Kyle didn’t think of himself as a paranoid person, but he refused to sit in his car in parking lots. There was always the lingering possibility at the back of his mind that, liberal state or not, someone who didn’t like the way he existed or moved through the world could follow him back here. It had happened before.

Still, he was breaking his own rule as he opened the white paper bag in his lap and shoved the contents of the other bag inside, then neatly rolled the top down.

“Done. Ready to go.”

Kyle coaxed his car to life, patting the wheel and praising her new wiring circuitry spark thingy blah blah. The pretty mechanic had told him something about that, only minus the “blah blah” part, while flexing his shoulder muscles distractingly.

It was a quick drive from the store to Evie’s house. The mother of his son had texted earlier that day to say Kevin was sick. And she’d had a request:

I know it’s not your custody day but could you come over?

Kyle had said yes, of course. He adored Kevin, and although their parenting arrangement was far from traditional, fatherhood was as important as work in his life.

That was one major reason—the biggest, really—that dating was out for him.

“Kyle. Oh, you came.” Evie looked desperately relieved to see him: no makeup, sweatpants, and bags under her eyes like she hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in days.

“Oh, Evie. You should have texted sooner!” Kyle chided her as he stepped inside.

“I know, I know. I didn’t want to bother you at work.”

“I can blow off work for my favorite girl.” Kyle hugged her around the shoulders and kissed the side of her head, then handed over his white paper bag. When Evie opened it and spotted the Aero bar for her, coloring book for Kevin, and extra children’s cold medicine, she looked like she could cry, then leaned into him.

“You didn’t have to.”

“Of course I did. Grab some food and a shower for yourself, hon. I’ll take care of Kevin.” She handed the bag back to him and headed for the bathroom.

Evie was a total sweetheart, and he loved her dearly. They’d been friends since middle school, and they had a lifetime of inside jokes and affection for each other to prove it. With him being tremendously gay, they’d never been romantically interested, so he’d gotten himself a close friend for life.

Kyle would never have believed he’d wind up coparenting with her, but life was funny that way. All the adoption agencies Evie had visited had interviewed her, done home visits, and found convenient excuses to turn her down. She was “too young,” one said, at twenty-three. Another said she “didn’t make enough money,” which was ridiculous, because she had run an online clothing boutique since she was fifteen, graduated in computer science at the top of her class, and landed a job at Synergy, the tech company that Plus had hired for their coding project. Yeah, she was doing fine financially. Worst of all, the last agency told her she “didn’t have a stable male partner in her life.”

She’d only had to ask Kyle to lend his sperm to the cause and he’d agreed.

Being a parent was something he hadn’t envisioned of himself so soon, but Evie had talked him through the first few months and what to expect, and they’d made it here already—a bouncing, healthy four-year-old whose vocabulary was frankly scary.

Kyle’s one condition of the deal: that he got to retain partial custody and be in the baby’s life as a father, not just a family friend. He’d always wanted a kid of his own, and he figured he wouldn’t get another chance.

It meant a lot to him that Evie had suggested the name Kevin from blending their names. The other, subtler, option was Levi, but they’d agreed Kevin was cuter. And it turned out it suited him.

“Hey, big fellow,” he greeted Kevin, pushing open his son’s bedroom door and peeking inside.

Kevin’s broad, gap-toothed grin was always, always worth the drive or the time off work. “Daddy! I’m siiiick.”

“I know, buddy.” Kyle frowned as he closed the door, carrying his bag of supplies. “And being sick sucks.” His son nodded gloomily. “So I brought you some medicine, and we’re gonna do something fun, okay?”

“Okay!” Kevin scooted over so Kyle could sit on the edge of the bed and kick out his legs. Kyle was wearing a pretty, knee-length gray skirt and patterned tights today with his dress shirt and tie, and Kevin took a moment to look at him before he looked up. “Daddy?”

“Yes?”

“Do you have nice legs?”

