Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Pete wasn’t sure what to do. Everything was weird and hard.
The kids were home, and there were activities constantly. Swimming and dancing, camps and playing—busy, busy, busy, which was good.
Even Bay was busy.
But Pete’s heart was still hurt. He was still sad and he still missed everybody, and he didn’t know what to say when people asked him questions.
He didn’t know anything except that he was raising these kids, and that, sometimes, Bay came to his bed, they had sex, and then Bay left.
It was a weird existence.
Tonight was an adult meal night. Bay had promised he’d take care of supper and asked if they could watch something fun and easy, but that otherwise it was his choice. They hadn’t had one of their adult dinner nights since the kids had finished school.
He’d chosen the Dungeon and Dragons movie. It was the absolutely definition of fun and easy.
Bay came downstairs, shaking his head. “Four stories. She was just not wanting to go to sleep.”
“She knows that her Bay is wanting some alone time.”
“Not alone time. Time with Pete.”
Pete blinked, then glanced up at him and nodded.
Bay glanced at his phone and smiled. “That’s dinner. Be right back.”
“Okay.” Time with Pete.
Wow.
That made him a little shivery.
Bay came back with two bags worth of food. “Chinese. And everything looked good so I ordered a lot. Figured we could enjoy the leftovers later.”
“Oh wow!” He never thought about Chinese, and he just loved it.
Bay looked very pleased by his reaction. “I’m glad I made a good choice.”
“It smells amazing. Seriously.” His belly was snarling.
“Then let’s eat.” Bay proceeded to take box after box out of the bags. “Let’s see how I really did. What’s your favourite dish?”
“Sweet and sour chicken. Fried rice. Oh, kung pao chicken…”
“Ta-da! Ta-da! And Ta-da!” With each ta-da Bay put a container in front of him.
“Oh my god! Look at all this!” He applauded, so tickled.
“My favourites are General Tso’s, soft egg noodles and the crab thingies.”
“Oh, crab rangoon.”
“Yeah, that’s it. I can eat those by the bucketful.”
“I would tell you I’d make them for you, but I have no idea how. Asian food is not my forte as far as cooking goes. I think I do best with Italian, like lasagna. Maybe I could say I do best with casseroles.” God, he was boring.
“You manage to make dinner for six most nights, and we’re a little bit picky. Some of us more than others.”
He smiled at Bay. His cheeks were flushed, and he said, “This is an amazing feast, and I’m tickled. Let’s dig in.” He wasn’t sure if he should move closer or pat the seat next to him, so he didn’t do either.
Still, Bay came over and sat next to him on the couch, giving him a warm smile.
“I’ve missed our meals,” he admitted. “It’s been wild.”
“Yeah. It’s nice to get some adult time together. And I have to admit, if I’d known what it was going to be like when the kids were out of school, I’d have bailed back at the beginning. Run in the other direction, screaming.”
“Soon will be camp, and that makes things a lot easier. They both really like camp. This time next year, I think that Belle will be ready for overnight camp. Maybe.” They talked about it this year, but not after what had happened.
“Really? As in sleeping away from home?” Bay sounded skeptical. “She can’t be old enough for that, can she?”
“Not this year, but some kids do, you know?” It scared him a little bit too.
“Does she want to do that? Go away for like a week? All by herself?” Bay seemed flumoxed by the idea.
“I don’t know. I didn’t ask, because it wasn’t an option this year, but she’s talking about sleepovers…”
“I gotta admit, the concept of that is scary as fu-udge.”
“Yeah. Do you remember your first one?” His had been a disaster, he’d ended up calling his mom to come get him.
“Nope. I do remember fighting with Tony the first one we had at our place. He kept trying to play with my friends and I did not like that. At all.” Bay chuckled and shook his head.
“Oh, I can see that. Were you a jealous friend?” He’d been a quiet, gentle little boy.
“I sure didn’t want my baby brother playing with me and my friends. He was just a kid and we were nearly grown. After all, we were all of two years older.”
“Eons. That’s totally eons.” He couldn’t help his grin.
“I sure thought so then.” Bay chuckled, eyes a little far away, clearly remembering.
“Yeah. He was a great guy, my best friend.”
“Yeah, he was a good guy. And what happened wasn’t fair. Some days, that hits harder than others, you know?”
“Yes.” There was no question about that. Some days sucked.
“You make it better,” Bay said softly, hand moving to slide along his thigh.
He met Bay’s eyes, nodded, and swallowed around the lump in his throat. “So do you. You… make everything easier.”
Bay took his hand, twined their fingers together and they sat there for a while, just holding hands.
Then, like they’d made some sort of decision in silence, they both began to eat, digging into the spicy, umami-laden goodies.
The Dungeons and Dragons movie was entertaining—both fun and actiony—and silly and sweet in the end and lots of fun, even if he had seen it a half dozen times already.
Bay had a great laugh, too. “That was amazing. I can’t believe I’d never seen it before!”
“Me either. It’s so campy and wonderful.”
“You remember I’m not a movies guy. I mean I like them, I just never have the opportunity. Well, until now. That’s true of a lot of things.”
“I know that you had to give a lot up to do this, but I love spending time with you and letting you be a movies guy.” Was that too much to say?
“I’m not sure that what I gave up was that important. It’s not like I’m not still doing the work. It’s just not the only thing I’m doing. It’s not my entire focus and identity anymore. And the other stuff I’m doing is pretty important, I think.”
“I do too. I think you’re a great father figure for the kids. And…” He looked down and then looked back up. “A great partner for me?”
“We do seem to work well together, don’t we?”
“I think so.” And that was the truth. Bay and he made a decent pairing.
