Colin
I sat outside as the truck came roaring up the drive and sighed as I heard Jake’s laughter coming from inside.
I still wasn’t sure why Xander kept sending Jake to pick people up.
At least with me it had made sense because the weather had been awful and he was the best driver.
But the sun was out, and the weather was supposed to be great all week.
Maybe it was because Xander was irritated that our newest addition had delayed his arrival by a week, or maybe it was some old man grumpiness about getting ‘help’ with social media and optics.
Or maybe he was just a dick.
I chuckled at the thought. Yeah, he was kind of a dick.
Before I could think about what it had been like to experience his actual dick for a couple of weeks, I stood up as the driver’s door swung open. Jake hopped out, all grins. “Well, hey there, Momma.”
“I’ve told you I’ll sedate and neuter you on your next clinic visit if that nickname catches on,” I told him lightly, squawking when he wrapped me in a hug and gave me a squeeze. “Jake, please, decorum!”
“Dunno what that is!” he said, and I growled when he shook me like an enthusiastic puppy shakes a toy.
“It means put me the fuck down,” I told him, smacking the back of his head. He dropped me with that same dopey grin on his face, and I sighed. “I can’t tell if you were saying you don’t know what the word means or if you’ve never had decorum.”
“Mmm, first one, but probably the second one too,” he said, getting out his phone and tapping, reading, and nodding. “Yeah, the second one.”
“Of course,” I said with a sigh. “Reno was looking for you earlier. I think he needs your muscle.”
“Hell, yeah,” he said, flexing.
“Go!” I said with a shake of my head as he walked away, laughing as if he had made the greatest joke on the planet. “And?”
Jake stopped at the side door and bobbed his head lightly back and forth before giving a thumbs-up and going into the building.
Alright, so his instincts told me the man coming around the truck might be okay.
That would remain to be seen. Jake was pretty good with people, but he was still Jake after all.
The guy had dark hair and eyes, not quite black but close.
He was smaller than everyone but Cait, but his shoulders were wide and as he adjusted the strap of his bag, I could see he was no stranger to the gym.
He spotted me, pausing slightly and adjusting his hair before walking up to me with a wide smile.
Jesus, did we just get another one? He hadn’t quite looked at me like a prime cut of beef, but it certainly gave me the same feeling I’d said to the couple of guys here.
He wouldn’t turn me out of his bed if he found me there.
Of course, I was getting all the dick I could hope for so I was taken care of, but hell, I was human; I liked feeling attractive.
“You must be Aidan,” I said, taking his hand and shaking it.
“That’s me,” he said brightly, looking at the building. “Does everyone get the adrenaline express to get here, or am I just special?”
“You might not believe it, but Jake’s actually our best driver,” I said with a snort. “I showed up in the middle of a bad storm and he got my heart rate going, but he’s good at what he does.”
“That he is,” Aidan said, and then blinked. “Uh, with his driving.”
I winked. “Don’t worry, you’re in good company. The number of people working here who like dick has now officially hit three…maybe four, I’m not sure if Cait is into men. I wouldn’t blame her if she wasn’t after working here for so long.”
“Was I that obvious?” Aidan asked, scratching his jaw.
“A little,” I said, waving him on. “But it’s fine. There’s a few of the guys here that you’ll get the chance to meet. We’ll get you a beer too; you’ll need it after that drive.”
“I dunno, it was kinda fun. Like a roller coaster with a higher risk of death and dismemberment,” Aidan said with a laugh.
Ah, well, that explained why Jake was giving Aidan a thumbs-up. Anyone who could get a thrill out of his driving was bound to get the thumbs-up treatment from the lunk.
I led Aidan inside. “Sorry if I don’t give the greatest tours, I’ve only been here a month.”
“New guy duty, huh?” he asked as we stepped inside and into the kitchen so I could retrieve the beers.
“Well, our illustrious leader should probably do it, but everyone, including him, admits he’s not the person you’d want as first contact with our new crew,” I said, handing him the beer.
That, and Xander had been in a mood, so even I was treading warily around him.
It happened occasionally, but I was sure the only person who knew what I suspected was Cait.
And that suspicion was based on the fact that Xander’s moods plumbed the depths of hell at times when he checked his emails or texts.
Considering what little I knew of his private circumstances, I could only guess that those mood drops coincided with messages from his wife…
or soon-to-be-ex-wife, as he liked to correct, when he bothered to speak about the Mona woman.
I pointed to where Trevor sat, reading a book and eating a sandwich. “That’s Trevor. He and Maverick can fix anything around here. Incidentally, neither talks much, Trevor especially. Trevor, this is Aidan.”
