Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
LUCAS
In spite of his former house burning down, Adele’s place was still kind of the hub for the family. Lucas wasn’t surprised when they walked in and he was immediately drawn into the very familiar arms of his dad’s husband.
“I feel like I haven’t seen you in a hundred years,” Monty said, holding him tight.
Lucas felt a pulse of joy in his chest, which eclipsed all the badness that had been settling there since that fucker Frankie had knocked on his food truck door the first time. He let his forehead rest against Monty’s shoulder, and the man rocked him gently from side to side.
Monty had been doing this for a few years now, ever since realizing how much that sort of movement soothed Lucas. The only bitterness that lived in Lucas’s bones now was how long it took for his dad to find this man.
God, why had he lived with his other douchebag dad for so long?
“You okay?”
“Mm.” He turned his head to listen for Gage, but clearly, he’d been drawn into another room. Fuck, he didn’t even know where he was. He’d lost track as soon as they walked in the door. The kitchen? Foyer? “Where’s my dad?”
“On the couch. He’s got a migraine hangover, but he’s going to be happy to see you.”
Lucas stepped away and set his hand on the back of Monty’s shoulder, letting the man lead him through the familiar path. They’d been in the foyer, and he felt the shift between tile and hardwood when they crossed into the living room.
“Wow. My son. He lives.”
Lucas pulled a face and walked toward his dad’s voice, letting Monty steer him around the coffee table until his dad’s hand met his.
Bronx’s touch was always more than welcome.
It made Lucas feel like a kid again. Like he could just crawl onto his lap and press his head to Bronx’s chest and listen to his heartbeat until he fell asleep.
He didn’t do that anymore. He knew it would look weird as fuck, and people would ask questions and call him a creep even more than they did now. He settled for letting his dad drag him to the couch cushions and tucking himself into his dad’s side.
“You look upset.”
“You sound annoying,” he shot back.
Bronx sighed. “I’m being serious, bud. What happened?”
He both loved and hated that his dad could tell. Swallowing thickly, he shrugged. “Who’s in the room right now?”
“Just me,” Monty said quietly. “Your uncle and cousin are outside playing. Kash is asleep, and Adele is grilling something. I think Gage went out there to talk to him.”
Lucas took a breath, feeling more relaxed. It wasn’t like he didn’t want the rest of the men he considered his uncles to know what was going on. But some of them—most of them—would make a big fucking deal out of it, and Lucas was tired.
Bronx was finally respecting his choices and independence, so if Lucas said not to get involved with his work, Bronx would listen.
“I was unfairly targeted by the health inspector,” he said.
He told the story, grudgingly admitting when Frankie had returned to apologize.
But he found himself leaving out the bit where Frankie was his new neighbor.
He wasn’t quite sure why. “Sometimes I think it’s never going to end.
Like everyone’s first impression is going to be crap. ”
“It might be,” Bronx said quietly. “Not with everyone, but with most people. It’s shit, I know.”
Lucas flopped his head onto his dad’s shoulder and rubbed at his eyelids.
His prosthetics moved around uncomfortably, and he felt the sudden urge to take them out.
Once he became aware of them, he could feel them to the point of distraction, but he tried to breathe through it.
“Gage says I can’t get away with murder. Even with my adorable face.”
Bronx snorted. “Unfortunately, I don’t think we live in a county where the judges side with the perpetrator because they have a cute face.”
“Maybe a sexy gay judge who falls in love with me at first sight,” Lucas said. “I mean, there has to be some benefit to sight, doesn’t there?”
“That’s…not a thing.”
“Bullshit. You two did,” Lucas accused.
Monty laughed. “It was far from love. And anyone sitting on a judge’s bench would be too old for you.”
He felt something squirm in his gut. He had no idea what Frankie looked like or how old he was. His voice was husky, which meant his age was somewhat ambiguous, and it wasn’t like he could ask the guy.
Though they were neighbors, so maybe he’d get the chance.
Not that he’d do anything with that information. He wasn’t attracted to Frankie.
Even if that thought carried the weight of a lie.
“Do you want me to make a call?” Bronx finally asked. “Or see if Adele knows someone who knows someone?”
“And make me look even more incapable of handling my own shit? Thank you, but I’ll pass.” He bit his lip, then said, “I think I’m just tired. Our DnD group let in this new guy, and, uh…well.” He hesitated. “He was nice, until he wasn’t.”
