A Little Lesson

by Pandora Pine

  “I was an absolute shit, taking all of my anger at myself out on you.” Bronson shook his head. “You didn’t deserve to be treated like that, Nash. I’m sorry I hurt you.”

  Nash opened his mouth to tell Bronson it was okay, but his lover didn’t give him a chance to say those words.

  “Come over tonight, Nash. We can start Friday night over again and order out from Italiano’s and then watch the dragon movie. Then we can read books and put Tucker to bed. Once he’s asleep we could open a bottle of wine and talk about us. What do you say?”

  What did he say? His own brain was spinning. After all the emotion of the last few days, maybe he needed more time to figure this all out.

  XX

  Bronson swore he felt his heart stop beating. What the hell would he do if Nash walked away from him?

  Nash shook his head. “Are you sure this is what you want, Bronson? I mean our whole relationship happened while you were fighting for custody of Tucker.”

  He had to admit Nash had a point. “You’re right and what I’ve seen in that time is that you’re a fighter, Nash. You fought for our relationship, but more importantly, you fought for Tucker. The hard times are all behind us now with the judge giving me full custody.”

  Putting a hand over his heart, Nash nodded. “No one will ever hurt him again. God, Bronson, all those nights I laid in your old bed praying that I was strong enough to protect that little boy. I didn’t think I could do it. ”

  “You were more than strong enough and you stood up for me when it mattered most. What you said to the judge today about me being the most dedicated father you’ve known took my breath away, Nash. Can you forgive me for accusing you of being a traitor?” Bronson reached out to Nash. His fingers shook with nerves before he set them against Nash’s cheek.

  Sighing, Nash turned his face into Bronson’s gentle touch. “There’s nothing to forgive. I know you were mad and hurting.”

  “I lashed out at the man that I loved because I didn’t have anyone else to blame but myself. You might forgive me, but it’s going to take a while before I can forgive myself.”

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself. Did you see all of the people here to support you today? Remington wasn’t just here for my sake today. He was here to support you and Tucker. Same with Doctor Wagner. I don’t know him very well, but he’s been a rock through this whole thing, showing up at your parents’ house this morning to see how Tucker was doing.”

  Bronson didn’t know the pediatrician beyond their interactions in Ben’s office. He’d always made the right decisions concerning Tucker’s care and that was all that mattered to him. Seeing Ben here today had been a surprise, although after what he’d done for Tucker at the hospital, it shouldn’t have been. “He’s a good man.”

  Nash nodded. “I’m thinking of setting him up with Knox. I bet the two of them would get along like a house on fire.”

  Bronson burst out laughing. “Look at you playing matchmaker.”

  Nash shrugged. “I guess when you’re in love you want everyone around you to feel that kind of happiness too.”

  “So you’re saying you’re still in love with me?” Bronson couldn’t help smirking. He knew damned well Nash loved him. What he needed to do now was remind him how good they could be together.

  Nash shook his head, setting a hand on Bronson’s hip. “What do you think?”

  “You were the one who said that your love was stronger than my anger. I’m not so sure that’s the case…” Bronson trailed off, hoping he’d get the right reaction out of Nash.

  “I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous in my entire life. I took three days out of work to live with your parents and your son and you’re standing here telling me that you’re not sure my love for you is strong enough to…”

  Bronson didn’t let Nash finish his offended little tirade. He leaned forward and kissed his outraged lover. The moment their lips met, that old fire lit deep in his gut. His entire body tingled with Nash’s kiss.

  Sighing, Nash wrapped his arms around Bronson’s hips and pulled them as close together as they could get.

  He was more convinced now than ever before that in Nash’s arms was where he was truly meant to be. “Come to dinner, Nash. Tucker needs you.”

  “Just Tucker?” Nash wore a hopeful grin.

  “I need you. I guess I didn’t realize how much until you were gone. Being alone these last few nights reminded me what my life was like before we met. I knocked around that empty apartment not knowing what to do with myself. I don’t ever want to feel that alone again. I don’t want you to feel like that again either. Please, Nash?” Bronson held his breath.

  “Of course I’ll come to dinner, you silly, crazy man.” Nash burst out laughing.

