Chapter 6
Chapter Six
CASH
I nearly jump out of my skin when I walk into the house to find both of my parents home.
The house smells like food, and for a minute, I’m temporarily transported back to my childhood.
So many of my memories are accompanied by food.
My parents loved to cook. All our meals were home-cooked—every breakfast, every lunch, every dinner.
There was always dessert, freshly made granola, and fruit bars. Fresh-baked bread.
A wave of sadness falls over me. I hadn’t realized how different home life was now. Once again, Lie’s outlandish ideas of the activities my parents are up to now that their kids are grown flicker through my mind, and I roll my eyes.
My Dad Leon pops his head around the corner, and I startle again. He grins. “I thought I heard the door open. Why are you lingering?”
I nearly tell him I thought I was in the wrong house since they were both home and cooking, but manage to keep those words in. I know he’d take it wrong. He’d get upset. They don’t actually owe their grown kids the same attention and care they gave their children when they were small.
“Just smelling what you’re cooking. Trying to figure out if I can identify it by smell alone.”
Dad grins widely. “And?”
I take another deep inhale and close my eyes. “Um… I smell pineapple and orange and… chicken? Is that chicken?”
Dad wraps an arm around my shoulders. “Yes. We’re having Hawaiian barbecue—salmon steaks, beef steaks, and chicken steaks.”
“Chicken steaks?” I ask as he leads me into the kitchen, where my Pops Troy is dancing to no music as he stirs something in a bowl.
“I suppose they’re breasts, but we’ve renamed them steaks to keep on theme,” Dad says as he kisses my cheek and rounds the corner to Pops. He smacks Pops’ ass on the way by and Pops grins.
Pops shifts to look at me. “Hey, baby. Have a good day?”
I drop onto a stool and sigh. “It was fine.”
“Still not getting the job you want, are you?”
I grunt like a grumpy child. “No. They’re being dumb.”
Both of my fathers laugh.
“I told you Marion said he hasn’t re-applied again in the last few weeks,” Pops says to Dad. He turns his eyes on me as he wipes his hands on a towel. “They’re not offering you anything at all that you’re interested in?”
“No.” I watch my parents for a minute. “Is it super important that I have a job right now? Will you be disappointed if I wait until I can have the one I want?”
“Aw.” Pops reaches across the counter and takes my hand. “No, baby. Of course not.”
“You’re going to spend the next fifty years working. You should enjoy your job,” Dad says.
“Want to help me at the grill?” Pops asks.
I nod and slide off the stool. There’s enough protein on the platter to feed eight people.
“Are you expecting company?” I ask as I help my father place the variety of steaks on the grill.
The sizzle and instant aroma blast of grilled pineapple and honey fill the air.
It makes my stomach growl. “This is a lot of food.”
“Nope. Just us and you boys.”
“We want leftovers,” Dad says.
My stomach drops at ‘you boys’. That means Benson will probably be home. Somehow, I manage to keep my sigh of resignation to myself as I help Pops at the grill. We’re just sitting down to dinner when my brother gets home with Onyx in tow, as per usual.
I don’t look at my brother. Even as he talks to our parents, I can hear the chip on his shoulder reflected in his voice.
“I hear you refused another job,” Benson says, and I know that comment is for me. I ignore him and take another bite, keeping my focus on Pops. “Just want to be a mooch for the rest of your pathetic life, do you?”
Swallowing my mouthful, I say, “Says the person who is two years older than me and still pretends at being a musician.”
“I have gigs,” he says, his tone growing angry. “Which you know because you’re there all the fucking time.”
“Three nights a week. $50 a night. You could probably make more if you weren’t an asshole to the patrons. But you insist on being a homophobic tool. On a gay resort.”
Whatever my brother was going to say is cut off by Dad. “That’s enough. I shouldn’t have to keep saying this, but if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t talk to each other.”
I track Benson’s movement in the corner of my eye. He grabs an apple from the counter and leaves the room. A minute later, I hear his door slam closed.
Pops sighs. “I miss when the two of you were close.”
My gaze drops to my plate, my fork absently pushing my peas around.
We were friends. I’ll never understand what changed.