“Who is he?” Bronx growled.
Lucas scoffed. “Bruh, no. We’re not going to act like you can go find him, okay? He was just really fucking mean. He used the r-word when he was talking about me on the phone because I was hand-flapping during the campaign.”
Bronx touched the back of his wrist. It felt like an absent gesture. “Fuck him.”
Lucas burst into laughter. “I mean, no thank you? But yeah. I just…I don’t know. I always feel like the freak, and then Gage ends up not hanging out with the people we know because they were shitty, and I hate that he loses friends because of me.”
“Don’t you think Gage would have walked away from friends like that if they say that about anyone? Even some random anonymous person online?”
That…was fair. Lucas hadn’t thought of it that way. And he knew the answer. “Yeah. But I still feel like shit about it.”
“He probably doesn’t think twice about it, and he’d probably be annoyed you were feeling some kind of guilt over it.”
That was true. Gage still wasn’t himself, but Lucas knew it had nothing to do with friend groups or DnD drama.
“Just tell me it gets better.”
“It gets better,” Bronx promised. “Sometimes it takes a while. Sometimes it takes half a lifetime. Sometimes less.”
“That’s going to take sooo looong,” he whined.
Bronx nudged him gently. “Maybe. But once it does happen, it makes the shitty years easy to forget.”
“Like my childhood?” Lucas said. It was a little mean, he knew. But he still had tiny pockets of resentment about everything.
Bronx sighed. “Only the parts you were gone. I won’t ever let myself forget the mistakes I made.”
And there was the guilt. Fuck. “Dad, I didn’t mean—”
“I know,” Bronx said softly. He put his arm around Lucas and tucked him into a tight hold. “But it is what it is. I love you, and I won’t stop being sorry.”
“We have this now,” Lucas said quietly.
And that had never been more true.
They did.
“Want me to come up?” Gage asked when he pulled in front of Lucas’s building.
He frowned in the direction of his best friend’s voice. “Uh…do you want to come up?”
Gage was quiet for a second. “I kind of want to go to my place and rot in my bed until my shift tomorrow night. But if you need company—”
“Oh. Dude, no. I’m so good. I needed dad hugs, and I got them. But if you need me—”
“I want to talk soon,” Gage said. The tone in his voice was new. Lucas felt like he was standing at the edge of something important.
“Anytime. I mean that literally. I will cancel the entire fucking world if I have to.”
Gage laughed softly. “I know I haven’t been super chatty about shit. I know I’ve been holding it all in. My dad’s freaking out about it because he can tell, and I think if I don’t tell someone, I’m going to burst.”
“When?” Lucas had never had much chill. He tapped his fingers and rocked gently from side to side. “I will lose it if you can’t tell me when.”
“Friday,” Gage said. “I have three days off, and I’m probably going to need the whole night to tell you everything that went down when I was at school.”
Lucas felt like he was going to die. Friday was such a long way away. But he could make it work. He could find his patience and something to distract him. “Okay. Let’s have a sleepover.”
“Can we have a blanket nest? Like, I don’t know. I feel like it’ll be easier to talk inside of a nest.”
“Whatever you want.” He held out his arms, and Gage gave him an awkward, over-the-console hug before letting him go.
And that was that. Lucas swiped his cane from between his feet and tapped the curb with the tip once it was open.
He got out, grabbed his bag, then oriented himself toward the front of his building.
He could hear the car behind him, waiting—Gage always waited to make sure he didn’t get turned in the wrong direction. It was simultaneously annoying and sweet because Lucas could and did get turned around all the time, but he had a system.
Still, Gage was the only person in his life right now who could get away with hovering.
Luckily, it was an easy night, and the moment his fingers found the door handle, he heard Gage pull away from the curb, and he went inside, letting the door swing hard behind him.
And then there was something else. A different kind of noise. Wheels on tile, hurtling toward him. And tiny footsteps that weren’t like normal footsteps.
“Hi!”
He froze before he recognized the tiny voice. “I forgot your name,” he said, turning toward the commotion heading his way.
Something hard smacked into his knee, and this time, he didn’t hear Frankie running after her.
He set his cane against the wall and dropped to a crouch before reaching out.
His fingers touched something unfamiliar.
It was metal…hollow, so aluminum? Rubber handles and a small body all but strapped to it.