Chapter 87

“What?”

“Want a hug…”

Tav’s heart tightened, and he tugged gently on a curl. “I can’t hug you,” he said. “You’re all busted. When you’re a bit better, I’ll hug you. Yeah?”

“No.”

“Yeah, Luca.”

“No. That’s not fair.”

“Yeah, well, you shouldn’t have got yourself under a taxi,” Tav said. He heard Angelo snort. “I’m hugging you in my brain.”

“Shitty substitute…”

Tav smiled at the outraged words from a too-tired, high-as-a-kite brain, and slid his hand over Luca’s to trap that cool skin and IV port between the denim of Tav’s jeans and his own fingers. This was as close as he could get, Luca’s head resting lightly against his hip, and a bit of hand-holding and hair-pulling. He wanted a hug, too, not that he was going to say it in front of Luca’s younger brothers and scary postman father, but this would have to do for the minute. At least until Luca had both arms working again.

“Dad?”