  “I love you so much, Nash Spencer.”

  “I love you too, Bronson McKinnon.”

  “You have my permission to spank me if I ever act like this again.”

  Nash laughed. “I’ll hold you to that.” He brushed his lips against Bronson’s, holding on for dear life.

  “They’re kissing, Grams!” Tucker shouted from the courtroom door.

  Taking Nash’s hand, Bronson ran toward their little spy.

  EPILOGUE

  Christmas Day…

  Nash had been awake in his bed for an hour listening to Bronson softly snore. He was wrapped around his lover from behind, his face resting against Bronson’s shoulder.

  After the late night they’d had putting Tucker’s toys together and then making love beside the Christmas tree, he knew his lover needed all the sleep he could get.

  Over the last two months or so since the custody hearing, Bronson and Tucker had been spending a lot of time at Nash’s two bedroom house. Over the Thanksgiving break, Nash and Tucker had redecorated the spare bedroom into a dinosaur haven.

  He and Tucker painted the walls a sage green color and then added T-Rex vinyl decals to the wall next to Tucker’s new bed. There was a giant Triceratops decal on the opposite wall with some smaller dinosaurs alongside him.

  The final touch to Tucker’s new room was a small desk with a terrarium housing a leopard gecko of his own. Tucker had predictably named the little lizard Rex.

  Nash felt Bronson shift beside him and knew his lover was starting to wake up. Part of the reason he couldn’t sleep was that he had two really big presents under the Christmas tree, one for Tucker and one for Bronson that were more important than the rest of the wrapped gifts under the tree.

  The gifts had been a no-brainer really, something he should have given to the McKinnon men a long time ago.

  “Merry Christmas,” Bronson whispered sleepily.

  Nash wrapped his left arm tighter around Bronson’s naked torso, snaking his hand up Bronson’s chest. “Merry Christmas, gorgeous.”

  “It would be a lot more merry if your hand was traveling south…”

  Nash burst out laughing before obeying Bronson’s suggestion. He wanted today to be as merry as possible.

  “Are you two kissing in there?” Tucker’s outraged voice shouted from the other side of the bedroom door.

  “No!” Nash shouted.

  “Yes!” Bronson yelled right back.

  Tucker opened the door. “It’s opening presents time. You can have kissing time later. Ick, kissing!” Tucker climbed up on the bed dressed in a pair of T-Rex pajamas that Nash had let him open last night when they’d gotten back from a Christmas Eve party at Bronson’s parents’ house.

  “Do you think it’s opening presents time?” Bronson turned to Nash.

  Nash shrugged. “I don’t know. Tucker didn’t even wish us a Merry Christmas.”

  Tucker rolled his eyes. “Merry Christmas Daddy and Nash. Now let’s go see if Santa came!” Tucker grabbed one of Bronson and Nash’s hands and pulled hard.

  “Okay,” Nash agreed, pulling Tucker forward until the little boy landed between them. “But I want kisses first.”

  “No!” Tucker shouted, trying to pull away. He was already
starting to laugh.

  Nash peppered the little boy’s head with kisses while Tucker howled with laughter. “There, now we can go see if Santa came.”

  Both men got out of bed and grabbed for their shirts. An old Red Sox tee for Nash and a shirt that read, Librarians Do It By The Book, for Bronson.

  Tucker ran ahead of them down the hall, stopping short when he got to the living room. “Holy macaroni! Santa came! He came!” Running back down the hall, Tucker grabbed their hands and started tugging both men along. “Guys, you gotta see this.”

  Nash started laughing and let Tucker drag him down the hall. He looked over at Bronson who dropped him a sexy wink. “Wow!” Nash’s mouth dropped open when he saw all the presents stacked around the Christmas tree. It looked exactly like it had last night when he and Bronson had gone to bed, but he wanted it to be magical for Tucker. “Santa really did come!”

  “Did you think he wouldn’t?” Bronson asked with a smirk. “I thought you were exceptionally good last night.” Bronson waggled his eyebrows.

  “You gotta be good for more than one day, Daddy!” Tucker rolled his eyes. “Look, Nash! Santa ate our cookies!” Tucker raced to the table where all that was left of the Christmas M&M cookies he’d left for Santa were crumbs.

