“Gage?” Even to Aaron’s ears, his voice sounded frantic. “Baby, please tell me it’s you…”
“No, Aaron. This is your father.”
“Dad?” Aaron pulled into the parking lot of a deserted strip mall, bringing his vehicle to a stop in front of a tanning salon. Its yellow neon lights splashed color across his dashboard that made him squint. His alpha father, Marshall, was retired, but he kept a strict sleep schedule despite his lack of obligations. It wasn’t like him to be awake at this hour. “It’s three in the morning. What—”
“Gage will be here shortly,” Marshall said. His voice was stiff and stripped of emotion.
Gage?
The pieces slotted into place, assembling a picture Aaron had never imagined possible.
Bo was with Gage, and if Gage was on his way to the Alcrest family home, then…
“Dad.” Aaron’s thoughts were scrambled from confusion and lack of sleep, but his comfort came secondary. Gage and Bo came first, and no matter what happened, they’d come first forever. “Is he okay? Please tell me he’s okay. I left the house, and when I got back, he was gone. I—”
“As far as I’m aware, he’s fine.” The rigidity in his father’s words persisted. “Come home, Aaron. There’s a lot we need to discuss, and decisions you’re going to have to make quickly. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” Perhaps not entirely in the way his father meant, but enough that Aaron felt confident in his response. “I’m on the road right now. Expect me in half an hour.”
“The door will be open,” his father said. “We’ll be waiting for you.”
* * *
The lights wereon inside Aaron’s childhood home. The driveway was on its way to full. Gage’s car occupied one of the top spots, parked as close to the garage door as it could be without bumping it. A car Aaron didn’t recognize was parked behind it. The driveway was double-wide, but the left side—the one closest to the house—had been left vacant. Aaron parked on the street rather than clog it. His omega father, Oli, had work in a few hours’ time. He wouldn’t block him in.
When the vehicle was parked and the engine cut, Aaron grabbed his phone from the windshield mount and exited onto the street. As he headed up the driveway, following the carefully manicured lawn, he locked and alarmed his car. The beep of the horn as the locks engaged was closely followed by another noise—the sound of the front door opening. His father, Oli, leaned against the doorframe. There was a haunted look in his eyes.
“Hey there, Thing One,” Oli said as Aaron approached. The delivery was meant to be lighthearted and comical, but there wasn’t enough energy invested in it to make it sound playful. Instead, it bore notes of hopelessness that dropped in Aaron’s stomach like marbles through water. “Nice pajamas. You should come in before you catch a chill. There’s…fuck,is there a lot we need to talk about.”
There were three stone steps leading from the pathway that cut across the lawn from the driveway to the front door. When Aaron conquered the first one, Oli pushed out of the doorway and stepped down, stopping Aaron in his tracks. To Aaron’s surprise, his father pulled him into a tight hug and didn’t let go.
“Dad?” Aaron asked cautiously. He hugged back, but didn’t hold as tightly. By the way the phone conversation had gone half an hour before, he was sure that there would be hard feelings waiting for him when he arrived. He hadn’t expected a warm welcome, let alone a hug.
“All of this is a mess, isn’t it?” Oli laughed dryly, like he’d given up hope and come to accept the inevitable. “When your father told me, all I could think was that youdotake after me, because this shitfuckery is exactly what would have happened to me had the circumstances been right.”
“How much did Gage tell you?” Aaron asked. His shoulders sagged. “I didn’t know that he was going to do this. We were going to do it together, once Bo—”
“Once Bo was comfortable with having you in his life,” Oli completed. “I know. I’m not angry. Your father is… well, he’s too focused on other things. You should come inside.” Oli stepped back, letting Aaron go. He nodded into the house. “Get your butt inside the house—this time, I’m not going to stop you for a hug. You’re going to want to call in from work today. We’ve got a situation to deal with, and I have a feeling that we’re going to be busy with it for a long, long time.”
Of that, Aaron had no doubt.
Four years of deceit had finally surfaced, and the waves made by it threatened to capsize their world. No matter how badly the storm raged, Aaron would stand by Gage’s side. He would be there for his lover and his son even if he had to drown for them.
29
Gage
There’d been a time in Gage’s life when the Alcrest house had been a playground, its finished basement a hangout for the winter months and rainy days in the spring, and its sprawling, lush back yard and in-ground pool a source of endless fun when the warm weather hit. He knew the property’s secrets—how, tucked into one of the pruned shrubs that lined the gardens along the back of the house, there’d been a pair of nesting cardinals that came back year after year, and that, in the spring, there was a depression in the ground behind the pool’s cabana where rabbits had once nested. One year, as children, Aaron had lifted the jumble of gray fur and sticks and shown Gage the rabbit’s kits.
“Don’t touch,” he’d whispered when Gage had held his hand out to stroke one of the partially furred creatures. They’d squirmed and chirped—Gage had never heard a rabbit chirp before. He’d never heard a rabbit makeanykind of noise before. “If you touch them, then the mama’s gonna abandon them.”
Aaron, who was five years older and infinitely more wise, was always right. Gage took his hand away.
Every spring after that, he went back to check if the rabbits had returned, like the cardinals. They never did.
A part of him wondered if he wasn’t the driving force behind their departure.
If he hadn’t wanted to touch…
