Chapter 3
“He said he was looking, Roni!” Emmett exclaimed for the third time.
That day.
During that particular conversation.
Roni laughed lightly. “Yeah, babes, I know. So have you texted him yet?”
Emmett made a face, but only because she wasn’t in the room. They were talking on the phone because he was at home, bored, and knew she didn’t have an appointment for another forty-five minutes, thanks to their shared calendar on his phone. “No, you know I haven’t. It’s only been two days.”
“Another way of saying that is it’s already been two days,” she shot back.
“Spoken like a true lesbian. You all only have one speed, don’t you?” He grinned up at the ceiling of his bedroom from where he was lying on his bed as she grumbled under her breath about what a brat he was. She didn’t mean it. She never did.
“I take back what I said about you becoming friends with CJ and Ollie,” she said, out of nowhere.
He sat up, his humor evaporating. “Why? Did they say something to you?”
“Oh no, babes. Shit, I’m sorry. No, I meant that you were getting as sassy as Ollie already. They both really liked hanging out with you on Sunday.”
She sounded really certain, and she didn’t lie, not to him. “I liked it too. It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be.”
“Of course it was—you went to a cookie-decorating party and got picked up by a hot daddy. Who even does that?”
He smiled again as he lay back down, the glow-in-the-dark stars on his ceiling still dormant in the low evening light. “I didn’t get picked up. He just… flirted a little.”
Gosh, the fact that Grayson Bloom was not only a member of Roni’s motorcycle club and a daddy to boot was so crazy to him, but that he’d also smiled and flirted with Emmett…
If teenage him could see him now.
He’d had a crush on his brother’s best friend for as long as he could remember, but it was always just that.
A crush. Gray had never looked at him twice, he and Erik being over ten years older than him.
He knew that they’d drifted apart some when his brother had gone to a college a few states away on a football scholarship.
Even after Erik moved back, they’d never been as close, and Gray’s visits to Emmett’s parents’ house grew less and less frequent.
Then, a few years ago, he’d heard that Gray had become an EMT and moved to Ridgewood. Had Emmett been hoping he’d run into the man when he took the job at Sunny Pines Assisted Living after deciding college wasn’t for him? He’d never tell.
But he never saw Gray, spending most of his time still in his hometown and living with his parents.
Getting the chance to move in with Roni and put a little space between him and his family had been a godsend, honestly, even if he had given up on the idea of bumping into Gray and striking up a friendship.
The hour between him and his parents and siblings in Knotting Pine was like an ocean with how often he was invited home for meals or other get-togethers. He was pretty sure his parents forgot he was so close most of the time… if they thought about him at all.
Once he’d gotten settled at Roni’s, he’d let his long-held crush fall to the side and decided to focus on maybe finding himself a daddy. Someone who would love him and take care of him and do all the fun things daddies did with their little boys.
But he’d never been able to forget Gray’s smiling eyes and long, thick hair.
And now he was back, and it was like Emmett was sixteen again, doing his best not to stare at his brother’s friend when he joined them for dinner before he and Erik went out to meet friends.
“I don’t know,” Roni said, voice full of teasing. “You two looked pretty cozy when I joined you at the decorating table.”
Emmett squirmed in place, his belly heating at the memory of the way she had found them. He’d been leaning into Gray’s side, showing him a video on his phone, and Gray had put an arm around his back while he nodded and listened to Emmett’s explanation of what royal icing was.
“Yeah,” he said softly. “That was really nice.”
“So you’re going to text him?”
He sighed, some of the soft, happy feelings swirling through him beginning to dissipate. “What if he’s a daddy like Six is a daddy, and he doesn’t like… you know, what I do?”
She didn’t say anything for a moment, and he heard a noise in the background, followed by someone calling her name. “Shit. I’ve got to go. But Emmett?”
“Yeah?”
“Maybe give Rooster the benefit of the doubt, okay? Don’t write him off before you even give him a chance.”
He sat up slowly, eyes narrowed. “Roni… do you know something I don’t?”
“Tons of things, I’m sure,” she said, then laughed and hung up on him.
Emmett sighed and dropped his phone onto the bed next to him. He glanced at Snowball where he sat at the head of Emmett’s bed, the dragon’s green eyes and purple fur making him smile. “Maybe she’s right, Snow. Why assume the worst?”
