Chapter Nine #3
Finn swallowed. “Tomorrow.” His voice came out hoarse. “Text me details.”
At that point Sawyer and Imogen arrived, all limbs, energy, and enthusiasm.
They’d come alone tonight, because as much as Finn’s parents loved him, they couldn’t commit two nights a week all summer to watch him skate for less than ten minutes.
But apparently fourteen-year-olds on summer vacation had nothing better to do.
Or, Finn reflected as Sawyer hugged Robbie and asked several questions, maybe they wanted to keep an eye on their plotting.
Finn slung an arm around Imogen’s shoulders and asked her what she thought of the program.
“The skate-off was predictable. But the opening number was fun. Especially the costumes. I liked your outfit best, Robbie,” Imogen added with a smile in his direction.
Robbie laughed. “Yeah? The magician’s look suited me, do you think?”
“Well,” Sawyer said cheekily, “you are kinda flashy and cheesy.”
“Thanks.” Robbie laughed and ruffled his hair.
By the time Finn dropped Imogen at her place and settled into bed at home, there was a new picture text waiting for him. Another screenshot of a hotel booking. If Finn had a Pavlovian response to the mention of book-in times, well, no one else had to know.
He reached down to cup himself, then remembered Robbie telling him last time not to jerk off. He pulled his hand away and flushed hot as he thought about Robbie’s reaction when Finn admitted to waiting for permission.
Like a good… good girl.
He groaned and buried his face in his pillows.
Then he lifted his head enough to text back a string of emojis: thumbs-up, heart, looking eyes, eggplant, peach.
Robbie sent back a droplets emoji and then followed it up with Go to sleep, sweetheart, and be good. I’ll see you tomorrow.
Finn fell asleep with a smile. He couldn’t wait to have Robbie all to himself.
So naturally, not two hours before he was supposed to leave, Finn’s phone rang with a call from Scott, the manager at the skate club where Finn taught.
Twenty minutes later, he hung up and stared at his phone in shock. Then he dialed Robbie.
“I’m going to be late.”
“Everything all right?”
“Yeah. Yeah, uh.” Finn blinked at the wall, still processing.
“Finn? You’re kinda freaking me out here, baby,” Robbie prompted softly.
“Shit, oh, sorry. I’m fine, honestly. It’s just that, uh, my boss at the skate club phoned me.” When Finn wasn’t busy with Dance, he coached kids of various ages in synchronized skating and ice dance. “He wants me to come down for a meeting.”
“Why do you sound kind of sick about that, sweetheart?” Robbie asked gently.
How could he tell through the phone? Finn exhaled slowly.
“I don’t know why he wants me to come in.
Unless he found out I never submitted my portfolio for regionals coach, but…
.” But that wouldn’t impact his current course load, and Scott might be disappointed, but not enough to call him into a meeting about it.
“He probably wants to see you because you’re a talented skater and excellent coach. Maybe this is the chance you’ve been waiting for,” Robbie suggested.
Finn snorted. “I’m sure you’re being very objective, but you’ve never seen me work with kids.”
“No, but they have. Besides, if they were watching this week, they saw the results of your hard work, coach.”
Warmth filled his chest at Robbie’s words. He sounded so sincere. Finn didn’t know what he’d done to deserve Robbie’s adoration, especially not so quickly. Maybe he’d been an especially good boy or girl in a past life.
“Well. If you think so, it must be true.”
“I’ll remember you said that,” Robbie purred. “Remind you of it if ever you doubt me.”
“Oh?” Finn’s heart thumped, but he managed to stay cool and teased, “Anticipating that, are you? Me doubting your wisdom?”
“It can be hard to think clearly after a couple of orgasms.”
“True,” Finn agreed, thinking about how out of his head he’d been days earlier.
“Or when you’re stuffed full and cock drunk, right, babygirl?”
Finn made a strangled noise. Jesus, how could he—Robbie sounded so mild, like he was confirming how Finn took his coffee and not asking if he would go brainless when Robbie finally fucked him.
“R-right.”
Finn needed to hang up before Robbie talked him into phone sex. He had an appointment to get to; he didn’t have time for the kind of orgasm Robbie kept wringing out of him.
At least he’d now been thoroughly distracted from any potential anxiety.
“I’m hanging up now before you can talk me into anything. I’ll see you later. After my meeting. Bye, Robbie.”
“Later, sweetheart. Good luck,” Robbie said back.
Robbie put down his phone, grinning, despite the fact that Finn had called to tell him that their rendezvous would be delayed. Finn would be worth the wait.
Until then, Robbie could continue to clean and organize the den, a space that apparently needed a top-to-bottom overhaul today while Robbie waited on his lawyer and Finn.
Except when Eugene did call, he didn’t have good news.
“Lotus position, brah,” he said grimly, which was basically Eugene code for sit down and take some deep breaths.
Robbie’s ears rang, but he did his best. He got his legs crossed under him and didn’t black out from anticipation. “You heard about the visitation injunction?”
“Not yet.”
Fuck, so the situation was worse than Sawyer having to see Robbie’s awful parents after all? “Eugene. Spit it out.”
He knew it was bad when Eugene dropped his usual laid-back country drawl. “Your parents filed a counterclaim. They’re going to fight you for custody.”
The bottom fell out of Robbie’s stomach. “Oh Jesus.”