“Mav talks,” Trevor said, nodding in greeting toward Aidan.
“To Carter,” I said with a shrug of my shoulders. “And the two morons you can hear right now are, of course, Jake—”
“Jake!” Reno bellowed, and I sighed. “Quit! I said get rid of the junk!”
“You’ve got junk,” Jake teased, their voices rolling out of the garage, “in da trunk!”
Aidan eyed me and smirked. “He’s painfully straight.”
“Agonizingly,” I agreed. “I don’t hold it against him, though.”
My exasperated amusement continued as the two came into sight, Reno strung over Jake’s back as the larger man stumbled into the building and out of sight with a crash as they hit the wall. It was followed by a thud and a pained groan from Reno. “Dammit, Jake!”
“Damn, you’re heavy,” I heard Jake grumble. “Maybe you should start working out more.”
“Get off me!” Reno barked, but I could hear the laughter in his voice. “Talk about my trunk having junk, the hell do you have in yours, lead?”
“All muscle, baby, feel and see,” Jake said.
“No!” Reno cried out. “Get away from me!”
“C’mon,” I said to Aidan. “Leave the bottle in case it becomes a casualty of war.”
“Sure,” Aidan said, and we walked out into the hallway. Jake was slumped against the wall. Reno was beside him, using Jake’s broad shoulders to get to his feet.
“What the fuck,” Aidan gasped beside me, and all three of us looked at him in surprise.
“Uh, hi,” Reno said, shoving Jake, who was trying to use Reno’s leg to get up. “You must be the new guy. Sorry about—”
I couldn’t blame him for trailing off as Aidan gaped at him, his mouth snapping shut and his pleasant expression shifting to one of disbelief. He clicked his tongue. “Seriously?”
“What the fuck did you do?” Jake asked Reno with wide eyes.
“A good question,” I said, confused by the reaction as much as by how befuddled Reno was, so the tension was purely one-sided.
“A real good question,” Reno said cautiously, and I could see him resisting the urge to hold his hand out. “Uh, hi…you’re the new guy?”
“You said that,” Jake pointed out helpfully.
“Fuck you,” Reno grumbled and whacked Jake on the head with the thick pair of work gloves he had in his hand.
“Hey!”
“I…seriously?” Aidan asked, and I was taken aback by the hurt on his face. “That’s how you’re going to play it?”
“Someone help me,” Reno pleaded, and despite everything, I was amused to see that he looked like he was about to bolt.
“I don’t know how,” I said, turning when I felt something and saw Trevor behind me, looking on curiously.
“It’s nothing,” Aidan said with a harsh snort that told me we were about as far from the country of Nothing as one could get. “Just…nothing.”
Before I could even think of how to salvage a disaster I hadn’t anticipated, I could see Mika coming in through the garage door, a frown on his face as he followed the path of destruction that Reno and Jake had left behind in their buffoonery. “Ugh, why does this have Reno’s stink all over it?”
“Why the fuck is everyone ganging up on me?” Reno demanded, looking and sounding pitiful.
Aidan had gone tense again and whirled around to face Mika.
I had never used ‘grinding halt’ for anything other than machinery, but that was the only description I could come up with for what Mika did when he saw Aidan.
His green eyes went wide, and the device he held up went down to his waist limply as he stared.
“Interesting,” Trevor said, like some scientist watching a rat pick a different route to find the cheese.
Aidan turned to look at Reno, who was staring at everyone in almost panicked confusion, and then slowly turned back to Mika. I couldn’t see Aidan’s face, but whatever his expression was, I watched as Mika cringed guiltily.
“A twin,” Aidan said stiffly, daggers hidden in his voice. “Not just a brother, but a whole ass fucking identical goddamn—”
“Aid,” Mika began.
“Don’t,” Aidan growled. “Just…don’t.”
“Wait, Aidan?” Reno spoke up, missing the way Mika’s eyes went even wider in alarm at his brother’s words. “Like, Aidan Rey, something or another from, like, college?”
“Fuck,” Mika muttered as Aidan’s head tilted.
“Perfect,” Aidan said with a laugh that made me cringe. “So, he knew about me, but…okay. You know what? Never mind, just…never mind.”
And then, of course, to make everything even more awkward, Jake piped up, “So, are you two like exes or something? Because this is some awkward as hell shit that can only happen when two people have fucked.”
“Yes, thank you, Jake,” I said with a sigh, pushing him over as he tried to get to his feet. “Your commentary isn’t necessary.”
“What?” he asked with an innocence that I believed instantly. Full of heart, empty of head, that one.