurrying off toward the bathroom. He clipped his hip on the edge of a curio cabinet near the hallway entrance, and Bronx made a note to have it moved somewhere else.

Lucas was still learning the layout of the house, but they’d been there long enough now that he could start helping prevent bruises.

Bronx settled back and looked down at Audra’s face. He hadn’t gotten to see her much at all when she was first born. The first trip he’d attempted was canceled because Katie refused to let Dallas have her overnight. The second, he’d gotten a few hours before Katie showed up and claimed she had a doctor’s appointment, refusing to let Dallas go along with.

In between that, Bronx was dealing with his marriage ending, so it hadn’t been a priority. He felt like shit about it now. Especially knowing Dallas had turned to a group of would-be strangers, and suddenly, they’d become more like family than him.

It was his own fault for checking out, and he had only himself to blame. But it felt like things were being fixed, and it didn’t seem like Dallas resented him for it. Though, that could easily change, especially if he found out Bronx had slept with his new best friend and had no intention of actually getting serious with him.

His plan hadn’t been to show up and shake up the friendship dynamics in Dallas’s life. He’d just wanted to carve out a little space for himself. Have something that was only his. He and Monty hadn’t exactly talked about what was next—if there was anything next.

But it wasn’t off the table either.

Their shower hadn’t led to anything other than kissing, and then Monty fixed him coffee and some toast. They ate in comfortable silence, and then Monty walked him to the door and kissed him again, soft and pliant and so long Bronx left with his heart pounding and his toes curled.

He liked him.

He wanted him.

And that was about all he was willing to ask for at the moment. But he knew they’d need to have a conversation about it soon because if his brother found out, he’d form expectations, and Bronx wasn’t ready for that. He didn’t have the strength to convince Dallas that he’d probably missed the window for his happily ever after, and he didn’t have the courage to admit aloud that even if he was ready, Monty had made it pretty clear he wasn’t interested in more than this.

That part stung the worst, but it was easy to ignore.

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