He missed making love to her with Mick. The three of them had been good together. Better than good, they’d been amazing, and not just in the bedroom or at the BDSM club. She was his biggest cheerleader for a very long time, until the breakup. Then she’d disappeared.
Would it have been better if she’d stayed away? Sometimes he thought it might’ve. She drove him crazy. So brilliant. So beautiful.
So secretive.
He clutched his steering wheel tight. What happened to her while she was gone? Why won’t she tell Mick and me? Every day she didn’t tell him made things worse. He just couldn’t let it go, despite knowing that would be for the best. Instead he rolled over and over in his mind a million scenarios that might’ve happened to her during her absence, and none of them made him feel any better.
He wasn’t going to stop pressing her about medical school either. He’d seen her in action at the ER in Phoenix. He knew she would make an amazing doctor.
“One issue at a time, Doc.” He pulled out of the clinic’s parking lot, still feeling frustrated about his brother’s continued foolishness. How could they present a united front with Paris when Mick was playing cowboy at the Steele Ranch?
Dustin turned left off of MacDavish Lane onto Big Elm. Fuck. How can Mick not see what a huge mistake he’s making?
When Dustin came to the end of the lane, he turned the Vette right onto the street he and Mick had grown up on. Happier times. But he’d gone to medical school and Mick had gone to law school. And Paris? She’d become a nurse.
And then my patient died. Fuck.
His parents’ house was three blocks down on the left. He needed them to talk some sense into Mick because he was getting nowhere trying himself.
He parked in the driveway and got out of his car. His mother and two dads were sitting together on the wraparound porch. All three had retired early after making some very wise investments, thanks to the advice of the O’Learys. Dad Leo’s hair had turned gray years ago when he was only forty. Now, twenty years later, he looked exactly the same. Pop Larry’s hair was salt and pepper. He’d grown a beard after retiring, which Dustin thought made him look very distinguished. His mom looked like a woman in her forties instead of her late fifties. He loved them all so very much.
He got out of the car and waved. “Hey folks.”
“Hey, son.” Dad Leo stood, smiling. He wore overalls, which told Dustin he was only taking a break from his project in the garage—restoring a 1955 Thunderbird. “This is a welcome surprise.”
As he walked up to the porch, he glanced at the mailbox he and Mick had built as kids with their dads. It was a miniature copy of their parents’ house with “Ryder Home” printed on both sides.
“Slow at the clinic today?” Pop Larry held his pipe in his left hand, looking more like a professor than a retired butcher.
“No, sir.” He stepped onto the porch with them.
His mom smiled. She had on a blue top, which matched her loving eyes. “Would you like a glass of tea, Dustin?”
“Sure, Mom. Thanks. But I’ll get it myself.”
“You sit down, Dr. Ryder. Take a load off. I’ll get it for you. Have you had lunch?”
“Louise, you’re going to spoil the boy,” Dad Leo said with a laugh.
“What are mothers for, honey? I have some leftover fried chicken from last night’s dinner, Dustin. Would you like some?”
“I’m not that hungry, but I wouldn’t mind taking some back to the clinic with me.”
“I’ll pack some up for you, honey. I’ll be right back.” His mom walked into the house, leaving him alone with his dads.
He sat down in his chair, which was next to Mick’s. There’s no place like home, that’s for sure.
Growing up in his parents’ home
had been wonderful. Laughter and love was always present. They were going to celebrate their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary this November. They were the shining examples of what a happy marriage could be. God, I want what they have with Paris and Mick.
Pop Larry took a drag on his pipe. “How long can you stay, son?”
“Not long, Pop. Amber Stone is having contractions. She’ll be having her baby very soon.”
His mom came out of the house with a glass of tea and a plate of peanut butter cookies. “Did I overhear you right? Amber is about to deliver?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He took the glass of tea and the plate of cookies. “Dads are right. You do spoil me.”