Hold by Kimberley Ash

Author:Kimberley Ash
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Fiction, Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Tea Rose Publishing LLC
Published: 2022-10-02T00:00:00+00:00

♦

The next two weeks were heaven and agony for Liam. He began arriving five minutes early and opening the front door quietly so that he could catch Thea for one kiss and refill his coffee mug before Jake came down the stairs. Each kiss was a drink in the desert and left him just as thirsty. The reminder of her, in the taste of her coffee that he drank throughout the morning, was a poor substitute.

Jake was a good reward for abstinence, though. He learned quickly and well, asked sensible questions, and never pretended he knew something when he didn’t. Liam felt a pang that he would never have him in his AP history class, but this was pretty good too. The day he let Jake use the propane torch to solder a joint, the boy’s face lit up as though he’d been given a quad bike.

And Benji. Liam had known he’d fall in love with him easily. The boy was a typical five-year-old, in all the best ways. He was dirty; he didn’t want to brush his teeth; he hated vegetables. He was crazy about power tools. One evening at the park, he got in an argument with another kid who called him a dickhead and he called the kid an asshole, and Liam and the other boy’s mom had to exchange chagrined apologies. The next day Benji and the boy spent an hour racing each other up and down the spider gym.

Benji would bring him cool rocks or bugs or decapitated toys he’d found in the sandbox. He’d require Liam’s participation, his admiration, and when it was time to go, he’d take Liam’s hand and look both ways before crossing the street. After a week or so, Liam gave in to instinct and dropped a kiss on the boy’s head when he said goodbye. His reward was Benji’s arms around his waist for a brief hug before he ran in to give his rocks to his mother.

He observed Jake more closely, because Jake was older and had further to go to trust again than his brother. But he loved Benji with all his heart, and the idea of being his dad rolled around in his head and wouldn’t let go.

Class started up again, an online class this time that they could have completed in the comfort of their own home. But the group wanted to meet up, and Thea again offered her house. In the balmy July evenings, they carried the kitchen table outside and sat around with beers, talking more than studying.

Yeah, Liam joined them. Even though he didn’t need to take this class. Even though he had gone to the college and asked about taking up his place after all. Even though he’d been to the bank and figured out loans and interest rates, and his faceless mortgage company had sent paperwork, and a Realtor friend of Seth’s had appraised his house at more than double what he’d borrowed to fix it, and he was on his way to having financing in place to pay his fall tuition.

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