Flare (42 page)

Despite their honeymoon being on a tropical island, where Hugo got to swim and soak in the Pacific Ocean this time, they swore off having any sort of sex in the water. They’d done enough of that over the years to know being inside on a warm, dry bed was where they wanted to come together. And they did it a lot. Daily. Several times a day.

“We’re not going to be able to walk when we get back,” Hugo joked as Kevin eased inside him again. Kevin ignored his words, kissing Hugo as he slowly buried himself instead.

Hugo clung to Kevin’s hips and waist. He loved fucking like this, watching Kevin concentrate. But then a sweet, unexpected moment of added pleasure would slip in, an extra sensation suddenly turned on, and his face would break into a smile.

Kevin always kissed Hugo after those moments, licking into his mouth and sucking his tongue, eating off any remaining pomegranate-raspberry lip balm or spending extra moments just to make sure there wasn’t any flavor left behind that he’d missed the last time he’d licked and sucked. That always left Hugo smiling.

So much of what Kevin did left Hugo smiling.

Like waiting, making sure Hugo was ready to come before Kevin sped his hips to the rolling dance that brushed Hugo right where he needed and sent him close to the edge so quickly. Like asking Hugo if this time he wanted Kevin to fuck him through his orgasm or pause so he could feel every little spasm, every clench of muscle with a thick cock holding steady in his ass. Like lazily licking and sucking at Hugo’s nipples after they were both spent, taking those moments of “I’m still so sensitive, so be careful,” and transforming them into something new where Hugo was hard and straining again, begging for Kevin to “Please. Fuck me one more time. Just one more time before we go to sleep.”

It would never get old. They might. Gray hair might show up at their temples or wrinkles might stick around after youth faded away, but Hugo knew he’d never tire of being wrapped around Kevin’s body, or having Kevin’s arms and legs wrapped about him while they rocked and rocked and rocked. They’d come, wetting each other’s skin for years to come, licking away flavor—flavor that tasted like Kevin and Hugo.

And they’d love.

Resting quietly next to each other in their sated state, Hugo rolled toward Kevin and pressed a palm over his heart. It beat so strong and steady. It was a constant.

“I love you,” Hugo whispered to a sleeping Kevin, feeling a flare burn bright in his chest. “I love my husband so much.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

A Very Quick Trip

T
HE
DAY
after Hugo and Kevin got home from their honeymoon, the entire family was in the courtroom going through the very formal process of Hugo adopting Brooke and Finn. They’d almost missed hearing from Mark that there had been a cancellation on the court docket and their case had been moved up, because they’d decided to eat a late, hearty breakfast at the Uptown Diner before their afternoon appointment. Finn heard the subtle ringing coming from Kevin’s pants pocket and said, “Hey, Dad, your butt’s ringing.”

For as big of a buildup as the adoption study provided, the court proceeding was almost a letdown, Hugo said to Kevin afterward. Almost. It was quick and the opposite of the dramatics usually seen on television or in movies during courtroom scenes.

But the pride—the pride on Hugo’s face as he told the judge that yes, he wanted to be these kids’ dad until they were of legal age, was a sight to see. He’d be their dad far beyond the age of eighteen. Kevin knew that.

After all was said and done and Hugo was finally able to relax and get close to the kids without the pressure of the courtroom surrounding them, he crushed them to his chest, giving them each about a hundred cheek kisses as he told them how much he loved them. Brooke and Finn both gave him a few kisses, but not nearly as many, and returned the words.

For the rest of the day, everyone kept using the words
Papa
,
son
, and
daughter
. It was a new vocabulary that seemed to make Hugo beam every time he used it.

He and Kevin threw a few
my husbands
in there for good measure.

I
T
WAS
great to be back home. To thank Summer and Russell for helping with the kids for the week they were gone and to celebrate the adoption, Kevin and Hugo decided to take everyone to a new restaurant in the city that people had been raving about.

It wasn’t a fancy place, so when Summer started fussing about her clothes and makeup, Hugo put a stop to it by telling her, “It’s a great place to eat. You aren’t meeting the president or the queen. Food. You’re hungry, right?” Summer nodded with wide eyes, and Hugo laughed. She was always hungry now that she was in her second trimester.

