Stay Lucky
Page 14
“Oh, Grant,” Leo said, and his voice was deep, thick with desire. He gasped and jerked as Grant plowed into him. “Oh, that—oh, that…I, oh…”
Leo whimpered and Grant stroked in and out at the same angle, watching Leo light up and fall apart, watching his face shift between pure joy to a near fear of what he was feeling, and back again.
“It’s okay, Leo. I’m right here,” Grant said, moving faster, reaching between them to jerk Leo’s cock. “I’m right here. Let go.”
Leo shook under him. His body was tight and hot around Grant’s cock. He quivered inside and out, as he surrendered beneath Grant, opening to him, letting him all the way inside.
Grant said, “Come on, let me see you.”
Leo’s eyes squeezed shut and, as he shook his head, sweat flew from his hair. He jerked his arms free of where Grant had been holding them back, grabbed Grant’s head and pulled him down for a kiss, whining into Grant’s mouth and biting at his lips. “Please,” he whispered. “Need you. Need you so much.”
Grant understood what Leo couldn’t seem to say. He slapped Leo’s ass hard, driving in at the same time, and then he bit Leo’s neck, before pulling back to watch Leo tense, arch and come around him.
Squeezing Grant’s cock so tightly, Leo spurted between them with sweet, shocked whimpers. Grant touched Leo’s cheek, wiping a stray bit of come that had made it that far, and he stared down into Leo’s wrecked face as he fucked into Leo’s still spasming ass.
“I love you,” Leo whispered.
Grant was shocked, completely shocked that that declaration was what he needed. He bowed his head, resting his forehead on Leo’s scarred chest as he came, aching to his soul with how damn good it was. Leo’s hands rubbed up and down his back, and Grant trembled at Leo’s breath against his hair.
This was love and he was deeply in it.
• • •
Grant rested on his side, his chin on Leo’s shoulder, and two fingers in Leo’s sticky ass. He felt for his own come, smoothing it around Leo’s hole, and then plunged his fingers in again. He kissed Leo’s neck and whispered, “That was incredibly hot.”
Leo was silent, and Grant propped up on his elbow and looked down at him, concerned. He pulled his fingers free, but Leo grabbed his hand and forced it back down.
“Don’t stop,” Leo said, his voice threaded with amazement.
Grant’s eyes burned with surprise tears. He had to bury his face in Leo’s neck for a moment as he pushed his fingers back in, feeling the slip of his own come. He cleared his throat. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” Leo breathed. “Shell-shocked, but, yeah, I’m incredible. You’re incredible. That was—”
“Incredible,” Grant supplied.
Leo laughed and Grant felt his body clench and release around his fingers.
“Grant,” Leo said, his voice full of something Grant didn’t understand.
“Mmm-hmm?” Grant breathed, moving his fingers back and forth.
“I’ve never…I mean, I had no idea.”
“I’m honored that I could show you.”
“You were the best I could have ever dreamed of.”
“You’re sweet,” Grant whispered.
“No, I’m not. I’m kind of stupid.”
Grant laughed. “What? No. I don’t date imbeciles.”
“I just can’t believe that I—”
“Shh,” Grant hushed him. “I’m glad you liked it. Wait, you did like it?”
Leo laughed so hard that Grant’s fingers felt squeezed. “Yeah. I loved it.” Leo grabbed Grant’s chin and forced him to look into Leo’s face. “Do it again.”
“Now?” Grant asked.
Leo pushed the cover back and showed off his already hard cock.
Grant laughed. “I’ll see what I can do, Leo. God knows I wouldn’t want to disappoint you when you’ve missed out for so long.”
Leo pulled Grant down for a kiss and whispered, “Missed out on you. Such a fool. Such a damned fool.”
“Yeah, well, you said it,” Grant said against Leo’s lips, and Leo laughed before kissing him hard.
Chapter Fourteen
Grant walked through the hospital corridors not noticing where he was going, or even able to read the chart in his hands. He’d heard someone call his expression “dreamy” and he’d forced himself out of memories of Leo’s body and the night they’d spent tangled together long enough to try to look like he had it together. He’d glared at nurses as they’d scurried to their work, relieved that even if he was completely high on whatever these emotions for Leo were doing to him, he still had it in him to scare the pants off the underlings.
