“Huh. Never thought of dyeing it?”
My embarrassment deepens. “Dad,stop.”
Errol answers him anyway. “It’s OK. I’m kind of used to people asking at this point. And I thought about dyeing it, but I figured it would just look weird and fake.”
Dad pushes his glasses up his nose and squints a bit. “Eh, it sort of suits you. So does being a bit more sociable, by the way.”
I drop my head into my hands with a groan. “I give up. I’m sorry,” I mumble into my palms, wishing I could block out Dad’s voice as he continues to talk.
“Guess you’ve gotten a head start on getting used to the hair. Hell, I’m still getting used to seeing more grays every time I look in the mirror.” He huffs out a laugh, which turns into another wheezy cough. “Ran’s probably going to look like me in another thirty years, so consider this a preview.”
“Dad!”I interject again. “Cut it out!” My voice has crept up. Errol drops a hand on my shoulder. Even though the exact same thought had crossed through my mind, I’m mortified to hear it out loud. I don’t have a chance to dwell on it further when an orderly in bright blue scrubs appears in the doorway, pushing a wheelchair.
“Mr. Knight? I’m here to take you downstairs and get you ready for the procedure.”
Dad frowns at him. “It’s fine. I can walk. Just disconnect me from some of these machines.”
“Sorry, sir,” the orderly says. “Since this was a cardiac event, they want you in a wheelchair. Not my rules.”
Dad makes a noise of annoyance but sits upright and lets the orderly untether him from the monitors. I feel like Errol and I are in the way at this point, so I say our goodbyes quickly. I make Mom promise to call with an update after the procedure is completed, and promise Dad in turn that I’ll come visit tomorrow. I should spare Errol the next time around, though. Hope he’s not sorry he agreed to come with me in the first place.
“Thank you for being a good sport about my dad’s embarrassing nosiness,” I say once we’re walking back to the parking garage. “I swear to God, that heart thing must’ve made him a little loopy,” I say with a shake of my head.
I’m praying Errol doesn’t bring up Dad’s dumb comment about what I’m going to look like years from now. The fact that it’s even still on my mind is kind of weirding me out.It doesn’t mean anything. Today was the first day I referred to him as my boyfriend in public, for fuck’s sake. I’ve got no business thinking aboutanythingus-related that far in the future.
33
ERROL
“Sorry again — that wasn’t exactly a romantic way of making the whole ‘boyfriend’ thing official,” Ran says as he gets into bed beside me in the Knights’ spare room. We’ve got the house to ourselves; Allyson managed to sweet-talk the charge nurse into letting her stay in Roger’s hospital room tonight.
“You’re funny.” I give him a little poke in the ribs. “I liked it. I’m just sorry about the circumstances.” When Ran makes a face, I grab my phone off the night table as a brainstorm hits me.
“Hey, I know how to make this feel official! I’m gonna delete my profiles from the hookup apps. Just so you know, I haven’t actually beenonany of them since we’ve been together,” I add hurriedly. “But I hadn’t gotten around to deleting them yet.”
The tense expression that’s been on Ran’s face since he got the news about his dad eases, and he actually laughs a little. “I didn’t know you still had any profiles.”
I shrug. “I kind of forgot about them, honestly,” I admit. “And nothing will make me happier than getting rid of them.”
“How many do you have? And which apps?”
“Just two. One regular hookup app and one kink-focused one.” I tilt my phone so he can see the screen.
Ran’s eyes get a gleam to them. “Can I see? The kinky one, I mean.”
“Oh. Um…” I hadn’t considered this possibility. My cheeks heat. “Why?”
He looks amused at my reaction. “Why not? I want to know what all you’re into. I mean, I know a lot of it. But if there’s other things you like, or that you never did but want to try, I want to know about that, too.”
I waver. “Are you sure?”
“Of course! Plus, I want to see what kind of sexy pictures you posted of yourself.”
“You’resure?” I ask again.
Behind his glasses, Ran narrows his eyes at me as he holds out his hand. “Let me see,” he demands. I can’t say no when he turns on that hot, dominant tone, so I hand over my phone and look over his shoulder.
He starts with the photos. I watch his face as he scrolls through the dick pics. When he swipes to the next one, I brace myself. His eyebrows go up as he takes in a close-up shot of my spread cheeks. My rim is stretched to its limit around an obscenely large dildo. “Damn,” he murmurs. His eyes flick from the screen up to mine. “Have you used really big toys like that a lot?”
