Page 15 of Tender
Except, that wasn’t what was happening tonight. They’d slammed their hands on the metaphorical pause button because for all they’d fucked up raising their daughter, they hadn’t realized she had turned into this.
He’d been feeling sick since Selene and her wayward, dangerously naïve boyfriend left the restaurant. It had been clear on the poor man’s face that he had reached the end of his rope with her. Cosimo knew that look because he’d been that man once—months before he met Emmett.
Breaking up meant he’d be out on the streets without a penny to his name, but ending it had been worth it. At the time, he had no idea what kind of happily ever after awaited him. He had no idea he’d become a pediatric surgeon. That he’d marry the love of his life. That they’d have a child and a home and everything he’d ever dreamed of.
But the difference was, he had family to help. Miles didn’t. And he was also dealing with the fact that the reason Miles was in so much pain was because the child he and Emmett had brought into the world had caused it.
The feeling in his gut was…strange. Powerful in ways he hadn’t expected. He hadn’t been able to shake the sensation of wanting the moment he set eyes on Miles. It was…inappropriate, to say the least. But it only got worse when it became obvious that Miles was in desperate need of rescuing.
Something was wrong with him, and he couldn’t fix it. Just like whatever was wrong with him that was currently threatening to destroy their marriage.
He could take and take what Emmett would give him. He would watch his beloved go against his nature to hurt without much comfort. Without the aftercare and caregiving he so absolutely, desperately craved.
And he couldn’t crack himself open to let his husband have what he needed. He couldn’t make himself small and vulnerable and needy to give Emmett his own release.
It was going to be the end of them if they couldn’t find something that worked.
On top of the bullshit now with Selene, they were also on the tail end of their last attempt to add a third to their marriage. But up to this point, nothing was working. No one fit.
Hell, maybe they were approaching it all wrong. It was possible they’d been courting men as a stopgap in order to save their marriage when what they really needed was to fall in love.
But that was the tricky part, especially for Cosimo who didn’t do love.
Emmett had been a fluke, so the idea of being able to do it again was laughable.
But he couldn’t really let himself think about that right now. He was too angry at his daughter to focus on their problems at home. Selene had been a problem child for years. She was spoiled because she was their little miracle baby.
Cosimo had brought up a family a few times, but Emmett had always been hesitant about the idea. It was an easy sacrifice when he was young, but as he got older, he realized it was something he truly wanted.
So he brought it up again.
When Emmett said he would go off T and start IVF, Cosimo had been over the moon. But he hadn’t realized the toll it was going to take on his husband. He hadn’t realized the pain of his dysphoria until the nights he watched him cry himself to sleep, hating his body. Hating the process.
It was only after they felt the weight of their child in their arms and looked at her little face that they both decided it had been worth it. Not enough to do it again, but just this once, it was okay. Just this once, and everything in their lives felt right.
For a little while.
After that, of course, had come the chaos of learning she was deaf. There were crash courses in ASL and meeting with audiologists who were terrible, and a few who were not. Then came surgeries and doubting whether or not they were making the right choice in giving her implants. The doubt next, of not being sure they were prepared to raise a child like her.
He knew they indulged her for those two reasons. She was their one and only. And they both took some kind of responsibility for why she’d been born unable to hear.
Guilt did funny things to parents, but he never imagined trying to compensate for that would ensure she’d turn out the way she did.
In spite of both nature and nurture, she became someone he wouldn’t have given the time of day if she hadn’t been his daughter.
Watching the way she treated her boyfriend had gutted him. If he’d been the douchebag gym bro that they’d met a while back, Cosimo would have been disappointed, butthatguy definitely acted like someone who was hunting for humiliation. If it had been that guy, Cosimo wouldn’t have thought about him twice.
Butthisman—Miles, with the sweet face and tragic eyes—was different. He was…shy. Quiet, trauma resting on his shoulders in ways that he knew Selene would never understand. He’d been the kind of person who, without words, begged for someone to love him.
To care for him.
To care about him without it costing him every ounce of his dignity.
And Selene was taking advantage of that completely.
The rage in him was next to none, and he didn’t quite understand why, but he couldn’t let it go. He and Emmett had finished lunch quietly, and when they headed for the valet, he glanced around half-hoping that Miles had chosen not to go with her.
But if he hadn’t, he also decided not to stick around. Cosimo had been tuned into every tiny sound his and Emmett’s phones made for the rest of the afternoon, quietly hoping that Miles would crack on his pride and ask them for a way out.
