Chapter Twenty-One #2
Their relationship was strained enough as it was.
Will didn’t seem to know what to do with Austin or how to cope with his feelings.
Hell, Joe doubted Will fully understood his own feelings right now, and whether he was jealous of Joe for being with Austin or of Austin for stealing Joe’s attention when Will so desperately craved it.
Joe suspected that it was more the latter than the former, as he doubted Will had been any more serious about Austin than he would have been about a crush on a teacher.
He could remember how early crushes felt more comfortable the less attainable they were.
Still, seeing Joe and Austin together was clearly not easy for Will, and as a result, Austin was getting less conversation from Will than Joe was.
“Will and I have history. We’ll survive this. I don’t want to mess up the chances of the two of you getting along in the future.” Joe really hoped there was a future for the three of them, and he didn’t want to do anything that put it at risk.
So Austin didn’t offer any more carpooling, but he put his foot down on the car.
“We don’t need it, and we can’t afford the insurance. Not if we want two working baths someday.”
“Fine,” Joe huffed.
Another downside to having a live-in teenager? It curtailed their sex life to quiet and rushed hand- and blowjobs. But he forgot all about his moody son when Austin smirked and called him a good boy.
Joe flushed but met Austin’s gaze. He licked his lips. “Want to take advantage of the empty house to see if three orgasms is standard for you?”
Austin turned scarlet. “Be still my heart.” But he put down his wineglass and headed for the bedroom, so Joe figured he was into it.
Turned out Austin was also into having a dick up his ass even without the novelty. He was just as loud and sensitive, and he writhed so beautifully on Joe’s cock that Joe nearly threw his back out trying to obey each wordless direction for how to make Austin feel good.
Three orgasms? Not a fluke.
“I wonder if you could do four or five,” Joe mused, face smushed into Austin’s neck.
Austin grunted.
“Though we can’t test that when Will’s home. You’re also a screamer.”
Another grunt, and Austin flailed a limp arm in Joe’s direction. Joe caught it and laced their fingers together.
“Asshole.”
“You’re great too, darling,” Joe crooned and kissed his cheek.
In a moment, he would drag himself out of bed so he could start the cleanup. Gavin had texted earlier to say he’d drop Will home around nine, so they only had a couple of hours to get presentable. But for now he was content to enjoy the reprieve from sullen teenager that their bed offered.
At least he was until the phone rang.
“Tell them I’m dead,” Austin grumbled, digging his face under a pillow.
Joe fumbled on the nightstand. “It’s not for you.”
One of his feet nudged Joe’s shin. “Tell them you’re busy taking care of me because I’m dead.”
But it was Starling, and Joe had spent weeks stockpiling ammunition about her supersonic relationship with Linda, and blasting her about it was his preferred expression of joy, after fucking Austin into Jell-O, so he picked up. “Well, if it isn’t the pot calling the kettle.”
“Hi, Joe,” Starling said, all false brightness. “Surprised Austin let you off your leash long enough to get to the phone.”
The volume must’ve been loud enough for Austin to hear, because he raised his hand with one finger pointed.
“He says fuck you,” Joe relayed.
“I’d say it back, but I know what your post-sex voice sounds like. Will out today?”
“You and Starling need to set boundaries,” Austin grumbled.
Joe soothed him with scalp scritches. “For now,” he said. “What’s up? Haven’t seen your truck at Linda’s in hours. Trouble in paradise?”
“Not our paradise,” Starling said. “My sister called again.”
Uh-oh. Joe sat up. Next to him, Austin turned over, eyes suddenly serious. “Bad news?”
“I mean,” she waffled. “It’s not good news? So, uh, my nephew’s going to need surgery, in Toronto, like… soon. Basically as soon as he gains enough weight.”
Joe’s heart skipped a beat. “Oh my God. What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know exactly? Something with his heart, I guess. The good news is the doctors are confident they can fix it, it’s just… scary, you know? Bad enough for me. I can’t imagine how Skyler feels.”
“Can we help at all? I could make a casserole or something.”
“I’ll check their fluids and tires before they drive up,” Austin offered, and Joe relayed that too.
“Thank you, guys. I’ll let you know, okay?”
The conversation petered out quickly. Joe imagined it wouldn’t be long before Starling pulled back into Linda’s driveway for a different sort of comfort, and he hoped it helped.
