AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Did I sound pissy? Yes.
Did I give a shit? No.
I’d just had one of the most beautiful experiences of my life, and I was eager to have another.
Jackie chortled. “Is that any way to thank me for finding you the love of your life?”
The word threw me for a loop. “It’s a little too early for that, don’t you think?”
“No,” Jackie said, his shit-eating grin only growing wider.
“No?” I said after a beat. “Just… no?” I scoffed, doing my best to tamp down the way my heart leapt at the implicit permission to throw caution to the wind like that. “I just met the boy. That’s not how love works.”
“How do you know, old man? Have you ever actually been in love before? And please don’t say Gustav, because no offense, but he was kind of a dick.”
My first reaction probably should have been to school my nephew on manners or defend my ex, since Gustav hadn’t been a bad person, just not right for me. But instead, what popped out was, “I didn’t love Gustav.”
I remembered exchanging the words with him, but that hadn’t been love. It couldn’t have been. Because it was nothing like I felt for—
I put the brakes on that thought fast, my heart suddenly pounding. Yes, I craved the boy, but was Jackie just getting into my head? I wasn’t wrong about love not working that way. People didn’t just… fall into it.
Well, okay, yes, supposedly they did, but I’d always pictured that fall as a slow slide, not a leap off a cliff.
“So, that’s a no to ever being in love before?” Jackie pushed like the relentless little brat he was.
“No,” I said, my voice hoarse. “Not… no. I’ve never been in love… before.”
“And now?” he asked, looking gleeful as I stumbled over the words, trying to wrap my head around my feelings. “Because I called it when we first saw him, and I’m calling it now,” Jackie barreled on without, thankfully, giving me time to answer. “You’ll have a ring on that boy’s finger before the year is out.” Then his eyes widened, and he started to laugh. “Oh my God, I’m going to have a teenage uncle!”
“I am not marrying a teenager,” I spluttered, because that was fucking ridiculous… wasn’t it? Although, my conscience whispered insidiously, as if even it had been won over by the boy’s sweet appeal, a year from now, Dashiell wouldn’t be one anymore.
“We’ll see,” Jackie said smugly. Then, his voice gentling, “I like him, and he makes you happy. Don’t deny it.”
I shook my head. “Happy is… too small of a word.”
Jackie’s eyes lit up. Brat. I’d just given him more fuel for the fire, and for some reason I didn’t even regret it. But before he could crow about being right, his eyes moved past me, and his smile became something sweeter. “Speak of the devil.”
I turned, and sure enough, my boy had cleaned himself up a little and thrown on a robe—one of mine—and come out looking delectable. So delectable, in fact, that I was distracted enough to give Jackie an opening, and he immediately took it.
“Hey, Dash,” he said, darting past me and grabbing my boy in an exuberant hug. “We were just talking about you.”
“Oh, hi,” Dashiell said, hugging Jackie back for a moment before blushing fiercely and pushing him away with a little squeak. “Um, but maybe you shouldn’t… I need a shower?”
Jackie cocked his head to the side, then laughed. “Yeah, you do. You smell like cum, honey.”
“Jackson,” I snapped when Dashiell ducked his head, his blush turning nuclear. I pushed past my nephew and tucked the boy into my side. “Didn’t I just invite you to leave?”
“One year, I’m calling it.”
Dashiell looked back and forth between the two of us. “One year for what?”
Before Jackie could scare my boy off completely, I snatched the bag out of his hand and pressed it into Dashiell’s. “Here, baby, Jackie brought you a present.”
Dashiell’s eyes went wide. “For me?” He shook his head, trying to hand the bag back. “You guys are buying me too much stuff.”
“It’s not for you, honey. It’s for Uncle Cal.”
“Oh,” Dashiell said, his shoulders relaxing and a gorgeous smile spreading across his face. “That’s so nice of you.” He handed the bag back to me, then bit his lip. “It’s not your birthday or something, is it?”