He rounded a corner, determined to focus on the task at hand before anyone else busted him on his love-sickness, when he noticed Leo and Lucky entering the half-open area set aside for visitation with the stable psych patients.
Grant tucked the chart up under his chin, and he skulked around a potted plant to get in a position to see into the room without much likelihood that he’d be seen in return.
It wasn’t so much that he was spying as that he was checking in on Leo and Lucky. When he’d left the farm that morning, Leo still wasn’t sure if he was going to come see Jennifer today, and, if he did, he hadn’t made up his mind about whether or not to bring Lucky. Grant just wanted to make sure that both Leo and the carrot were okay, and he didn’t see any need for them to know he was there while he was doing that.
Apparently, things between Jennifer and Lucky were more confusing than not. But given how careful Leo was to provide Lucky with as much stability as he could muster, it surprised Grant to learn that things with Jennifer were so messy.
That morning, before Lucky came downstairs, Leo had explained to Grant that Jennifer had never officially given up her parental rights, but instead they had been deemed abdicated by California state law after Jennifer had not contacted the state, the hospital, Leo, or any other family member with regards to Lucky in over a year. Lucky at that point was classified as abandoned and Curtis and Leo had become her adoptive parents.
“Lucky knows that Jennifer is her biological mother,” Leo explained. “But Jennifer chose not to name a father on the birth certificate. I’m pretty sure the father was Jennifer’s boyfriend at the time, but someone at the hospital told her not to name paternity if she wanted to make it easier to give Lucky away.”
Grant had listened to this while they ate breakfast as Leo shifted back and forth in his seat, sometimes flushing.
Grant had asked, “Sore?”
“A little,” Leo had said. “It’s nice.”
“I’ll get you something for it.”
“No!” Leo exclaimed. “No, I’m okay. I like it.”
Grant smirked. “Kinky. You love it.”
Leo had rolled his eyes, and laughed, but then he’d come back to the subject at hand. Leo explained that, yes, Lucky was curious about Jennifer, and when they’d first moved back to Blountville, Lucky had spent a lot of time looking at old photos of Jennifer and talking about her mother’s childhood, both with Leo and with Chuck and Meryl.
Leo had gone on, “I kept waiting for her to ask me why Jennifer left. And when she finally did, I told her that her mom couldn’t take care of her because she wasn’t healthy. But then she pointed out that I’m sick, and she got scared that I’d leave her, too. I had to explain that her mom was sick in a different way, and that I wouldn’t ever leave her, not until the day I die.”
About that time they’d been interrupted by Lucky trotting down the stairs. She was excited about a field trip coming up at school, but Grant tuned it out, watching instead how Leo brightened when she talked.
Before Grant had left to get back to his place for a change of clothes before heading to the hospital, Lucky climbed up on his lap and said, with no segue at all, “Dr. Grant, do you have a mom?”
“Nope. I had an aunt once, but she died.”
“Was she pretty?”
“No.”
“Was she n
ice?”
Grant pursed his lips and looked at the ceiling. “Nope.”
“Was she mean?”
“She was…frustrated.”
“What else was she like?” Lucky wanted to know.
“Well,” Grant let himself think about Aunt Jane and her red, fuzzy hair, her thick waist, and the way she’d tried to keep Uncle Kirk from drinking too much. “Well, she yelled at me a lot.”
“About what?”
About letting them down and being a burden on them. “About taking baths, and school,” Grant fibbed. “She was a pain my butt.”
He remembered one night after Kirk nearly took his hide off with a belt for screwing up on a Chemistry test—it’d been a bad night—Jane had come in with a bowl of soup and a soft pillow for him to rest on. She’d clucked and touched his face gently, and then ordered him to do better next time.
Grant sighed. “She could have been worse. She was kind of like a mom, I guess.”