“Deep breaths,” Eugene reminded him. “You have a good lawyer on your side. There is plenty of precedent for barring people like them from visitations, never mind custody. They’re older, they’re bad for Sawyer’s mental and emotional well-being, you can give him a more comfortable life, he already has a home established with you—”
Nodding, Robbie let Eugene’s affirmations wash over him and tried to keep breathing. “Okay. Okay. You’re right. We’ve got this.” Somehow he kept his heart from beating out of his chest. “Now what?”
“Hurry up and wait. We’ve got our documents in order.
I’ll set up a time to come over and talk to you and Sawyer about how to get your point across in the hearing without venturing too far into emotional territory, because that can work against you just as much as it works for you.
For now, until we get a court date—for this and for the injunction—we’re just sitting on our hands. So like… try to think positive.”
Robbie wanted an Advil. “You’re so lucky I have experience with that.”
“Sitting on your hands?”
“Thinking positive,” Robbie said dryly. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay, I gotta go. I better break this to Sawyer before he finds out some other way.” So much for his plans with Finn. He hung up the phone and took a deep breath. “Sawyer!”
“What?” Sawyer called back from the kitchen, so Robbie headed that way. He found the kid with a spoon in the peanut butter jar and a sliced apple already plated.
“Hey, kid. Sit with me?”
Sawyer’s head shot up. “What’s wrong?”
He really was Robbie’s kid. Panicking at the attempt to slow roll.
“Sit,” Robbie ordered and pulled out two chairs at the counter.
Sawyer abandoned the peanut butter to sit. “What happened?”
“Eugene called.”
“I have to see them,” Sawyer said fatalistically.
Robbie shook his head. “No—I mean, maybe. That’s not why he called.”
“Then what—”
“They want custody.” Better to rip the Band-Aid off.
Sawyer paled. “What? No!”
“Hey, hey.” Robbie grabbed his hands before he could get up to pace. “Listen to me, okay? Eugene says they don’t have a hope in hell.”
Sawyer pressed his lips together. “They must have some hope.”
A fair point, since they found a lawyer to take the case. Robbie held up his hand, thumb and forefinger pressed together. “A miniscule hope. Eugene says our case is solid. He’s filing to throw out the request entirely. He’ll need to talk to you to beef up that request.”
“But he might not get the judge to do that,” Sawyer said, jaw set.
Robbie tried to hide his wince. “Maybe not. But even if it takes longer to get someone to see sense, we’ll keep trying until they do.”
“Yeah, but….” Sawyer bit his lip. “What if you get custody and then they just petition for grandparents’ rights again? ’Cause they’ll technically still be my grandparents if you’re my dad.”
Robbie didn’t know if it worked like that. He’d have to ask Eugene. “I don’t know, bud. Can an adult legally disown his parents? ’Cause I can do that.”
Sawyer fidgeted. “What if—”
“They can’t have you, kid. I’ll fly you to Switzerland first. Wherever it takes.”
Finally Sawyer’s shoulders slumped. “Okay.” But the way he rested his face against the side of Robbie’s arm like he hadn’t done since he was ten and falling asleep during a sci-fi marathon told Robbie he was still rattled.
“So what are we thinking for dinner? Delivery, or are we going to brave the wilds of Toronto for a gastropub? We could invite Imogen.” He’d have to cancel on Finn; there was no way around that, but Finn would understand.
Sawyer shook his head against Robbie’s shoulder. “Can we stay in?”
“Course. Hey, wanna find a bad sci-fi show to make fun of?”
Sawyer nodded but didn’t raise his head.
“All right, what about food? Burgers, pizza, maybe Greek?”
Sawyer didn’t seem particularly enthused, so Robbie ordered burgers because the burger place had good chocolate shakes and at least he could get some calories into him that way.
Then for the much less pleasant task.
Finn picked up on the second ring, sounding breathless. “Robbie.”
God, Robbie wanted to see him. Robbie wanted to fall into bed with him and spend a few eternities mapping that body with his tongue. Wanted to wring orgasm after orgasm from him from the inside, and then curl up around him and sleep until they could do it again.
But tonight he had other priorities. “Hi, sweetheart. I have some bad news.”
Right away, Finn was all business. “What happened? Is Sawyer okay?”
“He’s fine, physically. His grandparents are filing for custody of old what’s-her-name. I just broke the news.”
There was a pause before Finn said, incredulously, “Old what’s-her-name?”
Okay, Robbie could see how that might need context. “The artist currently known as Sawyer. You know. That’s what he calls it when people use his deadname. Humor as a defence mechanism or whatever.”
He could hear Finn fighting to smother a giggle even as he asked, “Is that… healthy?”
“What am I, the gender expression police?” He couldn’t imagine a job he was less qualified for. “His therapist said it’s okay for him to deal with it however he likes as long as he’s dealing with it.”
“That sounds… reasonable.” He could see Finn turning that thought over the same way Robbie had, looking for flaws. “But uh, I guess this means we’re postponing tonight?”
“Unfortunately, it looks like duty calls. Sawyer didn’t even want to see Imogen, again, so you know it’s dire.”
“I get it.”
“I know you do.” But that didn’t mean Robbie was just going to leave him hanging. “We’ll reschedule as soon as we can, I promise.”
“I’ll hold you to it. But no hard feelings, eh?”
Robbie snorted. “Well… some hard feelings.”
Finn laughed. “You’re such a child.”
“That’s why I hang out with one,” Robbie agreed cheerfully. “See you soon, princess.”