Thirty-Eight

 

 

“But I don’t want to go to bed until I see my Daddy!” Lily whined with a stomp of her tiny foot.  The crossing of the arms and the lip sticking out in an epic pout were the perfect toppings to this temper tantrum.

Aleksy bit his lip to keep from laughing as he looked to Trent for help.

Trent walked over to her and squatted down to her level, “Honey, your daddy is on his way home right now.  And he doesn’t have to leave anymore, I promise.”

She hiccupped once and wiped the tears from her eyes, “He doesn’t?”

“Nope.”

“He’s going to stay?”

“He is,” Trent said as he sat on the floor and pulled her into his lap. “And he’s on his way home now but it’s going to be late when he gets here.  But I promise you that he will come into your room and give you a kiss and make sure you’re tucked in, okay?”

“You promise?” she whispered.

“Of course, I do.  And then he’ll be here when you wake up in the morning.”

“What about you?” she mumbled.

“Uh,” he hesitated, looking over at Aleksy.  “What do you mean, sweetheart?”

“Are you staying? With us?” she whispered, tears still shimmering in her eyes.

“Oh honey.  We’re still figuring all of that out.”

Her chin quivered but before the waterworks started, Trent tried a diversion.

“But,” he said as he held out his hand, “Once your dad is settled back at home we will all sit down and talk about what we all want, okay?”

“I want you to stay,” she mumbled through pouting lips.

“We want that too, sweetheart.  We just need to make sure that it’s the right thing for all of us to do.  And we will, soon.  But for now, let’s get you into bed.  How about a story?”

“I want you both to read me a story.”

“Okay.  We can do that.”

The three of them walked into the small room that had morphed into a princess pink bedroom – something that Trent never in his life thought he’d be okay with, but with this little angel, he was.  He was so okay with it that he let her paint his fingernails a glittery purple the other day.

Story time had Aleksy reading Millions of Cats while she chose Blueberries for Sal for Trent to read.

She was out before Trent had read the second page.

Aleksy slid his fingers together with Trent’s as they made their way out to the living room to wait for Liam.

“She’s right, you know.  We do need to figure out how we’ll make this all work.  I mean, we can’t stay here.  You and I have jobs to go back to, soon.  And Liam and Lily have a home, schools, a life.” Aleksy said.

“I know.  And my apartment is a studio loft.  It doesn’t even have a bedroom.”

“My place is small too, but….” he said as he looked out the window.

“What, babe?” Trent said as he slid his hand down Aleksy’s arm.

“I, um, do you know who my uncle is?”

Trent frowned, “No, should I?”

Aleksy shrugged a shoulder, “His name is Niles.  Niles Constantino.”

Trent’s head whipped around, “No way.”

Aleksy cringed, “Yeah.”

Trent cupped his cheek, “Babe, I’m kidding.  I have no idea who he is.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Aleksy slid a hand through his hair, “Wow, I uh….”

“Babe, I don’t care who he is.  He’s your family, that’s all that matters.”

Aleksy leaned forward, pressing their foreheads together as he blew out a breath, “Thanks.  You have no idea how much that means to me.”

He pressed their lips together for a moment.

When he pulled back, Trent was watching him, concern written over his face.  “Why did you bring up your uncle?”

“He’s got a lot of properties.  I can call and ask him if he’s got something big enough that we can use until we find something permanent.”

“Okay, but?  I sense a but in there.”

“But, Uncle deals in favors.  I don’t want to stay long enough that we feel we owe him.  That wouldn’t be good for you, it wouldn’t be good for me, it just,” he sighed, “it wouldn’t be good.”

“Okay.  We can do that, but we could always stay here too, until we find a place.”

“Yeah, but it’s so remote that you or I could get caught up working late and not be able to make it home.  I would worry about Liam and Lily out here all by themselves.  I mean, I know Liam can take care of the two of them.  God knows he’s more than demonstrated that.  It’s just that they’ve had a really shitty go of it for a long time, what with Luke getting killed and then Lily being threatened, forcing Liam to go to work for that asshole,” he sighed into Trent’s neck, “They deserve to have some peace of mind now.”

“They do,” Trent whispered as he kissed Aleksy’s cheek.  “We should do something special for him when he gets home.”

He sat back, and a smirk began to form.

“Should I be worried about, about….your face?” Aleksy said as he drew a circle in the air outlining Trent’s head.

Trent’s smirk grew into a full-on grin.  He leaned forward, kissing Aleksy’s cheek as he said, “Probably.  I’ll be right back.”

Aleksy watched as he disappeared into the bedroom and then into Lily’s room.  He walked….no….swaggered back out carrying the monitor from Lily’s room.  He grabbed a throw pillow off the couch and held his hand out, “Come with me.”

He pulled Aleksy to his feet and walked him out to the front porch.  He set the monitor on the small table and pulled Aleksy down next to him on the old couch.

“What are we doing?” Aleksy said.

“Waiting for our man.”

As if just saying it had conjured him up, Case’s car pulled into the driveway.  Liam stepped out first, eyeing them with a confused look and then turning to look at Case over the top of the car before swinging his gaze back to the two men on the porch.

“Lily?” Liam said as he took a step forward and shut his car door.

“Sleeping,” Trent said.

Aleksy turned his gaze to Case, “Do you, um, do you want to come inside?  For a drink or something?”

Case chuckled and shook his head, “Not a fucking chance.  I’ll let you three get to your celebratory reunion,” he said and then his gaze turned serious, “He’s earned it.  He did really damn good.”

He started to drop down into his Audi but stopped when Liam said, “Hey Case?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.  So fucking much.”

Case nodded and dropped down into his seat.  But before he could leave, Liam opened the passenger door again and leaned his head inside.

“Call him, Case.”

Case glared at Liam, but he didn’t say a word until, “I’m afraid that ship has sailed, bud,” he said as he dropped the gear shift into reverse.

“You’ll never know unless you call, now, will you?”

Case smirked, “You’re just as bad as Bas.”

“Bas is a smart guy.”

“Bas is a nosy guy, just like you,” he said and then he sighed, “I’ll think about it, okay? God, you two just won’t quit, will you?”

“Probably not,” Liam said with a grin.

Case laughed, “Close my door, fucker.  I don’t need to see what happens the second you step onto that porch.”

Liam laughed and closed the door.  He watched Case turn around and drive down the driveway and then he finally turned to look at the two men on the porch.

Suddenly he was nervous, his heart was pounding, he was….

“Liam” Aleksy said, bringing his mind back into focus instead of swirling with doubts.  The second his eyes met Aleksy’s his nerves fled, as if those nerves were afraid of the huge man looking back at him.  Liam wasn’t afraid though.  No.  All that power and brawn in a sexy-as-fuck package that was raking his eyes up and down Liam’s body.  It didn’t scare him one bit.  It just made him feel safe.  And wanted.

And turned-the-fuck on.

“Liam?” Trent said, dragging Liam’s eyes off Aleksy and over to the soothing, calming presence that oozed off Trent.

“Yeah?” he whispered, his heart still pounding in his chest but now it wasn’t from nerves…it was from anticipation.

“Come here.”

A relieved breath blew past Liam’s lips as his feet carried him forward, up the steps and into the arms of the men he loved.