by Con Riley
Leaving was extremely hard on Marco.
Aiden watched him say good-bye to his mother at the top of the marble steps to their house. Signora de Luca tried to smile, her back straight, looking elegant and almost calm as they made their farewells. Then she called Marco back so she could press more kisses on him before ordering him to go.
It was a mistake, Aiden decided, to look back before their cab turned the corner. He carried the image of Marco’s mom sobbing into one tall brother’s chest all the way home to Seattle.
Marco was quiet for the first leg of their journey home, tense and agitated but unable to talk.
“She will be okay,” Aiden tried to reassure him. “Your brothers are under orders now. They won’t leave it so late if they need to call you again.”
Marco hadn’t answered.
“You know I meant it about relocating if it makes you happy. Turns out I’m real good at doing nothing.”
“Shut up.” They were almost halfway to Seattle before Marco pulled himself together. “There is more for us in Seattle. Opportunities. Friends and family—people to help us build a future.” He glanced at Aiden. “There’s more chance of making a family of our own there.”
“But we will go home at Christmas, won’t we?”
Marco nodded. He paid more attention on the last leg of their journey, chatting quietly, clutching Aiden’s hand whenever they hit pockets of turbulence. By the time they arrived at Sea-Tac, they’d alternated dozing with covering almost every possible conversational topic as a distraction from all that Marco had left behind.
“Is this how it’s going to be with you, tesoro?” Marco grumbled as they walked away from the baggage claim area. “This constant chitchat and discussion of your feelings is intensely boring. I’m only pretending to be interested. I hope you remember my good nature when it is time for bed this evening. I deserve some kind of reward. Maybe something sexual.” He cracked a huge yawn as Aiden laughed, and that’s how Evan found them.
Marco was asleep before they hit the highway.
Aiden and his brother talked quietly.
“You want to head home right away?” Evan looked so much better than he had when Aiden left.
“No.” Aiden looked over his shoulder. Marco was down for the count. “But I guess we should.” He yawned then too.
“Where did you want to go?”
Evan didn’t sound surprised when Aiden said, “North Bend.” He simply headed for Peter’s house instead as Aiden’s yawns continued.
“You tell me when, and I’ll take you.”
Aiden thought about his brother’s offer later. First, once they got home, he woke Marco, who jerked awake, asking what the time was in Italian. Within minutes, Evan was gone, and Marco was sprawled across their bed, mumbling as Aiden got him naked.
“You can do me, just as long as you don’t wake me.” He turned on his front and buried his face in his pillow, snoring softly by the time Aiden joined him.
Aiden kissed the relaxed line of Marco’s shoulder before staring at the ceiling of the small room they shared. His head teemed with everything that lay ahead—possibilities, problems, people who would be there for him.
Aiden finally slept after Marco rolled, wrapping himself around him, his arm heavy across Aiden’s belly.
Marco slept in Evan’s car again just a few days later. His sudden silence midway through a conversation made Evan peer in the rearview mirror.
“What’s up with him?”
“He’s tired. Jet lag slays him.” Staying up all night talking to his family wasn’t helping Marco catch up on his sleep, but if that was what he needed, Aiden wasn’t going to stop him.
“Maybe you should have left him at home.”
“No way. He’s more excited than I am.” Aiden glanced over his shoulder. Marco’s head rested at an awkward-looking angle for a while until he shifted positions.
“Is that how you feel right now? Excited?” Evan sounded disbelieving. “Man, I’d be so nervous.”
Aiden chuckled. “Thanks, that’s really helping.” They smiled at each other. “But yeah. You’re right. I am nervous. I’m kind of freaking out.”
He’d admitted the same to his mom the evening before. He and Marco had gone to the house for dinner but had found her in the garage next to a pile of packing cartons. Joel and Evan were already hard at work deciding what might still be useful and what should go to Goodwill. Marco had started to help them, leaving Aiden standing outside.
He still found it so hard to go in there.
His mom had come out to stand beside him, talking about her plans for the sale of the house and how fast the days went now that she felt they had some purpose. She’d listened, looking sympathetic when Aiden confessed how nervous he was about meeting his birth dad. When she held out her hand, Aiden had taken it in his, letting her pull him inside the space they’d kept locked for years.
“The first step is the hardest,” she said as they crossed the garage threshold together. “It’s okay, Aiden, if you need someone to help you take it.”
