Page 75 of Kylan

When Kylan had mentioned attending Benji’s pending court case, I’d not said anything, but I knew Marek had earmarked it too. When we were talking more last night, he’d told us who his friend really was.

He’d claimed he didn’t know details until recently, and I believed him.

But every lawyer in Sydney knew the name Barbieri. Hell, anyone who saw the news, read a newspaper, or worked in any legal setting knew who Bruno Barbieri was.

And that his son had gone missing some years ago.

Except he hadn’t.

Now, our expertise was property law, not criminal, not public prosecutions, but we knew damn well who Benji was.

It was big news.

And these three boys were caught up in the centre of it all.

Not that I believed Kylan was in any immediate danger, but he had been involved in a police sting to nab the two men chasing Benji.

Dominic and Nolan were lucky we hadn’t known when it was going down.

I wouldn’t have allowed Kylan to be used as bait like that, and it surprised me that Dominic and Nolan had.

Until Kylan reminded me that they were grown menwho could make their own decisions and didn’t need permission.

He reminded me that the daddy/boy line was a tightrope to navigate, and sometimes instead of saying our boy couldn’t walk the tightrope should he fall, it was more our duty to hold his hand while he walked it.

And while the daddy in me wanted to wrap him up in cotton wool and protect him at all costs, I knew there would be times when he had to stand on his own two feet.

“I’m not sure I can be in boy mode twenty-four seven,” he’d said. “Sometimes I’ll need some downtime. Just time to decompress and be me. It’s hard because as soon as I see you both, I automatically slip into boy mode. I want to kneel at your feet or curl up in your arms. I want you to praise me and call me pretty. It’s like something switches in my brain and I love it. You know I love it. But I don’t know how healthy that would be for me long term. I want to be in this forever, and I don’t want to risk burning out.”

“Hey, sweet boy,” Marek had replied gently. “We don’t know how to do this long term either. We’re learning together, okay? That’s what relationships are. Learning and growing together. We can just play it all by ear, see how we feel as we go along, make changes as necessary, okay?”

Kylan was much happier after that, and I understood his reticence. I understood his hesitance, his reluctance.

Did I want him to move in and be our boy twenty-four seven?

At first, I’d thought yes, of course I did.

But then I realised what Kylan was saying was right. We would all need some downtime. No pressure for us to be in daddy mode every waking minute.

We could just be ourselves, delving into the daddy and sweet boy role playing when it suited all three of us. I had the feeling it would be most nights he stayed with us. But it would be okay if it wasn’teverytime.

We had to learn his cues and meet his needs, and it was a daddy’s job to understand the difference of a boy needing his daddies or a man needing his partners.

We would learn together.

“I’m not saying I will buy his entire apartment complex,” Marek said. I had to wonder what part of his musings I’d missed... “But perhaps we could look at the person who does own it and see if they have any prior violations for not updating to code.”

I laughed. “Marek, stop. Leave him be. I do believe he’ll move in with us eventually. Just let him get used to the idea.”

Marek huffed and pouted, his moustache twitching. Then he let out a sigh. “When should we tell our families?”

“I don’t know. Let’s just get used to the idea first. It’s all new. And when, or if, Kylan moves in, then we can figure out what to say.”

“My sister’s birthday dinner is coming up,” he mused out loud.

I snorted. “Please tell me you won’t subject Kylan tothat kind of torture. God, please tell me you won’t subjectmeto that kind of torture.”

He put his hand to his chest. “I don’t even want to go.” Then he sighed again. “Though the look on my sister’s face would be priceless.”

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