Full House (12 page)

Before turning away, Kent spat on the body at his feet. “What kind of father tries to kill his son?”

“One who didn’t earn the title of father.”

Kent
nodded his head. With his anger beginning to dissipate, he turned his focus back to Marco. “I’m going to take Maria to the hospital.”

“I’ll have Angelo run by and pick up the boys.”

“Thanks.” Kent wasn’t big on handing out affection to his friends, but he couldn’t let the moment slip by without showing Moody his appreciation. He wrapped his arms around the big man and squeezed. “Thank you for saving my entire world. I owe you everything.”

He was surprised when Moody hugged him back. “You’re welcome. And if you’ll help me fix Angelo’s back porch, we’ll call it even.”

Kent
chuckled as he stepped back. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”

* * * *

Trey handed Kent another cup of coffee. “How is he?”

Kent
took a tentative sip of the strong, bitter brew. Marco had been in surgery by the time Kent and Maria had arrived at the hospital so he hadn’t seen him before he’d been taken in. “The doctor just came by. He said they repaired the tendon damage. It’ll be a long healing process and he’ll have to go through intensive therapy, but they think he’ll regain the full use of his hand.”

“Have you seen him?” Trey sat down across from him.

“Not yet.” Kent’s eyes went to Maria, Nicky and Bruno who were huddled together in the corner of the waiting room. He’d tried to comfort them, but had retreated when Bruno informed him they were fine.

Although he knew the De La Santo children were a tight group, the dismissal stung. So like it had been most of his adult life, Kent sat across the room feeling alone and left out. Most of his friends were there with the exception of Eric and Jules who were on duty, but even they had been by several times in the previous couple of hours.

Trey, who had always been the most sensitive of the group, put his hand on Kent’s knee. “You can’t take it personally.”

“What?”

Trey gestured to the De La Santo children. “They aren’t used to depending on anyone but themselves. It’ll take them a while to open up to you.”

“I thought we were making great strides towards building a family.” Kent shook his head. “It hurts.”

Trey bumped his thin shoulder against Kent. “I’m going to play devil’s advocate here for a minute, so don’t beat me up, K?”

“I’ll try to control my rage,” Kent answered dryly.

“Trust will probably never come easy to those kids. I’m not trying to downplay your relationship with Marco, but you’ve only been in his brothers’ and sister’s lives for a short time. It’s natural for them not to trust you enough to let you in.”

“I’ve opened my home to them,” Kent tried to argue.

“Yes you have. And even though you and I know it shows you trust them, they’re kids. They wouldn’t see it that way. Their father just tried to kill the only truly stable person in their lives.”

“So where does that leave me?” Kent looked at the cooling coffee in his hand. He felt like throwing the damn paper cup across the room.

“In the perfect position to gain some of that trust you long for. You can’t force it on them though. Marco will probably be in here for a few days. Take them home later, make sure they eat, let them know you’re there if they need to talk. The important thing is that they’ll begin to see you care about them and not just their brother.”

Kent
glanced at Trey. He knew his friend was right. Everything he said made sense. Although things had fallen into place with Marco so quickly, he really didn’t know the kids as much as he’d like. “Thanks.”

“Kent?” Jules called, walking into the waiting room. “They have him in room 312, but they only want two people at a time in there.”

Kent
nodded. “Thanks.” He stood and walked over to Bruno, Nicky and Maria. “Marco’s in room 312. Only two at a time though, so you’ll have to decide which two of you go first and which of you will wait and go up with me next.”

Bruno appeared shocked at first. He turned to Nicky. “Why don’t you take Maria up? I think she needs to see for herself that Marco will be fine.”

As Nicky led Maria by the hand towards the elevators, Kent put a hand on Bruno’s shoulder. “That was nice of you.”

Bruno shrugged. “They’re kids. I figured if you could wait, so could I.”

Kent
gestured towards a chair. “Mind if I sit with you?”

Bruno shook his head and resumed his seat.

Kent
had known since their first meeting Bruno was as big as a man, but he was slowly beginning to realise Bruno was a man and not a kid. Hell, Marco was taking care of his brothers and sister when he was younger than Bruno.

“So, you graduate in June?”

“End of May,” Bruno corrected.

“You have plans for college?”

Bruno wrinkled his nose. “I barely made it through high school, but Marco wouldn’t let me drop out. He said I’d regret it forever if I didn’t graduate. Guess that’s one of the reasons he worked so hard this year to get his GED.”

Kent
was shocked. “He what? When did he have time?”

“He made time. Took him a while, but he finally did it. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen him more proud of himself as the day he walked across that little makeshift stage.”

Kent
wished he’d have known. One more thing he missed out on because of his preconceived ideas and Marco’s inferiority complex. “I bet he was handsome with that look on his face.”

Bruno’s black eyebrows drew together. “I don’t know about that. He’s my brother, dude.”

Kent
chuckled. “Trust me, he was handsome.”

Bruno shrugged and crossed his arms comfortably over his chest. “Do you think Marco would teach me how to do what he does?”

Immediately an image of Marco thrusting in and out of Kent’s ass came to mind. “Excuse me?”

“You know, the stuff he can do with bricks. It’s cool. He used to take us with him once in a while when he did side jobs. I thought maybe I could learn how to do that.”

Kent
let out an internal sigh of relief. “I’m sure he’d love to take you on as an apprentice. And in my opinion, you couldn’t learn from a more skilled craftsman.”

“He’s that good?”

