Page 45 of Forged

“Goodbye, dear,” his mum said before kissing his cheek and slipping into the car.

Nick stepped back and waved as his mum backed up. He stayed where he was, watching her car retreat down the drive, a tight, painful pull forming in his chest. He loved his kids more than anything in the world. They were definitely the most important things in his life, more important than himself. But maybe he was being selfish keeping them with him. Bax wasn’t the only one not getting the attention he deserved. His kids needed more focus than he was able to give them.

He shook his head and turned, not to head back into the house, but to walk around the perimeter until he met the path heading down to the forge. The thought crossed his mind that he hadn’t had time to go for a morning walk with Bax in weeks. Back when the weather was brutal, the two of them had gone out nearly every morning. He understood now that that was their way of flirting and getting to know each other better. They’d been motivated to spend that time together. Now that they were actually dating and sleeping together, they were lucky if they had time for a kiss and a tickle in the morning before they each had to dash out to take care of work and kids.

What if he did let his mum take the kids? What would mornings look like then? He wouldn’t have to get up when Jordan and Macy got up and then focus on them to the exclusion of everything else. He could laze away in bed with Bax on the weekends, making love and getting to know him on a deeper level. They could take their morning walks in weather that was actually nice without him having to constantly check his phone in case Imogen needed him to handle something with the kids that she couldn’t.

As he entered the forge and started the process of feeding the fires for the day, his gaze kept shifting to his unicorn. It was mostly done now, but all the other things he’d planned to make for the upcoming metalwork and blacksmithing convention Hawthorne House was hosting in just a few weeks had fallen by the wayside. If the kids were taken care of somewhere else, he might have time for more art.

He didn’t like the direction his thoughts were headed and went about his morning prep with a frown. He was a dad, first and foremost. He was determined to be a good dad. But he was also a man. The number one thing Bax had taught him so far was that he had needs. That wasn’t just some corny thing that horny people said. Now that he knew how amazing sex could be, his libido was constantly screaming at him.

He deserved a chance to listen to it and to act on it without interference.

“That’s an awfully serious look for this early in the morning.”

Nick straightened from where he’d been prepping a few rods of iron in the fire so they’d be ready for the day’s project, creating S-hooks, to find Lauren just coming into the forge.

“Hello,” he said, somehow managing a smile for her. “I was just concentrating.”

Lauren hummed like she didn’t quite believe him as she shrugged out of her coat and hung it on one of the hooks around the perimeter of the forge. “You can tell me to bugger off if you still need thinking time. I’m early for class.”

“No, I’m fine,” Nick lied. “I’ve just got a lot on my mind lately.”

“Yeah, Joann was telling me the other day how stressed out you are between the kids being sick and everything else,” Lauren came over to lean against the table closest to where Nick was working.

“The kids are doing much better,” he said, still trying to be friendly. He was glad he was wearing his goggles. They gave him the illusion of distance between him and his sister’s attempt at a set-up.

Although that wasn’t entirely fair to Lauren. They were a few weeks into the class and she hadn’t pushed too hard or given him any reason to think she was there for any reason other than interest in metalworking.

That wasn’t the case for a certain other student.

“Oh, have we started already?” Callum asked as he bounced cheerily into the forge. “I’m not late, am I?”

“Nope,” Nick said, not trusting himself to actually look at Callum in case the sheer force of his jealousy knocked the man over. “I’m just prepping.”

“And I was just asking about his kids,” Lauren said. “I’m friends with Nick’s sister.”

Callum hung up his coat then came to join them, saying, “I’m friends with Nick’s boyfriend.”

Nick peeked up at Lauren, his face heating. He hadn’t stood up on a bench and made any great announcement to the class that he and Bax were dating, but word had gotten around. He was anxious about what Lauren thought of their relationship, but more because of what Joann and his mum thought.

Lauren didn’t bat an eyelash, though. “What a coincidence,” she said, smiling at Callum. “How do you know Bax?”

That right there was proof that Lauren knew everything.

“We used to belong to the same coven,” Callum answered, as smooth as you please, as if people walked around admitting to being Pagan every day.

Then again, Lauren didn’t so much as blink at that either, so maybe it was just his hang-up about alternative lifestyles.

Or rather, it was his mum’s opinion infecting his own way of viewing the world.

“Ooh, Pagan,” Lauren said, shifting on her stool to give her attention to Callum instead of Nick. “I had a college friend who was a practicing Pagan. Happy Ostara, right?”

Callum laughed charmingly. “Not quite yet,” he said. “In about two more weeks.”

“Oh, right,” Lauren said. “Ostara is the Spring Equinox, right?”

“Correct in one,” Callum said with a broad smile. “You folks stole quite a few of our springtime rituals to make your Easter,” he added, like he was scolding a disobedient child.

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