Chapter 8
Flynn
“Flynn, take a break, for fuck’s sake!” Axel called as he came into the garage just before noon. “I’ve got visitors for you.”
Visitors? I lifted my head out of the Chevy Malibu in front of me. “Huh?”
A sharp bark echoed through the shop.
“Aw, damn it,” Gray said. “You brought the demon.”
“Taz!” I grinned and crouched down. “Come here, you little lover, you!”
Taz trotted across the shop and leapt into my arms, craning his head back to lick my chin.
“I’ve missed you,” I murmured. “You’re a good boy, aren’t you?”
“Unbelievable,” Gray muttered.
Holden opened his office door, and his Samoyed, Banshee, raced out with happy yaps to greet her former pack.
Before he’d adopted her, she’d been one of a handful of strays that Axel took in at the junkyard.
Now, he ran an official animal rescue that placed animals with fosters.
He’d asked me to volunteer, but my rental didn’t allow pets.
Too bad, because I really missed the dogs I used to see every day when I’d first worked at the junkyard.
“You’re just in time for lunch,” Holden said.
“What’s for lunch?” Axel asked.
“Zacos.” He tossed him the keys. “There’s a tow over on Beechwood Street. You can pull double duty.”
“Fuck.” Axel turned to me. “Wanna ride along? We haven’t talked in forever.”
I glanced at Holden. He waved me on. “You’re due for a break. Don’t let Axel make you do all the work.”
It would be nice to grab a breath of fresh air. I used to make these tow runs on occasion, but as the primary mechanic now, there just wasn’t time. Gray or Axel usually did it.
I followed Axel out. Behind us, Gray called, “Aren’t you taking the dick biter with you?”
Axel turned back with a smirk. “Nah. It’s time you all made up.”
“What?” Gray sounded horrified.
Axel just laughed and kept on walking.
“He’s sweet, really. Just…try not to act so scared.”
Gray glared. “He’s never tried to eat your dick.”
I shrugged and turned to jog after Axel. Gray could handle Taz. He was just a tiny dog.
I opened the passenger door and swung myself up into the cab of the tow truck. Axel shifted it into drive, and we bumped down the rutted path toward the highway.
“So, how the hell have you been?” Axel asked. “Feels like forever since we talked.”
“I see you almost every day at the shop.”
“You’re always so damn busy.” Axel cast me a concerned look. “You doing okay without Bailey?”
“Yeah,” I said quickly. “Of course.”
He drummed his thumbs on the steering wheel. “It’d be okay if you weren’t, though. It’s a lot of responsibility to take on.”
“I can handle it,” I said, a defensive edge creeping into my voice.
“I know you can,” he said. “You’re doing great work.” He laughed. “You’re a better fit than Matteo, that’s for damn sure.”
“Matteo is great,” I said.
Axel nodded. “He is. This ex-con program he’s doing is awesome. Giving guys like you an opportunity.”
“Yeah. It really is.”
“Flynn, I know you’re not used to people worrying about you. I know what that’s like, you know? But we’re not just your employers, okay? We’re your friends.”
The truck made a lumbering turn onto the blacktop, and Axel pushed down the gas pedal as we straightened onto the highway.
The engine roared.
“You can do it, sugar,” he said, patting the dash.
“You call the truck sugar?” I asked, incredulous.
He chuckled. “She deserves all the compliments. Tell her she’s a pretty girl.”
“Uh, you’re a pretty girl,” I said, giving the dash a love tap.
Axel chuckled. “See, girl? You’ve still got it!”
“You’re a weirdo, Ax.”
He snorted. “And proud of it.” He cast me a glance. “So, is Holden being a hard-ass with you?”
I startled. “What? No?”
“He can be. He doesn’t mean it. Holden is all bark and no bite. He’s like a cornered animal sometimes. He needs to feel in control. But he thinks very highly of you.”
“He does?”
“Hell yes. When Bailey left, you stepped up in a big way. You’ve worked hard and without complaint. He’s noticed.”
I chewed my lip. “It’s just, no matter what I do, I’m still an ex-con.”
“You think that matters to us?”
“I don’t know. It matters to a lot of people. That’s why we have the Redemption Road program.”
Axel nodded along. “I guess that’s true. But we’re not most people.”
