Magnus chuckled and shook his head. “Something about eating each other’s peas and broccoli and not kissing because their daddies kiss too much.”
I smiled at that, but then an unbidden memory was washing over me. I felt cold all over and barely refrained from hugging myself to try and ward off the chill. “Would it bother you?” I asked before I could stop myself.
“Would what bother me?” Magnus returned and when I didn’t answer, he shot me a hard look. “Do you mean, would it bother me if Matty was gay?”
I’d clearly pissed him off and I suddenly wished I’d had the sense to just keep my damn mouth shut. I knew the comment he’d made about Matty marrying Leo had just been a repeat of a child’s innocent imagination, but the thought that there could come a day where Matty would have to face one of the most important men in his life and tell him he really did dream about marrying another boy someday, was at the forefront of my mind.
“Jesus, Dante, how can you ask me that?” Magnus snapped.
Yep, I’d definitely pissed him off. We were back to my name sounding like a curse word on his lips.
“Hawke and Tate aren’t your kids!” I bit out. “People are all liberal when it’s other people’s kids, but when it’s yours…”
I snapped my mouth shut before shaking my head. “You know what, fuck it. Never mind.”
A good two minutes of utter silence filled the car before Magnus said, “I wouldn’t care who he ended up with, as long as he was happy.”
I didn’t respond to that, though some of the chill that had taken over my body dissipated. But it came back in a rush when Magnus quietly asked, “Is that what happened to you?”
Chapter 4
Magnus
Dante didn’t answer me.He didn’t even acknowledge the question. But it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the answer considering his inflamed outburst about how I’d react if I discovered my grandson was gay. I’d been honest when I’d said I didn’t care in the least if that was how things ended up…even if it wasn’t something I’d considered until meeting Hawke and Tate and the other couples and threesomes in their makeshift family. The reality was, I would be beyond grateful for Matty to find that same level of love and commitment, whether he did it with a man or woman.
I cast a sidelong glance in Dante’s direction and saw that he was staring out the window. His foot was tapping incessantly on the floor, causing his whole leg to bounce and I had the insane urge to put my hand on his thigh to try and settle him. His right hand was at his mouth, his fingers worrying his lower lip. I’d never seen him so agitated before – yeah, he was the high-energy type, but I would have expected him to lash out with some inappropriate comment to deal with his frustration rather than bottle it up.
I focused my attention back on the road. Traffic was heavy as we neared our destination and I dreaded what was to come. I wasn’t at all fazed about testifying in the upcoming trial, though I knew thehigh powered defense team was going to come at me with everything they had. No, what had my chest hurting and my head still throbbing was the realization that within the next half an hour, I was going to be officially closing out this chapter of my life.
All I’d ever wanted to be from the time I was old enough to start dreaming about my future, was a cop. But not just any cop. No, I’d wanted to be a Texas Ranger. It was in my blood…literally. My grandfather on my father’s side had been a Ranger and he’d often taken me to the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco when I’d been Matty’s age and regaled me with stories about his nearly forty-year career as a Ranger. Over the next four years, he’d spent every moment we’d been together preparing me for the day I’d walk in his footsteps and despite my young age, like a sponge, I’d soaked up everything he’d told me. I’d resolved to myself to have all the qualities Rangers were valued for and I’d even started learning to shoot a gun shortly before my grandfather died. I’d been rudderless after his passing, but my dreams to follow the same career path had never subsided, even as my life had begun to fall apart around me when my parents split up a few months later.
I pushed away the dark thoughts that started to drift through me and focused on my too quiet passenger. I hadn’t heard the girls leave this morning, but I was still struggling with what their presence had meant…well, not so much what it had meant, but my reaction to the whole situation. Just like when I’d walked in on Dante in the bathroom with the guy at the wedding, I’d been unreasonably angry. The part I was trying to understand was why I was so damn angry. It wasn’t like I had any say in what he did – he was free to do whatever and whoever the hell he wanted and I’d long ago accepted that he tended to think with his dick first. But how was that different from a lot of guys? Why didhisbehavior piss me off?
You know why, you jealous bastard.
I flinched as the words tumbled through me. How the fuck could I be jealous?
Over a man.
It just wasn’t possible. I wasn’t into guys. Whatever physicalreaction I was having to Dante had to be related to how much he pissed me off.
It just wasn’t fucking possible!
“Magnus, it’s green.” It wasn’t Dante’s voice that broke through my fog of self-denial. No, it was the sensation that burned my skin where his hand was resting on my arm. Even with a layer of fabric between his skin and mine, I couldn’t ignore the electricity that surged through me.
“What?” I asked dumbly as my eyes fixated on Dante’s long, strong fingers. Would they feel good on my cock or too hard and rough?
“The light, it’s green,” he repeated and it wasn’t until several car horns began blasting behind us that I realized I’d missed the stoplight changing. Hell, I didn’t even remember stopping at the damn light.
“Sorry,” I muttered, though I wasn’t sure why I was apologizing to him.
I pulled my arm away from his hand and forced my eyes back to the road in front of me.
“You okay?” I heard him ask.
No.
“Yep,” I said as casually as I could. I ignored him as I concentrated on the traffic around us and didn’t speak again until I’d parked the car in the underground garage beneath the office building that served as Ranger headquarters. Before Dante could get out of the car I said, “You should stay here.”
