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“Stop,” Hudson said with a chuckle. “I can’t listen to you make shit up. It’s ridiculous.”
“It’s all true! Tell me one thing I said that wasn’t true.”
He gazed at me with hearts in his eyes that made me want to crawl into his lap and beg. Hudson’s hand came out to brush my hair back behind one ear before smoothing a thumb over my cheek. “Thank you. You’re very sweet to try and protect me.”
West and Nico were staring at Hudson’s caress of my face. Clearly it wasn’t platonic between the two of us. They must have seen the same gesture last night at the club.
Hudson faced his brother again, reaching over and holding my hand under the table. “I’m stupidly attracted to Charlie. We hooked up in Ireland.”
West and Nico’s jaws both dropped for a split second before they turned to each other and started arguing loudly. Apparently Nico had called it, but West had stubbornly denied Hudson had a gay bone in his body.
“The man’s so straight he refused to drink out of a bendy straw when we were little,” he said. “Hudson used to have Drew Gasticki sleep over at our house, in our room, and not get a boner. The rest of us were hard as fucking nails all night long whenever that kid stayed over. You don’t get it. My brother’s never once been attracted to a guy.” He stopped and turned to Hudson. “Have you?”
Hudson’s smile looked like it held a measurable amount of relief. “No, West is right. I’ve never been attracted to guys before. Charlie is an anomaly.”
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
Both West and Nico turned to study me, as if by staring they’d be able to puzzle it all out.
“Huh. I mean, you’re pretty and all… but you’re still a guy,” West said.
“Last I checked,” I muttered.
“He is,” Hudson declared proudly. “I checked too.”
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Really, lad?”
His ears turned red again, and he tucked his face into my neck to drop a quick kiss on my skin. “Sorry,” he whispered.
I couldn’t believe he had the guts to kiss me in front of his family members.
“It’s okay,” I murmured before kissing him on the ear. “Big day, huh?”
“Guess so.”
“What does this mean?” West asked. “Are you bi? Are you two together? What’s… what’s happening here?”
Hudson pulled his face out of my neck and sat up, his hand still holding mine tightly. “I don’t know, West. That’s why I didn’t tell you guys. I just know I want to spend time with Charlie while he’s here. After that, I have no idea. Will I want to go back to dating women? Who knows? Will I ever find myself attracted to another man? Stranger things have happened.”
I tried my best to ignore the angry minions in my gut. The ones who didn’t like hearing about who he may or may not date when he was done with me. It wasn’t like I could blame him for feeling that way. It was clear I was only there temporarily, and he certainly wasn’t going to move to Ireland to live out his days in a crumbly cottage by the sea. I swallowed down my nerves.
“Are you going to tell everyone else?” West asked. Clearly, by “everyone else” he meant the family.
“I didn’t particularly want to answer all of their nosy questions,” Hudson said pointedly.
Nico nudged his husband with an elbow. “He means your nosy questions,” he said helpfully.
“So you’d rather us keep it quiet, then?” West asked.
Hudson looked at me, and I squeezed his hand in support. I understood why he wanted to keep things from becoming a big deal.
“Yeah,” Hudson admitted. “I mean, I don’t expect you to lie for me, but I’d prefer keeping our business to ourselves. You know how everyone is. Hallie alone will tell the entire state of Texas.”
Nico nodded emphatically. “He’s right. And sometimes Doc is even worse.”
“I don’t think he even knows when he’s spilling people’s secrets,” Hudson said with a chuckle. “How the hell did he manage as a doctor?”
“He practiced before the days of HIPAA,” West said with a wink. “Thank god.”
Nico elbowed West. “Surely he never broke any patient confidentiality?”
“No,” West said, grabbing the offending elbow and using it to yank Nico onto his lap. “He just likes to gossip about regular stuff. He gets to talking with Goldie, and the two of them together are a force to be reckoned with. When Pippa first said ‘Gamp,’ the entire town had heard about it before sundown. I’m still convinced she was talking to the dog, but if it makes him feel better to think she was saying some form of Great-Grandpa, so be it.”
He leaned over and kissed his husband, paying special attention to one of the lip rings Nico sported. It was funny watching the clean-cut doctor and the pierced tattoo artist together. They were the perfect study in opposites, but they obviously loved each other fiercely. I noticed Hudson’s hand grip mine a bit tighter.
