Page 52 of Forged

Those thoughts and more poked at him practically every hour of every day.

“Hey.” Bax’s gentle voice snapped him out of the grip of worry. Bax rested turned him to face him and smiled. “You’re doing great. This is going to be fun. It’s supposed to be fun.”

“It’s definitely fun,” Nick said, pulling Bax into his arms.

He bent down to slant his mouth over Bax’s. Bax embraced him and deepened their kiss. It felt so good and so right. Almost right enough to banish the fear that it would all vanish in an instant if he didn’t do everything right.

The only other lover he’d ever had had been torn from him, thanks to a tragic car crash. He knew he could survive the loss oflove, but he desperately didn’t want to have to go through that again. Things with Bax were still new, but they held so much promise that he would hate it if Bax decided he couldn’t put up with his baggage and left.

“Stop going all tense,” Bax said, cradling the side of Nick’s face and fixing him with a serious look. “It’s going to be okay. We’re alright.”

“Of course we are,” Nick said, then moved in for another kiss.

Bax’s body felt so good against his. His imagination conjured up all sorts of images, some fantasy, some memories, of the two of them naked and sweaty. Bax made him so happy. He was desperate to return the favor and make Bax happy, too.

“Daddy!” Jordan gasped from the other side of the couch, where he was standing in a sea of toys.

Nick pulled back but kept his arms around Bax as he turned to see what was the matter. Jordan was staring at him and Bax with a child-like, exaggerated look of shock.

“You kiss Bax!” Jordan added, in case Nick had any doubt about what had him shocked.

“Yes, I did,” Nick said, feeling simultaneously giddy and embarrassed that his three-and-a-half-year-old had caught them in the act.

“You don’t mind, do you?” Bax asked, letting go of Nick and stepping back.

Nick couldn’t tell if he was asking him or Jordan.

“I don’t mind if you don’t mind,” he answered, grabbing Bax’s shirt and pulling him back for another quick kiss.

Jordan laughed. Macy laughed because he laughed. That made him, and even Bax, smile.

It was going to be alright.

A minute later, as Nick and Bax walked around grabbing all the things they would need for the ritual and the kids, there was a knock on the door.

Before Nick could even call out, “Come in,” the door opened to reveal his mum.

“What’s all this?” his mum asked as soon as she saw everything he and Bax were carrying. She moved straight over to all but yank Macy out of Bax’s arms.

“Mum, what are you doing here?” Nick asked, heart racing with the need to either fight or flee, he didn’t know which.

“I thought I’d come take the children off your hands for the weekend,” she said, as if that were the most ordinary thing in the world. “Joann said that Lauren told her something about a picnic that was happening here tomorrow and I thought I would take these little burdens off your hands.”

Half a dozen frustrations crashed into each other within Nick at once. He hadn’t asked for his mum’s interference in his life, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself from trying to be his puppet master. He’d tried gently telling her no, but she was his mum and “No” wasn’t something she was used to hearing.

“We’re having a picnic tomorrow for Ostara,” he told her, continuing to gather the things for their ritual as if his mum wasn’t there. “We’ve planned a lot of things for the kids to do. There’s going to be an egg hunt and everything.”

“Egg hunt?” His mum looked taken aback. “Easter isn’t until next month.”

“Ostara,” Bax corrected her as he picked up the platter of snacks, since his mum had Macy. The tension that radiated from him and the tight line of his mouth weren’t good signs. “It’s always held on the Spring Equinox, which is today.”

“What on earth are you talking about?” Nick’s mum said, dripping disapproval.

“Bax is Pagan, Mum,” Nick said. “Ostara is one of the important Pagan holidays that predates Easter and that Easter was based on, so we’re all celebrating.”

It was a huge risk to let that cat out of the bag, since his mum already didn’t like Bax for turning her son gay—she hadn’t said those words exactly, but Nick was a hundred percent certain that was what she thought. Revealing the whole Pagan thing might just set her over the edge. But it was the least Nick could do to stand by his man.

Sure enough, as they all headed into the hall carrying bags and snacks and kids, his mum bleated, “What?”

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