One day, he came into my room screaming about me being gay, and…
it just came out of left field. It’s not like I ever truly hid it.
I didn’t say anything directly to him about my sexuality.
But seriously. We grew up on a gay island resort. Our parents are gay. We’re literally surrounded by queer people of all kinds.
I was absolutely dumbfounded while he yelled at me that first time. He’d never yelled at me before. I was his baby brother, and he loved having me around. He played with me all the time. He included me in all the fun he had with Onyx.
Suddenly, he hated me, and I honestly never understood why. I still don’t. My very presence offends him now, and… I just don’t know.
Onyx takes the seat beside me. He presses his foot to the side of mine, but I ignore him as I continue to push my food around. No one makes me lose my appetite quite like my brother.
“Eat,” Onyx says quietly.
I raise my eyes to meet his and think I probably give him a defiant glare. “I’m not hungry,” I say like a petulant child.
He leans in, a wicked smirk on his sexy lips, and says, “Eat, Cash. I could hear your stomach from down the road.”
I roll my eyes, but my stomach clenches with hunger, so I huff in irritation. Turning my attention back to my food, I mutter, “I’m eating because I’m hungry. Not because you told me to.” I stick a bite of steak into my mouth and ignore his smug smile and contradiction of my own words.
For a few minutes, we eat in silence. I feel my dads watching Onyx and I. He didn’t take a lot of food. A slice of fish steak. I already forgot what fish it is, though it’s flaky and smells divine. Otherwise, he sits silently.
Onyx was here as much as Lie was when we were kids. Onyx is still around all the time, like a second brother. Lie… Hmm. I guess I haven’t talked to Lie today. He’s been busy quitting all his jobs and feeling grumpy while flirting with his dad’s best friend to pass the time.
“Did you hear that the Lillys’ found their missing cat?” Pops asks.
I look up, shaking my head.
“Apparently, Mr. Meowson is also Fluffy Whispers, who belongs to the Beverlys’ four-year-old daughter. She likes to dress the cat up, so Fluffy Whispers has been wandering around the island in clothes, right in front of the Lillys’ house, and they didn’t recognize him.”
“So the cat is in drag, and they didn’t realize,” Onyx says, amused.
I snort and try not to choke on the piece of meat I stuck into my mouth.
“Sounds like it,” Dad says, laughing.
“There are only so many cats on the island,” I muse. “How did they not recognize Meowson just because he was now wearing clothes? That seems a little… oblivious, doesn’t it?”
“Yes. Considering Meowson is one of the few gray cats on all the islands, I think it’s certainly oblivious of the Lillys,” Pops agrees.
“I always wanted a cat,” Onyx says.
“I hear there will be kittens available soon,” I say. “It was in the newsletter.”
“I think my mom would lose her mind,” he says, amused.
“You’ll have to get a cat when you get your own place,” Dad says.
Onyx and I snort at the same time because we both know how unlikely that’s going to be.
“I still think you should build the garage into an apartment,” Onyx says to my dads. “It’s not going to solve the housing crisis, but one more can’t hurt.”
“We will eventually,” Pops says, and I look up at him with surprise.
“You will?”
Both my dads nod.
“That was always the plan,” Dad says. “We keep it an open space so Ben and the band have somewhere to practice.”
“So you’re going to wait for him to hit it big and leave Kala before converting it into an apartment?” I deadpan. “That’s seriously your plan?”
Onyx shoves me playfully. “Wow. Way to have confidence in us.”
I open my mouth to retort and then change my mind. I have nothing nice to say, so I’m going to take my parents’ advice and just not speak.
“You know,” Onyx says. “You have a big yard. I bet you could buy a shed and put it in the corner and make it into a tiny house.”
Both my dads twist in their seats to look into the yard.
“Huh,” Pops says. “There’s plenty of room.”
“I’m not sure how we’d tie it into the septic, electric, and water, but that’s a great idea,” Dad says.
“I can totally see Cash with a cute tiny house,” Onyx says, grinning at me.
I don’t know what it is about the way he’s smiling, but it makes my cheeks flush. I turn my attention back to my plate and shrug. “It would be kind of cool, but no offense, I don’t want to live that close to Ben forever.”
