Page 58 of Kylan

Marek’s whole face fell. “What if he doesn’t? If he doesn’t want to be our boy, that’s not a deal breaker for me. I just want him with us, in any capacity. Just him. But if he doesn’t want us at all, then...?”

I sighed. “I don’t know. But we’ll get through it. Our first priority is making sure he’s okay.”

Marek sighed, still sad. “I’ll go check on him. See if his fever has come down or if we should call the doctor.” He shrugged. “I might make him some veggie soup. How does that sound?”

“Sounds perfect. I’ll go check in with the office, make some phone calls, and check our emails. I’ll just be downstairs. Yell if you need me.”

Marek slipped quietly into Kylan’s room, and I watched from the door how he sat gently on the side of his bed and felt Kylan’s forehead with the back of his hand. How he stroked his hair and fixed his blankets.

Seeing him tend to him, care for him, made my heart full.

Would Kylan want to be in a proper relationship with us? I didn’t know, but god, I hoped so.

Maybe he’d want to maintain our old agreement with a few modifications. Maybe he didn’t want us at all.

Though when I’d suggested dating, the look in his eyes gave me hope that he wanted that. And he’d wanted to come here with us. We could have looked after him at his place, but he told Fitch he wanted to come home with us.

That had to be a good sign, right?

I had to believe he wanted to be part of us.

Or that he’d be open to discussing the possibility.

And what Marek said was true. We wanted him with us in any capacity. Whether that included Kylan being our boy, only he could decide that.

It was all up to him.

I spentsome time in our home office. We’d never taken time off without notice before, and while I dealt with a few emergency emails and phone calls, our PAs and office manager handled rescheduling everything and managing clients who were demanding our time.

I told them we wouldn’t be in tomorrow either. I said it was a personal matter, that Marek and I were both fine, but we were dealing with a family problem.

And that’s what this was.

Family.

Sometime later, Marek came in with a small bowl of soup. It was thick and creamy and full of every vegetablewe had in the house. He put the spoon to my mouth to let me taste.

“I know soup’s not really a summer thing, but he needs some proper nutrition. Soup requires minimal energy to eat, and it will fill his belly,” Marek said.

“It’s delicious. And just what he needs.”

“His temperature seems to have come down but we’ll keep an eye on him. Maybe once the paracetamol wears off it’ll spike again. We’ll see how he feels about us calling a doctor when he wakes up.”

I closed my laptop and stood up. “I’m done here. I told the office we won’t be in tomorrow either. Regardless of how he’s feeling, a day here with just the three of us is a good idea.”

“Great idea.” Marek stopped. “Oh. What about the Hysop case? They were coming in?—”

“Taken care of, my love. Rescheduled and I emailed them myself.”

He smiled at me. “Thank you.”

“Everything else can wait. Let’s go see if Ky’s awake and how he’s feeling.”

Just then, somewhere upstairs we heard a toilet flush.

Marek smiled at me. “I’ll go dish up some soup.”

I knocked lightlyon Ky’s door as he was getting back into bed. He looked up at me, shy and pulling the blankets up to his waist.

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