Besides, it was going to be Christmas soon—maybe he’d get a miracle.
When someone knocked on the front door about an hour later, Emmie exchanged a confused look with Snowball from their blanket burrito and scrambled to grab the remote to pause his movie.
As he rose from the couch, he twisted his lips at the clothes he was wearing.
After work, he’d simply put on his comfies—like he usually did, especially if he wanted some little time.
Or at least partial little time. Completely letting go when he was alone was really hard, not like how he thought it would be with a daddy.
It was late for a package to be delivered, but he assumed that’s who it had to be at the door as they knocked again.
A little louder. Emmie forgot about being worried someone would see him in his Spider-Man pajamas.
The only thing he could figure was that whoever it was needed a signature.
Though he wasn’t sure what Roni could have ordered that would need that.
He gasped, socked feet slipping on the fake wood floors as he hurried a little faster. Maybe it was his Christmas present! Excitement filling him, he threw open the door.
“Hey, Emmett.”
He stared with wide eyes at Gray, barely feeling the cold air as it swirled around them and seeped into his thin cotton comfies. The quiet street Roni and he lived on was still and dark, only a few houses adorned with colorful lights so far.
Emmie bit his lip as he ran his eyes from Gray’s black boots, up his jean-clad legs, and all the way to his torso covered by a hoodie and his club vest. Swallowing, Emmie went the rest of the way up and met the man’s laughing eyes, and Emmie startled, realizing he was just standing there and staring.
Stepping back quickly, he let Gray in and then closed the door with a shiver, his headspace clearing up from the worry-free space of being Emmie. Gray brushed past him, long hair and shoulders spotted with snowflakes.
The silence in the tiny foyer made Emmett feel awkward and self-conscious. Like not only could Gray see what he was wearing, but that he could somehow see into the living room and spot the paused cartoon and Snowball. “Um, hi. Roni isn’t here.”
Gray smiled, the skin around his eyes crinkling. “I know. I came to see you.” When he raised one of his arms, Emmett realized he was holding a tied plastic bag with Styrofoam containers inside. “Are you hungry?”
“You brought me dinner?”
“I did.” He cocked his head, running his eyes over Emmett from his head all the way down to his fuzzy socks.
A blatant reversal of what Emmett had just done—only Emmett’s had been an accident!
Honest. “I was going to ask you out on a date when you finally texted me, but after hearing the tail end of your conversation with Viper, I realized I needed to be more… forward.”
“Oh, gracious.” Emmett groaned and covered his blushing face. “How much did you hear?”
Gray chuckled, and Emmett heard the crinkle of plastic as he set the food down.
Then big, chilled fingers were lightly gripping his wrists and guiding his hands down.
Gray didn’t let go once his face was uncovered, his thumbs brushing against the sensitive skin on the inside of Emmett’s wrists.
“Just the end where she told you to give me a chance. It made me realize that maybe we should talk though. Clear the air?”
It was said as a suggestion, like Gray would back off in a second if Emmett told him he didn’t want to or asked him to leave. But that was the last thing Emmett wanted.
Shivering again, he shuffled a step closer. “Okay. About… something in particular?”
Gray was studying him closely once more, and then he dropped his hold on Emmett and shrugged out of his leather vest. “You’re not dressed warm enough.
Here.” Emmett thought he was going to hand over his cut for a second, but he just slipped it onto one of the hooks opposite the door and gripped the hem of his black hoodie, peeling it off and holding it out.
It took Emmett a second to hear what he was saying since he was trying so hard not to stare at the strip of furry belly that got exposed before his T-shirt fell back down. “Put that on.”
It was ridiculously adorable. Emmett had plenty of clothes upstairs he could go and get, or he could just grab his blanket from off the couch and wrap it around himself again.
But as soon as he caught a whiff of Gray’s scent on the fabric being held out to him—some utterly captivating combination of leather and lemons and man—his decision was made.
Ridiculous or not, nothing was stopping him from wearing something of Gray’s.
Grabbing the sweatshirt, he bit his lip at how warm it was from Gray’s body.
Tugging it over his head and slipping his arms inside was…
comforting in a way he’d never experienced before.
Gray was so tall and wide that even with the extra padding on Emmett’s tummy and hips and butt, the thing hung on him, making him feel small.