“Just stop and consider what you’re doing here. It’s a huge mistake. You can’t just go through with this.” Vincent stood in the hall outside of Hunter’s door and tried to plead his case.

It was too early for this. The only reason Hunter had even answered the door was because he’d been expecting Luke. He had been plagued by aches and pains all night and unable to get a decent amount of sleep. Being faced down by Vincent made everything about a hundred times worse.

“What have I ever done that gave you the slightest idea that you have any say in this matter?” asked Hunter. He was done stepping on eggshells around Vincent. The other man had shown, time and time again, he wasn’t interested in just being friends. He didn’t seem to care what boundaries or guidelines Hunter tried to set either.

“I’ve already told you that I can’t help it. I worry about you. I worry about the lies and manipulation that Luke is putting you through.” Vincent looked sincere. Too bad Hunter wasn’t buying it anymore. “Just let me in so we can talk.”

“Look, I don’t want to talk. I’ve already made up my mind. You can’t respect my decisions, and I’m tired of putting up with your melodrama. I tried to be friends with you, Vincent, but that seems impossible,” explained Hunter. “So I’m done talking. I’m done listening. Please, just leave.” Before Vincent could say anything else, Hunter shut the door and locked it.

“Hunter!? Hunter, open this door! Hunter, let me in! You can’t just shut me out like this. All I ever did was try to take care of you. Hunter, please. I love you.” Vincent rattled the handle and pounded on the door. It seemed he wasn’t going to go quietly.

Hunter sighed and pulled out his cell phone. For a moment, he hesitated. Should he call Luke? He was certain the alpha would come flying to his rescue. If he was being honest with himself, he would have liked to see Luke facing down Vincent again. If only because he liked the thought of watching two alphas spar over him.

He shook away those thoughts. Such a scenario could end really badly. Besides, he was more than capable of rescuing himself. Sort of. He called building security. A few minutes later, Vincent’s shouts died down. There was a heated exchange in the hallway.

“Fine, Hunter, I’ll leave!” shouted Vincent one last time. “I hope you don’t regret this.”

Hunter peaked through the peephole in the door, checking to see if the coast was clear before texting Luke. The last thing he had wanted was for the two of them to end up in a fist fight or something. 

Thankfully, reconciling with Luke had improved Hunter’s outlook on life dramatically. There was still a lot he wasn’t prepared for, but knowing he wouldn’t be going through any of it alone was a relief. All he wanted to do right now was forget about his run-in with Vincent.

“Look, I know that we’re not ‘together’ or anything, but I feel like this is important. Even if you don’t want to raise the baby, I’d like him to know who his father is and see that we have a good relationship with one another,” said Luke as he and Hunter sat in Hunter’s apartment.

The doctors had given Hunter something for his nausea, but he still felt queasy and didn’t have much of an appetite. To remedy this, he’d invited Luke over to cook some more chicken soup for him. While they waited for the soup to cook, they sat at the kitchen table.

“I understand,” said Hunter with a frown. “I just don’t see what going to see a movie has to do with any of it.”

“One of your biggest complaints about most things is that you can’t remember any of it. Have you ever been to a movie theater? Then let’s do that. Let’s make some memories for you and get to know one another a little more in the process.” Luke looked excited about the prospect.

“You’re not just trying to get into my pants again, are you?” asked Hunter suspiciously.

“I...I mean if you’re offering...” Luke grinned at him.

Hunter laughed. He’d missed these conversations with Luke during the few weeks they’d been apart. He liked talking with him like this. The talks he’d had with Vincent had never compared to these.

“I don’t think so,” said Hunter. “But fine. We can try going to a movie. I don’t know that it’s really that big of a deal though.”

If he’d learned anything over the last few months, it was people didn’t give up easily. Even when they were told something was impossible, they made it happen. Hunter knew their conversation in the park had reignited Luke’s hope for their relationship.

His feelings on the matter were still confused. He’d meant what he’d said in the park. He liked Luke, and perhaps somewhere deep down he maybe even loved him. But Hunter still held back. Even with this baby on the way there was something missing. Something more he still hadn’t felt. He couldn’t have explained what it was though because he still didn’t know himself.

The baby only complicated things. He was almost certain he couldn’t be a father to this child growing inside of him. He was glad Luke was excited about it, but he couldn’t bring himself to feel any sort of emotion about the pregnancy at all. He tried to frame it in the context of the sex he and Luke had recently, but even then he still felt nothing. On some level, Hunter feared that he was emotionally broken.

How could he be a parent to a child towards which he felt nothing?

