Page 39 of Xavier

“Okay, so...”

I rubbed at my cheeks, feeling them grow hot to the touch.

Who would’ve thought my own kid would be suggesting I bunk with my boyfriend while on a father-son trip?

This entire time, I thought he’d balk at the idea of him finding out I had a boyfriend, let alone bringing him to his house to crash while on our trip.

“I just think it would be easier,” Dexter explained.

“No, yeah. You’re right. I didn’t want you to feel uncomfortable.”

He shrugged. “It’s not that I don’t want to share a room with you. But I value my privacy to wind down at night.”

“No worries.” Honestly, I got that more than he knew. Decompressing after a long day of people-ing was the only way I wasn’t driven to insanity on a daily basis.

It seemed that Dexter had inherited my introverted nature. Not surprising, considering we were similar in more ways than our looks. He was smart like Kate, driven like me, and intuitive like the both of us.

He was a perfect blend of us both in the best way—the only thing good we’d ever done together.

“We’ll work something out,” I said.

“Yeah, let me know.”

Right then, the front door to Gage’s house unlocked and opened, voices filtering in from outside.

“I’m telling you, I’ll win in an arm wrestling competition any day of the week. I lift eighty pound bags of feed every day.”

“AndI’mtellingyou,I’m in the goddamn military. I lift that shit for breakfast.”

“Hello, you’re a medic?”

“Okay, and I still have fitness tests to pass?”

Ah, that must be the twins.

Lifting myself up from the couch, I headed for the front door to greet them. Dexter ducked back into his room to hide, probably overwhelmed by their loud voices. I could sympathize in a sense—it wasn’t my forte to entertain a bunch of extroverts, but at least I had Gage as a buffer.

Who did Dexter have?

Me?

I didn’t know these two, either, so I’d be just as lost as a buffer, if not worse than not having one to begin with.

Making my way through the living room and into the small foyer, I spotted the twins lingering in the doorway. Both of them had large duffels swung over their shoulders, one of them with a military print.

Behind them, Gage was stepping up into the house, waving his hands for them to clear the doorway while he dragged another bag in through the door. He let out a loud huff of air when letting go of the strap, straightening back up to brush his hands together.

“All right. That’s everything,” he said.

“Nice,” one of the twins said, swinging the door closed behind him.

All at once, the three of them turned to me. A long beat of silence fell over us all as they took me in, their eyes curious while Gage shifted awkwardly on his feet.

One of the twins pointed at me. “Hey, it’s you.”

“In the flesh,” I said, heading over to them to grab the bag Gage had lugged inside.

It was heavy as fuck when I got a hold of it.

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