Page 27 of Healing Daddy

“You don’t have to—”

JJ squeezed his knee. “It’s okay. He’s your dad. It’s his right to tell me I need to treat his son like the god he is.”

The look on his dad’s face made every single past insult worthwhile. JJ really got under his skin.

JJ stood.

Leary did too. “I need to head to the restroom anyway.”

JJ smiled and swiped a kiss across Leary’s lips. “I won’t be gone long.”

“Okay.” Leary followed on their heels since they were headed in the same direction. There was a table with a plant on it outside his dad’s office. His dad went inside first. JJ paused and touched beneath the edge of the table as he passed, just as he had done earlier before he followed Leary’s dad to the dining room.

Leary hung back and waited for the door to close. He sneaked closer and looked under the table. One of the tiny chips they had found around his home earlier was stuck right where JJ touched. His stomach churned. Leary stood and listened at the door.

“You may as well get on with it. I know why Beau sent you here.”

“Do you?” JJ sounded completely calm, yet harder than Leary had ever heard him be.

“Of course. This is the part where you tell me what he wants now. And by the way, it wasn’t necessary to get my son involved.”

“He isn’t, and we didn’t. You’re the one who placed listening devices around his home, hoping to catch anything you can useagainst Beau. That’s a deadly game. You’ve never seen my face for a reason. I’m who they send when you fuck up.”

Leary took a step back. What was happening? He retraced his steps and moved through every room they had been in. Leary checked the sideboard first. Yep, another bug. He dipped beneath the dining room table. Sure enough, listening device right there.

“Why are you under the table?”

Leary hit his head at his mom’s question as he stumbled out from beneath the table. “Oh.” He released a nervous chuckle. “I knocked a fork beneath it earlier.”

“Oh.” She reclaimed her seat. “We may as well have some more wine while we wait for the guys.”

Leary sat. He hadn’t sat alone and drunk wine with his mom in years. She had always been too concerned with his waistline.

He watched her fill both their glasses nearly to the brim. Leary took a breath and a chance. “It’s been a long time since it was just us and wine.”

Layla nodded as she swallowed a huge mouthful of her drink. “I believe the last was when we were decorating your house.”

Leary smiled. “That was a good night. I miss doing things like that with you.”

Layla looked at him as if she hadn’t seen him in years. Her gaze moved over his face. “Me too. We should have wine nights more often.”

Leary nodded. “We definitely should.” He would need all the alcohol after JJ admitted he was only with Leary to get to his dad. Leary should have seen that one coming, honestly. He had known JJ was too good to be true. His wine disappeared almost instantly. He had never felt more broken.

The ride home was oddly quiet. JJ tried to engage Leary a few times, but Leary immediately fell silent again after answering each question. He finally gave up. To be real, if JJ had to deal with people like Leary’s parents on the regular, he would need some peace too. Each time he thought about the way they had treated Leary, his stomach churned with rage. He supposed he knew now why Leary was unbothered by being called Bean. Leary heard worse at home. JJ hadn’t behaved anywhere near as badly as he wanted.

They made it home and walked through the door. The uneasiness grew inside JJ. Leary headed straight for their bedroom and into the bathroom, closing the door with a snap behind him. Had he upset Leary by standing up for him? Maybe he had gone too far. JJ wasn’t good at being subtle. He wouldhave tried for Leary, though. It was possible JJ should have consulted Leary first. If he looked too closely at things, JJ had run a little roughshod over Leary today. The way he handled stress was to take control. Now he saw how that might upset Leary.

JJ stripped and pulled on his pajama pants. He left the light on and spread Leary’s art supplies out on the bed. Then he rushed to the kitchen to fix Leary some hot chocolate. When he returned, he found Leary sitting in the center of the bed, wearing his bear pajamas and coloring. It seemed he had upset Leary enough to push him into needing to self-soothe. Shit. All he wanted was to make Leary happy.

JJ set Leary’s hot chocolate on the nightstand. “I made you some hot chocolate.”

Leary didn’t look up from coloring. “Thanks.”

JJ settled on his back and rubbed Leary’s knee. “Do you want to talk about it? Even if you’re upset with me, I want you to tell me so I can fix it. I love you. It’s my job to try to make things better.”

“Do you love me?”

JJ hadn’t expected that one. “Of course.”