Page 24 of Xavier

Whatever Kate’s reasons are, they make sense to her.

Even if sometimes I felt like she was being way too fucking paranoid.

“Why do you say that, Dex?”

“Because she’s expecting me to go to the local community college. Apparently, Dan’s got some in with the Dean or whatever and they can get me in without having me take an admissions test.”

Not to turn my nose up at a community college or anything but that seemed like a rather strange solution, seeing as how Dexter was clearly smart enough—and had the grades—to get into a state school. On top of that, it was a school not even in our home state.

That said a lot about his academic prowess.

“Hm.” Drumming my fingers on the table, I focused my attention on the cat in his lap who was happily licking at his hand. “You tell her about applying elsewhere?”

He shook his head. “Like I said, she’d freak out. She doesn’t even want me staying in a dorm.”

“Why?”

Dexter glanced up at me, his lips parting to say something just as one of the bus boys was coming around with a small bucket tucked under his arm to collect the stray dishes left by other customers. When he reached our table, he glanced down at the two cats in Dexter’s lap and grinned widely.

“You got the best ones in the house.” He squatted down to our table so he wasn’t hovering above us. His long wavy hair fell across his shoulder when he reached out to offer his hand to the white cat. “They’re a bonded pair, but you probably guessed that already.”

Dexter stared at him with slightly wide eyes. They were around the same age, if I had to take a stab in the dark. Unlike my son, though, this boy had a lip hoop punched into either side of his mouth and wore a few bangles around his wrist that clanged together when he teased the cat with his fingers.

He was a handsome kid, if not a little gangly for a teenager. A soft laugh escaped him when the white cat turned to rub up against his hand comfortably.

“His name’s Fritz,” he said, not talking to me at all. “The one in your lap is Steve.”

“O-oh,” was all Dexter stuttered out.

“They’re both up for adoption. But I do have to warn you, they have to go together.”

Dexter merely nodded mutely in response, his cheeks slightly colored in a soft shade of red.

Oh.

I think… I was beginning to see why Kate was digging her nails so hard into our kid. Why she was so damn adamant on keeping a watchful eye on both Dexter and I while we were off on this trip. Maybe it wasn’t some kind of motherly paranoia after all, but something else entirely.

The bus boy finally lifted himself back up to his feet, bidding us a farewell while throwing a wink at Dexter that had my son quickly averting his eyes and focusing back down at the cat in his lap.

Leaning over slowly, I let both of my arms rest on top of the table while I wrestled with reaching over and grabbing at him to get him to look at me. I settled on giving him space instead because he clearly needed it. “Dex. You… know you can tell me anything, right? I won’t ever judge you.”

God, I hoped he knew that.

There was nothing in this world that would ever make me love him less. Especially… something like this. Feelings were sodamn complicated and as a teenager trying to figure out your place in the world, that made it all the more harder to come to terms with being different than everyone else around you.

Especially in an evangelical household.

His Adam’s apple visibly bobbed as he swallowed. “Yeah. Sure. Whatever. Can we go?”

CHAPTER 12

Xavier

We spentthe rest of the morning into late afternoon in relative silence, wandering the small section of the city Dexter had chosen for the day.

I didn’t want to push him into talking to me about anything when he was clearly very uncomfortable in doing so. For whatever reason, he wasn’t able to trust me just yet with letting me in. He needed time to figure it out, something I could absolutely sympathize with.

I had no idea if my hypothesis was even correct in assuming he’d found that bus boy attractive. Hell, I could be way off base in assuming that, and for all I knew, he’d just never really met another guy his age with lip piercings, long hair, and a healthy appreciation for cats.

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