Lucky kicked her feet and wrapped a skinny arm around his neck. “I have a mom that’s kind of like an aunt,” she said. “So, you and me, we’re opposite.”
Grant had rested his cheek against her warm, brown hair for a moment and then kissed the top of her head before dumping her on the ground. “Yep. I guess so. But on the bright side of this clusterfu…on the bright side you got a pretty cool uncle for a dad.”
Lucky had looked at Leo then with loving eyes. Then she tugged on Grant’s hand. “Dr. Grant?”
Grant crouched down. “What’s up, kiddo?”
Lucky kept her eyes on Leo as she whispered in Grant’s ear, “Is my dad gonna be okay?”
Grant cupped his hand by her ear and said, “If I have anything to do with it, your dad is gonna get the best care possible so he has the best chance of getting better.” Grant ran a hand over her hair, and added in his normal voice, “Now, eat your breakfast and practice your opening chess moves for tonight. I’m gonna cream you. Again.”
Lucky narrowed her eyes at him and said seriously, “You just wait, Dr. Grant. One day, I’ll kick your butt.”
Leo had snorted laughter into his water glass, looking between them with happy eyes.
“You’d better,” Grant had said, putting his hand on her head. He’d kissed Leo goodbye, and waved at Lucky who’d nodded him off with a smile.
Now Leo was at the hospital with Lucky, and they were clearly going to meet with Jennifer today after all. Grant wasn’t surprised that Leo hadn’t informed him of his decision; it wasn’t like Grant had a dog in the fight. It really was entirely up to Leo as Lucky’s only present parent to make the choice. Grant just hoped it wasn’t the wrong one.
He watched Leo and Lucky settle into the visiting area seats. Lucky was obviously nervous, her small feet kicking back and forth, the fingers of her right hand knotted into the long sleeve of Leo’s shirt.
Leo cuddled her close and whispered something in her ear. She nodded and faked a smile. Grant’s stomach twisted up and he licked his dry lips, thinking about how she’d looked the first few times he’d seen her—like she was inside of herself—and how she’d relaxed so much over the last few months. He hoped that Leo knew what he was doing and that this meeting with Jennifer didn’t set Lucky back, or make her act out in school again.
Grant had seen photos of Jennifer, but he wasn’t prepared to see the woman the nurses escorted in. Though perhaps he should have been given what he knew of her recent life. She was so malnourished that the bones of her ankles and knees, visible beneath the short robe she wore over the hospital gown, stuck out with sharp edges. The smile on her face was tentative and faltering, and it fell off completely when she reached toward Lucky, and the carrot pulled back under Leo’s arm.
“She’s feeling shy,” Leo said, holding Lucky against his side, as he stood up to embrace his sister.
Jennifer seemed to recover from the surprise that whatever she’d imagined would play out between her and her estranged daughter wasn’t, in fact, going happen. It wasn’t the Lifetime Movie of the week.
She smiled again, and let her eyes wander over Lucky like she couldn’t get enough of her. Then they all sat down without another word while Lucky hid against Leo and Jennifer stared.
“She looks like you,” Jennifer said, and her voice sounded fragile and a little brittle, like broken glass, but she didn’t look anything but contrite. “Like she’s really yours.”
“She is really mine,” Leo said softly, and Jennifer nodded, wiping the tears that welled in her eyes.
“Yeah, she is,” Jennifer said. “I know that. Of course I know that. I’m glad you adopted her. She’s so beautiful, Leo.”
“She’s smart and funny, and she’s the best thing that ever happened to me,” Leo said. “So thank you for that.”
Jennifer sobbed a little and held the back of her hand to her mouth the way that Leo sometimes did when he cried. Grant grit his teeth, holding back the urge to step into the midst of them and shake the girl.
“Ah, Jennifer,” Leo said. “I’m so glad you came home.”
Leo rubbed Lucky’s arm as she turned her head into his stomach and refused to look at her mother.
“I’m sorry,” Jennifer said through the tears. “For, you know, everything. For not being there for you, or for…Lucky. I like that name, you know. I was going to name her…well, something else. It doesn’t matter now. I like Lucky better, anyway.”