  Nash had never been much of a baker, but he and Tucker had given it a shot yesterday morning while Bronson worked a shortened Christmas Eve shift at the library. For the most part, the cookies had come out perfectly. The exception being the batch Nash forgot to time. He and Tucker had been so busy making homemade Christmas cards to hand out at the party, that they’d forgotten the cookies until the smell of burned sugar filled the kitchen.

  “He sure did, buddy.” Bronson ruffled a hand through Tucker’s bed head. Bronson picked up a square present wrapped with snowman paper with a card attached to it. “This is a very special present. Why don’t you open this one first?”

  Tucker took the box from Bronson and shook it before sitting down on the floor in front of the tree.

  “Hold everything!” Nash wailed, running into the kitchen for his phone. “We can’t start Christmas until we get a family picture.” Nash sat down on the other side of Bronson, in front of the brightly lit tree, with Tucker between them. “Say, ‘Merry Christmas!’” Nash held the phone up high to capture them and the huge stack of presents under the tree.

  “Merry Christmas!” Tucker and Bronson shouted together.

  “Okay, now Tucker can open his special present.” Nash turned around to snap pictures of Tucker with the gift.

  “Who does the tag say it’s from?” Bronson grinned at Nash.

  “It says, ‘To Tucker, from Mommy! It’s from Mommy!” Tucker’s smile lit up the room. He snatched the card off the wrapping paper and tore into it.

  Nash had been pleasantly surprised when Alicia had gone to rehab the week after the custody hearing. Ben Wagner had been true to his word and had been able to get her a spot in the residential treatment facility in Texas.

  What had surprised Nash more was how well she was doing there. Alicia wrote Tucker emails several times a week and had started sending him cards and drawings through the mail when she learned how much he loved getting mail. They had even started Skyping once a week on Sunday nights.

  “Look its Mommy on the beach!” Tucker turned around the picture card to show Nash and Bronson. “Can we hang it on the ‘friderator?”

  “We sure can!” Nash took the picture from Tucker. It was Alicia standing knee-deep in the bright blue water. She was smiling and looked like she’d gained a bit of weight. Before she’d left for Texas, she was way too thin and gaunt. She looked like the picture of health now.

  Tucker ripped the paper off the present to find a remote control T-Rex. “WOW!” Tucker held up the present with a huge smile on his face while Nash kept snapping pictures.

  “We’ll have to write your Mom a nice thank you letter, huh?” Bronson hugged his little boy.

  “I miss her,” Tucker said with a sad smile.

  It still amazed Nash that the little boy had such a big heart, while Nash, on the other hand, didn’t forgive Alicia for letting her ex-fiancé hurt Tucker. He didn’t know if he ever would. “I know you do, but we’ll see her soon.” Nash had no idea when they’d see Alicia again, but Tucker always seemed pacified when he used the word “soon.”

  “We’ll take this out of the box later and figure out how it works, okay?” Bronson set the dino on the coffee table.

  “Okay. I love my Rex.”

  Nash laughed and reached for his two special presents. He had originally wanted to save those presents until last, but now his excitement was getting the best of him. “Tucker, why don’t you and Daddy open these presents together?” He handed each of them a small box. Thankfully Peg had two Alex and Ani bracelet boxes to give him when he told her his plan. His presents fit perfectly inside each box.

  Tucker shook the box, his eyes lighting up when he heard something shaking around inside. “Ready? Go!” he shouted, tearing off the paper. “An Alex and Andy box! Oh, man…”

  Nash couldn’t help laughing. Tucker was hilarious. He turned to Bronson who was wearing an equally stunned look on his face. “They’re just boxes. I didn’t get you bracelets. Open them up!”

  Tucker pulled the black box top off and squealed at the plastic T-Rex inside. “Daddy look!” Tucker held up the dinosaur seemingly oblivious to what was attached to it.

  Bronson on the other hand was sitting with a hand over his mouth. He was holding a Patriots key chain with a shiny silver key dangling from it. “Is this what I think it is?” Bronson asked breathlessly.

  This was the exact reaction he’d hoped to get. “What do you think it is?”

