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I was still a little shook from hearing his story, and shook that a family could put all the blame and shame on some kid who didn’t ask to be born. I had a taste of it, of course. My mom’s family wanted nothing to do with me, and even some of the more traditional members of my dad’s family didn’t acknowledge us.

But it wasn’t the same. I grew up loved on all sides of me. Even when my dad wasn’t as open about it. Even when he was stressed and angry and made me a little afraid that I was going to be nothing more than a walking disappointment, I never felt alone.

I wouldn’t have been able to cope the way Tiago coped. I wasn’t strong like that. Every time I’d ever fallen—even when it was a devastating fall—I always had some kind of soft place to land.

I wanted to wrap around him and promise him that nothing would ever touch him again, but it wasn’t my place.

“Hey,” he said, interrupting my thoughts.

I turned to him, indulging in his wet hair and freckles that were standing out more now since he’d been in the sun. “Mm?”

“I’m going to go talk to my brother so he’ll stop blowing up my phone. I really don’t want to shut it off in case anything happens with the boys.”

The boys? Oh, right. His friends. Why the fuck did hockey players call each other that?

“That’s fine. I’m going to get some more vitamin D. Then later, maybe I can get some vitamin D?”

He flushed and reached for me. I expected him to pull me into a kiss, but instead, he crouched over my chair and sank his teeth into my neck while his hand trailed down to my half-hard dick. “Yes.”

Fuck yeah. I was going to have fun with him later.

Stretching out, I watched him go, adjusting myself in my swim shorts. They were tight and left nothing to the imagination—a soft pink with black polka dots that made me feel quite pretty. And I liked that I could unapologetically be myself out here with no one watching except Tiago, who seemed to appreciate all these parts of who I was.

Flexing my toes, I turned my face up toward the sun, but I only got a moment of peace before my phone started ringing. I fumbled for it, nearly knocking over my glass, but I pushed up my shades and squinted at the number.

It was a Boston area code, but I didn’t recognize it. I hesitated with my finger over the Answer button. I doubted it was Leon after all this time, and I did have a few applications for jobs out there, so it would be silly of me to ignore it.

But the real anxiety came from the fear that it was something to do with my dad. Like the call I’d gotten about my mom.

My heart was in my throat when I picked up. “Hello?”

“I didn’t think you were going to answer.”

Fuck me sideways. “I blocked your fucking number,” I told my ex.

“I know, which is why I had to borrow Daryl’s office phone.”

That’s it. I was going back to Boston so I could murder them both. “I’m going to file a goddamn restraining order.”

“We both know you’re not, sweetheart,” he said. I wanted to punch him through the phone. Someone really needed to get on that technology. “I just need you to hear me out, okay?”

“No.”

“I love you⁠—”

“Bullshit.”

“—and I miss you. And I want you to come home. I know I was a complete asshole and⁠—”

“Can you not?” I interrupted at a near shout. This was everything I’d desperately wanted to hear from Leon in those first weeks after I left him. The begging, the confession that he really did love me. That it was all a mistake. That I was the one special enough to change a man like him.

And god, I was so grossed out by him now.

“I’m being serious. I know you have no reason to believe me, but the house is so empty without you. And I’ve been with men—gorgeous men. Men with tight asses and big dicks who are willing to give me whatever I want, but all I can think of is you.”

I blinked, then tried not to burst into laughter. “Did you…did you think you were doing something with all that? You have access to all these tight little assholes you can fuck at will, but somehow, you want me back?”

He was silent.