Page 41 of Xavier

He nipped at my skin. “Be serious.”

“I am. I’m glad they’re here. I had a feeling they’d surprise you, actually.”

“Really?” Gage pulled back from me, a bemused expression falling over his face. “What gave it away?”

“You raised them.”

His eyes shimmered slightly. “Aw, stop. That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said.”

I couldn’t help but reach over and cup his face, pulling him into a chaste kiss. “I mean it. Your giant heart reflects in them.”

“Ugh.” He leaned into me again. “I love you.”

Whatever our weirdness from before was about, I was glad that it’d seemingly been forgotten about. I had half a mind to ask him about it while we were alone and in our own little bubble, however, spoiling the mood in order to talk about something that seemed a little more serious felt wrong.

I’d bring it up to him before we left, for sure. For now, though, I wanted us to enjoy the time we had together now that there was going to be a full house.

The soft sound of a throat being cleared had us both untangling ourselves immediately. Dexter was standing just beyond the start of the hallway, his eyes averted while he squinted at the wall.

Jesus, to go from us not touching each other in front of him to getting caught practically making out—how fucking embarrassing. We really needed to get it together.

“Dexter!” Gage clapped his hands together. “How was your campus tour? Did you like it?”

He cleared his throat again. “Good. Fine. Walked a lot.”

Gage nodded slowly with a forced smile. “That sounds fun. Er, I’m glad it went well.”

The sound of something crashing in the kitchen had us all whipping around toward the noise, a faint ‘oops’ following right after.

“Oh my god,” Gage mumbled, storming into the kitchen.

Maybe Gage would have his hands too full for us to get caught like this again. The thought was a little depressing, considering all I wanted to do was touch and hold him, but if it saved us from an awkward situation like this, then I was all for it.

Turning to my son, he slowly wandered over to me. “They seem... excitable.”

“Yeah. Look, Dex, I’m sorry?—”

He cut me off. “Can I tell you something?”

I was scared to ask. “Yes?”

Dexter shook his head at me. “You got it bad.”

I held back a guilty smile.

I really, really did.

CHAPTER 18

Xavier

To both myand Gage’s surprise, the boys got along swimmingly.

Over dinner, there was a bit of a tense debate over who was the first allowed to cut the pre-made turkey Gage had bought and heated up from the store. But once Dexter had won the impromptu rock, paper, scissors battle he’d been roped into, everything settled into a comfortable rhythm, as if we’d been doing this kind of tradition for years.

I enjoyed seeing my son bonding with kids around his age. With both Asher and Greyson out of the house and out living their lives, it gave Dexter a good insight into what was to come once he was officially graduated and old enough to do the same.

Getting ready for that transition in life made me nauseous, despite Gage’s numerous hand squeezes under the table every time Dexter talked about going to some far away school that would be at least a plane ride away.

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