Page 79 of Don't Puck Up

“You’re right. I’m sorry,” Hux said, flicking his gaze around the room and letting it linger on the trio on the bed.

“Have you been looked at by a doctor?” Monroe asked.

“He has,” Kam said with a nod as she turned in my arms and eased my hood back up. “He just needs to take it easy for a few weeks to let everything heal.”

“Cara,” I interjected. My voice was a rasp, so I cleared my throat and continued, “You were saying.”

She hesitated, looking between us before Kam came to my rescue again, encouraging her to keep telling the story.

“Ah, yeah. Um, Rupert was Mum’s favorite teddy when she was a little girl. She gave him to me when I was born, and he became my favorite too. So now it’s…. Wait, what have you named her?”

Jacques looked between his wife and the two men who I was beginning to suspect were more than roommates. “Is she a Charlie, a Chloe, or a Cadey?”

Carina answered immediately, “Charlie.”

“Charlie,” Travis seconded, and Rusty nodded with a smile.

“Definitely Charlie,” he added.

“Meet Charlie, everyone.” Jacques grinned. He was filled with joy, riding a high that he’d been there to witness his daughter’s birth. Rusty was looking at Gauthier like he wanted to devour him, and all the pieces fell into place.

When Jacques had pulled me aside to check on me in San Diego airport and again through the rest of our trip to Australia, he’d never once made the same assumption that Mironov and the other guys on the team had made—that it was Kamirah sleeping with Hux. It was because he was speaking from the experience of being a closeted queer man, exactly like me.

“Let’s take this outside,” Hux murmured.

I gave him a tight smile and followed him and Monroe out, Kam never taking her hand off the small of my back as we walked.

“Speak. Now,” he ordered. “First, we get the call to say you aren’t playing, and now this? What the fuck happened?”

“I came out to my family on Sunday.” I scratched my jaw and winced at the bruises there. “Dad and my brothers didn’t take it so well.”

Hux eased my hood back, and I darted my gaze up and down the corridor, but it was quiet. He gripped my chin gently and checked my black eye, then looked at the bruising on my jawline. “They did this?”

“Yeah,” I choked out, my eyes stinging and throat clogging up. I nodded and blinked fast, trying to clear the tears threatening to fall. But it was no use. My eyes filled, and Hux pulled me into his arms. I went easily, needing the man I’d called a friend for years.

“I’ll fucking kill them,” Hux murmured.

When he pulled back, I flicked my gaze to Monroe. Where I expected to see anger or jealousy, or hell, even annoyance that his man was hugging me of all people, all I saw was a man who looked like he’d seen a ghost. He was pale, his hands shaking. He looked haunted.

“Jesus, Roe,” Hux said and wrapped him up in a tight hug. He murmured something to him and seemed to hug him tighter. When Monroe finally nodded, Hux pulled back and wiped the tears streaming down Monroe’s cheeks with his thumbs.

“I’m sorry,” Monroe apologized.

I had no idea what had set him off, but it was clear it was a fucking hard subject for him to deal with. He reached out and touched my arms gently, then pulled me into a hug too.

“You’re only a few years older than my son would have been had he not died.”

His words floored me. Fucking gutted me.

“Family doesn’t hurt each other. They don’t deserve you, you understand?” He waited for me to nod before he spoke again. “You've got family here. Kam, and Hux and me, Cara, Carina, and her boys. We willneverhurt you like that,” he vowed, and I nodded again, losing the battle against crying.

I hadn’t even begun the process of grieving for my family, but Monroe saying that gave me a soft landing. I had Kam’s dad, and Locke had videochatted with his parents and introduced us, but having Hux and Gauthier as well as all their partners? That was more than I could ever have asked for.

“They should never have hurt you like that,” he continued fiercely. “You deserve so much better. They should have accepted you, showing you kindness and love. You deserve people who will celebrate your sexuality because it's part of you—a person they love. They should have said they were proud of you for being brave enough to come out. Then apologized for ever giving you a reason to fear it.”

I sucked in a wobbly breath. Monroe pulled me into his arms again, and I cried like a fucking baby, hugging a practical stranger who’d acted more like a father to me in the last five minutes than my own had for years.

I pulled back and grasped Hux’s arm. “Keep him, Hux. He's good people."