Bay gave him a sideways look. “Not to mention, you’re hot. For a manny.”
“Bah. I’m just hot, right?” He kept a straight face for… about a second before he cracked up.
“You are, though,” Bay told him.
“Bah. I’m just… a dude.”
“A hot dude. And I don’t want to hear you say bah again, thank you very much.”
He stuck his tongue out at Bay, both of them having a laugh at that. Then Bay leaned over and pressed a soft, gentle kiss on his lips. It was the first time they’d kissed out in the open like this.
He brought one hand up and cupped Bay’s jaw, loving the tiny scrape of stubble on his palm. Bay tilted his head, almost caressing Pete’s palm, and he deepened the kiss, just a little, tongue slipping out to glide against Pete’s lips.
He sighed, his eyes falling closed. So sweet.
Bay kissed him a time or two more, then sat back, licking his own lips. “You taste sweet.”
“I haven’t been eating anything sweet, so…” It had to be him, right?
“No, you were eating Chinese food. The sweetness is you.”
He couldn’t stop smiling. “Oh. Thank you.”
“Mmmhmm.” Bay smiled back at him, then nodded toward the food, the TV. “Eat. Watch.”
He nodded and nibbled an egg roll. So crunchy.
He thought maybe Bay was watching him more than the movie, but maybe it was just his imagination.
By the time they were done eating, they just melted back against the couch cushions. Bay leaned against him, leg warm along his, Bay’s head resting against his shoulder.
“I love this,” he whispered. “I look forward to it, all week.” Even when they wound up skipping a week or two because the kids were all out of school and everything was a little chaotic.
“Me too.” Bay spoke as quietly as he had, as if them admitting it out loud would somehow break the magic bubble of it.
He twined their fingers together, just holding on. He didn’t know what to do next, so he didn’t stress it. For right now, this was more than enough.
And not destined to last long. A piercing cry came from upstairs, followed by crying. Flynn.
Bay jumped about a foot, head whipping around to meet his gaze. “What the hell was that?”
“The baby—” He ran, that scream one of pain. He hit the stairs, taking them two at a time. “I’m coming!”
He could hear Bay following him, but his focus was all on poor baby Flynn who was clearly in distress. It was the most horrible sound.
Flynn was standing in his crib, holding tight to the rail and just wailing like he was on fire.
He scooped the baby up, and his fever was raging, the little one tugging his ear and sobbing.
“What’s wrong?” Bay asked. “Something is clearly very wrong.”
“Yeah. Yeah, we need to take him to the ER. Do you want to stay here and call me a car?”
“Shit. That bad? One of us has to stay here, right? Yes, there’s three other kids. I’ll stay. I’ll call you an uber. Oh God.”
“Okay. Maybe call Will, see if he can come?” He glanced at Bay. “In case I need you.”
His heart was racing. He didn’t think the baby was in danger, but an infection needed antibiotics.
“Okay. Yes, okay.” Bay took a few deep breaths, Pete’s calm exterior clearly helping Bay to stop panicking.
Bay grabbed his phone and texted quickly.
It only took a moment before he was nodding.
“He says he can be here in ten minutes.” Then Bay did something else on his phone.
“Okay, it’ll be at least fifteen minutes before a car can get here, so it’ll be quicker to wait for Will and I’ll drive you to the ER. ”
“Sounds fine. Let me wrap him up and get a diaper bag together.” He had to help this baby out.
He handed Flynn to Bay.
Bay took the baby and held on, bouncing a little. “Shh. Shh. Sweet boy. We’ll get you taken care of, I promise. It’ll be okay. Please stop crying like that—you’re breaking my heart.”
“We’ll get him all fixed up. We have to.”
“Petey? What’s wrong with the baby?” Belle blinked at him, so confused.
“He’s sick, honey. We’re taking him to the doctor. Mr. Will is coming to stay with you while we’re gone.”
“Oh. Okay?”
“You can go back to bed, honey, okay?” Bay suggested.
“You’re not leaving us alone, right?” she asked, sniffling.
“Never. Not a chance. I swear.”
“Will is coming. We won’t go until he gets here,” Bay added.
She looked at them both for a long moment and then nodded and headed back to her bedroom.
God, this sucked.
Like well and truly.
“I hope whatever he has isn’t contageous.” Bay kept moving slowly, clearly trying to keep Flynn quiet and distracted.
“Yes, but at least if it is, we can warn the pediatrician.”
“I was thinking more of it not making everyone sick. It’s summer, they should be enjoying themselves, not crying and feverish.”
“He’s had an ear infection before. Eric was plagued with them too.”
“So it could be something simple and not what the rest of them will get? Let’s hope that’s what this is then, yeah?”
There was a knock at the front door, and Bay’s phone buzzed.
“It’s Will, he’s here.”
“Good. Let’s go.” He nodded. “It’ll be all right.”
Bay nodded jerkily, and they headed downstairs, him with the baby bag, Bay with Flynn.
They let Will in.
“Oh, look at the poor dear. He’s miserable, the poor thing. I’m here now. You get him to the hospital.”
“We’ll call. I promise. As soon as we know something.”
“Don’t you worry. The kiddos and I will manage just fine.” Will chased them out of the house.
“He’s going to be fine. I swear.” They ran to the car, and Pete sat in the back with the baby as Bay raced to the hospital.
Bay got them there in record time, though he hadn’t run any lights, thank goodness. Pete hadn’t been sure with the first one if Bay was going to stop or not, but he had.
Bay came around and let him out of the back seat.
“I’ll get him checked in. You park.” He grabbed the wailing baby and ran.