There’s not going to be a next time. He won’t step in here anymore.
Warm fingers curl around his arm, and Felix looks up to find Kade staring at him. What happened? Kade’s gaze reads. His eyes are beautiful, reddish-brown and serious, and a strange meld of relief and guilt coils in his chest. Felix sags.
“I’ll take you home,” Kade says. “If you want, I’ll show my mom the paintings on your site. Then I’ll get you from the back porch when we’re done.”
“That’ll be nice,” Felix says. He just needs to escape their attention right now. “I’d like some fresh air.”
So Kade steps over to the back door, pulling it open. Felix smiles apologetically at Mrs. Brentwood, then ducks outside. The balmy air caresses his skin, a relief from the closed, suffocating kitchen. “I’ll get you in a bit,” Kade says, pinning him with his gaze. “Wait for me.”
When the door shuts between them, Felix twists his fingers together, his heart galloping. Kade’s mom isn’t going to tell him about the pregnancy, is she?
Because if she does, Kade would hate him, and he... he can’t live with that.
Felix huddles into himself, wishing he were home.
17
Kade
“What was that about?” Kade asks, turning to his mom. First Felix edges around his questions, and now his mom knows what his bondmate hides. How the hell can she read Felix better than he does?
She studies him, glances at the back door, and her expression falls. For a long moment, she stays silent, thinking over her words. His skin prickles. “Felix needs you,” she says eventually. “More than either of you thinks he does.”
“What?” Where the hell did that come from? He wants Felix to need him, but this... How did she know that from just a hug? “I don’t get it,” Kade says. Felix had burst into tears hugging her, when he had been shifty in the garage earlier. It’s as though his mom knows, too. Kade growls, hating to be left out of the explanations. “He’s hiding something. You know what it is, don’t you?”
His mom sighs, pulling him into a hug. He forces himself to wrap his arms around her. He doesn’t need comfort. He needs answers. Felix is his bondmate, and he deserves to know. How can you keep secrets from me?
“I don’t think I know all of it,” she says. “But you should look out for him anyway.”
“You say that as though I haven’t been seeing him.”
His mom hesitates. “I think Felix has his reasons.”
“And you know them.”
“Partly, yes.”
It burrows under Kade’s skin, not knowing what his omega hides. Maybe it’s his fault. Maybe it’s Felix’s. The uncertainty eats at him, and he swears, turning, about to pull the door open.
“Kade,” his mom says. He stops. “Let him tell you at his own time. You can’t rush this.”
He breathes out slowly, gritting his teeth. There were never secrets between them. Maybe the proposal was one, but other than that... They had been best friends. “He’s my... He was my bondmate. We’re not... He doesn’t owe me any answers.”
His chest aches, saying it. Felix has been back for four months, and Kade’s still trying to fix whatever went wrong between them. Still trying to work up the courage to ask why he left. If it’s not something he can change, he’ll never have Felix back.
The thought makes his heart clench.
“I’m sorry, Kade.” His mother hugs him tighter. Kade takes a deep breath, closing his eyes. “I wish things were different.”
“You think I don’t?” He doesn’t need her pity or shit like that. He needs to find his way back to Felix again, and maybe if they were better friends, or if he tried harder... He’ll get nothing done hugging his mom. “Look, do you want to see his paintings? They’re here.”
Kade pulls his phone out of his pocket, tapping in the address to Felix’s website. It looks better now, sleek drop-down buttons, large images flipping through the front page. He hands the phone over. “See, you tap on this button for the whole gallery. If you want to buy something, the paintings are under the Shop tab.”
“I’ll look through them,” she says, giving him a small smile. He returns it, before heading out the back door.
He finds Felix standing on the back porch, his gaze drifting over the succulent garden. Birds flutter among the bushes. Sunlight shines on the sage and forget-me-nots, and part of Kade is thankful for this, that he gets to stand close to Felix again.
“That’s a robin,” Felix murmurs, “And a sparrow. And the crows are the bad guys. I’ll teach you to paint birds.”
Kade frowns. Teach who to paint birds? “Hey.”
Felix jumps. “Hey,” he says, fingers twisting nervously. Was he talking to distract himself? Does he think Kade’s mom shared his secret? What has he done, that he’s actually afraid of Kade finding out?
“How are you?”
“Fine.” But Felix isn’t, when he looks down at his hands, and he’s still lacing and unlacing his fingers.
“She didn’t tell me anything,” Kade says. Felix’s shoulders sag. “But I figure you’ll tell me when you think I can handle it.”
Felix bites his lip. nodding. “I’ll try. It’s really not important.”
“If it isn’t important, you wouldn’t be crying,” Kade says. He steps across the porch, though, slipping his arm around Felix’s back. Felix melts against his chest as though he’s meant to be there. “You know you can trust me.”
Felix buries his face in Kade’s shoulder, his fingers clinging to Kade’s shirt. “I suppose. Sometimes I just... I don’t think you should trust me.”
“Why?” Kade sniffs at his omega, smelling the pine notes of his own scent. Something settles in his chest.
