Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Pete ordered tacos, salsa, guacamole, and chips, some taquitos, and some churros. Add that to the beer, and it was going to be a great date night.
No, not a date night.
Adult night. Grown-up night. They weren’t dating.
He wasn’t allowed to date his boss, that was creepy and gross. He hated the idea that he was Bay’s employee, so he didn’t think about it much.
But the truth was, he was.
So he couldn’t have date night, even if he sort of wanted to.
Bay came downstairs. “I didn’t think Merida was ever going to stop saying, one more story, Bay-Bay, pllleeeeeasssse.”
“That little girl thinks that you are the king of the world. She loves the way you tell stories. She says that you have good voices.” Pete loved that for them.
“Yeah?” Bay’s expression got soft. “She’s a sweetheart.”
“She is. She’s your girl.” But this was adult time. Their time.
“But now you’re my boy, right? Supper, movies, adult talk?”
“Yes. Totally. Now it’s our time.” His cheeks were on fire.
“So it was your turn to get supper—what’s coming?”
“Mexican food. I thought it sounded delicious. I got extra guacamole.” He loved guacamole.
“Mmm. And it goes so nicely with a beer. Sounds great.” Bay settled on the couch, lanky body stretching out.
“Yeah, I got tacos, chips, and I even got churros. I’m not sure churros go with beer.” God, he was being so stupid. He needed to just stop looking at Bay’s body.
“Yeah, but fried dough, there is no wrong there.”
Of course looking at Bay’s blue blue eyes and that warm smile wasn’t helping anything either.
“Yeah, I got chocolate-filled and plain, and they also had strawberry-filled.” Not looking at Bay. Not not not.
“Is there a dipping sauce? I love a good caramel to dip them into,” Bay admitted, stretching where he sat, and rolling his head on his shoulders.
“I got three different kinds—chocolate, caramel, and berry. Is that cool?”
“More than. What are we going to watch tonight?”
They’d seen the last of the Jurassic Park movies, so now they had to pick something else.
“What’s your position on the Lord of the Rings movies?” He liked them, and they were so pretty.
“I told you I haven’t seen any movies in years and I meant it. There were a bunch of them and they were long?” Bay looked apologetic. “If you want to watch them, we totally can. I am in your hands.”
“Are you into fantasy? Because these are totally like sword and sorcery, elves and dwarves and hobbits kind of fantasy.”
He didn’t want Bay to be disappointed, but he did love to watch those movies. And he liked even more that he had already seen them. So there wasn’t some big reason to pay attention. He could just kind of pay attention to the movies and kind of pay attention to Bay.
“Okay. If I hate it or anything, we don’t have to watch the others, right?”
“Absolutely. You don’t even have to watch all the first one.” He wasn’t mean.
Bay chuckled. “I thought you liked this movie? You’re not exactly selling it that way.”
His cheeks went hot. “I love this movie, but that doesn’t mean it’s for everybody, right? I love a nice sword and sorcery type story.”
“Sounds like fun. I bet I like it,” Bay offered.
“I hope so. I like it a lot.” And I like you a lot, but I don’t want to say anything.
“Then I imagine I’ll like it.”
The doorbell rang, surprising both of them.
“Oh. Food. I’ll get it.” He ran off and grabbed the bags, bringing them to the low table.
“Oh, it smells good, Pete. Nicely done. And I’m hungrier than I realized because suddenly I can hardly wait to eat.”
“Dig in. Would you like a plate? It might be easiest…”
“Sure. I’m all about the easy.” Bay closed his mouth and blinked. “That sounded better in my head than when it came out of my mouth.”
“I promise not to take offense.” That was nice, right? It felt nice.
So, he just wanted to sort of kiss Bay, and he hadn’t had a kiss in a very long time—not since he was a freshman in college and discovered that he was in love with Tony.
Which was when he’d found out that Tony was the straightest man on earth, and then Tony was married and Pete was his nanny and that was that.
“Then let’s eat this amazing food and watch what hopefully will be a good movie so next time we can watch the next one and eat more good food. Hell, if I don’t like the movie we can turn it off and just talk.”
“I like the idea of just talking. It’s okay, we’ll see how it goes.” He just wanted to have a good time and enjoy his guacamole.
“Is everything okay?” Bay asked.
“What? Yes? It’s fine. I’m just fine.” Oh god. Did he look like he wanted to kiss Bay?
“You just seem nervous, or something.” Bay shook his head and waved his hand. “Let’s eat, yeah?”
“Totally. Yay guac.” He dug in, trying to focus on the movie and the spice and not the man.
Bay was not helping at all, the man making sex noises as he ate, all happy moans and groans. “God, this is good stuff.”
“It is.” He was going to get hard, if he wasn’t careful. Like really, achingly hard.
Bay looked right at him, smiled. “If you’re not careful I’m going to let you choose every adult night.”
“Oh, you’ll get tired of spicy food…” he teased.
“I like a little spice in my life,” Bay countered.
Was Bay flirting with him?
“I—I do too. I like it hot.” His cheeks were on fire.
Bay grinned and held his gaze.
“Sorry. Was that… inappropriate?”
Bay blinked a few times. “Oh, fuck. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be inappropriate. Sorry. You’re very attractive, but I didn’t mean to make you feel any kind of way.” Bay put down his food and looked ready to flee.
“Please. I didn’t—I meant me. Me being inappropriate to you. Please don’t go. I promise not to be… overt.”
“Wait.” Bay tilted his head and frowned. “You’re attracted to me?”
He was so going to get fired.
Still, he nodded.
“I’m attracted to you, too. But I can’t risk losing you. The kids need you. So yay, we’re two hot guys who find each other sexy. We put it in a box and concentrate on the kids.”
Oh. Oh, god. He was so embarrassed.
What had he expected?
Let’s get it on?
“Of course.” He nodded and turned his focus to the movie, forcing himself not to throw up in sheer mortification. “Do you like the movie?”
“I wasn’t really paying attention,” Bay admitted.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Would you like me to start it over again, or we could find something that you don’t have to pay as much attention to?” He didn’t care; he just wanted to be done with this whole situation right this second, because he felt nasty and a little embarrassed and a little ashamed.
Maybe he should just excuse himself for a few minutes.
“You know what? You think about another movie. I’m gonna go hit the head, and then I’ll be back in a few. Don’t eat all of the tacos!”
He managed to keep a smile on his face as he hurried to the back of the house and to his room where he could lock the door and just sit for a few minutes, reminding himself that he had a job to do and children to raise.
He had to think about that.
Sometimes, he sort of wished that he had just had babies of his own, a lover, a life that wasn’t raising everybody else’s babies.
And it would have been easier if Bay looked like an ogre. But the man didn’t. Or if he’d been an asshole, but he wasn’t. Bay was generous to him, to the kids, and he was trying hard to be what they needed.
Maybe he should take a vacation at some point. Maybe over the holidays or something.
Go on one of those gay cruises and just get laid a lot.
Maybe that would do it.
It didn’t matter. What mattered was he had to get his shit together and get out there and have grown-up dinner night and just remind himself that this wasn’t a thing.
It was never going to be a thing.
Ever.