“Not forever, baby,” Pops says.
“Right. He’s going to get a record deal one day.”
My dads sigh.
“You two need to stop your constant fighting. You’re adults now. Work it out.”
I shake my head but don’t bother to respond. Neither of my parents have been willing to see that my brother has turned into a dick and it's mostly unprompted by me. Yes, I respond now. Frankly, I’m tired of being yelled at for simply existing. At least now he has a reason to yell at me.
Onyx hangs out with my dads and me for dessert.
We have strawberry cookies and dip on the back deck, watching the sunset over the horizon.
Onyx entertains us by describing my new, imaginary tiny house.
I’m amused when my dads get in on it. Pops even crosses the yard and walks the perimeter of where he thinks the footprint would be. Complete with a little deck.
By the time I turn into my room for the night, I’m smiling. Not because I think I’ll actually get a tiny house in my parents’ backyard. I’m not entirely sure I want one. But I had a good night imagining it.
Dad gives me a big hug, and I smile as I let myself sink into his embrace. I used to love hugging my dads. I still do. I guess I just don’t see them much, so the hugs are fewer.
“Love you, son,” Dad says.
I kiss his cheek. “Love you, too, Dad.”
Pops hugs me for a long time, his embrace really tight. I wonder if they miss the hugs, too. “Stop growing up so fast,” he murmurs. “I miss my little boy.”
Like I did Dad, I kiss Pops’ cheek too. “I don’t think I have much more growing up left.”
“Wrong,” he says, placing a kiss on my forehead. “The minute we stop growing as people, we become complacent to hatred, bigotry, and ignorance. Never stop growing, but also, stop growing. I miss my little boys.”
With another tight hug, I tell both my dads I love them and that I really enjoyed spending the evening with them. I guess I hadn’t realized how much I miss having my dads around. It’s not that I’m not ready to grow up and be independent, but I miss just hanging with my parents.
I barely have the door to my bedroom shut when there’s a knock. I’m expecting one of my dads, so I’m surprised when I meet Onyx’s eyes. He pushes me into my room as he glances over his shoulder to make sure he’s not seen. His hand on my hip as he pushes me backward has my skin heating.
He locks the door behind him, and then his blue eyes are on mine. There’s a stern look on his face. Something sharp and… sexy. The small smirk on his lips has my stomach fluttering.
So I can hide the way my cheeks flush, I turn away from him and sit in my usual spot on the floor in front of my bed. Onyx is beside me in the next breath. He grips my chin, forcing my eyes to his.
“I didn’t realize you were such a brat,” he murmurs.
I lick my lips, and my heart jumps when his eyes drop to my mouth. “I—what?”
Onyx chuckles. “I like it best when you do as I tell you and eat your meals like a good boy should,” he says.
There’s something stupidly sexy about his tone. I’m not entirely sure I like the message. I’m not a little kid. If I don’t want to eat, then I’m not going to eat—regardless of the reason—even if it’s only because I’m feeling defiant.
However, when he’s this close and staring at my mouth, words fail me. I can’t get them out. I can’t make them form. I can’t even think of any words I want to say in response.
I’m even more startled when his mouth covers mine, his hand dropping to my neck.
Onyx’s long fingers wrap around my neck, and he pulls me closer with his grip.
My head is pushed back a little in this position, which might be what he’s going for.
My lips part, and he immediately invades my mouth with his tongue.
My breath hitches and then freezes entirely. ONYX GREER IS KISSING ME runs through my head as if I’m screaming into the void for the stars to hear.
He settles in front of me, or beside me, or… close to me, and somehow our kiss deepens. That’s when I become incredibly self-conscious, and I gently push him away. Onyx releases my mouth from his but doesn’t relinquish his hold on my neck.
“I, uh… I’ve never really… kissed anyone,” I admit. “It’s not been super important, so…” My skin feels like it’s burning as I make my confession.
“That’s okay,” Onyx says, voice deep but breathless. “Do you want to stop?”
I shake my head.
Onyx licks his lips. “Then let me show you,” he murmurs, and his mouth covers mine again. This time, I let myself get lost in his kisses.