Like Braden said earlier, he felt like he might never come again as he collapsed on top of his lover.

Braden ran his hand up and down Wes’s back as they both breathed heavily.

“Who else left you, Wesley?” Braden asked. “I know your dad left and your mom and Chelle died. Who else left you?”

His stomach felt like someone had set a bomb off inside it, but...but it didn’t keep him from answering, because he wanted to give Braden everything he could.

“My boyfriend. Alexander.” He’d known everything and yet he’d still just up and left Wes because Wes wasn’t giving him what he wanted. Wes hadn’t been enough to keep him.

“You were in love with him?”

“Yes.”

“I hate him,” Braden said with a mock chuckle. Wes appreciated the effort.

“We were together a long time. You know how I am, know that I’m distant. I was like that before I met him but I fell for him, anyway. We were together almost five years.”

Braden kept stroking his back, and Wes found he needed it.

“I loved him but it wasn’t enough. I came home from work one day and he had his shit packed. It wasn’t that he’d met anyone else, he just...didn’t love me anymore. He said he’d fallen out of love with me a long time before and couldn’t keep pretending. Then he was gone.”

“Hey.” Braden tilted Wes’s head up, with a finger under his chin, forcing Wes to look at him. “That’s not me. I don’t walk away. I won’t leave you.”

The bomb in his gut was suddenly gone. He’d handled losing Alexander. He’d really loved him, but he was over him now. Braden? He didn’t ever want to have to get over losing him. He wasn’t sure he could.

Wes leaned forward and kissed Braden deeply, slowly. Braden’s hands cupped the sides of his head and made love to his mouth.

“Mmm, you can kiss, Wesley. Can I tell you something else?”

Before Braden could get the words out, his cell beeped. Wes rolled off him as Braden went to the bathroom and grabbed it from his pants. He hadn’t needed to tell Braden they had to check it in case his mom called about Jessie. He’d somehow just known.

“My sister isn’t feeling well so they’re coming back early. We have about twenty minutes. Guess she knew we might need the heads up.”

Well, there went that. Braden jumped in a quick shower while Wes cleaned up himself then the bed. The whole time he wondered what Braden had been about to tell him.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Braden’s sister relaxed most of the day. She wasn’t really having contractions, she said, but she just didn’t feel right, whatever that meant. The family spent the day around the house, laughing and talking.

Did Wes realize how well he fit with them? he wondered as he looked over and saw Wes sitting with his brother Evan, talking at the table. And Jessie obviously blended right in with the kids and the rest of his family. He hadn’t expected anything less, but still it was good to see.

Especially since he’d almost told the man he loved him today. Braden would have been the first one to give a guy shit for saying he loved someone after sex, but things were different now. Wes made them different though he probably didn’t even know it.

They all watched A Christmas Story after dinner and then they put the kids to bed. Jessie went easily, the trip having worn her out.

Braden went into the kitchen and grabbed himself and Wes a beer before going into the living room where his family all sat. Wes was in a chair, and Braden walked over to him, handed him a beer, and then sat on the floor between his legs.

“I still can’t believe you don’t know what you’re having,” he said to his sister Yvonne, who lay on the loveseat.

“You didn’t want to know?” Wes asked her.

“We found out before but decided we wanted it to be a surprise this time,” she told him.

“Not me. I couldn’t handle that. I’m thinking it’s a boy, though. You said you were naming him, Braden, right?” he teased Yvonne, who threw a pillow at him.

“I’m thinking one Braden is enough in this family.”

“You can say that again!” Evan added.

“Hey. What’d I do?” Braden hung one of his arms over Wes’s leg, surprised when the man laid a hand on his shoulder.

“You almost gave me a heart attack, more than all your brother or sisters combined,” his mom said. “We never knew what you were going to do or say.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” he asked.