Kyle burst out laughing. “I… I’ve been told I do. I think all legs are nice legs.”

Kevin stretched his own out, and Kyle saw that he had already kicked off the covers. He took the chance to rest the back of his hand against the kid’s forehead. Yeah, he was running a fever. “Are my legs nice?” Kevin asked.

“You have excellent legs,” Kyle nodded without missing a beat, opening his mouth in mock-shock. “Ten out of ten. Full marks on their legginess.” He reached for the bedside table to eye the notepad and pen there. Evie always kept track of which medications Kevin had been given, and he checked his watch to make sure it was safe for him to have another dose.

Once Kevin took some more medicine and Kyle had made a note of it, his son lay back, then giggled. “Daddy?”

“Mmhmm?”

“I wore a dress last—last week… and everyone liked it except one kid.”

Kyle put his arm around his son’s shoulders. Evie hadn’t mentioned it, but they hadn’t exactly had a chance to catch up. “Yeah?”

“He said it was for girls, but I told him that my daddy wears dresses, and—an’—and that anyone can wear anything they want.”

Kyle’s chest swelled with pride. He glanced at the door so Kevin didn’t see the tears that formed in his eyes before he blinked them away. Then, he beamed at his kid. “Way to go. And what did he say?”

“He thought about it for a few… few minutes,” Kevin carefully said. “And then he said it was okay if I wore one. And when… Mom and Dana picked me up, Dana said I did the right thing.”

“Hah. You don’t need his permission to wear one,” Kyle grinned, ruffling Kevin’s hair. “But she’s right.” He didn’t know a lot about Dana yet, except that she and Evie had recently gotten together for real, and that she was out of town a lot. “I’m glad he understood you when you explained it to him. And Dana liked your dress, didn’t she?”

Kevin frowned to himself and nodded. He rarely wanted to talk about her, but Kyle guessed he’d been sneakily trying to work up to it. Kyle decided to put that on the back burner.

“What color was the dress?”

“Purple!”

Of course. Kevin’s favorite color, and it had been all year. “When you’re better, you should wear something purple on one of your days with me. I’ll get something purple and we’ll match.”

Kevin looked overjoyed at the idea. “Yes.” He was getting curious about the bag on Kyle’s lap, though, and he crawled closer, leaning into Kyle’s chest to try to peek into it. “What’s that?”

“Uh uh,” Kyle scolded, grinning at him. “What do you say?”

“May I… see what’s that?”

Kyle chuckled gently. “Yes, you can.” He took the medicine bottle out of the bag and handed it over.

“Coloring! And it’s cool. Spaceships!”

Kyle grinned. “Yeah. Space is awesome. I bet you can use lots of purple in space.”

“Space is black, silly,” Kevin corrected him. “That’s why you can’t see through it, except for—for… the stars on it.”

We can revisit this in a few years. Kyle bit his tongue, then laughed. “You must be almost ready for first grade by now.”

“I read a book every week,” Kevin informed him, flipping through the book to look for a picture to color.

Kyle settled in with his son to talk about the books he’d read and help him color in the planets and stars in the picture.

It didn’t take long before Kevin was nodding off, but he didn’t let Kyle go. “A story,” he murmured, giving him the familiar wide-eyed gaze Kyle had only seen in the mirror. “Please?”

Kyle couldn’t resist that look. “Of course. Which one?”

“The cowboy one. I hate being sick.”

“I know, hon.” Kyle kissed Kevin’s forehead. “You’ll be better soon. The cowboys will help, you’ll see.”

He sat next to the bed as he read the cowboy story—only for the hundredth time that year—and did all the silly voices Kevin wanted him to do. Well, strictly speaking, Kevin didn’t ask, but he took it upon himself to do them.

Kyle noticed near the end of the story that Kevin was asleep and that Evie was leaning in the doorway, smiling fondly at him.

“He’ll be out like a light,” Evie murmured.

Kyle took a moment to gaze at his son, pulling the covers up more firmly around him before standing up. “Yeah.”

