Page 7 of Xavier

Certainly not to meet my brothers.

So doing this with Xavier meant a lot.Hemeant a lot to me. I loved that man and hopefully, eventually, my brothers would, too.

“How about I think about it and get back to you,” I finally said.

Greyson made a small noise. “Fine. I’ll get back to you about Christmas, too.”

“Tell your boss that if he doesn’t give you time off, he’s going to find me on his doorstep.”

He huffed. “Fine.”

“I love you, Grey.”

“Yeah, yeah. I love you, too. Asher should be calling later.”

I flipped my wrist up to check my watch; I had about an hour before that happened. With him already having graduated boot camp and started on his specialized training, that typically ended around five and dinner was at six.

“Got it, thanks.”

After ending out call, I pulled my phone away from my ear and stared down at the log. As much as I hassled my brothers, I did mean what I said about seeing them. They could play it off as a joke all they wanted but when push came to shove, they were mine.

We were brothers in name, but honestly, they were practically my kids. I’d raised them proudly, despite my struggles in doing so over the years. Them leaving the nest and becoming successful was a testament to what I’d sacrificed in order to cultivate them into the young men they’d become.

It hurt, of course, them leaving me behind to go spread their wings and fly. But damn if I wasn’t proud, too.

Pulling up Xavier’s text thread, I shot him a quick message about a phone call later before heading back into the station.

Hopefully, my brothers weren’t going to give me any more grief about coming home.

Because if I had one thing going for me, it was following through with my promises.

CHAPTER 4

Xavier

Planninga trip to a different state would’ve looked a lot different if I wasn’t also simultaneously trying to do it behind my ex’s back.

Was it fucked of me to be doing this without Kate knowing?

Probably. But this was the first time since reconnecting with Dexter that he was allowing me in on something she wasn’t a part of. Throwing my precautions to the wind was going to be my only solution to this.

I couldn’t let this golden opportunity be flushed down the proverbial toilet the second it’d been presented to me. I had to make this perfect, to show Dexter that he could trust me and that I could handle his shit.

Our conversation about him dealing with whatever demons he had in him still rung through my head to this day. I wondered every night before I went to bed what kind of shit my kid hadbeen put through to create that destroyed look on his face when he’d admitted he couldn’t deal with my shit on top of his.

My desperation to know was only in an effort to fix it for him. To create the safe space he needed in order to talk to him about what happened. I wasn’t willing to jump to any conclusions just yet, but damn if my mind didn’t race every time I thought about it.

Hopefully, this trip would change things.

My phone lit up from where I’d tossed it onto my desk, Gage’s name scrolling on it. Smiling, I put him on speaker and continued to click through flights.

“Hey, baby.”

He let out that familiar soft chuckle of his. “Hey. Got your message. That’s exciting about Dexter.”

“You okay with us crashing at your place? I can grab a hotel if not. No worries.”

He groaned into the speaker. “I swear to god if one more person ditches me, I’m going to scream. No, you’re coming here and staying with me. This house is so fucking empty.”

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