Adele smirked at him. “If it’s okay with Fallon, give me and the guys a single weekend. We’ll fix that.”
Gage laughed and rolled over to throw his arms around his dad’s neck. “Thanks.”
“You don’t have to thank me, kid. You know I’m here anytime.”
Trudging into the apartment, Gage almost cried when he saw his favorite Greek takeout on the coffee table and the love of his life in a little blanket nest on the floor in front of the couch. It looked a lot like the nests Lucas made whenever one of them was feeling shitty, and he had a feeling Fallon got tips from Gage’s best friend.
“Hey,” Gage said, dropping his bag, kicking off his shoes, and immediately collapsing next to his boyfriend.
Fallon leaned in for a kiss. “I figured you were going to need some comfort food.”
It had been a rough shift. Three fires and two car accidents involving fatalities. On top of spilling his guts to his dad, he was wrung out in ways that made him want to crawl into a cave and live there forever.
But this helped.
More than he wanted to admit.
“So,” he said through a mouthful of pita and hummus, “I have something to run by you.”
Fallon looked wary. “Okay.”
“I know your plate is full with decisions, but my dad, uh…well. He’s kind of aware that we haven’t done much prep for Mango. We don’t have clothes or furniture or…you know…”
“Anything,” Fallon whispered. He looked devastated. “I know I dropped the ball. I know I’ve been avoiding all this big stuff, and we’re so close, and?—”
“Hey, no.” Gage tossed the pita down and cupped Fallon’s face. “No. We’ve both been kind of in it. There’s no ball. Nothing was dropped. But my dad did suggest that maybe he and the guys get together with your brothers and put some stuff together for us.”
Fallon bit his lip, his eyes darting around the room, looking anywhere but at Gage. “We haven’t bought anything.”
“Yeah. That’s kind of what they want to do.”
Fallon’s cheeks pinked. “Is that…I don’t know what’s normal. I mean, most women have a baby shower, but I don’t know what guys do when they have babies.” His voice sounded a little tight. “Shouldn’t we be, you know, providing.”
Gage snorted. “I don’t know what’s normal because my family has never been normal. I think we let them go nuts with baby things. You know they’ve been dying to.”
Fallon pulled back and shook his head, laughing. “Yeah. My brother’s been not so subtly hinting around about wanting to get us stuff.”
Gage shrugged and went back to attacking his food. “I say we let them. I mean, they’re only going to get to do this once…” He hesitated, then added, “Right?”
Fallon let out a puff of air. “Yeah. I officially decided today. One and done. This was—well, it was fine. It was less scary than I thought. But I don’t want to go through it again. I want to get back on my HRT, and I want to stop trying to hide my body, and I want everyone to stop being awkward with how they talk to me.”
“Even me?”
Fallon shrugged. “Sometimes. But it’s okay. I’m awkward too.”
Gage sighed and leaned against him as he polished off his chicken skewers, then shoved the container back on the table. He shifted downward, pulling Fallon with him, and curled around him. The weight of his boyfriend was the most comforting thing he’d ever felt.
“I’m happy.”
Fallon glanced over at him, brows lifted. “Yeah?”
“I know I might not seem like it all the time, but that’s not new. I’ve always kind of struggled to show my emotions like other people do. I think it’s why Lucas and I are so close. He gets it. But even my weird-ass family, who doesn’t do anything normal, struggled to understand me. I think my puberty was hell on my dad.”
Fallon picked up his hand and stroked his wrist. “Sounds rough, but I…I kind of get it. I never paid much attention to other people when I was growing up, but I think I turned a lot of Frankie’s hair grey.”
Gage snorted. “He looks good with it, so I think you did him a favor.” He sobered a second later. “Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, even though I’m still recovering from everything—and sometimes realizing that I’ve been hiding from other, deeperfeelings—I’m still happy. You and Mango are everything I’ve ever wanted.”
Fallon nodded, closing his eyes as he nestled further into Gage’s arms. “I never thought I could have this. I thought…I don’t know. I guess I thought if I had this, I’d have to compromise parts of who I was. Like…like at best, I’d find a partner who was willing to respect my gender in public, while I knew in their heads, I was a woman to them. Or that I was fulfilling some kind of fetish for a bi-curious straight dude who wanted to be able to fuck a man while not facing the reality of his sexuality.”
