Page 69 of Alpha & Omega

“Ugh, I guess so. I hate that you can drive alone now.”

“You’ve got to let me grow up.”

“I know, but I want to pretend a little longer that you’re still my little boy. But yes, you can borrow the car. You have to let me know when you get to Oliver’s house, when you get to the movie theater, and when you’re on your way home.”

“Fine. Ugh! I hope I get my first kiss. I’m so nervous now.”

“You’ll be fine. I’m so happy for you, Hud.”

“Thanks, Dad. I’ll probably crash over at Oliver’s place and let you and Kingston have your alone time.” He waggled his brows, snatched the car keys sitting on the sideboard, and ran off cackling.

“Those thoughts should make you feel gross!” I yelled after him. God, at least he was feeling good. I couldn’t have been happier for him.

Kingston and I sat on the kitchen floor, still naked, after having some heavy sex. We were sweating and out of breath when I reached for a spoon out of the drawer above my head and then yanked the freezer drawer open to pull out some ice cream.

We sat facing each other, my legs resting over his hips and his resting on mine.

“Do you like strawberries?” I asked.

“I love them.”

“This is homemade strawberry ice cream. Hudson loves it, so I make it often.”

“Is there anything you don’t make yourself?”

I chuckled. “If I’m really tired, yeah, sometimes, but rarely. Usually, when I don’t feel like cooking, I have prepared meals in the freezer I can pull out and heat up. Cooking is a stress relief for me, even if I do it for a living.”

“That’s how skateboarding is for me, and I wish I got to skate more often.”

I dragged sweaty blond bangs from his face before pressing a kiss to his forehead. “I get that, but look at the great things you do for your family and crew. They worship you; I can tell.”

“That part is definitely worth it. If my life hadn’t gone the way it had when I was younger, they wouldn’t be in it… and you probably wouldn’t either. It’s hard to regret a difficult life when I have so much now to be thankful for.”

“You never stop amazing me, Skaterboy.”

I scooped out some ice cream with a glob of strawberry and brought the cold treat to his mouth. He took a bite, savoring the flavor.

“Wow, thisisreally good. You can definitely tell the difference between homemade and store-bought.”

I took a bite and smirked. “I try my best.”

I fed Kingston another bite as he traced my shoulder and pecs with his fingertips. “What’s your favorite memory?” he asked out of the blue.

“That’s easy. My favorite memory was Hudson’s birth. Does it sound clichéd? Probably. Ava and I managed to graduate high school before he was born, and I found a job waiting tables at a restaurant that made decent tips. That’s when I started to fall in love with cooking. We didn’t have health insurance or anything, but my parents helped out with what they could. Still, I kind of freaked out, not ready to be a parent. I just knew I would fuck up somehow, you know? Children shouldn’t be having children. But Ava wanted to keep him, so I stuck it out to be responsible for our choices. So many young men abandon their girlfriends when a surprise pregnancy happens, and I didn’t want to be that man.”

Kingston’s fingers dragged across my cheeks and down my jaw, smiling softly at me. “Then you saw him born and fell in love at that moment.”

I huffed a laugh. “You got it. Everything changed right then when I held this tiny little bundle in my arms. He had thick, dark brown hair, and his face was scrunched and swollen from birth. Hudson was so beautiful and precious. The fear didn’t go away, but with it came the determination that I would do whatever I could to give him the best possible life. Ava and I weren’t entirely alone. My parents live in Massachusetts, but they helped when they could. Her parents weren’t as helpful, and they eventually died.”

I shrugged. “So, yeah… That’s my best memory because it fully changed my life, and no doubt for the better. At least I like to think so. How about you? What’s yours?”

He took another bite I offered as he thought about it. I scooped out more ice cream and fed myself as I waited.

“I don’t have a lot of good memories. I mean, I have a few that really hang on to me, but the most important one was my grandmother. After my parents abandoned me, she didn’t even question me. She simply told me to stay put at the bar where I called her from, and she would immediately come and get me. I had someone precious in my life who’d been in my corner. It fucking mattered… a lot. But she died a year later, and being on the street for even an hour had been enough to scare me, and was why I put myself in the system. Her kindness and acceptance… it was validating. That I wasn’t wrong for being me. She gave me the strength to love myself even when my parents didn’t.”

“That’s still insane to me. I came out as bisexual to my parents, and they didn’t even bat an eye. The cruelty… how scared you must have been.”

“Itwasscary. I was so young.”

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