Starting Point (23 page)

Boss groaned. “Sometimes I think I prefer not knowin’.”

I chuckled at him. “Yeah, well, I told you no secrets, right?”

He groaned in answer and ignored me.

So I fished my phone out of my pocket and said, “I need to make a call without Claude.”

Boss eyed me curiously as I pulled the business card from my wallet and dialled the number. The phone picked up after the fifth ring, and after brief introductions, I told them, “I’m looking for accommodation for two kids, aged thirteen and nine.”

“Hmm,” the gruff female voice huffed down the line. “Where did you say you was calling from?”

“I’m calling from the Harbor FC. I run some classes for kids, and have two in particular that need somewhere to stay.”

“I don’t usually take ring-ins. Haven’t got much in the way of availability…” she started to brush me off.

“I was given your name and number by someone who said you could help.”

“Who?”

“Doctor Tamara Coulter.”

There was a long beat of silence. “Well, shit.”

I grinned into the phone. “She has that effect on me, too.”

She barked a laugh into the phone, then gave me an address. “Can you swing past tomorrow? Around nine in the morning?”

“Absolutely.”

When I clicked off the call, I smiled at Boss and slid my phone back into my pocket. “Just lining up somewhere for Ruby and Claude to stay.”

Boss glared hard at me. “I told you to talk to the kid, not find him a house.”

“Well, if we want him off the streets, in school and not running drugs, then he needs to
not
be on the streets.” I gave him a satisfied smile. “Anyway, I like helping these kids. It’s what I’m here for.”

Boss shook his head and threw his pen on the table. “I think I liked you better when you wanted to punch and kick the shit outta people.”

I laughed incredulously. “What?”

“At least when you were scowlin’, angry and wantin’ to kill people, I knew what to expect. But the way you’ve been smilin’ lately scares me. I dunno if you’re really smilin’ or if you’re about to snap.”

I tried not to smile at him, and failed. “Boss, I’m in a good headspace. I really am. I’m working on my shit, and being here doing something positive isn’t just about working off debts to you and the boys. I actually love doing this.”

His eyes hardened under his thick grey eyebrows and I could tell he was considering the sincerity of my words. “You ain’t got no debts here,” he said.

I’d probably used the wrong word. “Not a debt, so much,” I corrected. “Even though it kind of is. I almost took a lot away from you guys.”

“But you’ve given a lot back,” he said. “And those boys out there think of you as one of ’em now.”

My smile became a grin. “I know.”

There was a knock at the door, and when it opened, Cody stuck his head in. “Hey, Matt, get your ass out here. You’ve got a bunch of bored kids about to riot if you don’t show up.”

I laughed and stood up. “On my way.”

Boss rolled his eyes, but before I left he said, “Hey, we on track for this fundraising day?”

“Yep. I can go through the details with you tomorrow,” I told him. “We’ll sit down and go through it all.”

Boss picked up his pen and went back to the papers in front of him. It looked like the spreadsheets he’d shown me the other week, which he’d probably gone over five dozen times every day.

“You’ll wear the words off that page,” I said as I walked out.

He grumbled something I didn’t hear, but I laughed anyway. When I walked out to the main floor of the gym, Kira and Ruby were just coming out of my office. Kira gave me a quick smile, so I assumed his little tutor session with Ruby had gone okay.

Kira and I went through my class together. It wasn’t too unusual if he was at the FC for him to help me. The kids knew him and he knew most of them by name, and I think they enjoyed having a different instructor every now and again.

By the time we were done and ready to go home, Ruby and Claude were gone. Kira told me, “Ruby said they’d be fine tonight. Said he and Claude would be back tomorrow.”

“Oh. Okay then.”

“Did you want to go look for them?”

I thought about doing just that, and the concern on Kira’s face probably should have made up my mind. But I wanted something else more.

“Would it be selfish of me to say I just want to be at home? With you. Just us.”

Kira smiled in the way that made my stomach flip. “Yes, probably. But then I think that sounds pretty perfect to me too.” Then he added, “I mean, it’s not like we’re kicking them out or anything. They’re not even here.”

I grinned at him. “That’s right. If they were here, they could stay with us, but they’re not…so it’s not like we’re saying no.”

