Page 29 of Promised Secret (Promises, Promises #3)

Chapter Twenty-Four

CLAY

I knew Dan was plotting something when I couldn’t find him for lunch. My suspicions were confirmed when I received a call from my mom asking me and Dan to stop by after work for dinner.

She’d confirmed that Dan had visited her that morning, and they’d had a long, heartfelt talk about us. She told me she was on our side, and she would always be on our side.

Dan fought for me.

He worried so much last night that I wondered if he’d run away and choose the family instead of being with me.

His lao-ba was important to him since it’d been just the two of them since he was born.

But he didn’t run. He stayed and fought for me, and I didn’t know how I was not supposed to be giddy about that fact.

I couldn’t wait to see Dan, and I practically ran to the clinic. When I flung the door open, Dan was the only person in the clinic.

He was sitting in Rosa’s usual seat at the reception desk, reading a textbook. Suddenly, I was transported back in time to the countless times I’d walked through these doors in the past to find Dan waiting for me in that exact spot.

Dan looked up, bigger and more mature, but he beamed that same heart-throbbing smile my way. When I told him we were probably always meant to end up here, there was no doubt in my mind about it.

I ran to him and scooped him into my arms. Dan laughed and hugged me back.

“What’s this for?” he asked, his voice muffled by how his face was squished into my arms.

I breathed in his comforting scent and relaxed into him. “I love you,” I murmured.

Dan’s voice was music as he whispered he loved me, too. We kissed tenderly in the clinic where our story started, and it was far from over.

“We should go. They’re waiting for us,” Dan said, pulling back. I tried chasing his lips, but he only laughed and evaded.

I helped him close down the clinic and lock up, and then we were on the road. I held his hand the entire way there, just because I wanted to, and because I could.

I liked his nice, magical hands a lot.

Mom was already waiting for us outside when we pulled into the driveway.

“My boy,” she said, and pulled me into a hug. She held me tighter than she ever had before. I hugged her back. I hated fighting with her.

“I’m sorry for how I acted last night,” she said. “I hope you can forgive me. Both of you.” She turned to Dan and pulled him into our little hugging pile, too.

“I’m sorry for speaking to you like that, too,” I told her. “I hate when we fight.”

She laughed and kissed me on the cheek before doing the same for Dan. She herded us inside and called, “They’re here!”

Victor came from the kitchen. He looked serious as he strode to us, and I wondered if Mom had clued him in on last night, since he seemed out of the loop.

“Hi, son,” he said to Dan. Victor then surprised the hell out of me by wrapping his arms around Dan and hugging him. It wasn’t one of his awkward, loose hugs he gave on rare occasions. It was a full-on papa-bear hug that Dan just melted into.

Victor turned to me, and as if this had been pre-planned, Mom hooked her arm into Dan’s as they chatted and left us alone.

“Come to the garden with me?” Victor asked.

I nodded and followed him to the backyard.

He and my mom had put a lot of work into the yard these past few years.

The fish inside the koi pond poked their heads out of the water to greet us, and the air had a floral scent from all the different flowers planted around here, and there were even birds and squirrels watching us curiously from the new birdbath.

If I hadn’t known better, this place felt like we’d been transported into some kind of Snow White–type shit.

“Sit with me,” Victor instructed, and patted the chair beside him. I could imagine him and my mom spending quiet evenings sitting here and enjoying the life they’d made for themselves.

“Did you know Dan was a very quiet baby?” Victor commented.

“I didn’t,” I replied, having no clue where he was heading with this.

“He babbled and made noises, sure, but he never cried. Even if his eyes rounded with tears, he never cried out. I like to say he knew I was having a hard time as a single father and took pity on me.” Victor chuckled and looked off into the distance like he was seeing a memory.

“He was always easy to coax, too. He was always laughing and smiling at me. Even as a baby, he tried his best to be considerate.”

I smiled too. I could totally see Dan being that way as a baby. He always tried his best for the people he loved. I had first-hand experience with that.

Victor looked back at me, and his expression turned serious.

“He was always so considerate. I tried to raise him the best I could. I guided him to the path I thought was best for him, and he never complained. I knew he had no interest in taking over the clinic, but it was the only thing I could give him.”

“That’s not true,” I argued. “Dan loves the clinic. He’s always happy as he talks about his patients and the new challenges that he faces there.”

