Page 9 of One Night With You

Aria nodded. “People suck. But we’re here and we don’t suck.”

“That’s really what we should put on our matching T-shirts. Of course, we’ll have to change Phoebe’s up a bit because I know Kane wouldn’t appreciate it.” I blinked innocently as I said it, and Phoebe choked on her water, as Aria kicked her feet and laughed.

“I cannot believe you just said that,” Phoebe teased, and I did my best not to meet her eyes, before I dug into my meal, and we continued to talk about our days, our lives, and I tried not to double-check the locks, or the camera feed. Nobody needed to worry that we were safe or not. Because everything was locked up tight. And I would triple-check before bed after the girls left. Everything was fine.

I was completely safe.

So why did I feel as if that were a complete lie?

3

KINGSTON

It’s funny how time can move in a blink of an eye or drag on in its infinite existence as if it took every ounce of your life along the way.

That’s how I felt as I sat in the doctor’s office, for yet another consultation, going over everything that needed to happen.

Once Eddie and Samantha had dried their tears and sucked in breaths, we had gone into Latte on the Rocks, the café in our building. We had sat down so that way they could get some tea, and frankly I just needed the coffee. It probably wasn’t the best idea to have caffeine when I was still on a high from a tattoo, and the crash of what had just happened, but we needed to sit and talk.

And then plans had been made.

I had donated bone marrow before, so I remembered the initial pain, and all the discussions—but it had been a while.

Even though we had already done all the testing before to ensure it was a perfect match, we did it again. And so between blood tests and a physical exam, I was finally ready.

And now it was a couple of weeks later and I sat in a hospital room, my hands on my knees since I still wore my normal clothes and hadn’t yet been put into a gown.

Samantha and Eddie were in another part of the hospital and thankfully they wouldn’t be in the same room as me for this. No, somebody would just be using a very large fucking needle to withdraw liquid marrow from both sides of the back of my pelvic bone. It didn’t matter that eventually I would be given anesthesia, and I wouldn’t feel any pain during the donation. I would still know that there was a needle scraping inside of me and digging out liquid marrow.

Honestly, for a man who had tattoos, I was still afraid of needles. At least large ones that went down to the bone that is. In a world where my friends routinely got hurt or were sick, I felt as if maybe a slight fear of needles wasn’t such a terrible thing to be worried about.

And so now I sat on the edge of the hospital bed, as my mother looked through my bag ensuring I hadeverything in case I needed to stay overnight. The doctor didn’t think I would and felt I would be able to go home that evening and sleep in my own bed—however uncomfortable—but it didn’t matter to my mother. Because sometimes you had to stay overnight, so she wanted to make sure I had everything. I was an adult, but Holland Montgomery always made sure that her kids were well taken care of.

She had pulled her hair back from her face with two little clips on the side, and the curls just made her look far younger than she was. Of course, my mom had always just been Mom to me. Just like my dad Ethan, and my other dad Lincoln, were just Dad.

I hadn’t grown up in the most conventional of homes and yet to some, it was beyond such. And although my childhood hadn’t been the same as many others, I had been loved, cared for, and felt as if nothing had really been different than most of my friends.

While some people only had two parents, or one, or were parents of divorce and had two separate families, I happened to have two dads and one mom. My cousins Sebastian, Aria, Gus, and Dara all had the same situation with Aunt Maya and her two husbands. My dad just happened to be the Montgomery, and my brothers Logan and Oliver and I had three parents. It worked for us. Of course, that did mean I had an additional humanbeing to hover over me like my dad Lincoln was doing right now.

“You had a bad reaction last time you were under anesthesia, so are you sure they’re going to let you go home today?” he asked, and I sighed, running my hands over my face.

I only needed one person with me because someone had to drive me home. I didn’t want both of my brothers and all three of my parents, nor my cousins hanging around. But of course, Kane and Phoebe were in the waiting room along with Logan and Oliver, while all three of my parents were in the room with me, hovering.

I didn’t have time to be nervous or worried about what would happen or even if this would work because damn it, this had to work.

All I could do was try to reassure them which helped me in the long run. Who knew?

I just had to make sure they understood I would be fine, and everything would work out in the end, and reassure them that I wasn’t stressed out over what was about to happen.

And I knew that they were somewhat doing this on purpose because my three parents were the most self-assured and confident people I knew. After all, living in an open poly relationship where not only did my dads love my mom, but they also loved each other? Thatwasn’t for the weak of heart. They had survived the worst, been through terror, and I was so damn grateful they were my parents.

Only I really wanted to get this day over with.

“I’ve been under anesthesia more than once because of my job and was fine then,” I countered.

“I don’t think mentioning the whole being blown up and stabbed and shot at thing is really going to help us now,” my other dad Ethan said, as he studied some of the photos on the wall. “Why do they show so many blood vessels and random things on the walls? Shouldn’t they show you something a little more soothing before any kind of procedure?”

“I’m sure they’ll have a soothing landscape watercolor for him later,” my mom said dryly. “I’m pretty sure they only put these up so people can learn a few things since our education system is seriously lacking.”

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