While they waited for their food to come, everyone wanted to know about their honeymoon adventures. They’d gone out and done things. They really had, but the highlight was the days on end of hedonistic sex, pretty much leveling all the other highlights to dust. They elaborated, though, and talked about good food and crazy markets where they were chased after by vendors trying to get them to haggle for wares they didn’t want.

Finn was in stitches as Kevin told yet another story, this time of them being chased by a man trying to sell two men women’s purses, when the food arrived, hot and smelling so amazing that Hugo’s mouth literally watered. He was about three bites in when he looked over at Finn, who had a funny look on his face.

“You okay, buddy?”

Finn nodded and cracked a larger section of his crab leg at the joint, then pulled out a thick piece of meat and loaded it with butter.

“Russell’s tricks sure work in helping get all the meat out without having to work so hard, don’t they?” Kevin asked him.

Finn coughed a little and then took a drink of water. When he pulled the glass away from his mouth, Hugo saw his lips were swelling.

“Are you feeling okay?” he asked, and Finn shook his head a little. “Has he ever had shellfish before?” Hugo barked at Kevin.

Kevin answered, “No. Never.”

“We’ve got to get him to the hospital. Now,” Hugo practically shouted. “Kevin. With me. Brooke, stay with your aunt and uncle. We’ll call you,” he said over his shoulder with Finn in his arms as he ran toward the car. “Get the car. Get the car!” Hugo shouted, and Kevin sprinted ahead, quickly meeting him on the street.

“What’s going on?” Kevin asked as he sped toward the hospital, which was only a few blocks away, glancing at Hugo in the backseat with Finn. “Anaphylactic shock?”

“Yeah.” Hugo looked Finn over and took his pulse. “He’s allergic to shellfish. He has to be. There’s nothing else he ate and shellfish allergies can be bad.” Thankfully the traffic wasn’t backed up, and they seemed to hit every green light.

The bright lights of the emergency department drew Hugo’s attention, and he lifted Finn out of the backseat and rushed past the far-too-fucking-slow automatic doors. A nurse looked up from a desk and saw Hugo’s panic, then quickly looked down at Finn in his arms. His lips and nose and eyelids were swollen so he didn’t even look like himself.

“Shellfish,” Hugo managed to get past his wheezing, and the nurse told him to follow her right away. Finn looked scared as his breaths became more labored, and he held on to Hugo’s shirt tightly. “It’s okay, Finn. We’re at the hospital, and the doctors are going to give you medicine to help.”

A tall man with serious eyes took Finn from Hugo’s arms and laid him on the gurney, hollering orders to people all over the makeshift-curtained room. A small woman asked him questions in her heavy accent, which was so hard to understand in his panic, peppering Hugo for details of the night and a health history Hugo didn’t entirely know. It was chaos, but no one asked him to leave, so he stood off to the side and tried to stay out of the way. That was when he realized Kevin wasn’t right there with him, and he looked around.

“Hey,” Kevin said with a huff as a nurse directed him to Hugo, giving them both a sweet smile before slipping away.

“I was just wondering where you were.”

“Parking. How’s he doing?” Kevin looked shaken.

“I don’t know.” Hugo gestured toward the bed surrounded by people. “I heard them order epinephrine and saw him get a shot. He’s still breathing on his own, but they put oxygen on him.”

Kevin looked with worry at Finn through the mass of people and grasped Hugo’s hand. “My God. How did you even know what to do? That something was even wrong?”

“My cousin. Growing up we had to be super careful with peanuts, and one time someone wasn’t. The same thing happened. I remembered and didn’t really think. I just acted.”

“You’re… oh, Hugo,” Kevin got out before collapsing into his arms and letting out a sob.

“Are you his dad?” A brusque lady with a computer on a wheeled cart asked Hugo and he nodded. “We need to get some information. If you’ll come out here,” she said as she directed them outside the curtained-off room, but she left an opening in the fabric so they could keep their gazes on Finn. “The patient’s name?”

“Finn Magnus.”

“Date of birth?”

Hugo started mindlessly answering the questions, and when he stumbled, not knowing if Finn had ever been to that hospital before, Kevin took over and finished the rest of Finn’s registration, including listing his parents as Kevin and Hugo Magnus. They were now, but that had been the first official thing they’d done with the same last name aside from signing their marriage certificate and with Hugo being Finn’s official dad. The nurse gave them a quick smile and said, “Good luck. He seems to be doing better already.” She gestured with her head, and Hugo saw she was right.

