The message loaded into the Single Dad chat alongside a selfie of Damien standing beneath the welcome sign at the airport.
LoveHarley: ME!
LoveHarley: oh wait
LoveHarley: you mean you dont you
TeenDad2: LOL
TeenDad2: Also, HARLEY!!!
LoveHarley: hey TD
LoveHarley: just for the record, i’m here too
TeenDad2: Omg you guys I’m so excited that you’re here
TeenDad2: I’m getting MARRIED!!
xVerity: Do you have plans for this morning, Knot? Gwynn, Harley, Glit, and I are heading downtown for a hot towel shave. You’re welcome to join us.
KnotMyProblem: Hmm straight razors against my jugular and Gwynn in the same room? Sounds totally safe and not at all like a trap. I totally won’t be ambushed by glitter and pictures of horrific human-made pancakes
The screen exploded in sparkling glitter. When it cleared away, a message had been auto-generated.
Glitter-Bot: GLITTER EXPLOSION!
KnotMyProblem: I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it. I’ve got some obligations I have to tend to after I check into the hotel, and by the time I’m done I think it’ll be too close to the ceremony
GlitterDoctor: Christ, I thought the hours in the medical profession were grueling. What the hell are you doing that they’ve chained you up in the basement? Even when I was on rotation I got more time off than that
TeenDad2: He does something with money
KnotMyProblem: Investment banking, where money doesn’t sleep, and neither do you!
KnotMyProblem: PS I’m trademarking that, so don’t steal it
KnotMyProblem: In my defense, I get at least six more hours off a week than I did when I was a baby investment banker
GlitterDoctor: Is it worth it?
The answer should have been a simple “yes,” but Damien’s thumb hovered over the send button. The money he’d made by sacrificing his social life had allowed him to make sure his fathers had a place to live and ensured that his struggling siblings didn’t have to worry as much about how they were going to pay their bills. Selfishly, it had padded Damien’s bank account and given him a sizable cushion to fall back on should something go wrong—or, as he preferred to think of it, enough funds to well and truly spoil the boy who stole his heart. Now that his family’s financial situation was stable and he’d found a boy to pamper, his years of hard work were finally paying off, but instead of pride at his accomplishments, he found himself strangely hollow.
All along he’d told himself that once his life was sorted and he was in a better place, he’d be able to take it easy, but that had been a lie. There was no end to the grind. If he stopped now, everything he’d worked so hard for would come crashing down. It was why he couldn’t take Catherine up on her offer—why he had to keep at it, no matter how much bullshit came his way. The money he was making had changed the lives of his loved ones, and one day he hoped it would change Matthew’s life, too.
Matthew, his good, sweet boy who’d been distant and flighty over the last couple of days. Who’d been sick, but who stubbornly refused to get help. Now that Damien was in town, that would change. He’d booked an appointment with a doctor for Matthew, and no matter how much it cost, he’d make sure his boy was well.
If it meant flying back to Aurora weekly to check in with him, so be it.
He couldn’t take it easy.
If he did, everything would fall apart.
Reluctantly, Damien replied with what he was expected to say.
KnotMyProblem: Always.
But he didn’t feel the same way in his soul.
