“Mom!” Owen said, his eyes widening.
“What? I know what sex is. How do you think you got here?” she asked, giving Owen a look that said he was being stupid.
“Mom,” Owen responded, not sure what else to say. The tips of his ears burned at the thought.
“Is he a good kisser?” his mom asked, her eyes dancing as she smiled at him. Obviously, she was intent on teasing him over this. That was fine. She was his mom, and she was allowed.
“It was a really short kiss,” Owen mumbled.
It had been good, though. Comforting, in a weird way he hadn’t been expecting. Satisfying, even.
It was nice to kiss Jude. Owen had no idea what to do with that information, but now that he had it, it wasn’t as though he was likely to forget.
He’d definitely felt... something. Whether it was nerves or pleasure or something else entirely, he had no idea.
None of that was anything he wanted to share with his mom.
“Take the sandwiches outside, then come back in. I have something I want to give you.”
“Okay,” Owen agreed, adjusting his grip on the tray so he could open the back door and take the tray of sandwiches out to the hungry guests.
He set them down on the main table, backing away before they were pounced on, and waving at Jude as he did so. He and Charlie were huddled in their own little corner, Charlie showing off his latest tattoo. They seemed deep in conversation, so Owen didn’t want to disturb them.
Well, that wasn’t true. He did want to disturb them, to give in to the sudden urge to be close to Jude, but his mom wanted him back inside, anyway.
He had Jude for the rest of his life. He could wait a few minutes to talk to him again.
The thought of having Jude for the rest of his life was a happy one, though. He didn’t deserve someone as good and kind as Jude. He should have used up his lifetime supply of amazing people who wanted to marry him already.
Even without any interest in having sex with him, Jude was the best partner Owen could ask for. He knew that.
He needed to make sure to treat Jude accordingly, and he knew that, too.
“People descended on me like they’d never been fed in their life,” Owen said as he walked inside. “They know how good your food is, I guess.”
“You’re in a good mood,” his mom observed. “You don’t regret this wedding, do you?”
Owen shook his head. He didn’t regret it for a second, and he knew he wouldn’t later, either. At this stage of his life, it was exactly what he needed. Companionship without the pressure of romance, someone to help him get by day-to-day.
More importantly, he needed to know Jude would be okay, and he needed his daughter back. This was the neatest solution to both of those problems.
Maybe it wouldn’t last forever. Maybe one day, Jude would find someone to fall in love with, and he’d move on. But that was okay. Owen had spent too much of his life worrying about the future. Right now, he wanted to focus on the present.
“Good.” She took an envelope out of her apron pocket and handed it over to Owen.
It was yellowed, and the flap was peeling away from where it had been stuck down, the glue ancient and brittle. His name was written on it in his father’s handwriting.
“I’m not going to apologize for not giving this to you before you left. You were a baby back then. But you’re a young man with a family now, and your father would want you to have this,” she said.
Owen turned it over in his hands a few times, tears springing up in his eyes. This was something his dad had left for him. It almost didn’t matter what was inside. It was the best gift he could ever have imagined.
He opened the envelope gently, careful not to tear it. He didn’t have a lot of things with his father’s handwriting on them. It seemed important to keep this, even if he did end up tucking it in the back of a cupboard and forgetting about it. He’d always have it.
Owen wasn’t sure what to expect inside, but what he found made his jaw drop.
It was a bank statement, from an account in his name that he’d never known anything about. An account with a lot of money in it.
“Mom, this is… too much. I can’t take this,” he said, looking up at his mother.
“It belongs to you,” she said. “Your father put money away for all three of you boys when you were little, and he added to it until the day he died. Charlie used his to pay for college, and Riley invested it so he could travel more. Obviously, it’s yours to do what you want with, but I know you’re struggling to find a good rental place. This could be a deposit on a home, if you wanted it to be.”
Owen nodded slowly. Now that he was back in Hope Springs, he never wanted to leave again. Being able to put down roots—his own roots, but close enough to the rest of his family—was exactly what he needed right now.
“I don’t know what to say. Other than thank you, obviously.”
“You don’t need to say anything else.” His mom smiled, reaching out to squeeze his arm. “I’m sorry you didn’t feel like you could ask for help before, Owen. I wish things had gone differently. I wish you thought you could come to me.”
“Mom, it’s not… it’s not your fault.” Owen looked down at the envelope, turning it over in his hands. “I wish I’d asked, too. I was scared. I thought you’d be mad at me for leaving.”
He’d been scared the same way Jude had; not sure anyone would help him, and not sure he could be helped, anyway. He was glad he and Jude had found each other again.
“Never. Not for a second.”
Owen looked up again to see tears in his mother’s eyes.
That felt like enough said on the subject. He’d screwed up a lot, but he was putting it right now. That was the best he could do.
“You’re just like him, you know. Your father,” his mother said after a moment.
Owen tucked the envelope and the bank statement into the inside pocket of his jacket. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“It was. Your father was the best man I ever knew. He always did right by his family. And I know you’ll always do right by yours.”