“Dad. Papa.” Finn was sitting up, and he reached his little hand through the metal bars on the gurney, trying to remove the oxygen mask from his face. Kevin and Hugo immediately went to his side now that the room had cleared some. Finn’s hand shook, and Hugo noticed he was breathing heavy.

“You need to leave that on, little man,” a man in a garish scrub shirt said. “Got to let the medicine do its
thang
.” He smiled kindly at Finn and then at Kevin and Hugo. “You must be his dads. I would’ve got your attention earlier, but we were a little busy over here.” He popped a brow and laughed. “Plus, one doesn’t interrupt Candace when she’s in the middle of a registration. At least not if you want treats saved for you later in your shift. I’m Franklin, Finn’s nurse.” He reached out his hand and held on tight, somehow reassuring Hugo with the squeeze of his warm palm. Kevin remembered to say both their names, and Franklin gave a wide grin. “We’ve given him a shot of epinephrine, and we have some breathing medicine going through to his mask. That’s why he’s sitting up. He’ll be reacting to the epinephrine for a bit.”

“What do you mean?” Hugo wondered.

“Heavy breathing, rapid pulse, shaking.”

“How are you feeling?” Kevin asked, leaning in close and tilting his head to study Finn. He pushed back Finn’s strawberry-blond hair and pressed a kiss to his pale forehead.

“Like I’m super hyper. I think I could stay up all night.” Finn took in a shaky breath and let it out the same way. “Or fly.”

“The meds work by relaxing the muscles in the airway and opening it up.” Franklin explained. “Sounds like you’ve got a pretty serious allergy, little man.”

“No more shellfish for you,” Hugo said, pulling up a seat. “How else are you feeling besides hyper?”

“My lips feel funny. Hot and fat. My face feels funny too.” He was still so swollen but telling him might worry him more, so Hugo kept it to himself.

Kevin smiled down at Finn and held on to his hand. “So, what happens now?” he asked Franklin.

“We let the meds work and monitor him for at least an hour. Maybe more. It depends on his progress. He’s probably going to be getting drowsy soon. His heart has been going like a jackrabbit’s, and that’s exhausting. We just want to make sure we’re out of the woods before we let you take him home. We don’t want you coming back because we didn’t wait long enough.”

Sure enough, Hugo saw Finn’s eyelids start to droop, but he fought it. “It’s okay, Pickle. Just rest.” It was as if the moment Finn had permission, he allowed himself to fall asleep, mouth dropping open farther as he breathed in the healing medication. They watched him, staring at the little boy they both loved so much. His breathing calmed and so did Hugo’s rapid pulse.

“This might actually be a good time for you to step out, make phone calls if you need to,” Franklin whispered after a time. “He’ll want you when he wakes up, and the doc will keep checking in on him. Go on. He’s stable,” he said with a reassuring nod. “I’ll stick with him.”

Hugo tried to smile but felt his face fill with concern as he leaned over to give Finn another kiss before leaving the room and heading out to the waiting room again with Kevin by his side. Summer and Russell were there with Brooke looking white as a sheet.

“Is he okay?” Brooke asked, tears filling her eyes. “That’s what happened to Victor Jensen in school, and he almost died.”

Kevin sat on a chair and pulled Brooke into his lap where she readily went despite her age. “He’s just fine. They gave him medicine to help him breathe, and now he’s resting.” Kevin continued talking in a low voice, answering questions Brooke asked and rubbing her back in reassuring movements.

Hugo looked at the clock and was shocked to see how much time had gone by. Nearly an hour.

Summer mothered Hugo, pushing his hair back and studying his face, telling him how worried she’d been but how glad she was they got to the hospital so quickly. Hugo smiled, thinking about what a good mom Summer was going to be.

“I should call my mom,” he said, pulling away, directing his words so Kevin could hear that he was headed outside and away from the emergency department. “She’d want to know. Might even have some nurse-ly wisdom.”

“Nurse-ly wisdom?” Kevin laughed and Hugo shrugged off the tease. “I’ll come too. May as well tell my mom what’s going on while Finn rests. I’ll never hear the end of it if I wait until tomorrow to call. Not that she can do anything about it from so far away.”