Page 46 of Painting Together a Family
“I do. I’ll get you a big glass of water when it’s time to take your pills.” Bryan nodded at his plate. “Try to eat some more, yeah? Your body needs the fuel.”
“Yeah. They’re pretty good, even reheated.”
“Jennie brought them from our favorite little Mexican restaurant. It’s cheap enough we can treat ourselves once every couple of weeks, and the boys just love it.” Bryan ate more as well, cleaning his plate.
“We’ll have to put it on the rotation. My girls love tacos. Marley wanted to cook for you so badly.”
“Now that I’m staying here for a while, we’ll have plenty of time to cook together. Her heart was in the right place, but without any foundation, it all seems hard and confusing. Just wait, she’ll be cooking us dinners in no time.”
“We can all help. The boys can do easy things like set the table and stuff. I know that from when you had us over.”
“Yep, absolutely. And they are great at helping with the parts that don’t involve knives or the stove. They love measuring and dumping in ingredients.” He was going to teach his boys to be self-sufficient while they were eager to help and learn now so it never became a chore.
“They’re good boys. We’ll do what we need to so that the place is more friendly. I also own rights for the roof, so there’s a play area up there.”
“Holy cow. You really did recover from Grant’s theft, eh?” It sounded like a dream come true. A safe place, somewhere for the boys to be able to play on top of that.
“I was lucky—the girls’ father? My husband that died? He came from an incredibly wealthy family, and they floated me until I could recover.”
“Oh wow. That is so kind of them. For every person like Grant, there’s at least one like your late husband’s family, eh? The Pereisos? The couple who live above us who own the duplex have been so kind to us. And I needed that very badly at the time.” It had been people like them, like Jennie—they’d made such a huge difference in their lives.
“Right? There’s a good world out there. It just doesn’t feel like it right this second.”
“No, no, it doesn’t. At least we’ve got a high, safe place to hide and lick our wounds until we’re ready to face it again.” Bryan hadn’t even considered what it was going to be like, going home to his little, not terribly secure, house before Dev invited themto stay until it was safe, and he was so thankful. In fact, “Thanks again for taking us in. It really is a relief.”
“For me too. You saved my life.”
He went to shake his head, but then he remembered Grant’s face and his words—that he was going to kill them—and he didn’t shake his head after all. Dev was right—if he hadn’t been there, Grant would have finished the job once Dev was down. The man wasn’t just a con man—he’d been ready to commit murder. Marley was right—Grant was pure evil. “I’m glad I was here. I don’t even want to think about what would have happened if I wasn’t. I just found you and I’m not ready to lose you.” No, he wanted to explore what was between him and Dev, what had been starting before Grant punched his way back into their lives.
“No. No, we deserve each other.” Dev met his gaze, eyes as serious as a heart attack. “We deserve to try, right?”
“Sounds like your mind is headed in the same direction as mine.” He was looking forward to Dev no longer being on the injured list, actually. To give things a try.
“We’ll start figuring things out, tomorrow.”
“Oh yeah. Tomorrow is a good day for a lot of things. Tonight is for making it to your meds and then sleeping.” He could already feel the pull of sleep himself, and he forced himself to sit upright. He had to stay awake ’til midnight.
“Here’s the remote. Find something easy, huh?”
He took the remote and turned the system on. “That’s something we haven’t talked about—what kind of TV do you like?”
“I watch things that aren’t violent. There’s too much violence, especially against women.”
Everything he learned about Dev made him like the man more. “I love all the baking shows. The British Bake-Off is my favorite. Oh, and they’ve got a pottery-off too that’s awesome.”He chose Netflix, and sure enough, there was the Great British Bake-Off. He hadn’t seen it in a while, so he put it on the very first episode.
“Perfect. I love the cadence of the voices.” Dev beamed at him. “There’s a glass-blowing one too, for when we’re done.”
“Oh, I haven’t seen that one—sounds neat!” He beamed over at Dev, then glanced at his watch. Dev was supposed to take his pills in fifteen minutes. Bryan grabbed his phone and set an alarm for midnight. “How often are you supposed to take the pills?”
“Once every eight hours if I need them. Make sure you put them up out of reach of the kids, please.”
“Will do. You’ve got about fifteen minutes to the first one. I’ve set an alarm.” He set another one for eight a.m.
“Cool.” Dev finally finished his taco. “I’m starting to get a headache again, so yeah.”
“Close your eyes. I’ll make sure you get ’em at midnight.” Even as he watched, Dev’s eyelids were drooping hard.
“Uh-huh. Glad you’re here.”