“I will,” Owen promised, his stomach clenching at the thought of his dad. “I always will.”
Owen pulled his mother into a hug, breathing in her sweet, familiar scent, and then finally letting go to let her get back to what she’d been doing before.
He took a step away, intending to go back to the guests outside, but then hesitated. There was still one more thing bothering him.
“Mom, can I ask you something?”
“Always, honey.” She turned away from putting the finishing touches on the seriously impressive wedding cake she seemed to have conjured out of thin air before Owen had even woken up this morning.
“Is it okay that I’m not… miserable anymore?”
His mother raised an eyebrow. “You don’t normally ask silly questions.”
“You know what I mean.”
She sighed, her face softening. “Grief is a strange process. Let me tell you a story. A few months after your father died, Riley dropped by and showed me this whole album of pictures he’d taken down in Mexico. There were hundreds of them. Some of them were of the landscape or animals that had gotten close enough, some of them were of other people, and some of them, he was in. Smiling, laughing, having a great time.”
Owen had no idea where this story was going, but he could tell it was going somewhere important.
“And when I first saw him smiling, and I knew the photos were taken a little over a week after the funeral… I didn’t understand. I was angry, even, that he’d been out there having a great time right after such a life-altering event. And you know what he said to me?”
Owen shook his head. Riley had a way with words, though.
“We’re all dying.” She smiled wryly. “No point in letting it get in the way of living.”
That sounded like Riley. Owen would have loved to know where his permanent state of calm came from. There was
only a couple of years between them, but Riley had always seemed so much more put-together.
“And I realized in that moment that your father loved me, and he wouldn’t have wanted to see me like that. My grief, my moping, wasn’t helping anyone. Certainly not me. So I went back to living. And I think you should do the same. For your sake, and for Kayla’s sake.”
Owen flinched. He knew his mom hadn’t meant to hurt him, but that did hurt. If he hadn’t been busy feeling sorry for himself, he wouldn’t have lost her in the first place.
His mom clucked softly, and closed the gap between them to wrap him in another hug. “It’s not your fault, sweetheart, and we’re all here to help you figure things out. But I don’t want you to be miserable. Anyone who does isn’t your friend and isn’t worth listening to."
“Okay. Yeah, okay. No more being miserable.”
Owen had hated himself for being so happy over the last couple of weeks, having his family and Jude around him, knowing that things were starting to move in the right direction. He was a grown man and he shouldn’t have needed permission for the way he felt, but it helped to have it.
Maybe he should talk to Riley, too.
“Good boy.” His mom kissed his cheek, then let him go. “Now, go enjoy your wedding.”
“I love you, mom,” Owen said. He wasn’t sure he’d ever meant it so much in his life. He couldn’t have done any of this without his family.
“I love you too, baby. Always will.”
Chapter Eight
Jude could hardly believe how lucky Owen had gotten with the house he’d bought. It had been lying empty since the last owners moved out, but other than a few cobwebs and a creaking floorboard here and there, it was in excellent condition.
Ten days after he’d signed the contract, he had the keys in hand. It was obviously fate, helped along by the fact that his family name happened to carry weight in this town. Solicitors and bank managers were more than happy to deal with a Jules. The family grocery store was one of the cornerstones of the community.
The kitchen was dated, and Jude could personally have lived without the salmon-pink fittings in the bathroom. But there was plenty of room, and since between them they only owned a few pieces of furniture—Jude’s, mostly—moving in had been relatively simple.
They were finished by a little after two in the afternoon, and they hadn’t gotten started until ten.
They probably needed to buy furniture.
“I thought you might want the bedroom with the window that faces out onto the front yard, since there’s more natural light, but you’re welcome to whichever one you want. I was thinking that way my bedroom and the nursery would be on the same side of the hall and the baby won’t disturb you so much,” Owen said as he came downstairs.
Jude shrugged. “Whatever works best for you is okay with me.”
He still wasn’t entirely comfortable with everything Owen was doing for him, but he was determined to pay him back somehow.
“I know you don’t think I’m taking this seriously, but I am. I always thought we’d get a place together one day, head off to the same college or something. I didn’t think it’d be exactly like this, but I’m actually kinda excited,” Owen said.
Jude raised an eyebrow. He opened his mouth to speak, but then the room shifted on him as he swayed side to side, a sudden, sharp pain hitting him behind his eyes.
He tipped forward, tensing up automatically as he braced for impact against the floor.
To his surprise, Owen caught him and eased him back to standing, letting him rest against his chest.
Jude breathed a sigh of relief. He would normally have eaten lunch an hour ago, but moving in, simple as it had been, had taken all of his focus.
Now, his blood sugar was bottoming out. It wasn’t the worst thing that had ever happened to him, but he didn’t exactly enjoy it.
Well, except for the part where he got to lean against Owen.
“You okay?” Owen asked after a moment.
“We forgot to eat,” Jude explained. Since Owen wasn’t pushing him away, he let himself lean a little more heavily against him, breathing in the warm, sweet scent of his cologne. His stomach clenched, a jolt of need hitting him right behind his belly button.
