Page 101 of Soft
My words were hopefully enough to get him to see the power behind his talent. I wanted him to succeed as much as I wanted Paxton to. Which was good considering I figured I’d one day call Grizzly my son too.
Knowing my kid, it wouldn’t be long.
This was who my son had chosen. A man who had the capacity to be both supported and capable, who would show up for Paxton the same way Paxton showed up for everyone he cared for.
Miriam had always said Paxton would know when he found the right one because he would feel it the way he felt a pitch. He’d have a certainty in his bones.
I didn't know if Paxton had ever used those words. Probably not. He expressed things differently a lot of the time. But I'd seen it in him the first time he brought Grizzly up. His voice had changed. He spoke with surety.
Bram stood from the bench in one easy motion. "Walk you back?"
I looked up. "I'm a grown man. Besides, I’m headed home."
"I know that. I'm going the same direction." He raised an eyebrow a fraction. "Unless you'd like to sit here forever."
It was a knee-jerk reflex to roll my eyes at him. “Fine! I guess you can walk me home.”
“You’re something of a brat, Pete. Don’t make me find you a Daddy to paddle your ass.”
While not fully in the kink scene, I knew enough to know the threat Bram made was real. He’d told me when we first met about his boy so I wouldn’t be shocked. I’d consented to our discussions, so it should have been no surprise for the threat to arise given Iwasactually being bratty.
The troubling part wasn’t his words. It was how they made me feel.
"You settling in well?" Bram asked, distracting me from the confusing arousal his threat had brought forth.
"It’s been an easy transition. I thought it would take longer, but it’s been very natural.”
“Good. I think this place is better with the Wells men in it. You might have followed your son here at first, but you’re just as much a part of the place now."
It was accurate enough to give me pause. I'd followed Paxton here, sure. Not out of obligation or inability to do otherwise but because Paxton was mine and wherever he was felt more like home than wherever he wasn't. That had been the case since the first time I held him.
But Bram was right too. Parts of this place belonged to me alone, separate from my son's story. The city had gotten under my skin in its own unique way.
I hadn't finished figuring it all out yet. Maybe I never would.
"Fair assessment," I eventually said.
Bram paused as we reached the split in the road where he’d need to diverge. My house was in one direction, and wherever he was headed was the other way.
"For what it's worth," he started, "what you're watching happen for your son doesn't happen because he got lucky. It happens because of the kind of person he is. And because of the kind of people who raised him."
"You're going to make me sentimental in the middle of a public street," I grumbled.
"You were already feeling sentimental," Bram replied, unbothered by my pout. He turned and walked away, leaving me on the sidewalk to watch him stroll casually like he hadn’t fucked up my day.
The man was making me feel and think. How rude of him!
I turned toward home a few seconds later. My thoughts drifted to all the important people in my life: Paxton, who was at practice running drills in this ridiculous heat; Grizzly at his place on the phone scoring Paxton the deal of a lifetime; and my amazing wife, who was probably laughing up a storm at my morning so far.
They're going to be fine, I told her, the way I sometimes still did, in the privacy of my own mind.
I could almost hear her answer.
I know. They were always going to be. And you will be too.
CHAPTER 33
Grizzly