Fortunately, Will came home in something approaching reasonable spirits for once. He and Gavin had been paired together on a project for their marketing class—something about designing a website. He spoke four whole voluntary sentences about it, unprompted even.
Maybe Will just needed a little more normalcy. A school routine, seeing his friends. Obviously he wasn’t going to get over his parents’ assholery overnight, but progress was progress. An evening where Will didn’t cry or act like he wanted to make Joe or Austin cry? Joe would take it.
And the timing was good, because when they were sitting around the table after—Gavin’s mother had sent Will home with a tin of cookies to share, and he must really have been in a good mood, because he’d actually done it—Joe’s phone chirped again, this time with a weather alert.
It wasn’t anything apocalyptic or even unusual. Winter weather advisory. Surprise! It was winter in Canada and weather happened. Locally the forecast called for a few centimeters of snow or potentially freezing rain.
But a hundred kilometers north, they were bracing for a wicked ice storm bracketed by snow. The radar looked gnarly. Joe whistled under his breath.
Austin peered over his shoulder. “What’s up?”
Joe tilted the screen so he could see. “Think I’m probably going to have to go up London way tomorrow.” It wasn’t unusual; lots of local crews did that during the winter. London was firmly in the snow belt where Windsor wasn’t. Cleaning up after the storm would be an all-hands-on-deck situation.
Austin whistled under his breath. “Nasty.”
“Can I see?”
Joe slid the phone across the table to Will.
“It’s looping, but that’s the prediction.
If it’s accurate, the ice is going to take down a lot of trees.
I’ll probably bring a crew up for a couple days.
” He had the number of the cleanup coordinator for London-Middlesex.
He made a note to text her if she didn’t message him within the next ten minutes.
Will frowned as he pushed the phone back. “Won’t it be dangerous to drive up there?”
“I’m not going anywhere until the 401’s been plowed and salted,” Joe promised.
The highway was always cleared first. “But my guess is they’ll need help to clear roads and driveways.
” He paused. “Power might go out tonight, so we should turn the heat up, and I’ll lay a fire in just in case.
Charge your phone now, okay? Will, if it gets too cold upstairs, the couch is pretty comfortable. ”
“I’m going to take Pepa out,” Austin said. “She’s not a fan of getting snowed on. Hey, do you think I could make her a snowshoe for the prosthetic?”
At that, Will almost smiled. “Are you gonna make her matching ones for her other legs? ’Cause otherwise I’m not sure there’s a point.”
Joe snorted. “Sorry, I just had a mental picture of Pepa buried in the snow except for the prosthetic.”
“Oh, she’d be so unhappy.” He shook his head. “Maybe I’ll just get one of those fake grass pee pads for the front porch. It’s not like we use it for anything else.”
And then he was up and gone, Pepa trotting at his heels. She always knew when Austin was about to take her for a little walkabout.
That left Joe alone with Will for what might be the last time in a while. Joe opened his mouth to say something—please try not to bite Austin’s head off while I’m gone, maybe, or I’m glad you’re being less of a dick today—but Will beat him to it.
“He’s just like that, isn’t he?” He shook his head as the door closed behind Austin and Pepa. “‘Oh, she hates the snow, I’ll make her snowshoes and get her a dog potty.’ What the fuck. No wonder you’re in l—uh, sleeping with him.”
Joe carefully decided to focus on the sentence Will had completed, rather than the one he deliberately hadn’t. He cleared his throat. Might as well strike while the iron was hot, or whatever. “You know that just because Austin and I are together doesn’t mean I love you any less, right?”
Will flinched as though Joe had slapped him, but his posture softened again immediately.
“I know that,” Will said. He poked at his empty plate.
Joe waited him out. Giving him silence to fill often worked better for getting Will to open up than asking probing questions.
“I do,” he repeated. “It’s just….” He wouldn’t meet Joe’s eyes. “It’s hard to see you, knowing my parents wouldn’t… couldn’t….”
Ah. Joe could see how living with two happy queers after being made homeless for his own sexuality might be painful. “You know that Austin and I don’t expect you to feel any particular way or to, like, be happy all the time or for us or anything.”
“Yeah, I know,” Will said again, but Joe couldn’t escape the certainty that he’d eased some tension.
“Just maybe try to take the angst out on inanimate objects and not us?” Or the shower drain, he added mentally.
Will gave a wan smile. “I can try.”