Page 58 of Forged

He had his life before Bax, and he had his life now.

There wasn’t a specific moment that Nick could point to that had changed everything. Maybe it was the first time they’d met, although that had probably been way back when he’d been dating Raina and she’d introduced him to her huge wild family. It could have been that moment at the fundraiser, when Bax had mentioned he’d be staying at Hawthorne House for the winter. Or maybe it was that first, quiet conversation they’d had in the forge.

It didn’t really matter. Bax was in his life now, and as the exhaustion of the traumatic Friday evening wore off, after the additional fuss of feeding, changing, and bathing Jordan and Macy once they’d made it home from the hospital, he and Bax passed out in his bed together. They’d rolled out of bed on Saturday morning to deal with more drama as Jordan realizedhis bandage wasn’t coming off and he couldn’t use his hand. Through it all, Nick realized he didn’t ever want to lose Bax. Ever.

It was Sunday afternoon now. Macy was back to normal and Jordan was on his way to healing, though he was still grumpy as all get-out. Janice had volunteered to watch the kids for the afternoon so Nick could face his next challenge, repairing Raina’s unicorn.

He let out a sigh as he stood in front of the broken sculpture, trying to figure out where to start. One entire side of the work had been squashed when it had fallen into the table, but it wasn’t as bad as he’d feared at first. The body of the unicorn had remained more or less intact. That was where the thickest, heaviest bits of work were, and a fall into a table wasn’t enough to dent it.

It was the rest of the work, the fine, fiddly bits, like the mane and tail, that had suffered in the crash. The horn was hopelessly bent now, too. The unicorn’s pose was rampant, so the two legs that were up in the air had broken. Jordan had cut his hand on the raw edge of one of those. They weren’t destroyed completely, but they needed serious work.

It could be fixed. With a little time and effort, the whole thing could be repaired.

“Best get started, then,” he sighed, then headed off to the side to don his apron and goggles and to fetch the tools he’d need for the job.

The weather was warming quickly, so all of the canvas that had sheltered the forge during the winter was rolled up. That gave Nick a wide view of Hawthorne House’s grounds. The film crew would be coming back in a week to shoot a few more scenes for the medieval movie. Nick wondered if he and Bax would be dragged into being extras again.

He smiled as he grabbed his favorite tongs from his special shelf. Only now did he realize how hard Bax had been flirting with him when they’d been filming that scene. Lord, but he’d been dense back then.

His smile faltered as he caught a hint of movement between the trees, where the path he and Bax, back when they were taking walks in the morning, liked to walk wound through the woods. He craned his neck and stood on his toes, trying to figure out if the movement was Bax taking a walk now.

Not that he liked the idea of Bax taking a walk without him. Bax could do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted, but going on a walk without him felt a little too close to Bax pulling away.

He shook his head at himself and moved on to where he had the sculpture set up right next to the new forge. He would start by repairing the unicorn’s legs, since they were the biggest job. From there he’d redo all the fiddly bits.

Ten minutes in, and his thoughts were more on Bax than his work.

Bax had been wonderful, both in watching Macy when they were at the hospital and yesterday, when his focus had to be on Jordan all day. Bax had played with Macy, fed her, and even changed her, which Nick knew he still felt a little awkward about. He’d taken such a huge weight off his shoulders.

And plunked that weight right down on his own.

Bax wasn’t as comfortable with the idea of parenting as he pretended he was. Nick didn’t have to sit him down and have an entire conversation with him about it to know. He was struggling, and that worried Nick. If something wasn’t done soon to make everything okay, he was at serious risk of losing Bax for good.

“It looks like that’s coming along nicely.”

Nick jerked away from smoothing the join where he’d just reattached the unicorn’s right hoof to find Rafe walking into the forge with two steaming mugs. The split second of hope he had that Bax had joined him flattened, but he recovered quickly at the sight of Raina’s brother.

“It looked worse than it is when it fell,” he said, putting his tools down, pushing his goggles up to his forehead, and walking over to see if one of the mugs Rafe had was for him.

“It’s tea,” Rafe said, handing one of the mugs over, then leaning against one of the worktables. “I didn’t know if you were a coffee or a tea guy.”

“I can go either way,” Nick said, then laughed loudly at his inadvertent joke right before bringing the mug to his lips.

Rafe laughed with him, and instantly, half the anxiety that had been pressing down on Nick mellowed.

“I should have known that you weren’t entirely straight,” Rafe said, smiling, then taking a sip of his tea. “Anyone who would throw their lot in so thoroughly with this family couldn’t possibly beentirelystraight.”

“Are any of the Hawthornes entirely straight?” Nick asked, then sipped his tea.

Rafe cocked his head to the side in exaggerated thought, then nodded. “Yes. We had a great-aunt Mildred who was straight, but that was during the war, so who knows?”

Nick grinned and leaned against the table opposite Rafe. It was wonderful to have friends. The Hawthorne siblings could have kept him on the outside when he and Raina had married. They could have waved goodbye to him and the kids after Raina’s death. Nick was forever grateful that they’d kept him warm and cozy in the fold.

“How are you holding up?” Rafe asked. The significant feeling of his words hinted that he meant more than just Jordan and the squashed unicorn.

“I’m doing alright,” he said, crossing his ankles and warming his hands around the mug. “Nothing has been broken that can’t be fixed.”

Rafe gave him a lopsided smile. “I assume you mean more than just the sculpture?”

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