“Exactly!” he agreed with a nod. “And considering I didn’t go to work today, I could really use a work out at home…” He cleared his throat. “And it’s been a while since you’ve practised your grappling moves, and given we’ll be home alone, we could bring the punching bag out to the floor…”

“I’ll just grab my things,” I said quickly.

Twenty seconds later, we were in the car and headed home.

* * * *

“I thought we were going to get the punching bag,” I said.

Kira walked me backwards down the hall towards our bedroom, his arms wrapped tight around me, quickly covering my mouth with his. He pushed me through the doorway and onto the bed, his tongue never leaving my mouth, his hands roaming all over my body.

“No,” he murmured against my lips. “Need you now.”

Kira pushed me against the bed, and, putting a hand on my chest, he pushed me onto the mattress. He pulled my pants down my thighs in one movement, then he crawled up over my body.

He kissed up my body, nuzzling his nose into my briefs before freeing my hard-on. He licked the length of my cock and continued up my stomach, over my chest to my neck and finally his mouth found mine.

I pulled his shorts over his ass and slid my hand between us, taking his engorged dick in my hand. Kira groaned into my mouth, his tongue stuttering at my touch.

When our cocks rubbed against each other, I took us both in my hand and let him fuck my fist. He held my face in his hands and thrust harder, rocking his hips, seeking relief from my hand. Kira’s tongue invaded my mouth, kissing me deeply and I could feel his cock harden further against mine.

“Fuck, Matt,” he ground out. “Won’t last.”

“I want to feel you come,” I whispered against his mouth. “Your cock against mine.”

Kira thrust one final time into my fist and his whole body stiffened as his cock pulsed in my hand. Hot cum smeared between us as his head fell back with a groan.

He was so fucking beautiful.

His body arched as the aftershocks of pleasure rolled through him, and I came. I bucked my hips, fisting my cock, and when I pulsed hot and thick between us, Kira chuckled into my neck.

“Fuck, we didn’t make it far,” he said.

“We’re still dressed,” I added.

Kira laughed and rolled off me onto the bed beside me. “Come on, shower.”

“My head’s spinning.”

Kira leaned up on his elbow. “Is it vertigo? Shit, Matt, I didn’t know…”

My burst of laughter cut him off. “Uh, no. It’s an orgasm head spin.” I writhed as the last of my pleasure twinged at my muscles. “The very best kind of head spin.”

Kira laughed, and when he got off the bed, he took my hand. Slowly pulling me upright, he kissed my swollen lips. “You look like you’ve been thoroughly fucked. You have that blissed-out smirk and sleepy eyes look.”

I chuckled. “Well, the thorough fucking will happen later. Shower and dinner first.”

Kira grinned at me and still holding my hand, with our pants barely around our thighs, he led me towards the shower.

* * * *

During dinner, we talked about our appointment with Tamara. I told him again that I heard what he’d said to her about me, and asked him if he had any questions.

“Actually, I do,” Kira said. “But it’s not about what Tamara said.”

“Okay. You can ask me anything.”

“Why don’t you like her?” Kira asked. “It’s not a clash of personalities,” he declared, “because I think professionally, as a cop, you would have got on like a house on fire. And it’s not like you to be so abrupt with someone. So what is it about her that gets under your skin?”

I put my plate in the sink and leaned against the counter. “You know, I’ve thought about that. A lot. And I don’t
not
like her…”

“Then what is it?”

I let out a nervous breath. “She, um, she scares me.”

“She what?”

I barked out a laugh. “Yeah, weird, I know. But I think that’s what it is. I’m not sure to be honest.”

Kira stood in front of me and put his hands on my arms. “What do you mean? Explain it to me.”

I looked into his dark eyes and saw only concern there. I smiled for him, took a deep breath and said, “I keep waiting for her to tell me I that I’m going to fail. With these kids. I know she keeps stressing caution about these kids, or whatever, and I know I’m not in the best place mentally to be thinking about kids and long-term. I should be taking one day at a time, and concentrating on us, on you, and on me, not thinking about being a father. Or, in my case, being told I can’t ever be one—”

Kira blinked, and my nervous rant died off.

“Wait,” he said with wide eyes. “You want to have kids? Like for real?”

