“And, all my paperwork is in order?” Peter asked, sounding a little nervous. “You’re sure?”
Tex listened as the woman on the other end of the line assured Peter that everything was in place and then asked if he needed anything else.
“No, that was it. Thank you.” Peter hung up, sliding his phone into his pants and turning to Tex. He sat down at the table across from him. “Sorry about that.” He ducked his head, suddenly shy.
He glanced up through his eyelashes, and the look was all heat.
Tex grinned, loving that Peter wasn’t scared of him anymore. “Who was that on the phone?” he asked. It had sounded official, and Tex wondered what Peter was up to.
Peter smiled, soft and hesitant, and it made Tex’s gut stir with a different sort of happiness than arousal.
“It was the Centralized College Application Service. I wanted to know what my status was.”
“And?” Tex prompted, wondering why Peter hadn’t talked about this with him and Carver. He knew that Peter had been in school when he was arrested, and he and Carver had told him he was free to go back, but Peter hadn’t mentioned taking steps to make that happen.
“My pardon has been registered in their system, and I’m free to apply to whatever college I want.”
“Did you expect anything different?”
Though the pardon was backdated to hell and back, it was real. No one would ever be able to find otherwise.
It was the delinquency match that had been covered up and faked with a voluntary match.
“Maybe?” Peter hedged. “I guess I didn’t want to get my hopes up.”
Tex should have known that Peter would have trouble believing that his sentence had been swept under the rug just like that.
“You only have a year left of your marketing bachelor’s degree, right?” Tex asked.
Peter nodded, surprised. “How did you know that?”
“It’s in your file.” Tex stretched his legs out under the table and crossed his ankles. His erection had subsided, the topic killing his aroused buzz. “I’m guessing you’d like to finish?”
“I would.”
“I think that’s a good idea. And I’m guessing you want to get a job after you graduate?”
Peter nodded again. The expression on his face was heartbreaking like he couldn’t believe that these were things that were back in reach.
It made Tex uncomfortable. If things had played out like he’d intended, Peter would have never been able to finish school or get a job. It hadn’t sounded bad to Tex when he picked the boy—who wouldn’t want an omega who stayed at home cooking, cleaning and taking care of the kids?—but now he wondered how he would have handled Peter’s inevitable disappointment with his life.
Maybe he wouldn’t have had to. Peter might have lived out his days never giving voice to all his crushed hopes and dreams for the future, keeping them inside of him like a dead seed.
Somehow, that was even more upsetting.
It struck Tex that maybe buying Peter hadn’t been as unproblematic as he’d convinced himself. Of course, that wasn’t to say that he wouldn’t do it again. Carver’s ruts were killing him, lasting longer and getting stronger each time, and the only way to keep him alive was to get an omega. But maybe Tex should have acknowledged, if only to himself, what a fucked up thing he’d done.
“Carver should be able to help you get a job. He’s pretty well connected in the corporate world.”
Tex wasn’t going to stand in the way of whatever Peter wanted to do with his life. He owed him that much, at least.
“Because of his mom?”
Tex laughed. “That’s a big part of it, but not the only thing. Carver is actually pretty good at his job.”
“He seems like he would be,” Peter mused. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table, cradling his chin in his palms. “Has he always been so serious?”
Tex barked out a laugh. “Yeah. He has a hard time taking things lightly.”
