Hammer shrugged. “It’s fine. Just pick something in the store.”
“You sure? I’ll pay you back.”
Hammer shook his head and pulled his top off, revealing hard, tattooed muscle. “No need. It’s the least I can do.”
Dex grinned. “Okay, I do know why I forgot my wallet. I wanted to behere,” he said and put his face between Hammer’s pecs with a happy sigh.
When the strong arm pulled him closer, reality couldn’t have been more perfect.
Chapter 19 – Hammer
Hammerfeltlightheaded,asif he might float up from their booth at any moment, but the sight of Dex filling his mouth with fries like a chipmunk kept him grounded as he chewed on his burger in the interior which had been redecorated in a style that was somehow both modern and rustic, with wicker lamp shades and screens made of natural-colored wood to divide the space into smaller, more intimate sections.
He rather liked the trashy atmosphere of fast food restaurants from ages ago, which this place used to house before refurbishment, but he supposed this was fine too. He stopped here sometimes when on the road, and it was always good to know where one can shower and get a good meal.
Déjà vu struck him for a moment when looking at Dex across the table, but maybe it was just a flashback to the kid gorging on wings at the restaurant Cora had suggested they try. Dex wasn’t a little guy, but Hammer still hardly understood where all that food went. The kid had to have the metabolism of a hummingbird.
He wore the new jacket Hammer had gotten him, a simple dark blue bomber jacket, which seemed to be Dex’s favorite type of outerwear, but the tame exterior was balanced out by the pale green lining with a print of alien heads.
The garment was all him, and a real surprising find at a rest stop, where stores usually only stocked the most boring clothing, palatable to the average person’s taste. But Dex wasn’t like most people. He was a little tornado of color and noise, a bird of paradise trapped in a henhouse yet somehow thriving in an environment that didn’t quite suit him.
And Hammer liked it. Liked him more than he could have ever expected. He just didn’t know what that meant.
“Did Frank call?”
Dex choked on a fry and had to gobble down some of his milkshake before he could speak. “No,” he rasped. “Why?”
Hammer shrugged and popped a fry in his mouth, swaying to the song flowing from the speakers. “The argument got really bad, and he was unreasonable. Thought he might have come to his senses by now.”
Dex sighed. “Hope you didn’t hear it to the end. It… got out of hand. Frank’s been really good to me all in all. But he can get bull-headed about some things, and then I get angry, and it all gets blown out of proportion. But he does need to get it through his head that I’m not a kid anymore. I can take care of myself.”
Hammer watched him in silence, sipping coffee.
Frank wasn’twrongabout Dex. The kid was untamed, reckless, and brash—all things Hammer found attractive, but he wasn’t blind to Dex being pea-brained either. For Hammer those were all qualities he tended to enjoy in sexual partners, but if Frank saw himself as Dex’s guardian and felt obligated to keep him safe for the sake of his late sister’s memory, it was no wonder he treated the boy like a precious porcelain trinket.
“He’ll come around. He just feels it’s his duty to protect you, and I see why he might not wantmearound you.”
Dex’s big brown eyes were on him right away. “Why not?” he asked with his mouth full.
“Because I’m a dangerous man. Frank knows what I’m capable of and he doesn’t want to see you hurt,” Hammer said, but as he looked at Dex’s flushed features, at the flickering brown eyes and shaved cheeks, he couldn’t help but feel protective of him too. Dex might have landed on all fours many a time, but even the most agile of cats were not invulnerable, and their nine lives eventually ran out. “If I didn’t know myself, I’d be wary too.”
Dex groaned. “But that’s the thing. I’m not some innocent. In the famous words of Walter White,I’m not in danger. Iamthe danger.” He slurped his milkshake in a dramatic way, as if to make a point.
Hammer struggled to keep his face straight. “I’m afraid he sees you as his teenage nephew.”
Dex leaned on the table until his forehead hit the coffee-stained surface. “I know. But he’s gotta let me live my life and suck the dick I want to suck. He doesn’t even know you, but you’rebadbecause you killed a couple of people. Whatever. They had it coming. You were right to tell him to get off his high horse, because his hands are dirty too.”
Hammer felt tension rise at the back of his neck when he remembered his own stormy relationship with his parents. There were days when he regretted how it had ended. “It can be frustrating, but I can see he is trying to be a part of your life no matter what. That really is a lot. My parents would never do that.”
Dex cocked his head. “Is it because of the biker club thing?
“No. I was a problem kid, and after I went to juvie... well, they basically only gave me ultimatums. So I left and never spoke to them since.”
Dex kicked him under the table. “Do you not regret it?”
Hammer hadn’t talked about this to anyone. Ever. So it was odd to have this cute kid prodding at him, but being asked probing questions sometimes brought unexpectedly good results by taking Hammer out of his usual thinking patterns. Most people were afraid they might agitate him and kept their mouths shut. But not Dex.
“Of course I do. But it is what it is. They are decent people, and they don’t want a criminal for a son,” Hammer muttered.