Page 71 of Charming But Reckless

With a wink, he rose and took off. Inside, I laughed at his words. On the outside, I didn’t even smile. We both knew I wasn’t going anywhere.

It only took a couple minutes for Orion to drop onto the bed behind me. I knew it was him because he was the only person brave enough to do something like that besides Dad.

He tugged on the blanket until I turned over. Then he signed, “Talk to me, kiddo. What’s on your mind?”

The words came before I could hold back. “I’m scared I’ll get taken again. And I don’t know how to feel safe. I keep remembering everything.”

Orion watched each word as I signed them. When I finished, he took a deep breath.

“I’ll be honest, Sol, it’s not always easy to stop bad thoughts. It’s been a really long time for me, and I still have hard days.”

“Does anything help?”

He smiled softly. “Yeah. Having close friends or family to talk to. Getting a therapist. I did that for a while when I got out. Learning how to defend myself. All of it made me feel safer.”

“Can you help with that?”

“Absolutely,” he signed. “I would love to. You’ll always have me. I’ve got your back. Have since the minute I saw you.”

I nodded, then hugged him. He wasn’t lying. I remembered seeing him in that container and hoping he was really there to save us. When he picked me out of the group, I worried I’d been wrong about him.

Orion was my hero.

And my dad loved him. I knew he did.

“Can you be my other dad?” I signed to him when I pulled back. “I didn’t ask Dad yet, but I think he’ll be ok if we keep you too.”

I heard a noise behind me. Looking over my shoulder, I saw Dad watching us.

He signed, “It’s ok, son. You don’t need to ask me. I want him around forever.”

Orion cleared his throat. When I looked back at him, he had tears falling down his face.

“I would love to be your dad too, kiddo. You’re stuck with me now.”

Dad came over and we had a big group hug. Some of the sadness lifted while I was in their arms. I knew the two of them would keep me protected.

Orion

Arick grippedthe pillow I slipped in his arms tightly. I waited another minute to make sure he was asleep before I slipped downstairs to put up the decorations I’d snuck in the house the night before.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want his help with this surprise. I just felt like I needed to handle it alone. My boyfriend did so much of this alone for years. Now that he had a partner, he deserved to get a hand with Dad duties.

Since Sol asked me to be his other dad almost two months ago, I took my role very seriously. We’d jumped headfirst into our little family, yet it all worked perfectly.

I firmly believed they were meant to be mine.

I pulled out the bags of decorations and went to work covering the living room and kitchen in everything birthday related. It wasn’t themed, because Sol really didn’t have a favorite show or game. He played a little of everything, though he much preferred working on his ASL or spending time with members of the team.

His favorite thing was family. It was obvious he’d been starved for it before. So had Arick. The two of them thrived when surrounded by the men I’d chosen to surround my life with.

Two hours after slipping from bed, I finally hung the last piece. I stared at the work, proud of what I’d done.

Dropping onto the couch, I took a minute to wonder how Sol and Arick would react to everything. Hopefully they loved it.

I must have fallen asleep because the sound of shouting jolted me awake sometime later.

“Dad! It’s my birthday!”

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