“I’d get a paternity test first, just to make sure it’s not that guy Knot’s baby, and then I’d move on.” Caleb fixed him with a hard look, a little less playful than he’d been before. “We’re only twenty-seven. We’ve got the rest of our lives to fall in love. What’s the hurry? Put this chapter behind you. All of us honorary cousins are grown up now, anyway—it’s not like you’d be tearing apart any friendships. All of us are mature enough that we’re not going to let a breakup force us into taking sides.”
“That’s not why I said no,” Aaron said. He looked between the shot glass on the table and the ring, then looked back at Caleb. “I don’t want to leave him.”
The words were simple, but saying them clicked a realization into place that Aaron hadn’t grasped before. He’d been furious, and frustrated, and upset, but it had been at the situation, not at Gage.
Never at Gage.
If Gage had been hiding the truth from him, fine. If he’d lied to Aaron’s face the whole time, Aaron could accept that. But the fact was, he was unquestionably, insanely, incredibly in love with Gage, and if that meant that Gage would be happier with someone else, Aaron could come to accept that. But before he let Gage go, he needed to find out the truth—about their relationship, about KnotMyProblem, and about Bo.
“Um?” Caleb furrowed his brow. “Then what are you doing here?”
“Taking some time to myself to snap back to my senses,” Aaron said. He got up from the couch, tugged Caleb’s t-shirt over his head, and tossed it at Caleb, who snatched it out of the air. “Thanks for helping me out. I know what I have to do.”
“Right.” Caleb eyed him suspiciously. He set the shirt on his lap. “So, that shot…?”
“You can have it—I’m heading back to the house.” Aaron’s body hummed, made light and energetic with adrenaline. Over the last few days, he’d learned that even his most careful calculations for the future weren’t a guarantee that what he’d planned would come to pass. Nothing in life was certain, and banking on a set plan was akin to setting himself up for failure.
He didn’t need a rebound or a paternity test. What he needed was to do his best to make things right, and if that couldn’t happen, at least he could say he’d tried.
Aaron left the shot glass for Caleb. There was ground to cover tonight, and he’d need to be sober for it.
It was time to take the frayed fibers of a future once imagined and make something beautiful out of them.
He took the ring back.
* * *
Gage’s car was gone.The headlights of Aaron’s Lincoln rolled over the empty space as Aaron pulled into the driveway. The house was dark, but the porch light had been left on. Aaron sank back in his seat and did his best to calm himself down, but it was no use—he’d run away from his problems and left Gage without a word… had he really expected to come home to find Gage waiting for him with open arms?
A quick glance at the time on the car’s digital display revealed that it was just after one in the morning. Aaron squeezed his eyes shut, counted down from five to focus his mind, then pulled his thoughts together. There weren’t many places Gage would go to spend the night. Since having Bo, he’d cut off or drastically diminished contact with his friends and family. Alex was the most likely person he’d go to for comfort. After him, Aaron was fairly certain that Mal was next in line. If Aaron could get in touch with them, he wagered he could find out where Gage had gone, and from there, they could sort things out for good.
Aaron took his phone from his pocket without bothering to undo his seatbelt—if the call went like he hoped it would, he’d be out on the road again in a second, anyway.
He called Alex.
The phone rang twice before it connected, and a wrathful, menacing voice rolled from the speaker into Aaron’s ear. “I swear to god, if you wake my baby up, I don’t care who you are—I willendyou.”
“Alex, it’s me.” Aaron paused. “Aaron.” Then, to make sure Alex knew for sure who he was talking to, he added, “Gage’s Aaron.”
“Aaron?” Alex asked, more pissed than ever. “It’s one in the morning on a Tuesday and I have a nine-month-oldbaby. Why the hell are you calling?”
“Do you know where Gage is?” Based on Alex’s reaction, Aaron didn’t think he knew anything, but he had to try.
“No. I’m going to hang up on you now.”
“Hey, hold on!” Aaron gripped the steering wheel—with it grasped tightly in his hand, he could simulate control. “Don’t hang up just yet. Are you saying that you don’t know where he is because he’s actually at your house right now and you don’t want to give him away, or are you saying it because you genuinely don’t know? I need to apologize to him. We have some… some difficult things we need to work out, and I needed some time to sort them out, but I’m ready now. We need to talk so we can both figure out where we stand.”
“Oh, god.” Alex’s voice cut through the connection, leagues more alert and focused than it had been moments before. “You and Gage had a fight? Aaron, you’re my friend, but I swear to god, if you hurt him, I will come over and personally see to it that you lose your testicles to torsion.”
“I take it you haven’t seen him, then.”
“No, I haven’t seen him,” Alex snapped. Then, a moment later, he sighed. When he spoke again, his voice had lost some of its edge. “I’m sorry. It’s not fair of me to be so upset. Between looking after Laurence’s granddaughter today while his son is visiting colleges and caring for Violet, I’m exhausted, and I’m taking it out on you. Let me try that again, but while being polite: he hasn’t called me. He hasn’t even sent me a text, as far as I’m aware. I had no idea you two were fighting. Is everything okay?”
“I don’t know.” Aaron wanted to go into closer detail, but he didn’t want to force Alex into the middle of a private matter or shade his opinion of Gage. “Just… if you hear something from him, can you let me know?”
“I have to be honest… if Gage doesn’t want me to tell you something, I’m not going to tell you.” Alex sighed again. “But I can promise you that if he shows up here and begs me not to tell you, I’m going to take good care of him and Bo.”
“Bo is with Mal,” Aaron said. “I’m going to check in with him next.”
