Cheat [MxM] (Carter Brothers Book 1)

Chapter 25

EZRA ▪︎ POV

Living with Jae was like living with my lover and living with a high school best friend all in one. It was... exhilarating, intimate and fun, all wrapped up into one sexy, six foot tall Korean man. I woke up in the mornings either having to drag him off the floor and back into bed after he'd squirmed his way over the edge of the mattress, dead to the world. Or I'd hear remixed nursery rhymes blasting through the apartment and stumble sleepily into the living room to find Jae seductively body rolling to the alphabet song while my toddler danced on the coffee table.

We both had a few days off work, Jae to recover from his incident and myself because Evan had forced it upon me, though I wasn't complaining. Each waking hour with Jae and Ollie was a blessing. Jae and I had coffee on his balconies in the mornings, watching the sun rise as the morning chill settled on our skin. He'd been trying to cut back on smoking now that Ollie was around, but the odd cigarette or two passed between us as we held each other and appreciated the gorgeous view.

Our days were mostly filled with entertaining Ollie, whether that be watching movies with him, drawing pictures with crayons or wrestling on the couch. I got ambushed a lot, whether that be in sleep or while minding my own business otherwise. From kisses and butt laps from a sneaky Jae, to impromptu hugs and flying teddy bears from a giggling Ollie. To say I felt loved, was an understatement. We ate together, slept together, went shopping together, even bathed together. It was the perfect family dynamic I'd always wanted but never thought I'd have.

Of course there were adult things that needed our attention outside of our bubble, from Jae overseeing the selling of his parent's house now that they were gone, to my constant battle with Renee. I'd gotten a new phone and had texted her to let her know Ollie was with me and we were moving out. I was very clear that I wasn't taking him away from her, just that I was living somewhere else and Ollie was free to move between us. My phone didn't stop ringing for hours straight after that.

I ignored calls, but read messages. Renee's dad had threatened to call the police on me for kidnapping. Mom sent lecture after lecture, paragraph after paragraph about me being a disappointment and a train wreck. I didn't deserve the family I had and was an absolute psycho for running away so on and so forth. Throw in a few homophobic text messages from dad along with insistent work emails regarding company ownership and I just about held back from throwing myself over Jae's balcony railings.

Jae, who'd been peering over my shoulder, took my phone away from me and slipped it into his pocket after turning it off. "Don't give them the attention they want, but don't deserve. More than that, don't listen to what they're saying. Focus on me, on Ollie, on us. Everything's okay." He took my hands and pulled me up off the couch and into his arms. I was shaking as I gave in to the vulnerability I allowed myself to feel around him.

I hadn't really noticed it, since I was so used to being yelled at and cursed at and talked down upon like I didn't mean anything to my family and well, I usually skipped straight past pain and dived head first into anger, but it hurt. It hurt so fucking bad and sometimes, I found it hard to differentiate between insults and truth. Was I really a bad father? Was it true that I was good at fucking things up for everyone around me? Was staying here with Jae being cowardly and running away?

"Stop it," Jae had whispered, cupping my face as he rose up on his tip toes and planted a soft, lingering kiss on my lips. "No thoughts, baby. Just us." Then he danced with me. He held me in his arms and slow danced with me to Bruno Major's song 'Easily', soothing my tears away with kisses and whispered words of encouragement. It was like nothing I'd ever felt before, that level of soul deep comfort and reassurance from another person, not even from Evan.