Page 53 of Loving You

Bronx was a protector. He couldn’t help that, and maybe for the first time in his life, he had someone who wanted to be protected.

Chapter Fourteen

MONTY

Monty spottedLucas in the back seat of Kylen’s car as he walked out his front door and gave his friend kisses on his cheeks. Kylen tugged him in for a hug—so American, so lovely—and Monty let himself bask for a second. It had been a hellish week, and he was looking forward to getting in the air and cruising for a while.

He knew Bronx was nervous about this. The man had been close to pissing his pants at the thought of his son in a plane, but he hadn’t mentioned anything to Monty about it, so he figured the topic would be taboo until Sunday, at the very least.

Opening the door, Monty leaned in toward the teen. “Nice to see you again.”

“Same,” Lucas said. His eyes were closed, and when his lashes fluttered open a little, Monty realized he wasn’t wearing his prosthetics. The flesh under his lids was a sort of pale pink. Startling a bit, only because it was unexpected. “So to speak.”

Kylen scoffed as he buckled himself in. “Ignore him. He makes blind jokes to make people uncomfortable.”

“Excuse you. That was a metaphor. Even my old shitty school taught me that,” Lucas fired back.

Monty chuckled as he settled in the seat and buckled up. “So long as you didn’t make any plane crashmetaphorsin front of your dad, I think it’s fine.”

“Oh my God, no. I’m a shithead sometimes, but I’m not a monster,” Lucas said. “Though he tried to find a way to ground me all week and failed miserably because I’m a damn delight who never disobeys.”

Kylen snorted. “He’ll untwist his panties once you’ve been up a few times. Trust me. Dallas still gets a little freaked about me going up, but he’s also shit-scared of flying in general.”

Monty smiled, trying not to flush at the thought of Bronx in panties, but he definitely filed that away for later. His big, round ass stretching lace. Fuck. He cleared his throat. “I grew up going out with my grandfather, so it never bothered me. It’s the one thing I miss most now that I can’t go on my own.”

Lucas leaned up between the seats. “Why can’t you go on your own? What happened to you?”

“Didn’t either of your dads teach you manners?” Kylen said in a rush. He was a little overprotective when it came to Monty sometimes, which made him feel good. Even if he didn’t mind Lucas asking.

“Well, one dad didn’t talk to me at all until, like, this year. The other one is a useless waste of space who wishes I was never born. So…no.”

Monty bowed his head. He could hear the pain and tension in Lucas’s voice, and the last thing he wanted to do was make it worse. “I have a neurological condition. The doctors are still trying to figure out exactly what it is. I faint a lot, and I have cataplexy spells. If you know what that is.”

“Narcolepsy,” Lucas said. “Friend of mine at school had it. Most of the time, he’d just need to take a lot of naps and eat a shitload of stimulants. But sometimes he’d just, like, collapse in class.”

“Mine isn’t narcolepsy,” Monty said. “I know a few of the triggers. Mostly stress, which is why they don’t want me flying on my own. The last thing I want is to careen into a mountain because I lost consciousness.”

“A blind pilot and a fainting pilot hit cruising altitude,” Lucas said. “Sounds like a joke. I just don’t know the punchline yet.”

“They landed just fine, thanks to their best friend Kylen, and no one died. The end,” Kylen said primly.

Lucas sat back. “It’s sad when Dallas is the funny one in the relationship.”

Monty grinned, trying to hold back a laugh. His heart was warm and so full. He was an anxious mess at the thought of meeting with his father and brothers Sunday, but it was easy to forget now. The only thing that would have made the flight better was Bronx with him.

But Kylen and Lucas felt like an extension of him in a way. They were family, and Monty was finally starting to feel like he had a place in that. He just didn’t know exactly where yet. But he was resolved to talk to Bronx about it because they’d been dancing around what they could be for a few weeks now, and damn if he wasn’t ready to reconsider his own boundaries.

He just wanted to make sure they were on the same page.

The only thing he did know for certain was that he couldn’t keep this up. He couldn’t keep letting Bronx spoil him the way he was without letting his heart get involved.In truth, he was falling, and he was already halfway to the ground.

The mood in the car stayed friendly and kept up with them as they made it onto the plane. Monty sat back, getting comfortable in the passenger seat as Kylen took his time giving a very thorough tour of the plane and the controls. Lucas looked a lot like his dad in various moments when he was concentrating. It was the way he furrowed his brow and the way his tongue poked out at the corner of his mouth as he ran his fingers over the console.

Monty knew that Bronx felt like he hadn’t done enough for his son—that he’d been phoning it in for the last few years—but that wasn’t entirely true. He was present enough to make an impression on the kid. It was nothing like Monty’s relationship with Rod.

There was actual love here.

“Last question for Monty,” Kylen said, and Monty jolted back to the present. “Do you mind if we put Bump Dots on stuff?”

---