Now, Evan listened as he drove toward North Bend, while Aiden told him more about the worries he’d discussed with their mom.
“I’m not sure what they’re expecting. It doesn’t matter, I guess. We can all just be polite for an hour’s visit and then pretend today never happened.” His voice lowered when he added, “Thanks for coming with me.”
“Wouldn’t miss it.” Evan glanced across at him. “They’re going to love you, Aiden.”
They drove the last few miles in silence. When Evan next spoke, he did so with honesty. “Can’t say I like the idea of you having two more brothers.”
“Us having new brothers doesn’t worry me,” Aiden replied. “What the heck are we gonna do with a five-year-old sister?”
They pulled up by a gate that had three kids sitting on it. The smallest clambered down, dancing with excitement, waving a fairy wand that matched the tutu she wore, a pair of gossamer wings flapping from straps over her shoulders.
Marco lurched awake when Aiden said, “Marco Fortunato,” responding to his full name like an order, quickly wiping sleep drool from his chin. Aiden reached back and stroked his leg. “We’re here. Are you ready for this?” Marco blinked, and then nodded.
The two boys were slower than their sister to show any excitement, their expressions carefully neutral as they opened the gate. Aiden glanced across at Evan again as he drove in and parked next to a huge barn opposite a farmhouse. Teen moods were something Aiden could deal with.
“Tesoro?” Marco’s hand was warm on his shoulder before they got out of Evan’s car. “Aiden Phillip? Are you sure you’re ready?”
Was he ready for this?
“I am if you’re both with me.”
Marco’s smile was steady, his gaze warm and supportive as he slowly nodded once again.
They got out as his new siblings walked up the track from the gate. Aiden took a deep breath as his birth family approached, his heart hammering in his chest. The girl skipped ahead before running back to hide behind his brand-new brothers. They hesitated as they got closer, dragging their feet and finally stopping when the front door of the farmhouse opened.
A tall man stood on the porch, then jumped down the steps from the house. His huge strides ate up the distance between him and his eldest son.
Aiden found himself walking quickly to meet him halfway.
They stood in silence for one long minute before greeting each other.
“Hey, I’m Phil.”
Aiden shook his birth dad’s outstretched hand, nodding at a man who might have lived through combat but who easily looked as scared as Aiden felt.
“Aiden.” He swallowed, lost for what to say next.
The silence stretched between them.
“I wrote a list of things to say, only . . .” his birth dad looked over his shoulder at a blonde woman who held a piece of paper, standing in the farmhouse doorway, “I guess I was in too much of a hurry to get out h
ere.” He laughed and shook his head. “I didn’t realize . . . I couldn’t tell from your photo . . . .” His hand shook as he raised it before reaching out to touch Aiden’s cheek, his thumb very lightly touching where it indented. “Your eyes,” he said, and his voice shook too. “They’re just like your mother’s.”
His dad motioned for his other kids to come closer too. “There’s so much I want to tell you. So much I need to know about your life.” He huffed out a breath. “I’m not sure one afternoon will be long enough to cover it.”
“Then I’ll just have to keep coming back until we’re caught up.” His mom was right, Aiden decided, as he watched his birth dad nod in agreement—first steps were easier when taken with other people. He felt that very strongly when Marco and Evan stood shoulder to shoulder with him.
He introduced them when the little girl—his sister—asked who his friends were.
“It’s a long story,” Aiden said. “I hope you don’t have an early bedtime, because telling you about these two is gonna take a while.”
Aiden made a start by slinging one arm around his brother and the other around his lover, introducing them by name before holding on to them a little tighter.
“They’re the best luck I ever had.”
About the Author
Con Riley lives on the wild and rugged Devonshire coast, with her head in the clouds and her feet in the Atlantic Ocean. Injury curtailed her enjoyment of outdoor pursuits, so writing fiction now fills her free time instead. Love, loss, and redemption shape her romance stories, and her characters are flawed in ways that make them live and breathe. When not people-watching or wrangling her own boy band of teen sons, she spends time staring at the sea from her kitchen window. If you see her, don’t disturb her—she’s probably thinking up new plots.
Amazon: viewAuthor.at/Con_Riley
Also by Con Riley
By Con Riley
Novels
Original Seattle Stories
After Ben
Saving Sean
Aiden’s Luck
Additional Story Set in Seattle
Must Like Spinach
Salvage Series
Salvage
Recovery
Standalone Titles Set in Britain
True Brit
Be My Best Man