“If you don’t want to go to a movie we don’t have to,” said Luke. “I honestly don’t care what we do, I just want to start making some memories that involve both of us.” He looked so sincere as he spoke that Hunter couldn’t help but smile softly.

Reaching across the table, Hunter took Luke’s hands in his own. “Okay. Let’s make some memories. I’ll trust your judgment here since I obviously have no idea where to even start.”

Luke looked gleeful as he raised Hunter’s hand to his lips and kissed it gently. “If you’re feeling up to it, why don’t we go for a drive after lunch?” suggested Luke. “I’ll give you a tour of the city.” The dorky smile on his face made Hunter’s heart skip a beat. Why did he have to be so disarmingly adorable?

“I didn’t know you had a car,” said Hunter.

Luke winked as he rose from his chair. “My dear sweet Hunter, there’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

***

THE BUILDINGS OF THE city slowly passed by as Luke drove them through the downtown shopping district.

Hunter had expected more of a commentary to go along with the tour as unfamiliar landmarks flashed by the windows. Luke, however, seemed to have something else in mind.

They eventually left the shopping district behind and passed into a more industrialized zone. Hunter couldn’t even begin to fathom what they might be doing here among the tall production buildings with their towering chimneys and warehouses stuffed with products and materials.

Eventually, they reached a small corner lot that stood completely empty. There was nothing there save for weeds, gravel, and a dilapidated chain link fence. However, there was a beautiful view of the river and pier on the opposite bank.

“What is this place?” Hunter asked as Luke climbed out of the car.

“Come take a look,” coaxed Luke, before closing the car door and walking away from the car towards the fence.

Hunter didn’t like the look of the place. The river was pretty, but the lot looked like it probably belonged to someone. He’d watched quite a few gangster movies on Netflix over the last week and could just imagine men with machine guns watching as a couple of civvies tromped around a little too close to their dump site.

Still, he couldn’t just let Luke head off alone, could he?

“If I get murdered by gangsters I’ll never forgive you, Luke,” muttered Hunter under his breath as he climbed out of the car. “Wait for me,” he said in a normal voice, while zipping up his coat.

He closed the car door and jogged to catch up with Luke. Even jogging was starting to get uncomfortable now that his body was beginning to change. If things kept up at this pace, Hunter was certain he’d be unable to move a muscle before long. He couldn’t imagine why anyone would subject themselves to all of the aches and pains of pregnancy multiple times, let alone once.

“Luke, what is this place?” asked Hunter, glancing at the discarded pop bottles and other random bits of garbage that littered the empty lot.

“It’s ours,” said Luke simply.

“We, you and I, own this empty lot in the middle of an industrial zone?” Hunter was incredulous. “Why?”

“Technically, it’s on the edge of the industrial zone,” explained Luke. “According to the city planner, this lot isn’t technically zoned for industrial use. For whatever reason, it’s technically part of the residential zone across the river. They’ve been so busy with other things that rezoning this one tiny little lot was never really a priority. Most of the previous owners tried to get the zoning changed but ended up failing for one reason or another. By the time we bought it, the price was so low it was practically a steal.”

“But why would we need an empty lot?” asked Hunter. “We’ve got two perfectly nice lofts. Even if we were planning to move in together, couldn’t we just remodel the lofts so they were connected and call it good? Add another bedroom and a few walls for privacy, it would’ve been perfect for a fledgling family.”

“The cost for the renovations was going to be expensive,” said Luke. “We hired an architect to draw up some plans and went to a couple of different contractors for quotes. The prices were high because one of the things we insisted on was making sure the renovations blended in with the existing architecture.”

Hunter nodded slowly. That was something he agreed with at least. The architecture of his industrial style loft was one of his favorite things about the place. He couldn’t imagine marring it with renovations that didn’t match the existing style.

“So, we started shopping around,” continued Luke. “My parents wanted us to move out into the country with them, and your parents wanted us to move to the suburbs with them. We both agreed, however, that we didn’t want to move that far from our friends. Not to mention the fact that you didn’t really want the long commute to work every day.”

“We had a long drive to get here though,” retorted Hunter.

“It might have felt like it,” said Luke, “but that was only because I actually took a couple wrong turns in the shopping district.” He chuckled. “We only came out here a couple times, and after your accident, I never had a reason to come out here alone. You mapped it out before we bought the place. You said it was roughly five minutes from here to work, and most of our friends lived within ten minutes.”

Hunter turned his back to the river and looked at the industrial zone that stretched out around them. The section appeared to be older than the parts they had driven through earlier. Brick buildings, similar in style to their apartment building, dominated the landscape. It was difficult to tell what sort of work a lot of them did, but most of them appeared to be in use. There were no strange smells or oppressively loud noises that he could hear from here either.

