Black Dagger Brotherhood 11 - Lover at Last

you right now.”
    He laughed in an ugly, sloppy way. “I didn’t mean to. I mean, I didn’t plan this. It just came out.”
    Funny choice of words, he thought.
    “And I’m sorry,” she said, “that things didn’t work out with Saxton. He’s a very nice gentlemale. Are you sure it’s over?”
    Blay scrubbed his face as reality recalibrated itself, the love he’d always known clearly still with him. In spite of the truth. Or maybe…because of it.
    In moments like this, he felt like the luckiest son of a bitch in the world.
    “Blay?”
    “Sorry. Yeah, sorry. About Saxton…” He thought about what he’d done in that office down in the training center when he’d been alone. “Yes,
Mahmen
, it’s over. I’m very sure.”
    “Okay, so here’s what you have to do. You take some time and do some healing. You’ll know when you’ve done enough. Then you have to be open to meeting somebody new. You are such a catch, you know.”
    And here she was, telling him to go meet another guy.
    “Blay? Did you hear me? I don’t want you to spend your life alone.”
    He mopped his face again. “You are the best mother on the planet, you know that.”
    “So when are you coming home to see me. I want to cook for you.”
    Blay relaxed into the pillows, in spite of the fact that his head was starting to ache—likely because even though he was alone, he’d still tried to hold things together during his crying jag. Likely also because he still hated where he was with Qhuinn. And he still missed Saxton in a way—because it was hard to sleep alone.
    But this was good. This…honesty went a long way for him—
    “Wait, wait.” He sat upright off the pillows. “Listen, I don’t want you to say anything to Dad.”
    “Dearest Virgin Scribe, why not?”
    “I don’t know. I’m nervous.”
    “Honey, he’s not going to feel any differently than I do.”
    Yeah, but as the only born son and the last of the bloodline…and with the whole father/son thing…“Please. Let me tell him face-to-face.” Oh, like that didn’t make him want to throw up. “I should have done that with you. I’ll come as soon as I’m off rotation—I don’t want to put you in the position of keeping something from him—”
    “Don’t worry about that. This is your information—you have the right to share it with people whenever and however you want. I would appreciate your doing it soon, though. Under normal circumstances, your father and I tell each other everything.”
    “I promise.”
    There was a lull in the conversation. “So tell me about work—how’s it going?”
    He shook his head. “
Mahmen
, you don’t want to hear about that.”
    “Sure I do.”
    “I don’t want you to think my job is dangerous.”
    “Blaylock, son of my beloved
hellren
, exactly what kind of an idiot do you think I am?”
    Blay laughed and then got serious. “Qhuinn flew an airplane tonight.”
    “Really? I didn’t know he could fly.”
    Wasn’t that the theme song for the evening. “He can’t.” Blay eased back again and crossed his feet at the ankles. “Zsadist got injured and we had to get him out of this remote location. Qhuinn decided to…I mean, you know how he is, he’ll try anything.”
    “Very adventurous, a little wild. But what a lovely young male. Such a crying shame what his family did to him.”
    Blay fiddled with the tie on his robe. “You always did like him, didn’t you. It’s funny, I’d think a lot of parents wouldn’t approve of him—on so many levels.”
    “That’s because they buy into that whole tough-guy exterior. To me, it’s what’s inside that counts.” She made a clucking sound, and he could just picture her shaking her head sadly. “You know, I’ll never forget the night you brought him over for the first time. He was this tiny scrap of a pretrans, with that obvious imperfection that I’m sure he’d been given a hard time about at every turn. And yet even with that, he walked right up to me, stuck out his hand, and introduced himself. He met me directly in the eye, not in any kind of confrontation, but as if he wanted me to take a good look at him and throw him out then and there if I needed to.” His mother exhaled a soft curse. “I would have taken him in that very night, you know. In a heartbeat. To hell with the
glymera
.”
    “You really, truly, totally are the best mother on earth.”
    Now she laughed. “And to think you say that without my even putting food in front of