Page 63 of Finding His Happiness
“What were you buying? You don’t like bananas.” His confused tone made me smile.
“First, thank you for remembering.” That was something he excelled at. “It makes me feel important. Second, you’re right. I was shopping for apples because I’d been thinking about making you a special dessert but none of them looked fresh enough. I might need a new grocery store. The produce at the one closest by me has gone downhill lately.”
“They have to pay extra to be first on the delivery route. Your store here might’ve stopped paying to be higher on the list.” Ferris was a font of helpful information. “We’ll find a better one for you.”
“Thank you for your help. I didn’t know that about the produce but it makes sense.” Something had clearly changed and I didn’t like it. “What do you think about taking a field trip to look at some other grocery stores this weekend?”
“Sure.” He patted my chest. “I want my dessert.”
Laughing, I kissed his head again. “Deal.”
Sounding lighter, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. It seemed to help steady him because he sounded closer to neutral as he started again. “He used inappropriate language but what it translates into is that Harvey thinks I’m autistic.”
So Ferris hadn’t known that?
“Is there a question hidden in that statement? Do you have thoughts about his accusation or the label?” I was not just going to start randomly offering my thoughts on that until I knew what he was thinking.
“I...” Pausing, he took another deep breath and let it out slowly. We’d been practicing that because he wasn’t always good at it, so I was glad to see it happening without needing a prompt. “I think I have a question but I’m not sure what I’m thinking.”
Or probably feeling.
“Let’s start with a reminder that I like being your Dom and I don’t need you to change.” With the Harvey situation, I wasn’t sure if that would be easy to remember. “I’m here to help you sort through anything, though.”
Oh, that sigh.
“You agree with him.” His dejected tone had me snorting.
“I will not agree to anything he says on principal. He’s rude and not very smart. There are literally help videos for anything to do with Excel. He’s not smart enough to search YouTube on his phone to find someone to explain it to him.” Everyone knew where to go for information like that.
Everyone.
Finally sitting up, he opened his eyes and scrunched up his face. “I thought about that but I wasn’t sure it was polite to point out.”
My boy was too polite.
“We don’t have to be polite when it’s just us talking about assholes.” Shrugging, I stole a quick kiss to make him smile. Ashe shook his head and tried to look serious, I poked his nose. “The people. Not the body part.”
And the smile I wanted peeked through.
“You’re going to distract us.” He huffed and jerked but I wasn’t sure what he was doing until he looked down at his arms. “I forgot I was restrained. I tried to cross my arms. That was weird.”
I wasn’t going to point out it was also distracting.
“Are you asking to be released?” I didn’t think so but I asked just in case.
“It was just weird.” Looking back up at me, he squared his shoulders. “I had a foster mother when I was younger tell my case worker that she wanted to get me tested but I was moved shortly after that. I thought it meant she had to be wrong but maybe not.”
Maybe someone just hadn’t wanted to do their job.
“I’m glad you had people who tried to help you even if it didn’t work out.” He’d gotten the shaft when it’d come to foster issues even if he didn’t always seem to recognize it. “I think you’ve grown up into an amazing person, though.”
I could see him keeping that fact at the front of his mind, but his frown said it wasn’t the only thing percolating in there.
“Why do you deal with me so well?”
That was not what I thought he’d ask.
Chapter 20
