Page 43 of Xavier

“So... there’s this holiday party going on at the station.”

I waited for him to finish. When he didn’t, I said, “Okay? You have to go help out after this or something?”

“No, no. Nothing like that.” He rubbed my chest. “I was thinking that, since you and Dexter are here, you could both come to it? It’s not for another week, but I heard Dexter saying he doesn’t start school again until after New Years.”

“I’d love to…” His eyes lit up instantly, which made me feel bad for immediately saying afterward. “But I have to bring Dex back home to his mom for Christmas.”

“Oh...”

I squeezed his sides. “Maybe next year.”

“You can’t come back or anything? I don’t mind paying for a plane ticket for you.”

“That’s sweet, Gage. But you should be spending the holiday with your family.”

He mumbled something under his breath while pulling away from me.

“What was that?”

He shook his head. “Nothing. Never mind. Forget I said anything.”

Confusion rattled in my brain, much like it had when he’d pulled away from me earlier when he’d come home for lunch.

What was going on?

I’d never seen him act this way. I’d blame it on his brothers being here, but he hadn’t even known they’d been on their way during lunch.

This wasn’t like Gage. He was usually the talker and I was the listener. He never shied away from expressing himself or his feelings, but right now this felt like pulling teeth from him.

“Hey…” I grabbed onto his arm. “Talk to me.”

“It’s fine. I get it.”

“Get what?” I asked.

“It’s just a stupid party. My coworkers were all bugging me about bringing you.”

Shit.

“I’m sorry. I wish I could. Kate’s going to want Dex there for Christmas and she’ll probably let me have him right after, so I don’t want to miss that.”

“I get it, Xavier. You don’t need to explain things to me like I’m a child.”

His arm slipped from my grip.

I silently watched him as he grabbed one of the plates and scraped off the food remnants before dunking it in the pre-filled sink. His movements were methodical and robotic, like he’d put himself on autopilot without even thinking about it.

My stomach hurt with how hard the knot in it was clenching. We’d never really had a situation where we weren’t seeing eye-to-eye outside of a work thing. We’d disagreed plenty while he’d been training with me, but outside of that, we were usually on the same page.

Me being sober had made our communications skills even better.

So what the fuck was this, then?

“Gage,” I said slowly. “What’s happening?”

“I don’t know what you mean.” He dunked another plate, tossing the fork into the sink with a quick flick of his wrist.

“What did I say?”

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