“I mean, yeah, I’ve mentioned kids before, but I’d never even thought about it! Not seriously. Never in my life did I think that was a possibility for me. I never
wanted
it.”

“And now you do?”

“Now I… Well, yeah!” I admitted. “I can help dozens of kids at the club and that’s okay, but I don’t want to be told I’m not good enough to have kids of my own. I mean, I want to help get these kids get a better life. I want to help find some of them better places to live, to feel safe, and to get them an education and a future. But kids of my own? Well, shit. Why not? I mean, we could be dads, right?”

Kira’s mouth fell open, but then he smiled slowly. “Um, sure…?” he trailed off like it was a question.

“Don’t you want kids?” I asked. Then I realised maybe I shouldn’t have assumed. “It’s okay if you don’t. We certainly don’t have to—”

This time he stopped me mid-rant with a soft kiss to my lips. “I think it’s something we should talk about,” he said, still smiling. “Honestly, I think it’s wonderful, but I don’t think it’s something we should worry about right now. Like you said, we should be concentrating on us right now.”

“I know we should,” I agreed. “I just don’t want Tamara to make some diagnosis that I’d never be fit for being a dad.”

Kira kissed me again with smiling lips. “Matt, you’ll make an excellent dad.”

“You think so?”

“I know so,” he said. “But maybe we should start with a dog.”

I laughed, relieved. We’d been honest with each other and I felt better that I’d told him how I felt. “So, a big dog or a little dog? A boy dog or a girl dog? Long hair, short hair?”

Kira chuckled. “You can’t control everything, Matt. Anyway, I hear the right pet picks you, so I think we’ll know when we see it.”

* * * *

Kira and I went for a run in the morning, came home, showered, made out in the shower, made love in bed and made breakfast together in the kitchen. Right on time, we called past the FC to pick up Claude and Ruby and headed to the address the lady had given me for the halfway house for troubled kids.

It was an old terrace-style building, just a few blocks from the FC. There were some kids out front, who eyed the four of us cautiously as we walked up the front path. I knocked on the door and was met by a woman who almost snarled at me until I told her who I was.

“My name’s Matthew Elliott. I called yesterday about finding a place for two kids.” I stood aside then, so she could see Ruby and Claude standing behind me.

She smiled then. She was about five-foot-four and built like a football player. She had short grey hair and a hardened face. She reminded me oddly of Boss, but all jokes aside, it was obvious her life, the life she’d dedicated to homeless kids, hadn’t been an easy one.

“Come on in,” she said. She shook my hand, then Kira’s. Her hands were calloused and her grip was strong. Gina Sharp introduced herself to Ruby and Claude, and showed us around the house.

“Communal living room and kitchen. We eat in the dining room through there. There’s a cooking roster and a cleaning roster. You do your own laundry. I’m here to help, but I ain’t no maid,” she said as she headed up the stairs. With a quiet look between the four of us, we followed her as she talked. “Bedrooms on the first floor, if you decide you want to stay, it’ll be four to a room, and a share bathroom. No doors on bedrooms,” she said. “Except for my room. Strictly out of bounds, no excuses.”

The house itself was old and there were scuff marks on the walls and floors, but it was tidy. And above all, it was better than sleeping in a dumpster.

Gina went through the rules, but said while she encouraged kids to go to school, she couldn’t make them. “My deal breaker is drugs. You take ’em, you run ’em, you sell ’em, you’re out. No exceptions, no excuses.”

I found myself smiling at her. I liked her. “Sounds good,” I said. I looked at Ruby and Claude. “Whattya think?”

Claude looked to her brother. With a final look around the living room, Ruby shrugged one shoulder and nodded. “I guess.”

I grinned and clapped my hand on Ruby’s shoulder. “Good man,” I said.

“When did you want to start?” Gina asked.

“Tonight,” I answered on their behalf.

Gina smiled warmly at the two kids. “You have anything you want to bring over?”

Claude shook her head. “No. I got my backpack with me.”

Gina smiled at her. “Well then, you’re all set.”

I explained that Ruby had classes, both school and MMA, and how he was my scholarship prototype, and that Claude would spend most days with me. I would eventually work on getting her into school, but for now I was happy just to get a roof over her head.