Del made dinner while Justin was handling his car issues. Del was proud of him for having found a way to potentially do it cheap. Del would’ve paid for the fixing of course, but he had only offered once and then raised his hands in defeat at Justin’s expression.
Yeah. Del got it. He remembered being young and wanting to make his own way. In some ways, he’d fucked that up majorly. He’d let go of what he’d accomplished when he’d met Clyde. After that, he’d gone where Clyde had wanted to lead them as a couple, not where Del might’ve wanted to go as a professional individual.
It was time to change things, but he didn’t want to be a Clyde, either.
* * * *
When Justin came back from figuring out the car situation, he seemed defeated and tense, and definitely not ready to tell Del what was going on inside his brain.
That was fine; Del didn’t have to know every thought in Justin’s head. People deserved privacy. He knew Justin would tell him when he was ready.
They had dinner and went to bed pretty soon after the kids were down for the count. As they cuddled in the dark bedroom, Justin felt tense in his arms still.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Del murmured quietly.
Justin tensed even more, before shaking his head. His hair tickled Del’s neck.
“No. Not…not yet.”
“Okay. You know you never have to talk about stuff you don’t want to, but I’m here if you need an ear. No matter what it is.”
Justin nodded and pressed a kiss on Del’s chest. “Thank you.”
They stayed awake for a long time, just quietly soaking in each other’s presence. They’d had sex a few times since the first time, and it had always been extremely good. Best sex of Del’s life, and it didn’t matter who did what.
That night, there was no urgency and things never took a sexual turn at all. For some reason, when Justin finally fell asleep—the big spoon this time—he held on to Del tighter than he had before.
Del hoped whatever was going on in his head was nothing serious, but with the way he clutched Del even in his sleep spoke of something really bothering him.
* * * *
The next morning, Justin seemed pretty normal. He helped Del get the kids ready for the day and then left for work. Del gave him his car, because Abigail would rent one in Boise.
Enterprise was in the middle of nowhere, so Abigail had decided to fly to Boise, Idaho and then rent a car to drive to Enterprise. She’d arrive sometime in the afternoon, depending on traffic, and was set to drive and fly back to Denver on Monday.
Del liked how seriously she was taking the whole thing. She’d even talked about figuring out if she could study something that would help her with this sort of thing next semester. Like maybe being a social media person for others might be a good backup plan or a side job.
Because Harper was at school, Del spent the morning with the little ones, tiring them out by playing games inside and going for a nature walk to show them fun things—the dark feather they found was now Wyatt’s most prized possession right after the doll he still carried around.
They were down for a nap when Del heard a car stopping in front of the house. He quickly wiped his hands—he’d been chopping spring onion—and went to open the door.
Abigail got out of the rental, grinning widely at him. Neither of them spoke as she jogged to the stairs and they hugged tightly.
“Gods, I’ve missed you, kiddo,” Del breathed into her auburn hair.
“You too, Uncle Delly,” she murmured, using the nickname she’d given him when she was little, but rarely used now.
“Go get your stuff. There’s a room with your name on it upstairs. Literally.” There was one with her name on the wall, a sign she’d made with her great-grandma from macaroni when she’d been very little. It still made Del smile every time he saw it.
While she got her backpack and laptop case, he frowned at the black car that sped past the house toward town. It had come from the O’Dwyer house, but Del hadn’t seen it before. Maybe one of Tracey’s “friends” had stopped by looking for her, not knowing she was gone?
“All right, lead the way, sir,” Abigail said brightly.
“Oh, one thing,” Del remembered as he held the door open for her. “Wyatt and Scarlett are napping in the living room, so we need to stay quiet for the time being.”
Abigail gave him her patented “aww” look, but moved quietly and smoothly inside and then up the stairs to stash her things.