23. Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter twenty-three
R yder
I loved coming home to find Brennan there.
I’d been tempted all week to ask him to stay, but I didn’t want to rush things.
Seeing him every morning when he arrived for work was great, and I enjoyed talking to him while he fixed my lunch each morning.
I’d never had anyone want to do things like that for me before, and I found that I really liked it.
And getting to kiss him goodbye every day when I headed out was no hardship either.
But I was a greedy bastard and wanted his evenings, too.
I wanted him to be here when I got home, and that meant we had things we needed to talk about.
There were things he didn’t know about me that he needed to be aware of.
This was uncharted territory for me. Since the day I learned what it meant to be a Daddy, I’d only been involved with other men who were in the lifestyle.
I’d never had to explain how it worked. I’d never had to explain what it did to me to hear my boy call me Daddy, and I’d never craved hearing it from anyone’s lips the way I did Brennan’s.
That put me in an odd position. I wanted him either way.
Even if he wasn’t interested in the lifestyle at all, I didn’t want to let him go, but I also wanted him to let me take care of him.
When Tye called me up to let me know he’d fixed the tire on Brennan’s car, it was hard for me not to ask if they needed to be replaced, but I didn’t feel like I had the right to take care of it for him.
A right I wanted. Each day when I came home and he wasn’t there, I was disappointed.
I wanted him in my space. For the first time since Casey, I wasn’t worried about a boy being too needy.
I was actually worried about him not being needy enough.
But those were things that we didn’t have to worry about tonight. He’d worked hard getting this cookout ready. I’d always just put some beer in a cooler, tossed some meat on the grill, and that was basically it. The guys weren’t going to know what to think about this.
Max and Travis would be here, which I was happy about. I’d wanted to have someone here closer to Brennan’s age so he could start making friends in the gay community. Keegan was a great friend to him and seemed to really care about him, but he needed his own people.
After a quick shower, I came back downstairs to find him changed but collapsed on the couch. “What do you want to eat?” I asked.
“It doesn’t really matter to me. I’ve been thinking about food all day, so I’d be good with anything.”
“You know what? You look beat. How about if I go get us something and bring it back here. Then you can just relax.”
“No, it’s okay, we can go out. That’s what you wanted to do.”
“Angel, what I want is for you to relax right there while I go get us something to eat.” He looked at me in a way that told me he hadn’t expected me to say that. “Why on earth would I want you to have to go out and eat if you’re tired?”
“It’s just that my ex, Patrick, would have wanted me to. He used to say it didn’t do him any good to have such a pretty boyfriend if he couldn’t take me out and show me off when he wanted to.”
“He said that? Like to your face?” I asked, and he nodded. “What an asshole.”
“He was,” he agreed. “He wasn’t all bad. He was just really caught up in how things looked. Image was everything to him.”
“Sounds to me like he had his priorities mixed up.” I cupped his cheek, and he leaned into my touch.
I wanted to throat-punch this Patrick dude, but I couldn’t even actually be angry with him, because if he hadn’t been such an ass, then Brennan wouldn’t be sitting here with me now.
Image was everything to him, I thought, rolling my eyes.
This precious man should have been everything to him—image be damned.
I called in an order to the local Italian place and then went after it, stopping on the way to pick up some bubble bath. I didn’t know if he would be too tired to play tonight or not, but I wanted to be prepared just in case.
When I got home, he was napping on the couch. “Hey, Angel, wake up. I have us some dinner.”
He sat up and stretched, his shirt lifting up to reveal a tantalizing strip of skin that made my mouth water. Then he looked up at me with sleepy eyes from under those long lashes, and it was like time stopped. Lord, he was stunning. He stood up and gave me a lazy smile. “What did you get?”
It took me a second to get my brain back online to process what he asked. “Oh, baked tortellini, salad, and garlic knots. Does that sound okay?”
“That sounds amazing. I love baked tortellini.”
“Let’s go eat while it’s hot then.”
He grabbed us some silverware and a couple of plates, and I couldn’t help but smile. He was such a caregiver. That hadn’t been something I’d expected in a boy. No, more than that it wasn’t something I’d known I wanted in a boy, but I loved it.
“Tell me about your friends who will be coming tomorrow so I know what to expect.”
“Desi and his wife, Angela, will be here.”
“Great. I’m excited to meet him in person. He seems really nice on the phone.”
“He’s excited to meet you in person, too. They probably won’t stay too long, though. This pregnancy is taking a lot out of her. Let’s see. The guys I meet at the bar on Thursday will be here. You met Owen the night you and Keagan came to the bar.”
“He’s the bar owner, right?”
“Right, and there will be Lucas. He runs a custom motorcycle shop. And Cooper. He owns a landscaping business. Last will be Max and his boyfriend, Travis. They’ve been together a few years now, and I think you’ll really like Travis.
He’s an accountant. I know he’ll be thrilled to meet you.
You’re going to make his job a whole lot easier. ”
He laughed at that. “Your stuff wasn’t that bad.”
“That’s nice of you to say, but we both know better.
” I debated what to tell him about Max and Travis’ relationship.
I didn’t want to scare him off, but I also didn’t want him to be taken by surprise.
Max and Travis were basically in a full-time Daddy/boy relationship so odds were good Brennan would hear Travis call Max Daddy at some point.
I decided the best thing would be for me to let him know ahead of time.
“So I thought I’d let you know Max and Travis are in a bit of an unconventional relationship.”
“Okay, unconventional, how?”
“Are you familiar with the Daddy/boy lifestyle?”
“A bit. I don’t know a lot, but I know it is a thing. Is Travis a little?” he asked.
“No, but he is Max’s boy, and he does call Max Daddy.”
“Okay, and what about your other friends? Will they have dates or partners or anything with them?”
“No, Cooper’s boy moved awhile back so he’s currently single, and Lucas hasn’t had a boy in a long time.”