Page 36 of Painting Together a Family
“She is. She wants to impress you, very much.”
“She does?” He wasn’t sure why. He was just a guy who’d started hanging out with her dad. Maybe it was the wanting-to-babysit thing.
“Sure. She knows I like your company.”
Oh, that made him feel good, like warm-in-his-tummy good. “I like your company too.” In fact, he liked Dev a whole lot. He smiled at Dev, caught a little in his gaze.
“Well, that’s good to know.” Dev leaned against the counter. “Very good.”
“Yeah? Cool.” He leaned, too. God, he was a dork, right? He didn’t care, though. He was enjoying the moment.
“You’re a good man. Thank you for being nice to Mar.”
“She makes it easy. She’s a good kid. They both are. You’ve done a great job raising them.”
“I—Thanks. That’s kind to say.”
“It’s the truth.” Bryan knew how Dev felt, though. You wanted to raise good kids and yet, when they were good and did nice things, it was hard to take credit; they were their own people. On impulse, he moved in and gave Dev a hug.
Dev’s arms wrapped around him, and it was so sweet, and Dev’s body was firm and warm against him. He could have stoodjust like that for ages because he didn’t want this closeness to end, even if his cock was threatening to harden. but the door buzzer sounded, and he jumped a little, startled, and stepped back.
“Food. Sorry. I didn’t want to let go.”
No, Bryan hadn’t wanted to let go either, and it made him even warmer inside to know that Dev felt the same way.
Dev headed to the door, and Bryan heard it opening, and then Dev shouted, “Call security!”
Then there was the horrific sound of something hitting flesh.
“Dev!” He ran for the door, as he dialed 911—he didn’t even know how to call the building’s security, but if bad things were happening, the police was the right call.
Grant was there, at Dev’s door, the two men fighting brutally, exchanging blow after blow, punching each other.
What the fuck?
He froze for a moment, shock shorting him out for a second, then headed for them, determined to get Grant away from Dev. “Hey! Hey, you fucker. Stop it!” He was not letting Grant take anything else away from him.
“Protect the kids.” Dev took a hard blow to the belly.
He was torn between doing as Dev asked and helping Dev out, but Dev was right, the kids needed to be corralled and kept safe.
“911. How can I help you?” came from his phone.
He put it to his ear and headed for Juniper’s room. “There’s a home invasion. Send the cops now.” He rattled off Dev’s address, looking back down the hall.
He saw Dev hit a button on the wall, and an alarm started blaring. Then Grant hit Dev right across the temple and he went down.
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!
“Hurry! He’s knocked Dev out! You have to get here now!” He threw the phone down and looked around wildly for something to use as a weapon. He grabbed the first thing he saw, a wooden chair that might have been an antique, but that didn’t matter, he had to protect Dev and the kids.
Holding the chair up and screaming at the top of his lungs, he ran for Grant and smashed the chair over Grant’s head.
God, it felt good when Grant went down, so Bryan hit him again. He didn’t want Grant getting back up. Not with the kids in the other room, not with Dev down.
Someone appeared in the doorway, catching his attention. It wasn’t the cops, but it was a security guard, holding a taser aimed at him.
“Put the chair down! Now!”