This was nice. It would have been nicer if Owen was about to pick him up, take him upstairs, and have his way with him, but for now, the contact he was getting would have to be enough.
Besides, his need to eat was getting urgent.
“Shit. I’m sorry, man. I just… forgot you needed to,” Owen said.
“It’s okay.” Jude finally straightened himself up, not wanting Owen to worry more than he already was. “I’m a grownup. I could have told you I needed to stop. This is on me.”
“I’m supposed to be looking out for you.”
Jude’s heart skipped at the thought. He didn’t need Owen to look out for him, not with minor things like this, but he really liked the idea all the same.
“You’re sweet, but I’m okay,” Jude said. “As long as we can eat soon?”
“Absolutely,” Owen said. “Uh. We might need to go back to mom’s for food.” He scratched the back of his neck.
“That’s okay. She made me promise I’d drag you to Sunday lunch every week, so I don’t think she’s gonna mind us dropping in.”
Suddenly, the room spun again. Owen was a little slower to catch him this time, but he saved Jude from hitting the floor just like he had before.
As embarrassing as it was, having Owen hold him was nice. A little low blood sugar and a headache was a small price to pay for that, in Jude’s mind.
“You need to sit down,” Owen said.
Jude wasn’t really in a position to argue, so he let Owen help him to the couch. The world was still spinning, but at least he wasn’t in danger of falling anymore.
“This is worse than you’re letting me think, isn’t it?” Owen asked.
“I’m fine. I didn’t even pass out,” Jude said. “I just need a sandwich or something.”
“I’m gonna go get us lunch. You… stay there. I won’t be happy if I find you passed out on the floor when I get back.”
“Yes, dad.” Jude rolled his eyes. It really wasn’t a big deal.
“I’m not your dad, but I am your husband. I promised to be responsible for you, so I’m keeping that promise.”
Jude opened his mouth to protest, but he couldn’t bring himself to.
Owen was taking this seriously. For whatever reason, he was genuinely trying to be a good partner in all the ways that really mattered.
“I can’t argue with that, because it was too sweet,” Jude said. “You really have grown up.”
Owen snorted. “Thanks, I think. You just… rest, and I’ll be back soon. You want anything specific?”
“I’ll trust your judgement,” Jude said.
“I won’t be long,” Owen promised.
Jude closed his eyes, humming in acknowledgment. He was fine, and he could have looked after himself, but it was hard not to let Owen look after him. It was everything he’d ever wanted.
Well, not everything, but close enough that he wasn’t about to complain.
Living with Owen was going to be intense, but Jude couldn’t help wanting to enjoy it.
As long as Owen never figured out how Jude really felt about him, everything would work out just fine.
Chapter Nine
As he walked into the house, Owen still couldn’t believe how lucky he’d gotten. A whole week with Kayla. No argument, no making his life difficult, just an agreement that, if it saved dealing with lawyers for now, Owen could have what he wanted.
He had no idea what had made Lisa’s parents change their mind, but he didn’t care. He was bringing his daughter home for the first time in a long, long time. He couldn’t stop smiling.
“You have your own room here, too,” Owen explained as he carried her into the living room. He hadn’t gotten around to decorating the nursery yet—everything still seemed to be
moving at the speed of light, between the wedding and the move and now this—but he would. For the moment, it was an inoffensive shade of beige, and babies didn’t care, anyway.
The sound of footsteps on the stairs made Owen look up, eager to tell Jude what had happened. He hadn’t told him where he was going, not wanting to come back with bad news. This wasn’t bad news, though. This was amazing news.
“I thought I heard you come in,” he said, then paused at the foot of the stairs, staring. “Is that…?”
Owen grinned. “This is Kayla, yeah. You wanna hold her?”
“I… I mean, I want to, but I’m not sure…”
“It’s okay,” Owen said, beckoning Jude over. “I’ll show you how.”
He waited until Jude looked a little more confident, and then stepped closer to him, transferring Kayla’s weight to him slowly and helping him rest her against his chest.
“You got her?” Owen asked, not moving away until he was sure Jude felt like he had a good handle on her. He didn’t think for a second that Jude would drop her on purpose, but the last thing he needed was an accident on the first day he’d been allowed to have her.
“I’ve got her,” Jude confirmed. It wasn’t as though she was heavy, but Owen understood why Jude was nervous. He’d been nervous the first time, too. It had taken him hours to work up the courage to pick her up.
Now, he couldn’t get enough of holding her.
Owen stepped back to give Jude a little room to breathe, not wanting him to feel crowded.
He wanted Jude to be comfortable around Kayla. He wanted his weird little family unit to work.
Marrying Jude still felt like exactly the right decision.
“Oh,” Jude said after a moment. “She’s so… she’s beautiful. This is nice.”
Owen beamed, pride welling up in his chest. Jude liked his daughter.
“Kinda soothing, right?” Owen asked. He found her soothing, but he wasn’t sure if that was a normal reaction.
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