Page 50 of Xavier

A small smile tugged at his lips. His gaze darted away from me bashfully while his voice was quiet, barely able to be heard over the breeze picking up through the trees. “Thanks, dad.”

“Anytime.”

I let my arms slip from him and back down to my sides. His shoulder brushed with mine as a couple of joggers came up from behind us and passed us on either side, their faces red and chests heaving heavily from their workout.

Both of us fell into a peaceful lull of silence. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to express to him how grateful I was that he’d asked me to take him on this trip. In just the span of a few short days, I felt closer to him than I had this entire past year.

Dexter letting me into his world inch by inch felt just as rewarding as getting my damn one year sober chip.

“You know,” when he finally spoke again, I looked at him. “If I end up going to LSU, you could move here, too. Gage seems pretty happy to have you around.”

Wryly, I said, “Trying to set me up?”

He shrugged, though there was that same small smile playing on his lips from earlier. “Aren’t you tired of long distance?”

“God. Yes.” I sighed. I was tired of a lot of things that were getting in the way of Gage and I. For one, his weird hot and cold attitude. But I wasn’t sure how much of that was from us being forced into close proximity with a full house or something else going on with him. “I don’t know if living together is the right move right now, though.”

Dexter frowned. “Why not?”

“It’s complicated.”

He stared at me.

Jesus, who knew my kid would be this invested in my love life. “I think I upset him, but I’m not sure how. So, he’s been a little off with me the past few days.”

“Huh.” Dexter turned back to face the boardwalk. “So, what do you think happened?”

“Kid, if I knew, I would’ve solved it by now.”

He snorted. “All right. True. You guys aren’t... breaking up, right?”

Aw, was he worried?

That warmed my heart if that was the case. Going from being terrified of him knowing I was dating someone, to him finding out and trying to give me relationship advice was a one-eighty flip that I never would’ve predicted but welcomed wholeheartedly.

“No, no. Nothing like that. Sometimes couples go through weird phases. I’m sure we’ll be fine once I get him to actually talk to me.”

He fell into another contemplative silence, his teeth gnawing on his bottom lip. Sometimes I wished I could reach in there and take a peek at those thoughts that always seemed to be rattling around inside of his head.

“I can ask Asher and Greyson to take me out tonight somewhere. Maybe a local restaurant or something so that you and Gage can have some privacy to talk,” he finally suggested.

I threw my arm back around him again, bringing him in so I could press a quick peck to the side of his head. “Hey, no meddling. You just worry about yourself and enjoying your vacation. I don’t want you stressing about this. I appreciate you caring, but I swear we’re okay. Couples sometimes go through rough patches, it happens. I’m sure you’ve seen your mom and Dan go through something similar a couple of times.”

He grunted at me. “That doesn’t count. They preach at each other until one of them gives up and goes to bed for the night.”

I held back making a face. “They still make up in the end, though, right?”

“I guess?”

Oh, boy.

Well, it wasn’t exactly my place to speculate on my ex-wife’s relationship with her husband. As far as I knew, they weren’t splitting up anytime soon. “I appreciate you worrying about me.”

“Fine. All right. Message received.”

“I love you, Dex.”

He smiled again, shrugging my arm off of him. “Love you, too, dad.”

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