“Yeah. He’s that good.” Kent reached down and patted Bruno’s knee. “He’ll be off work until he heals, but once he’s ready to go back I’ll give you a job. I can’t pay you much while you’re apprenticing, but at least you’ll be making some money while you’re learning.”

“Cool. Thanks.”

They sat in companionable silence for several minutes until the elevator doors opened. Nicky and a smiling Maria came towards them.

“How is he?” Bruno asked, getting to his feet.

“Sleepy. But he woke up for a few seconds.” Nicky chuckled. “Long enough to remind us to get our homework done before going to bed.”

“That sounds about right.” Bruno glanced at Kent. “You ready?”

“Yeah.” Kent stood. He leant down and gave Maria a kiss on the forehead. “We’ll run by and get something to eat on the way home.”

Nicky and Maria both nodded and sat down.

Kent
actually felt nervous on the elevator ride up. As pleased as he was that Bruno chose to wait and accompany him to Marco’s bedside, he worried he wouldn’t be able to keep it together in front of the seventeen-year old.

They stepped into Marco’s room. Kent wasn’t initially pleased that his lover was sharing a room with someone else, but he realised it was probably all Marco’s insurance would pay for.

He gave the patient in the first bed a nod as he walked towards, what had to be, Marco’s bed. At least the privacy curtains had been drawn between the two beds, so maybe he could sneak a kiss in before he left.

With an IV stand and another monitor on one side of the bed, Kent and Bruno were forced to stand side by side. He gazed down at the sleeping man. His hand automatically began to brush soothing strokes against Marco’s thigh through the blanket.

“He looks pale,” Bruno commented.

“He’s been through a lot. He’s a fighter though.”

“Yeah. He is,” Bruno agreed.

Their voices must have alerted Marco to their presence because his lover’s eyes blinked several times before remaining open.

“Hey,” Marco’s scratchy voice greeted.

Kent
had to struggle with his inner adult not to push Bruno out of the way and profess his love to Marco.

Marco obviously knew him too well. He smiled at Kent. “I need to talk to Bruno for a few moments.”

Hurt, but trying his best to understand, Kent nodded. “I’ll wait in the hall.”

Before Kent could step away from the bed, Marco touched his hand. “I love you.”

Kent
squeezed the hand that had brushed his. “I love you, too.”

He walked out to the hall. It was amazing how those three little words could soothe him. He hoped it would always be like that. Kent knew they’d have disagreements over everything from money to raising Nicky and Maria, but at the end of the day, he knew Marco was the only one he wanted to lay beside.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to find Bruno. “You can go in.”

Kent
didn’t waste time getting back to Marco’s side. Now that they were semi-alone, he bent and gave his lover a short but deep, tongue-brushing kiss. “I was so scared.”

“You and me both. But it’s over.” Marco puckered his lips. “Kiss me.”

Kent
complied, thrusting his tongue into Marco’s mouth. He tried to put all the love and fear he’d experienced over the previous several hours into the kiss. He finally pulled back when Marco yawned.

Kent
couldn’t help but laugh. He felt so much better. “You need sleep.”

Marco nodded his head in agreement. “I told Bruno how sorry I was that things worked out the way they did with Eddy. I don’t think he blames me.”

“Of course he doesn’t.”

“I was worried,” Marco admitted.

“Of course you were.” Kent bent and kissed Marco’s forehead. “You wouldn’t be Marco if you didn’t worry about the people you love.”

“Don’t let them con you into letting them stay up past their bedtime.”

“I won’t.”

Marco’s eyes started to drift shut. “Love you.”

 
“Love you, too. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Kent
waited a few extra moments until he was sure Marco was asleep. He turned to exit the room and found Bruno staring straight at him. “Something wrong?”

Bruno shook his head. “You really do love him, huh?”

“More than I love myself,” Kent replied honestly.

Bruno nodded and walked out of the room. Kent joined him in the hall as they waited for an elevator. Bruno’s eyes remained on the closed steel doors. “I’m glad he found you.”

Kent
didn’t know what to say, so he kept his mouth shut. He knew what it had taken Bruno to admit what he just had. Maybe Trey was right and it would take time. Regardless, Kent knew something had changed in his relationship with Bruno, and that was enough for the time being.

Epilogue

Marco ran his finger between the bricks, keeping a watchful eye for inconsistencies. He grinned as he sat down on the soft green grass. He stared up at the brick and white columned gazebo completely satisfied.

“Hey, babe,” Kent greeted, dropping down beside him. “What’re you doing?”

“A final inspection of Bruno’s work.” He leant against his partner’s side. “He’s good.”

“Of course he is. He learned from the master.”

Marco pushed Kent back until they were lying side by side. “Thanks for letting us build this.”

Kent
wrapped his arms around Marco. “No thanks needed. This is your home as much as it is mine. It’s been nice watching the two of you work on it together.”

“Better be careful what you say. Bruno was talking about putting in a brick path from the patio out to the gazebo.”

“Go for it.” Kent rolled over on top of Marco and ground his hardening cock against his lover. “You look awfully tired. You sure you wouldn’t like a nap?”

Marco spread his thighs, putting their cocks into better contact. “Where’re the kids?”

“My dad took them to the Warf for the afternoon.”

Marco grinned. Kent’s dad had become a familiar addition to the family in recent months. After Kent had surprised them all with trips to Phoenix for the Christmas holiday, his dad had made a point to fly up to San Francisco every other month. It was Tom’s third trip in six months, and Marco had a strong feeling the older man might decide to relocate back to the city of his birth.

Marco felt his pre-cum begin to soak through his jeans. “You’d better take me inside or the neighbours will be calling the cops.”