No, but they’d still hired me through the program.
They hadn’t offered to keep me on permanently yet.
If I were optimistic, I’d say they planned to.
They didn’t have any other mechanics coming in to interview for the job.
No part-timers who could step into my shoes.
But…my time in prison had shown me that the rules were different once you were a felon.
They might very well let me go and bring in someone else from Redemption Road so they could continue to get the financial break they got from the program.
Or they might decide to hire in a much more experienced mechanic.
I wouldn’t even blame them, because I still floundered at times. I was no Bailey.
My attention wandered off, and Axel left me to my thoughts until he pulled off the side of the road to pick up our tow.
I got out and went through the motions of lowering the ramp and then hooking up safety chains. Axel talked to the driver. He had a ride on the way, so we hopped back into the truck and continued on to Zacos.
“I’m craving some sausage and peppers,” he said. “I bet Bailey misses this place.”
It occurred to me that Axel had brought up Bailey a lot in this short ride.
“You miss him, huh?” I said tentatively.
His hands tightened briefly on the steering wheel. “He’s my baby brother. Of course I miss him.”
“Have you…talked lately?” I asked, thinking of my conversation with Bailey at the coffee shop in Maple Grove. He’d seemed so lost.
I hadn’t stopped thinking of the way he looked at me when he said he didn’t want me to see him as a brother. But that was a Pandora’s box I couldn’t open.
That still didn’t stop me from worrying about him. He was far from home, and he was unhappy. That was a bad mix, in my experience.
“We text every week,” Axel said with a tight smile. “Bailey knows I need to hear from him. To just…know he’s there.”
I nodded. “That’s good. What do you text about?”
“I don’t know, man. He asks about the dogs. I ask about the cute guys he’s meeting on campus. We shoot the shit. Nothing too heavy.”
“Cute guys…right. Makes sense.”
“Not really. I swear that kid is a monk. He says he hasn’t hooked up with anyone. Who goes to college and doesn’t hook up?”
“Well, maybe he just doesn’t want to tell you about it.”
Among other things.
“You think?”
I preferred not to think about that possibility. Bailey should hook up with guys on campus. That’s how the world was supposed to work.
My stomach churned uncomfortably.
I didn’t like it, but that was too damn bad. Felons didn’t end up with guys like Bailey.
He was too gorgeous, too smart, too young.
“I thought I was the cool brother,” Axel complained. “Am I not cool enough to talk about sex with?”
“Uh…I’m the wrong one to ask.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Are you getting any?”
I smiled ruefully. “Not these days.”
He shook his head. “A couple of monks, you and Bailey. I am the cool brother. He’d tell me if he was getting any.”
I wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or not.
“Bailey, uh, hasn’t said anything about how he’s doing at school?”
“Not really.” He glanced my way. “I leave the hovering to Holden.” His gaze sharpened at my expression. “Why? Is there something to know?”
“I don’t know,” I hedged. “I saw him last weekend when I visited my brother.”
“And?”
I shrugged uneasily. I sensed Bailey wouldn’t want his brothers to know how he was struggling.
“Maybe he’s a little homesick,” I said. “Maybe you should call and cheer him up.”
Axel nodded. “Yeah, maybe I’ll do that.”
“And maybe…”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t tell Holden.”
Axel grimaced. “Now you’re making me worry.”
“No, everything’s fine. I just think that Bailey worries a lot about what Holden thinks.”
Axel nodded thoughtfully. “Gotcha. Okay. Thanks for the heads-up, man.”
The rest of the day passed harmlessly enough, and I let myself into my place just after six.
I’d stuffed myself with three Zacos for lunch, so I opened the fridge and pulled out a beer for dinner.
Thanks to the brothers being generous about furnishing lunch a few days a week, I’d been saving money to send to Aiden.
He protested whenever I gave him any, but all the scholarships in the world couldn’t cover the day-to-day expenses that popped up. He’d done nothing but put his head down, work like crazy, and survive off dorm food for years. I wanted to make things easier for him.
I cracked open a craft beer from a brewery near Omaha, savoring the hoppy flavor of the IPA. I had a sofa in the living room, but I bypassed it and went straight to my room.
