15. Chapter 15
Chapter fifteen
Robinson
They made good progress on the house the rest of the week. Robinson didn’t find anything else scary working on the plumbing, but his progress was also pretty halting. He had to wait for demo to get finished in the bathrooms. He had to wait for demo to get finished in the kitchen. He had to wait for Evander to land on a decision for the kitchen’s layout, and he had to wait for Chuck to get home from work, so that took almost an entire day by itself.
Which also meant Robinson found himself doing a bunch of other stuff around the house. Very little of it was something he’d say he was particularly good at, but he could measure wood for Jake, help Ozzy dig, haul boxes of supplies around, finish up priming the walls of the living room. And they’d also gotten the temporary storage unit, so there were appliances and furniture to stow away. Robinson felt some kind of protection over the armchair in the living room—the one Chuck refused to sit in—so he took a little extra care when he moved it out, making sure it was well-wrapped in plastic to protect it from any dirt or scratches that he could.
Before long, it was the weekend. They all showed up early, and Robinson was happy to see the new deliveries being carried in as he headed over to hair and makeup. He wanted Corinne to give him a once-over and make sure he was looking his best on camera, since he’d had a hell of a time sleeping the night before.
Which he could pin down to two issues: his own horny ass and Chuck, who was the subject of his dreams. They didn’t go all the way down to fucking, but his brain sure created a nice image of Chuck in a tank top, Chuck shirtless in the hotel pool, chest hair slicked down with water. Chuck in the shower, conveniently covered by modesty steam, but clearly inviting Robinson to join him…only for the dream to end before he made it into the shower.
Once he got his dark circles covered, he headed into the house. And the cacophony. He almost ran into Colby as the kid ran past and upstairs. “Sorry, sorry!”
Robinson smiled at the apology shouted over Colby’s shoulder, checked for any more oncoming traffic, then headed for the folding table that they used as their base of operations. Mason, Evander, and Ozzy were directing the boxes where they belonged, with Mason checking off every item on his laptop as they came through.
Without looking up, Mason said, “Master bath stuff is fully here. We’re tiling everything today, and in the meantime, if you can just double check the setup on the kitchen to make sure it’s not going to flood or anything?”
“I’m on it.”
Mason finally looked up and nodded…then his brows joined in the middle. “You look exhausted.”
“Sleepless night. Head was spinning thinking about the house.” Or at least thinking about the client . Ideally, he would have rubbed one out before heading to the job site, but he’d finally fallen into a real sleep and, once his alarm went off, barely had time to hose off, get dressed, and get down to the car.
So when Chuck walked out of the bathroom, wiping his hands on tight-fitting jeans, with a coral-and-white striped T-shirt that showed off his arms in inviting detail, Robinson’s whole body responded. Including his cock. He moved to the other side of the folding table and hoped that any southern hemisphere activity wasn’t too noticeable.
Chuck shook the last of the water off his hands, waved at everyone, then went to the bottom of the stairs. “Come on, gentlemen! Train’s getting ready to leave the station!”
A bang from up above.
“Crap.” Muffled, of course.
Some scraping and scrabbling.
Footsteps hit the stairs and Nick came down, followed by Ryan. Only once they reached the bottom of the stairs did Colby bring up the rear, slipping on a green windbreaker. “Sorry. Stubbed my toe.”
Chuck rustled his hair. “All right. You boys listen to them and don’t break anything, please. Bones or merchandise.”
Ryan snorted a laugh. “How about the expensive-ass cameras? Can we break those?”
“You do that, I’ll have to sell all of you to the production company as collateral.” Chuck stuck his hands behind his back and Robinson couldn’t help but notice the tightness in his fingers as he clenched into his own grip. His fingers were red and white from the pressure he was exerting, and his forearms were visibly tense. It didn’t hit his voice, though. “Now I’m serious, you all have your phones? You all are going to behave and you’re all going to be safe and you’re going to have fun without me breathing down your necks being crazy. Got it?”
The boys all muttered assents and Chuck finally brought his hands around to the front, taking each boy by the shoulders and kissing them on the tops of their heads. Robinson fully expected groans or resistance, but none of the boys even reacted. I sure as hell wouldn’t have been cool getting affection from my dad like that in front of a bunch of strangers . Which brought a smile to Robinson’s lips.
“If you’re all ready, let’s pile in and head out.” Ozzy was poking his head in through the front door, carrying a clipboard in one hand. “If not, get ready. We’re burning daylight.”
Evander appeared seemingly out of nowhere behind him, draping an arm around Ozzy and leaning his chin on Ozzy’s shoulder. He had a pair of sunglasses perched on top of his head and he sighed wistfully. “This man says he won’t have babies with me, but he already sounds like a middle-aged dad.”
“Watch your mouth or I’ll turn this relationship around, mister.” Ozzy waved for the boys. “Come on.”
Chuck stepped aside and Robinson tried to quell the pang of loneliness in his belly. He’d made the decision when he was in jail to take things slow, and that had held out well for him all this time. But it was over two years now…how slow was he going to take it? He was happy for Ozzy and Evander. He was happy for Aras and Dane. He was happy for Jake and Quinn.
Robinson was happy for his friends getting into relationships. But this was the first time in a long time he’d felt that longing in his stomach.
And he was pretty damn certain it was, in no small part, due to Chuck standing there, watching a couple totter off with his sons to go on an excursion.
I think the only salve for this is some good old pissed-off country women.