Leo said, “It’s okay, Jennifer. We’re glad you’re here, and we just want you to get better. That’s all we want.”
“I know,” Jennifer said. “And I want to get well, Leo. I really do. And I want to give you my kidney, because I want you to be around for a long time. She…she needs you. I need you, Leo.”
“Don’t, Jennifer. Don’t even worry about that right now. It’s not important. All that matters is that you get healthy and well. Everything else can wait.”
Grant rolled his eyes. Actually, it couldn’t wait, he wanted to interject. Actually, it’s all that matters. But he kept his mouth shut, though it was hard.
“I want to be better,” Jennifer said. “I don’t want to be this person anymore. I want to come home.”
“We want that, too,” Leo said, reaching out to take Jennifer’s hand. “I’ve missed you so much, and Lucky—she should know her mom.”
Jennifer bowed her head and her shoulders started shaking. Leo pulled her close and she wrapped her arms around his neck crying on his shoulder while Lucky still clung to Leo’s middle.
They were an anxious, emotional clump of humanity and Grant wanted to go grab Lucky out of the middle of it and take her with him somewhere more peaceful, like the gossip-hell of the nurses’ lounge. Because Lucky didn’t need all of this. She didn’t need these messy tears and declarations. She just needed Leo to be well, and if Jennifer could give them that, then Grant didn’t give a damn what else Jennifer had to say.
Lucky slipped out of Leo’s arms then, and Leo pulled away from Jennifer to try to grab her. But she was fast, and she made a very obvious beeline toward the potted plant that Grant was not-so-well-hidden behind. Leo’s eyes met his, and Grant gave a close-lipped smile as he bent down to pick Lucky up. She clung to his neck, and Grant stepped out with her, lifting a hand toward Leo and Jennifer, saying, “Well, then….”
“This is my…this is Grant,” Leo said, putting his hand on Jennifer’s shoulder. “He and I…well, we’re…um, you’ve been gone a long time. Curtis and I….”
Grant shook Jennifer’s hand. “Dr. Grant Anderson. Leo and I are together. As for this one,” he continued, patting Lucky’s back. “I’m taking her to the nurses’ lounge.” He raised a brow firmly at Leo.
Leo nodded and put his own hand on Lucky’s back, rubbing soothingly. “Lucky, I’ll talk more with Jennifer, and you go with Grant, okay?”
Lucky nodded against Grant’s neck and refused to look at her father or mother. Grant nodded at Jennifer, and carried Lucky away toward the coffee and gossip of the nurses’ lounge.
Finally alone, Lucky lifted her tear-stained face and looked at him solemnly. “I don’t like her,” she said finally. “I don’t like Jennifer.”
“Yeah, well…” he plopped her down in one of the cushioned chairs the nurses had lobbied successfully for a few years ago. He scratched his fingers over his scalp and sighed. “Want some coffee?”
Lucky smiled and wiped at her tears and snotty nose with the back of her hands.
Grant rolled his eyes and pumped a handful of the liquid antibacterial soap from the dispenser on the wall. He rubbed it over her hands and passed a box of Kleenex her way.
“So, coffee?” he asked again.
“I’m too little,” she said, giggling. “You know that.”
Grant shrugged and chuckled. “Suit yourself.”
He poured himself a cup of coffee and grabbed someone’s unopened cola from the fridge and handed it to Lucky. “Here,” he said. “Wanna play chess?”
Lucky popped the cola and said, “I left my iPad in the car.”
Grant nodded. He pulled out a sheet of white paper, drew the squares on the page, and passed a pen to Lucky. “Color in for the black squares.”
Lucky’s eyes lit up and together they made a chess board out of a sheet of paper, and then they tore up small pieces marked to indicate the pieces. They had just started their first game when Leo came in, his eyes red-rimmed and worried.
Lucky ignored him and Grant smiled up at him before making his next move when it was his turn. Leo stood nervously behind Lucky’s chair and watched them until the game was over. Then Grant sipped his coffee and waited for Leo to make the right move for his daughter.