Initiative (Suncoast Society #31)(65)

“Yes,” Kyle said with a firm nod. “I’ll keep your secret for you.”

Susie’s memory flashed back to that first weekend, when she’d agreed to Grant’s proposal without him even getting the whole statement out of his mouth.

“But I have a condition of my own,” Kyle said.

Oh, boy. Here we go.

“What?” Grant asked.

He focused on Susie. “Dad’s lawyer is your lawyer, too. Right?”

“Right.”

“Can you help him pay to get full custody of me? To make stuff go faster so I can live with you guys all the time?”

The three adults exchanged a look.

“I’ll still go visit her,” Kyle added. “Like on weekends or something. But I’m sick and tired of living there. I want to be here. I want to live with you guys. You guys are normal. When I’m here, we have dinner together every night. You help me with my homework and talk to me. I want that. I miss my Dad. I miss him being around all the time. He raised me. Mom never has time for me.”

Grant stared at Susie and Darryl, eyebrow arched.

She knew what he wanted to say next, and she nodded.

So did Darryl.

“Okay,” Grant said, “but before you say that, I have some rules you need to know.”

“Sure.”

“In this relationship between me and your dad and Susie, I’m the one in charge. They defer to me. That’s the way I want it, and that’s the way they want it.”

“Duh.”

Grant’s other eyebrow went up. “Say again?”

“Come on, I know Dad’s…” He looked at Darryl. “No offense, Dad, but Grant’s the guy and you’re the girl. And Susie, too. But you guys are happy, so whatever. I don’t care. One of my friends, his dad is gay and has a husband. They’re kinda like that, too.”

The giggle finally escaped Susie, making Grant turn. “What’s so funny?”

“You, Sir,” she said. “You look like you just got your kneecaps taken out from under you.”

“I did.” He returned his focus to Kyle. “I’m serious—you can’t tell anyone. Not your friends, no one. Our official story has to be your dad and Susie are dating and engaged. If anyone finds out the truth, your dad and I both could lose our jobs, and then your mom can try to go for full custody again.”

“I promise I won’t. I haven’t said anything before now, why do you think I’d say anything after?”

“Your dad is still in charge of you,” Grant said, “but I run the house. You’re going to obey our rules.”

Kyle nodded. “I will. I promise.”

“Do you have any questions for us?”

“Can I be at the wedding?”

“Well, yeah. Of course we want you there.”

“Okay. Deal.”

“Anything else?”

“Yeah,” Kyle said. “Can we have pizza for dinner?”

Grant smiled. “I think we can manage that.”





There was no use in hiding things from Kyle any longer. They did a lot more talking over pizza. They kept the conversation age-appropriate, and didn’t get into the sexual aspects of their relationship or talk about BDSM, but they did manage to get the basic gist of things conveyed to him.

After Kyle went to bed, the three adults retired to Grant’s bedroom and collapsed.

“Holy crap,” Darryl said as he fell back onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. “I feel like I’ve been run through an emotional blender.”

“Join the club,” Grant said as he stretched out next to him.

“Do you think he’s really going to keep our secret?” Susie asked.

“I think so,” Grant said. “I think he understands what’s at stake. It doesn’t hurt that he really wants to live here full-time. And he’s right. If he hasn’t said anything to anyone before, why would he blow our secret now?”

“You think he’ll still want to live with us in a couple of months?” Darryl asked.

“Yeah. This is different than before. This isn’t just a temper tantrum. He’s really done living there. I can tell. And I feel crappy for him.”

“Me, too,” Susie said. “He looked really upset.”

“He is upset,” Darryl said. “He wouldn’t talk to me when I got him. He just got into the car and it was like a wall of silence until we got here and he ran inside.”

“The good news is, we don’t have to sneak around anymore when he’s here,” Grant said.

“And the bad news?” Susie asked.

“We’ve got a wedding and a custody battle to plan,” Darryl said.





Chapter Twenty-One


The next morning, Susie called Ed as soon as he was in the office and gave him an update.

“Wow,” he said after a moment of silence. “When you do something, you don’t screw around, do you?”

“No. What can we do?”

“About the custody agreement?”

“Yeah.”

“Lucky for us, Pat Donnelly is the judge. We might have to give up asking for alimony and child support to get Chelsey to let go, though. And Kyle might have to talk to the judge. You sure he’s willing to do that?”