Page 31 of Digging Deeper

After gettinga long cry out the other night, I feel a little refreshed, and even though I’m worried about living with Drix, I’m willing to give it a try because Drix looked so excited when he talked about it the other day. So I’m going to give it my best shot. Hopefully.

Standing back, I have a smile plastered on my face as I watch Holden pushing Drix up the new wheelchair ramp Jameson built yesterday and into his house. Despite being a little nervous about living with him, I’m still extremely happy for him and really proud of his progress. This is such a big moment for him, so I stay back on the sidelines so he can share it with his brother. Drix is in his wheelchair at the moment, but he has a walker and crutches to practice with at home. He needs to build his strength up before he can use them regularly.

“I can’t tell who’s more excited; Drix or Holds,” Jameson says from his place beside me, leaning against his car.

I shoot him a smile. “I can’t either.”

Jameson lightly bumps my shoulder with his. “Thank you for helping him, Gav.”

Shrugging, I continue to watch Drix and Holds as they laugh at Holden fumbling with his keys to the front door, and I say, “It’s my job, Jameson.”

“Still. He wasn’t doing anything before you started helping him.”

I glance at him. “He just needed some encouragement and the right tools to get him started. He did all the work.”

Jameson grins at me and shakes his head, but then Holds pops his head back out the front door and yells, “Are you guys coming in or what?”

Jameson elbows me before we walk inside, and as soon as we make it in, I can’t help but laugh. Drix is talking to my dogs in a baby voice while Nana tries to climb in his lap as she smothers him in kisses, and Brutus is whining and running back and forth in front of him, trying to find a way to get in on the kisses and pets.

I say, “I think you have some fans.”

Drix grins over at me. “They’re so sweet.”

I click my tongue and Brutus finally notices me, so he runs over, his whole butt wiggling in excitement. I pet him behind his ears and kiss his nose while he tries to lick my face to death, then I stand and pull Nana off Drix’s chair so he can move farther into the house, but Brutus immediately takes her spot, licking the crap out of his face. Luckily, Drix is a good sport and laughs and pets him until I pull him off and get the dogs to go outside.

Drix moves around his home, and again, I try to stay back out of the way, but after he makes his way around once, he smiles at me and says, “It looks great in here, Gav. Thanks for taking care of the house. The flowers look good outside, too.”

To my complete and utter embarrassment, his small praise makes my cheeks flush. “No problem.”

“It smells really good. What are you cooking?” he asks, making his way back to the kitchen.

“Oh, I threw some vegetarian chili in the crock pot earlier.”

“He used my recipe, so we know you’ll like it, Drix, since you had it before. I brought some rolls and chips and stuff, too,” Holds says as he walks into the kitchen and starts unloading bags of food.

“Aiden’s bringing brownies again,” Jameson says, coming in to help his boyfriend.

“You guys didn’t have to do all this,” Drix says, scanning the living room from the open archway between it and the kitchen.

“It’s no problem.” I move closer to Drix and sigh. “Um… I hope you like the couch I picked out. I know you said the color was fine, but hopefully you think it’s comfortable.” The replacement couch—since the dogs had ruined his—came last week.

“It looks good in here.” He nods. “You really didn’t have to buy a new one.”

I scoff. “My dogs literally ate your couch, of course I had to get you a new one.” When a knock sounds on the front door, I yell, “I’ll get it,” then rush to answer it, and smile when I find Aiden on the other side. “Hey, thanks for coming.”

“Of course,” Aiden says, walking through the door. Before he can get too far, I pull him into a hug, and when we pull apart, he says, “I brought brownies.”

“Awesome.” I smile.

“Hey, Aiden,” Drix says from the end of the hall, his voice a little cold, which is weird since he’d been so happy only a moment ago.

Aiden shoots me a glance before saying, “Hey, Drix. Congrats on coming home.”

Drix narrows his eyes at Aiden but nods before looking me over from top to bottom and abruptly turning his chair around and going into the kitchen.

Aiden asks, “What’s his problem?”

“No idea. He was fine a minute ago.”

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