Page 20 of Xavier

Turning to look at my son where he stood two steps above me, I nodded. “Yeah. I haven’t gotten a chance to check my phone to let him know we’re here. But he said he didn’t live too far from here.”

“Yeah… I don’t know that you’re going to need to do that.”

Instantly, my brows were furrowing. “Why do you say that?”

If Dexter wasn’t comfortable riding in a car with Gage back to his place, then we’d figure something else out. I fucking loathed rideshares with a burning passion, but if it made my kid more comfortable, then whatever.

Looking at him, though, he didn’tseemput off by the idea. In fact, he was wearing a rather bemused expression, his gaze focused away from me as he looked over my head at something.

“I think he’s already here.”

Whipping around, my gaze darted to the couple in front of us, and then past them to where the main lobby had travelers coming and going. In the midst of the flurry of people, a lone man stood in the middle with a crudely decorated sign that was being held up, the words, ‘Welcome to Baton Rouge!’in scrolling font.

As soon as he spotted us—or ratherme—he lifted the sign high above his head and waved it at us, that familiar, blinding grin practically splitting his face in half.

Oh, Gage.

“He always that peppy?” Dexter asked.

Snorting, I nudged my elbow backward into his side. Yep.”

I paused at the bottom of the escalator while Dexter stepped off right behind me. He kept himself close to me as we made our way through the bustling crowds and over to where Gage stood.

He lowered his sign just in time to avoid a couple cutting between us, narrowly catching him in the shoulder and checking him backward. As weird as it was to be back in Baton Rouge after so many months of being gone, it was nice to know that the people out here where just as oblivious as they were back in Cali.

“Hey.” Gage’s arms came up from his sides, the knee-jerk reaction to reach out and hug me short circuiting at the last moment when his gaze darted to the side, catching sight of Dexter coming up next to me. He shifted fluidly into shoving his arm in my son’s direction, holding out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Dexter. Your dad’s told me a lot about you.”

Politely, my son took Gage’s hand and shook it, throwing me an eyebrow raise while saying, “Really?”

“Yup.” Gage flashed him another blinding smile. “All good things. Don’t worry.”

Dexter dropped his hand back to his side, narrowing his eyes curiously while his gaze flitted between us.

Fuck, I hoped we weren’t being obvious with all of this. The last thing I needed Dexter to pick up on was our god awful budding sexual tension that literally never seemed to go away no matter what we did.

Thankfully, Gage was always the master of distraction and cleared his throat to ask, “Flight go okay?”

“Yeah. No turbulence.” Readjusting Dexter’s bag on my shoulder, I nodded toward the entrance of the airport. “How is it out there?”

Gage laughed. “Oh, you’re going to hate it.”

Damn it…

“Why?” Dexter asked. “We’re used to the heat in the winter time.”

“Humidity’s a bitch here, kid,” I said, nudging him. “We’re in swamp territory.”

“Hey! It’s not as bad as the summer,” Gage argued. “It’s only seventy percent right now.”

Dexter’s mouth dropped open while I let out a soft curse under my breath. See, this was the thing about coming down to the south. While the heat wasn’t bad, it was the humidity that made it feel like you were walking through a damn sauna.

I could deal with hundred-degree heat and no humidity. But put me in the mid-seventies with a humidity of eighty percent? I was fucking done for.

“Ew…” Dexter muttered.

“See? I’m not the only one,” I said.

Gage folded up his sign and waved it at both of us. “Come on, you two complainers. I’ve got the AC running in the car. Valet’s holding it for me right outside.”

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