“You will,” he said, standing again. Gay sex They wheeled him back into the bedroom with the same quiet deference, the same muted voices and gentle hands that only deepened his rage. Worse than I ever failed anyone.”His voice broke then, cracked at the edge, soft and sorrowful. “Why? Detached. Patronizing.And that was enough to make Adrian finally snap.”Don’t talk to me like I’m a child,” he barked, his voice rising, coarse and furious. The warmth of it only made his skin crawl. A flower that had fought through frost, only to be stepped on before it could bloom.Then something else happened. A flicker.A flint spark in the dark.He folded the card, placed it in his back pocket, and turned. “Would that be untrue?” Adrian shifted in his chair, discomfort crawling over his skin. The nurses will be here soon. “And instead, he got a man who didn’t know how to love without turning it into a transaction. The walls bent slightly, warping like heat rising from pavement. Looking for a father. That man was gone now, dead, yet maddeningly conscious.He swallowed, blinking up at the ceiling crack.He wondered if Nick had looked at Bobby that way, tonight, earlier, on the deck, or down by the sea when they first met.
