Chapter 19 #2
“I wanted to introduce you to my boyfriend. This is Bull Eaton. Bull, these are my parents, Michelle and Dave.”
His mom squinted at him, looking a little confused, and his dad finally glanced at Bull and then went back to cutting the watermelon.
“Okay,” his mom said slowly, then picked up her tub of potato salad. “Is that it? I need to get this outside.”
He tried not to let it hurt him. He almost wished they would have gotten mad or that they would have railed at him about how he couldn’t be gay, how no son of theirs would date a man. Instead, they just… didn’t care. Like with everything else in his life.
His mom walked over to the door, and Bull moved out of the way, still opening it for her despite looking like he was about to crack a tooth.
“Wait, did you say Eaton?” she said and glanced at Bull once more. “Are you Sally Eaton’s boy?”
“One of them,” Bull said tightly.
She glanced at Malcolm and shook her head. “His family owns the restaurant you work at, don’t they?”
Malcolm’s spine straightened at the disgust in her voice, and he took back his wish from a moment ago. He wasn’t sure how she knew that. Sure, Knotting Pine was a small town, but it wasn’t like his parents came into Bo’s. At least, they hadn’t since he’d started working there.
He tilted his chin up, refusing to be ashamed when his relationship with Bull was the most caring and loving of his whole life. “Yes, that’s how we met and became friends before we started dating.”
“Typical,” she said under her breath as she stepped outside. “Always looking for the easy way out.”
He stared at her, gaping, and then made the mistake of glancing at his dad, some primal instinct looking to him to defend him.
But he knew better, or at least he should have.
It didn’t seem like his dad was paying attention.
Or he was pretending not to have heard what his wife had said to their son and the implication of it.
“Let’s go,” he said softly, and Bull was practically dragging him across the house a second later.
He shouldn’t have come. He definitely shouldn’t have let Bull come with him.
He didn’t even know why he had insisted on it anymore.
They’d been there half an hour, had only seen his brother in passing, and he’d been called a whore for the second time that day—third, if he counted Bull teasing him about his dick sucking skills.
This was somehow even worse than his landlord propositioning him.
When his landlord had implied that he could save money by sleeping with him, he’d been more shocked in the moment than disgusted. But when his mom implied the only reason he was in a relationship with Bull was to get ahead in life, it made him feel dirty… and sad.
He was so fucking sad. His eyes filled with tears as Bull marched them down the hallway and out the front door.
“Any plan you had to attend the wedding, you can forget about it,” Bull said, his anger barely controlled as he spun around to face Malcolm.
But when he laid his hands on the sides of Malcolm’s face, his touch was achingly gentle.
“These pieces of shit don’t deserve you.
You hear me, Malcolm? You’re better than them, and it’s time you cut them out of your life like the disease they are. ”
“They’re doing a destination wedding” was what he said instead of “You’re right” or “I’ll think about it” or even “Just because you’re my daddy in the bedroom doesn’t mean you can tell me I can’t go to my brother’s wedding.
” Though they both would have known that was a lie, the dynamic seamlessly seeping out to the rest of their relationship.
Bull frowned at him, leaning closer, like proximity was the reason he didn’t understand what Malcolm was talking about. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“I couldn’t afford it, even if I wanted to go,” Malcolm muttered.
“Baby,” Bull said in exasperation, “yes, you can.”
Malcolm winced. “No, you c?—”
“You are mine,” Bull interrupted, his fingers tightening against the back of Malcolm’s neck. “My gorgeous, sweet, perfect boy. And we’re building a life together —and that means finances too. So I want you to stop fucking worrying about the price of everything, okay?”
It was the same thing he’d been thinking about before they’d entered his parents’ house, and yet, after his mom’s cutting remark, the idea didn’t thrill him like it had not even an hour ago.
Malcolm swallowed, the burn in his eyes returning. “I don’t want you to feel like I’m just with you because of that.”
Bull kissed him punishingly hard and then said against his lips, “No one who actually knows you would ever think that. And I know you, Malcolm Kerr. I see you.”
Had anyone ever seen him the way Bull did?
That was easy—no.
Not even Dahlia had seen the aching need inside of him. But Bull had. He’d found it and tended to it, fulfilling his needs in every imaginable way.
Malcolm stared at him for a long moment, their faces so close it almost made him cross-eyed. “I love you,” he blurted out hoarsely, surprising them both.
Or maybe not, because a moment later, Bull was wrapping his arms around him, holding him tight and whispering, “It’s about fucking time. I love you too, baby boy.”
“ You have some fucking nerve !” a voice screamed at them as the front door slammed shut.
Malcolm jerked in surprise, twisting his head around and finding his red-faced brother, a vein throbbing on his forehead as he stormed toward them. Bull released him and took a step forward, placing himself between them.
“What are you talking about?” Malcolm said, gliding his fingers down the inside of Bull’s forearm, trying to placate him on the off chance he intended on punching someone else today.
“You, showing up here with him,” Evan said between clenched teeth, gesturing at Bull. “This is supposed to be a special day, and you just had to try and make it all about you and whatever freak show the two of you are up to.”
He felt Bull tense, so he wrapped his fingers around his forearm and gave it two quick squeezes, their silent sign for I’ve got this .
“I didn’t try to make anything about me,” Malcolm said calmly. “I just brought my boyfriend to a family event.”
“Boyfriend,” Evan sneered. “Couldn’t find yourself a woman who actually wanted you, so you decided to start batting for the other team? How fucking pathetic are you?”
He hated that his face flushed at the insult.
“You better watch yourself,” Bull said in a low, scary voice.
Evan finally seemed to notice the size of Bull, running his eyes over his body. He took a small step back but then refocused on Malcolm. “Whatever disgusting things you want to do at home is fine. But you won’t be bringing this shit around anymore, do you understand me?”
“I think we all understand you,” a feminine voice said.
They all whipped their heads around to find Cathy, Evan’s fiancée, coming around the corner of the house, her parents trailing behind her, faces pinched.
“Cathy, baby, that wasn’t what it sounded like,” Evan said quickly.
She shook her head, tears in her eyes. “My friends tried to warn me about you, but I just couldn’t see it.
” She wiped at her blotchy cheeks and glanced at Malcolm.
“For what it’s worth, I would have welcomed you, both of you.
” Then she turned around and walked back toward her parents. “Yeah, this wedding is off.”
“Cathy!” Evan yelled, running after her.
Malcolm could only stare, stunned over the last few minutes. First, his mom being a judgmental asshole, then his brother being a homophobic prick, and then Cathy calling off the wedding.
“Well, I’d say we made an impact today,” Bull said.
Malcolm slowly panned over to him, mouth parting in shock at the huge grin on his face. “Let’s at least wait until we’re in the car before we show how happy we are about him getting dumped.”
“That guy got exactly what he deserved,” Bull said, throwing his arm over Malcolm’s shoulders and heading toward his truck. “You want to pick something up for dinner?”
Just like that, the awfulness of the day started to drift away.
Bull had been right. It was time for him to cut out his family. He didn’t need them. He never had. Sure, life had been hard the last few years as he’d struggled to get by. But if it was the price he had to pay to get to this moment, to get to Bull, he would have done it for another ten years.
The two of them could make their own family. With his brother and his moms, Dahlia and Becca, Ollie and the Sub Club. Bull made him happy in a way no one else ever had and loved him like no one else ever could.
He didn’t need anything else.