  “It’s the key to your house.”

  Nash shook his head. “Wrong, it’s the key to our house.”

  “Our house?” Bronson looked stunned.

  “I want you and Tucker to move in with me so we can be a family all the time.” Nash held his breath. He knew Bronson would leap at the opportunity to get out of that tiny apartment with no on-street parking and uneven floorboards.

  “What do you think, Tucker? Do you think we should move in with Nash?”

  “Yup!” Tucker crowed, throwing himself into Nash’s lap, the T-Rex keychain clutched tightly in his hand. “Can we give Nash my special present now?” Tucker was nodding his head so hard, his hair was flying around his head.

  Bronson smiled and twisted around, grabbing a rectangular present wrapped in a foil paper with holly on it. He handed it to Tucker who was still sitting in Nash’s lap.

  Tucker looked up at Nash. “This is a very special present. The most specialist one ever!” Tucker’s green eyes glowed with happiness.

  Nash shot Bronson a curious look.

  “Don’t look at me! Open it up!” Bronson was all smiles.

  “Okay!” Nash tore off the paper to find a white dress shirt box. “WOW! I always wanted a white box!”

  Tucker shook his head. “No, Nash, the present is IN the box!”

  “Oh, right! In the box.” Nash pulled the lid off and pushed aside the white tissue paper to find a black tee shirt with white lettering that read, Bestest Daddy Ever. Beneath the lettering were small lime green handprints he assumed were Tucker’s. “I- Bronson, what?” Nash’s head was spinning.

  “Will you be my Daddy, Nash?” Tucker looked like he was about to bounce out of his skin.

  “And my husband?” In Bronson’s hand was a black velvet ring box, opened to reveal a shiny platinum band.

  “I’m blown away.” Nash’s hand fluttered against his chest. The man he loved more than his next breath wanted him to be his husband, while Tucker wanted him to be his Daddy. It was too much.

  “I didn’t hear Nash say yes. Did you Daddy?” Tucker swiveled his head back and forth between Nash and Bronson.

  “I didn’t hear him say yes either, buddy.” Bronson leaned forward to brush a kiss against Nash’s lips. “Marry me, Nash.”

>   “Marry us, Nash!” Tucker chimed in. “Pleeease!”

  A swell of love burst over Nash. He’d known for a while now that he was part of Bronson and Tucker’s family, but this took things to an entirely different level. He figured the first step was for them all to live together, but apparently Bronson had another, bigger step in mind. “Yes! I’ll marry both of you!”

  Tucker watched patiently while Bronson slipped the ring out of the box and onto Nash’s finger.

  “Perfect fit.” Bronson grinned at his husband-to-be. “Is it okay if I kiss him now, Tucker?”

  Tucker sighed dramatically, hopping out of Nash’s lap. “Okay, but hurry it up, we’ve got presents to unwrap.”

  When Bronson’s lips met his, Nash knew in his heart he’d gotten the bestest present of all: a family of his own.

  Book Two of the Sand Dollar Shoal series, Riptide, is now available for pre-order!

  ONE DARK PAST, TWO SCARRED HEARTS…

  Reeling from an HIV scare that sent him into retirement, former gay porn star, Drake DeMelo, aka Damien Lovecock, is looking for a fresh start. Wanting to get as far away from his old life in California as possible, Drake packs his car and heads to Cape Cod.

  Presley Forrester, day manager of Sand Dollar Shoal, wasn’t expecting to find a handsome man soaked to the skin pounding on his door late one night. With the grand reopening of the hotel fast approaching, Pres needs all the extra hands he can get. He hires the mysterious but handsome man to do odd jobs.

  Presley and Drake are undeniably drawn to each other, but as they get closer, Drake keeps his past a secret, not wanting anything to ruin his newfound happiness. When a hotel guest recognizes Drake during the masquerade ball to celebrate the reopening of the hotel, the new life he has built comes crashing down around him.

  Will Presley forgive Drake’s deception and accept his past, or will their love be torn out from under them like a riptide?

  You can find all of my books here: http://www.amazon.com/Pandora-Pine/e/B013BSSBX0/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1455742290&sr=8-2-ent