“But what about kids?” asked Hunter, turning towards Luke with his final complaint. “If we were planning to have kids together, then what about them? There are no neighbors around here. No children for them to play with. It’s completely devoid of anything that could even be remotely considered child friendly. I’d be paranoid about letting them play outside because of the trucks.”

As if to emphasize his point, several large semi-trucks slowly rolled by. They were all loaded down with whatever shipments they had been tasked to haul. While they weren’t traveling very fast, even Hunter was aware of the glaring blind spots such large vehicles possessed.

“We talked about that,” Luke reassured him. “We had the exact same arguments then as well. That’s why we planned for a large fenced-in backyard. As for other children to play with...” Luke’s voice trailed off as he pointed across the open field that stretched for several hundred yards north of the lot. “There’s a residential park just across this field. Since my job has me home pretty much all day, we agreed it would be relatively easy for me to take them across the field and back until they were old enough to walk themselves.”

Hunter still had his doubts, but it sounded like Luke had an answer for everything. Had the old him really already agreed to this plan?

“So, did we ever get beyond the planning stage with this house?” asked Hunter.

“We had some plans drawn up and some architectural renderings done. I’ve got them in the car. Before I show them to you, however,” said Luke, “I think it’s important that you know that this whole thing,” he made a sweeping gesture to the lot around them, “was actually your idea.”

Hunter frowned as Luke headed back towards the car. Had his past self really suggested they build a house here and raise their family in it? Did that mean this entire conversation had happened once before but with their roles reversed?

“Here,” said Luke as he returned with a manila envelope. “You told me, ‘You’ve got to look at the drawings while standing on the lot to really see the magic.’ ”

“There’s no way I would’ve said something that corny,” said Hunter with a chuckle as he took the envelope and pulled out the stack of images inside.

They were hyper-realistic 3D-renderings of an industrial style building that wasn’t too dissimilar to the ones that stood nearby. However, its overall structure contained architectural embellishments that made it clear this wasn’t simply a factory building.

“And building this was a better option than just remodeling the lofts?” asked Hunter in disbelief as he flipped through the images of the house they had planned to build.

“Not really. Overall the remodel would’ve been cheaper, but we would’ve lacked a lot of freedom in the design. This includes a separate space for an art studio for me and an office for you. There’s a master bedroom and bath, with two smaller bedrooms, and a second bathroom for the kids,” explained Luke. “Plus there’s the backyard I mentioned. That’s not even an option for the remodel. This option gave us the most bang for our buck. At least, that’s the line you used to sell me on it and get me to go along with this whole crazy idea of yours in the first place.”

“Why show this to me now,” asked Hunter, finally getting to the point that had been bugging him all along. “What exactly is going through your mind right now?”

“I...” Luke’s voice trailed off and he looked back towards the river with a sigh. “I thought about selling this place for a long time,” he admitted at last. “I didn’t want to, but I thought that the dream of building this house disappeared with your memories. There’s no way I’d ever need a place this big on my own. I know you haven’t decided what kind of role, if any, you want to have in this baby’s life, and I’m okay with that. I’ve decided, however, that I want to move forward on this project. I’d like to be able to give our child the best possible home I’m able to.”

“I understand,” began Hunter, desperately searching for the words to make his next question sound a little less callous. He failed. “But what does any of this have to do with me?”

His words clearly stung Luke, but the other man quickly recovered. “To be honest, it’s because your name is on the loan as well. Everything’s kind of been on pause since your accident, but we did get approved for the loan to build the house. We can remove your name, but then I’d have to get re-approved and they might not give me the same amount they gave me before. You don’t have to worry about anything, I’ll be more than able to cover the payments on my own, especially since I won’t have my apartment anymore.”

“So, you’re asking my permission to move ahead with your plan and leave my name on the loan for the house?” asked Hunter, trying to process exactly what it was that Luke wanted from him.

“Basically, yes.” Luke spread his hands before himself. “Whatever reassurances you need, I’ll give them to you. I can get you a copy of my credit history, bank accounts, you name it. I’ll make sure you don’t have to worry about your finances or your credit.”

“I don’t need any of that,” said Hunter with a sigh. He looked up and locked eyes with Luke. “I’ve decided to trust my old self, and he trusted you. If I already signed off on this loan then go ahead. I trust you. This place, this house, it’s beautiful. I think the baby will be happy living with you here.”

“There was one more thing I wanted to ask you,” said Luke, stepping cautiously towards Hunter. “I was hoping you would move in with me.”