Victor gave me an appreciative smile. “He might like it now, but I’m aware he once wanted to join the police force with you.”

He laughed again when I opened my mouth and tried to think of something to say.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to try to make me feel better,” he said gravely. He sighed and looked at his fish. Whatever he was feeding the koi worked, because they were the size of my forearm.

He turned back to me, sorrow in his eyes. “Dan cared so much about my happiness that he tended to keep his own close to his heart. I thought that as long as he was safe and healthy, it would all be okay. He never voiced what he wanted, and that is one of my greatest failures as a father.”

I let the words sink in, not knowing what to say to comfort him. I wasn’t a father, so I couldn’t understand his exact mentality, but I knew Victor would do anything to protect his son. He was the kind of father every kid deserved.

“He’d always listened to me and never insisted on anything…that is, besides you,” Victor said.

My heartbeat rocketed as his eyes watched me. There was no doubt he knew his son and I were together, and under the inquiring gaze of the man I saw as my father figure, I panicked.

I wanted to explain myself and tell him that none of this was Dan’s fault. I was the one who pushed for everything.

Instead, what came out was, “I love him.”

Victor didn’t yell at me or get mad. He just patted my knee and said, “You’re a good man, Clay. I would know, since I consider you my own.”

I bit my tongue and nodded. I couldn’t talk or the tears would threaten to spill. To hear someone I thought so highly of say they thought of me this way comforted something inside of me.

Was I a good man?

Sometimes the way my thoughts led told me I wasn’t. But I wanted to be for the people I loved.

“Dan loves you,” Victor continued, “and I can’t think of a better person to be by his side.”

“I’ll take care of him, sir,” I said seriously.

Victor smiled. There was a bright twinkle in his eyes. “You’ll take care of each other. And I told you before, you can call me ‘lao-ba.’ I think, as my future son-in-law, you’re allowed to do that.”

“Okay, Lao-ba,” I managed to choke out. Over a decade later, I was finally able to call him that without the guilt of Dan’s despair haunting me. Dan never wanted us to be brothers, but that didn’t mean we wouldn’t end up as family, and this was one family I was so fucking thankful to have.

“C’mon, they’re waiting for us to eat,” Lao-ba said and stood. I stood, too, and waited for him to go first. Instead, he came to my side and wrapped an arm around my shoulder. I was surprised, but my only reaction was to lean into his homey touch. “Let’s go, son.”

We walked like that back inside, his arm holding me all the way inside. Dan smiled when he saw us. He’d just finished setting up the table with my mom.

Lao-ba walked to my mom and pressed a kiss to her cheek, which she happily accepted, and Dan came to my side. He grabbed my hand, his eyes curved in happiness as they reflected my image.

I knew there would be many hurdles in us being together, but we crossed the most important one. Our family accepted us, and that was more important than the opinions of anyone else.

Sunday brunch came, and Dan was filled with nerves as we walked into Hector’s. We’d planned to tell our friends about us being together today.

Countless eyes found us as soon as we walked inside.

All of them turned into shock when they saw us holding hands.

Doing this in the middle of a very busy day at Hector’s guaranteed the entire town would know by noon, but we didn’t care.

Now that our parents knew and accepted us, we didn’t care who else did.

Our friends were all already at a booth in the back. Today’s brunch only included Jones, Ryan, Ryker, and Sam. The smaller group made this a lot easier, plus Dan told me Jones already knew about us.

Ryker was the first to spot us. His eyes bugged out of his head when he saw us holding hands as we walked his way. We just smiled and continued weaving through the crowd of people toward them.

“About time,” Jones commented when we slid into our seats. He raised an eyebrow. “Have something to tell us?”

Dan lifted our entwined hands and placed them on the table for everyone to see. Jones smirked, Ryan and Ryker were still in a shocked stupor, and Sam looked…not surprised?

“I figured something was going on when you two stopped bickering all the time,” Sam admitted. “Plus, I have eyes. It’s obvious you two had a thing for each other by how you stick together all the time. And, Clay getting jealous of Dan’s dates isn’t exactly normal for stepbrothers.”

I nodded. My jealousy really hadn’t been normal, but I never understood the reason for it until now. I squeezed Dan’s hand and beamed.

“That’s not something to be proud of,” he said with a snort.

I kept holding on.