“You worry too much,” Connor said. “And yes, I know I’ve been sick, and there were quite a few bombshells just dropped on us—but you act like a mother hen.”
“A mother hen?” Trevor’s eyebrows shot up. “I know I can be—I don’t think I overly worry. I just worry about things any parent would.”
“Uh huh,” Connor said, noncommittal. He pushed off the dock and swam along the length, snagging his boxers from the pile of damp clothes. He got them on underwater and then swam the rest of the way to the beach.
“You don’t need to sneak out to the water,” Trevor said, keeping in step with Connor. “You can just say that you’re going swimming. I’m not going to bother you.”
Connor laughed.
“I don’t want to step in on your freedom.”
“Right. And what would you have said if I’d mentioned going swimming at dinner? You would have said, ‘wait until you’re feeling better.’”
“Or I would have acknowledged that you’re going to sneak out if I try to stop you, so I might as well get a towel warmed up and a hot water bottle ready?” Trevor shot back.
Connor wasn’t sure if he believed that or not.
“Did you have a nice swim?” Trevor followed up.
“I did.” Connor had enjoyed letting his mind empty out and bask in Adonis’s company. Adonis was talking to him more and more, and Connor was seeing more of that teasing, mocking personality as he did. He liked Adonis more and more as he opened up. Now that he knew Adonis was seeing his real self, reacting to his words with perfect understanding—well able to handle even the smallest amount of snark from Connor—he was pleased. So pleased that it scared him.
“Is Adonis a dolphin or a friend?” Trevor asked him as they reached the house.
Connor cast his gaze sideways to Trevor, taking in that curious look directed Connor’s way. At Connor’s look, he raised his eyebrows. “You talked a lot while you had the fever, mainly about an individual named Adonis. It was jumbled and confused, so I couldn’t figure out whether Adonis was a person.”
Connor thought about it for a moment. He was well sick of his evenings ending with Trevor scaring Adonis off, and Laurence’s reaction to him gave him hope that things could go calmly if Trevor was introduced. Though Adonis had seemed willing to show himself to Laurence where he wasn’t anyone else… Connor would have to talk to Adonis about it.
“I’ll introduce you,” Connor said. “If he wants to meet you, that is. He might not.”
Trevor looked thoughtful. “Am I going to like Adonis?”
Connor cast him a puzzled look.
“I made a big deal about you going out alone on the water. I feel like you would have brought it up that you weren’t going out there alone to stop me fussing sooner… unless there’s a reason you didn’t want me to know about Adonis.”
“You’ll understand when you meet him. And you’ll possibly freak even more when you know I’m going out on the water with him, but I’ll warn you now, there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“Just what I wanted to hear,” Trevor said in good humour.
Connor dumped his pile of drenched clothes on the porch outside and stepped inside, dressed only in his wet boxers.
“Ah,” Trevor said.
Connor cast him a questioning look, catching the end of Trevor’s gaze darting away, a bemused and embarrassed expression on his face.
“What?”
“Adonis is a biter, is he?” Trevor asked innocently.
Connor’s face flushed. “Feck sake.” How did he make the same mistake twice? “Don’t look, pervert.”
“Trust me, the last thing I want to see on one of my sons is love bites.” Trevor put a hand over his face and let out a world-weary sigh.
Despite Connor’s embarrassment, a pleasant warmth filled his gut. Trevor called him one of his sons so casually, without any thought going into the label. He fought a smile. “What version of the sex talk do you give?” Connor asked, his urge to needle Trevor further too overpowering. “Did you go into the mechanics of gay sex with Laurence? Will I get a PowerPoint presentation?”
Trevor had an expression of death as he dropped his hands to his sides. “We can sit down and go through it,” he offered genuinely. “And touch base if you’d like, discuss questions that might have cropped up in your relationships that you want to ask about.”
Connor couldn’t roll his eyes when Trevor was being too dad-like. The kind of dad that Connor never got to have.
