Chapter 25 #2
“Thank God,” Jet said and threw himself onto the couch next to Steven.
“Jet?” Myles glared at him.
“Uncle Myles, no offence, but you are so much more chill when he’s around.” He turned to Steven. “I can’t even with him hovering all the time.”
“I do not hover.”
“You hover.”
Myles lifted both eyebrows at his nephew. Steven put a hand on his, and he sighed. “Yes, okay, that’s fair.”
Pat came back then with a tray of coffee mugs, cream and sugar, and cookies. Shelly followed, a huge plastic cup with a lid and straw clutched in both hands.
“It’s milk,” Pat said before Myles could ask if Pat had just hyped his niece up on a gallon of juice, sugar and chemicals. “I am not a completely bad influence.”
Pat settled in the chair across from the couch, and for a minute, Shelly stood looking from one to the other of them. Finally, she crawled up onto the chair to sit on the wide arm next to Pat and tuck her feet under Pat’s leg.
“How’s Wyatt?” Jet asked before the silence could settle too thickly around them. “Really? Because I know he tells me he’s okay, but how is he really?”
“He does seem okay, for the most part. He likes the lifeguarding classes at the Y much better than the school classes he’s taking on line.”
“He’s not going to pass math,” Jet said, looking guilty but also lifting his chin in defiance. “I’m not supposed to tell you that, but he needs a tutor.” He looked over at Myles. “If I was there, I could tutor him. I’m good at math.”
“You can tutor him on FaceTime.”
“It’s not the same.”
“How about you worry about finishing high school yourself before you invest too much of your energy into your friend’s success?”
“Because I can take that online course and finish it in about three weeks. And pass it. So I’m not worried about me. I’m worried about him.”
Myles peeled his attention away from Steven to look at Jet. “Commendable. But as I’ve recently been reminded, its better for everyone that you worry about you, first.”
Jet stared at him, mutinously at first. Then he grunted and got up.
“Fine. I’ll be halfway finished with high school before we move back to Griffon’s Elbow.
You’ll see.” He took the stairs up to his room two at a time, and though Myles expected to hear his door slam, all he heard was the faint sound of music coming on, and Jet singing along with zero skill.
“Before you move back?” Steven turned Myles’s attention back with a finger on his chin. “Explain?”
“I have no idea what he’s talking about.”
“Well.” Pat set her half-empty mug down and stood. “Shelly, I think it’s time you and I took MJ for a walk.” She turned to Myles. “I was thinking of having her to my place for movies and junk food. Any objections?”
“Not a one,” Myles agreed.
“Yay!” Shelly jumped down and dashed for the stairs, yelling to Jet that she was going on a sleepover.
Jet reappeared at the top of the stairs. “Why is she leaving?”
Myles and Steven both looked up at him.
“Oh. My God. I’m going to watch movies in Grandpa’s room. I’ll sleep there.”
“Why?”
“Because.” Jet disappeared, but only momentarily. He returned with an arm full of electronics, his sketch pad and pencils, then thumped down the stairs. He crossed the room to the hallway that led to the upper floors on the other side of the huge house. “It’s really far away from your room.”
“That seems fair,” Steven said quietly. “I wasn’t planning on muzzling you, and you can get loud.”
Myles panned back to look at him. “Muzzle me?”
Steven leaned in for a kiss, and Myles barely noticed Pat and Shelly when they came back down with Shelly’s overnight bag and favourite pillow.
“Bye, Uncle My-my!”
“Come on, sweetie. Uncle My-my is busy.”
They didn’t make it to Myles’s room for some time, and Myles hoped, at one point, that Jet stayed up in his grandfather’s suite. But the thought only hovered for a moment in the periphery before Steven distracted him with his mouth on Myles’s chest.
“Maybe before we get any more naked,” Steven suggested when they were panting together on the couch in nothing but their boxers and socks, “we should go up to your bed?”
“Probably a good idea.” He would have loved to hop up and dash up the stairs as Jet had earlier. Instead, he rolled awkwardly to his feet and groped for his cane.
Steven slapped the handle into his palm and took his free hand. “Take your time,” he advised. “You’re going to need your strength.”
He wasn’t wrong. At some point in the middle of the night, it was all Myles could do to push himself upright against the headboard and drink some water while Steven hurried to the front door for the pizza he’d ordered.
“I texted Jet to let him know there’s a pie in the kitchen for him,” Steven said when he returned and closed the door firmly behind him.
“He’s probably asleep.”
“I heard the television, so I don’t think so.” He was back on the bed, box open in a flash, and pulling a slice free of the rest of the pie.
“Sometimes he falls asleep with it on. This house can be creepy.” Myles set a plate on his lap and delicately extracted his own slice.
“You know what house isn’t creepy?” Steven said, licking sauce off his fingers.
“Yours?”
“It’s like you can read my mind.”
“I’m a package deal. You think you can fit three more people in that house?”
“There were five of us, at one point.” He bit off a huge mouthful and chewed for a while.
Myles picked toppings off his piece and made separate piles of green pepper, onions and mushrooms on the side of his plate.
“You know we could have just got peperoni, if that’s what you wanted.”
“No. This is fine.”
Steven shrugged. “It doesn’t have to be that complicated.”
“You forget, I’ve seen your house. There’s a lot going on there.”
“Why do you think I’ve been cleaning out my dad’s office?”
“I have no idea.”
“So I can move my office out of the small room at the top of the stairs on the second floor. It’s a nice size for Shelly.
Jet can have the bigger one across the hall with the bathroom, and Ozzy is putting a small half-bath in the attic while he’s working up there.
Because I won’t lie. Five people with one bathroom was a bit much.
And Jet seems like he might be slightly high maintenance, if I’m honest.”
“You have it all worked out.”
“I have a plan, if this is what we decide to do.”
“So confident.”
“Confidence is my new vibe. You like it?”
“Its not new.” Myles took the pizza and box from him and set it and his own uneaten piece aside so he could pull Steven into his lap. “Your confidence helped get me through the summer.”
“Maybe it made our sexy times feel safer, but you got yourself through the summer.”
“I can’t go back right away.”
Steven caressed his face. “I’m not trying to rush you. I’m just saying, the option is there.”
“And if I don’t take it?”
He shrugged. “I see no point in thinking any further ahead than if I can manage to get you hard one more time tonight.” He rocked his hips, his cock rubbing against Myles’s groin.
“Now you’re just showing off.”
Steven grinned. “Maybe a little.
“You going to fuck me this time?” he asked, thinking that was something they could both enjoy regardless.
“Seems entirely reasonable.”
“I thought so.”