“Thanks so much for coming over, Kyle.” Evie pulled away from the doorway to let him through, then tugged the door shut. She’d showered and she looked a little brighter already as she padded through the house, pajama-clad and in bare feet, to the living room.

“Of course. Text me anytime, you know that,” Kyle scolded her. “And I’m staying tonight to check on him so you can sleep.”

“I will, I will,” Evie chuckled, dropping onto the couch and breathing out a sigh as she pushed her hands back through her damp hair. “I thought Dana could come over to help, but she got called away.”

“Again?” Kyle frowned sympathetically. He couldn’t judge, but it had to be hard on Evie not to have someone around.

“I know, I know.”

“Darling, I’m not judging. I’ve only met her a few times, but she seems sweet. And you’re good for each other,” Kyle told her gently, sitting on the arm of the sofa next to her and wrapping his arm around her. “But it has to be hard. That’s all.”

“It is.” Evie sighed, pressing the side of her head against Kyle’s shoulder for a moment before she pulled back. “And what about you?”

“What about me?” Kyle evaded the question, patting his pockets down. He’d squirreled away the Aero bar somewhere while taking charge of the pharmacy bag. Aha, there it was—and in his breast pocket, so not even melted.

Evie took the chocolate bar but laughed. “I see you trying to distract me.”

“There’s nobody, Evie.” Kyle met her gaze and sank onto the couch next to her, sitting properly this time. “Even coparenting is a lot of work, and you know how much my job means to me. I’m okay with that.”

Evie hesitated, biting her lip, then lowered her voice. “Are you really, really okay with that?”

Kyle couldn’t lie to her. Not after knowing her for this long. He glanced away for a second to compose his thoughts. “Not in the long term. Someday, yes, I need—want someone. But especially with Kevin around, I’m not rushing anyone. I want him to be the right person to be around Kevin, too.”

“That sounds a lot like forever-love talk,” Evie teased him, crinkling the wrapper and throwing it at him.

Kyle laughed and caught it. “Oh, shut up. I’m not… not yet.”

“Is there someone?”

“Not yet.” Kyle was getting way, way ahead of himself if he thought he had a shot with Nic. Not with all this baggage of his.

No, not baggage. Kevin wasn’t baggage, and his wardrobe wasn’t baggage, and his family life in the past wasn’t baggage. They were important parts of him. But any one of those things might be enough to scare off a new lover, and had been before.

“But on a much more fun note, the new guy your company sent is great. He’s going to revolutionize our work flow.”

Evie sensed not to pry, and accepted the change of subject to work. Strictly speaking, less of a change of subject than it seemed, but that was beside the point. She just patted his knee. “Good. I hoped Greg would send one of our best. Well, keep me posted. I need to get some beauty sleep.”

Kyle clicked his tongue. “I keep telling you, you’d be fine with an hour a week.”

Evie blushed and swatted him as she stood up to grab the blanket and pillow from the cupboard. “And I keep telling you it means a little less coming from the gayest man I’ve ever known. The only man who hasn’t taken an interest in this,” she gestured at her chest, “even when I was nursing.”

“Ah, what can I say?” Kyle dramatically flopped onto the couch. “I gave up on that when I stopped nursing. I’m sure I tried my best before then, though.”

Evie shook out the blanket over him and, like he’d leaned down to kiss Kevin goodnight, kissed his forehead. She perched on the side of the couch for a moment and handed him the pillow. “You always do, Kyle. Thank you. For everything.”

Kyle crunched his ab muscles to sit up, then pulled her in for a good, tight hug. “Go get some sleep. Absolutely no leaving your room until it’s daylight tomorrow. I’ll check on him in the night.”

As he settled down in the familiar living room, Kyle turned onto his side to find the perfect, cozy spot in the couch.

Ah, there it is.

Yeah, Evie was right—he wasn’t happy forever without a man by his side for longer than a night at a time, but for now, it would do. His life was pretty damn good.