Page 85 of Love It or List It
“Totally valid,” Joe agreed, instead ofme too.Of all the challenges he’d faced as an ad hoc parent, this one was by far the biggest, most dramatic, and yet probably the one that Joe was best prepared for.From the moment Will had come out to him, Joe had been preparing for this.That included reading parenting guides on how to support grieving teens.
Will slumped, the fight leeching out of him.“I don’t hate them,” he whispered.
That’s okay.I’ll do it for you.Joe placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.“Also valid.”
Will took a shuddering breath and managed a small smile.“You know you’re really good at this dad thing, right?”
“You know you make it easy, right?”
Pain flashed across Will’s face, but he didn’t argue.
With one last hug and promises to be right downstairs if Will needed him for anything, Joe said good night and went to find Austin.
Because—well.
Austin liked the kids, sure.He was great with them, even.Joe thought hanging out with them might even have some kind of healing built in, since he doubted young Austin had much opportunity to actuallybea kid.But Joe didn’t think suddenly becoming the de facto parents of a teenager was in the same league as adopting a bunch of animals.Austin might be okay with Will living here in theory, and he might tease Joe about being a teen dad, but that didn’t mean he wanted to date a dad for real.
You’d think they actually would have talked about this.But they hadn’t, so now Joe had to go destroy the dregs of the afterglow with serious relationship talk.
A knot formed in his stomach.
It had to be too much, didn’t it?Austin hadn’t signed up for this.He’d—
“Hey.”
Joe blinked.Somehow he’d made it down the stairs.Austin waited at the bottom, still wearing Joe’s sweatshirt and pajama bottoms.They were too long for him, flopping halfway over his feet.“Hey.He’s, uh….”
Austin opened his arms.
Joe fell into them, clinging tightly.“Jesus,” he whispered, shaking.“I hate them—I hate themso much, what the fuck.He’s just a kid, he’s theirkid.They’re supposed to love him.Why can’t they—”
“Hey,” Austin said again, a rough whisper in return.“He’s got you, right?It’s gonna suck, but it’ll be okay.”
Joe’s eyes burned, and he buried his face in Austin’s hair.“What the fuck am I doing?”
“What you always do.Taking care of people.”
He swallowed against the hope rising in his throat.“It’s not—it’s not exactly taking things slow, though, is it?If you don’t want—”
Austin pulled back, took Joe’s face in both hands.“Hey.”His eyes were dark and serious.“You think I didn’t know this was a possibility?The kids have been invading the house since day one.You think—what, I’m going to be upset you’re making sure a kid doesn’t go through the hell I went through?You think the way you are with those kids isn’t half the reason I even—”
He cut himself off.Going slow, Joe reminded himself and forced a breath into his lungs.
“Okay, yeah.”He nodded.Austin didn’t let go of his face, but he did thumb away a drop of wetness.Fuck, Joe was a mess.“But that’s not the same as, you know, ‘surprise, honey, we have a teenager now.’”
“Eh,” Austin said, deliberately casual.“He’s in grade twelve.He’s gotta be mostly self-sufficient, right?We’ll figure it out.”
We.
“Okay,” Joe said again.“Okay.Jesus, what a fucking day.”
Austin huffed.“You said it.”He bent Joe’s head toward him and kissed his nose.“Come on.We should get some sleep.I have a feeling it’s going to be a busy day tomorrow.”
Chapter Twenty-One
IF AUSTINwere being perfectly honest with himself—which he was inclined to avoid this morning—he would admit he was freaking out.
It wasn’t just Will moving in.Austin had anticipated that, even if he’d hoped for Will’s sake it wouldn’t have to happen.It was that,plustheir Christmas party,plusmeeting Joe’s enormous extended family of uncomfortably wealthy people,plustranscendent sex that had his brain leaking out his ears, all coupled with the knowledge thatslowhad well and truly gone right out the fucking window.