I’d grab a hot shower, then settle in for some mindless scrolling through reels.
I took the hottest shower I could tolerate, letting the heat soften and relax muscles tired from bending and crouching all day. I soaped up, my mind straying back to my conversation with Axel about Bailey.
Then to Bailey’s beautiful but sad face.
Then to the way he felt in my arms when I’d hugged him.
Big mistake.
My cock hardened between my thighs. A sluggish heat rolled through me that had nothing to do with the shower.
I bit my lip, trying to will it away, but that hard-on wasn’t going anywhere. And it would take a stronger man than me to resist touching himself.
I grasped my dick and stroked it roughly, quick and hard.
I tried not to think of anything, but I failed.
His dark blond waves had looked so soft, and his eyes seemed to dare me to look closer.
He’d smelled like grease and mocha—which shouldn’t have been an attractive mix, but it was—and those sweet lips had practically begged for a kiss.
With a groan of utter surrender, I came in my hand, painting the shower wall.
Shame swelled as I rinsed off and threw on a pair of boxer briefs and a T-shirt. I shouldn’t be thinking these things. Bailey was my boss’s baby brother. Axel might say we’re all friends, and Holden was a nice guy under his bossy exterior, but he was also a guy fiercely protective of Bailey.
This job was too important to fuck up.
My phone rang, and I checked the Caller ID. Closed my eyes. Maybe I was still paying for my sins. Maybe this was what I deserved.
Across my phone screen, Bailey’s name flashed.
It would be smart to let it go to voicemail. To cut off contact. But then I remembered how lost Bailey had seemed. Remembered offering to listen.
I couldn’t leave him hanging.
I picked up. “Hey.”
“Hi.” He exhaled noisily. “I thought maybe you weren’t going to answer.”
“Sorry. Was in the shower.”
“Didn’t mean to interrupt,” he said in a knowing tone. “A guy’s shower time is sacred.”
Shit. Was he imagining me jerking off in there? He wasn’t wrong, but damn, we didn’t need this kind of innuendo if I was going to maintain boundaries.
“What’s up, kid?” I asked, tone a little gruff.
“Well, I got a call from Axel today.”
Busted. I tried to play it off. “Oh, yeah?”
“I’m homesick, huh?”
“Aren’t you?”
“Flynn, come on. I talked to you because I didn’t want to talk to my brothers. I thought you got that.”
“I’m sorry.” At the beat of silence, I added, “But I didn’t tell him anything you said. Not really. I was just worried about you.”
“Well, I guess I can’t be mad that you care,” Bailey said reluctantly.
Relief swept in—and I realized just how damn much I didn’t want him to be disappointed with me.
“I don’t want you to feel abandoned up there,” I admitted.
“Yeah? Well, maybe you can come see me again. Make sure I’m not too lonely.”
That wasn’t what I had in mind.
“Uh, I— The shop— I mean…”
Bailey laughed. “You’re too easy, Flynn. Seriously. I’m fine. You don’t have to worry about me.”
I frowned. I was too easy, but Bailey’s flirting couldn’t totally divert me from the point.
“If you can’t talk to them,” I said, resigned to my fate, “you can talk to me.”
“Thank you,” Bailey said, voice warm. “You’re a good guy.”
“Not really.”
He chuckled. “You have no idea how other people see you.” He paused. “How I see you.”
“Well, if you see me as a friend when you need one, then that’s all I need.”
“Right,” he said. “Yeah. Well, actually, my roommate just walked in. I should probably try to study for this test on Friday.”
“Of course,” I said. “Don’t let me keep you.”
“I don’t want my brothers to worry about me,” he said pointedly.
“I understand. I’ll keep my mouth shut from now on. It’s not my place to get in the middle.”
“Well, I put you there, so that’s on me,” Bailey said. “But I’d appreciate it if you let me figure out what’s best for me. I’ll talk to them when I’m ready.”
“Okay.”
“Thanks for listening, though. Thanks for…being you.”
He disconnected, leaving me with sweaty palms and flushed skin. I stared down at my crotch as my blood warmed.
“Don’t even think about it,” I ordered. “We already had our fun, and now we’re going to be respectful men who don’t lust after guys in need of a friend.”
My dick didn’t listen. But then, it never did.