Chapter Seven
Madden
‘Maddy.’ The way the voice on the other end of the phone said his name sounded exactly as excited as he felt hearing it.
‘Michael,’ he said, almost incredulous he was speaking to his brother again within the same twelve-month period.
He threw a hateful glance at Adryan, which seemed to surprise the other man, but it was all his fault.
If he hadn’t been so distracted enjoying the complete disbelief with which he had been gawking at him, Madden would have checked the caller ID and never picked up.
Even Adryan was surprised, his eyes widening as he heard the name.
There was an awkward silence, and then some muffled muttering, which was really eating at Madden’s patience.
‘What do you want?’ he snapped after a moment.
‘Oh for crying out loud, can you not even do this one thing?’ he heard a woman’s voice on the other end say, and then it became clearer as it spoke to him.
It was Susan. ‘Maddy, sorry. It’s Lily’s birthday and we’re having a barbeque on Sunday.
Just family and a few close friends. We’d love you to come. ’
Madden froze. Spending the day at his brother’s house, again, in less than a month was far from his idea of a good time. He’d rather shove a nail into his balls, to be honest. But he couldn’t tell her that.
‘That’s very kind of you, Susan, but I don’t think I’m recovered enough to attend.’
There was a short silence.
‘I see,’ she said, trying to sound chirpy, but he could tell she wasn’t feeling it.
‘Susan-’
‘No, of course. Health is important, isn’t it?’
‘I-’
‘I have to go get the kids their dinner, Maddy. You take care of yourself.’
‘Is Uncle Maddy coming to my birthday?’ he heard an excited little voice ask before the call cut off. He stood there, staring at the phone, conflicting thoughts fighting in his mind. He really didn’t want to go, but…
‘You should come,’ Adryan said.
Madden turned to him, almost having forgotten he was there.
‘Where?’
‘To the barbeque. It’s your niece’s birthday.’
‘Are you going too?’
‘Of course! I helped deliver that girl, you know?’
‘What?’ Madden stared blankly.
‘Susan’s water broke in the middle of the cereal aisle.
I was on shift,’ he shrugged. ‘She gave birth in the rig. It was really fast.’ Adryan’s eyes wandered as if reminiscing.
‘Anyway, you should come. You’ve been locked up in here too long now.
A bit of fresh air, sun and a good old burger will do you good, get a chance to know your nephew and niece better. ’
Madden watched him, unblinking, feeling assaulted.
‘Mike reminds me a lot of you, always taking things apart to see how they work…’ Adryan smiled tenderly, a picture Madden couldn’t quite reconcile with the memories he had of him from their youth. ‘He’d love to know more about what you do, I’m sure.’
Adryan met Madden’s gaze, big blue eyes sparkling with the light coming through the window behind him.
Adryan had always been like that, full of light.
Out of the hellish trio that his brother and his friends formed, Adryan was probably the one that was the least mean to him.
It’s not like they always condoned what Michael did, but they didn’t call him out on it often enough.
He could count with the fingers on his hands the number of times they had stopped his brother from shitting on him.
He would need more fingers to count the times Shane had just watched, laughing, or even participated.
If he was honest with himself, he would have to admit Adryan had rarely participated.
His brother’s friend might have failed to speak up, but Madden could confidently say none of his bruises had come from him.
When he was younger, he dreamed of taking his revenge, he dreamed of ambushing them after they went drinking and beat them up with a bat.
He dreamt of their blood on his hands. Once he was gone, once he was free from the constant abuse of his brother and his father, be it verbal or physical, those dreams born of anger and frustration slowly stopped.
Now, as he looked at Adryan’s mesmerizing blue eyes, at the way his neck curved, the way the tendons moved under the skin of his really large hands, daydreams of punishment were coming back to him, except that violence wasn’t what he had in mind.
Flashes of Adryan’s hands on his naked body the other day mixed with his own imagination.
His own hand pushing the other man’s waist down, forcing his ass up to meet his cock.
The way he would pound into him until he cried, and then make him beg for more.
The thought was so enticing he found his breath altered and had to turn away, lest Adryan guessed what he was thinking about by the way his face was turning red.
Adryan was straight, after all, though that knowledge was not doing much to appease his desire.
Nor his common sense. The selfies he had seen on Adryan’s Instabook earlier that day, Shane’s arm over his shoulder, the smiles on their faces as they had a drink together.
The way Adryan smiled so openly at Shane.
Even though he knew for a fact both men were straight, he couldn’t help feeling… what? Feeling what?
Whatever it was, it had made him text and call Adryan till he left Shane and came to see him.
‘Come on, Maddy... It’s not like Michael is going to sit next to you or anything. You can both manage to ignore each other for a few hours, can’t you?’
There was something eager in the way Adryan was asking and his heart made a loud thumping noise he wasn’t familiar with.
He sighed.
‘Fine…’ he said at last, confused by the way Adryan’s face lit up now. ‘But you have to help me get her a present.’
The sound of the meat sizzling on the barbeque was making him hungry. He sat away from any activity, nursing a full glass of lemonade and glaring daggers at Adryan. He couldn’t believe he had convinced him to come only to tell him now he couldn’t drink.
‘You’re telling me I have to get through this sober?’
‘I’m sorry?’ he said, a smirk on his lips, tipping his own cold beer into his mouth.
He got distracted then as a drop of the golden liquid slid down the curve of Adryan’s lip.
He had stared at it for what was clearly too long.
Luckily Adryan didn’t seem to notice, or maybe he didn’t get a chance, as Shane had just joined them by the cooler, sliding an arm around Adryan’s neck.
‘Hey Maddy,’ Shane said, a cocky grin on his lips.
‘Madden for you,’ Madden said, considering using an insult as punctuation, but there were too many kids around.
It turned out Susan had four nieces and three nephews.
Add her two to that and the three friends Lily invited to her birthday, half a dozen kids were running around everyone’s legs, forcing them into the acrobatics of avoiding falling over.
Shane’s fingers closed around Adryan’s shoulder. For reasons Madden refused to investigate, his eye had twitched at the sight.
‘I can’t believe you bought Lily a horse,’ Shane said, looking over their shoulder. In the distance, Lily was pretending to be a knight on a white gelding, led around the front garden by a young girl in cowboy boots.
‘It’s only a rental for the afternoon,’ he replied, watching the little girl. The smile on her face was making him feel less shitty about it all, at least.
‘Why don’t you go sit and I’ll bring you some food,’ Adryan said. His anger from the other day had vanished, especially after Madden had told him about the factory meeting, but, well, Madden had called him less too.
‘Yes, go sit down,’ Shane said, wrapping an arm around Adryan’s waist.
‘What the fuck,’ Adryan said, elbowing Shane in the stomach. He didn’t comment, only giving Shane a questioning look, before turning back to him. ‘Here, have lemonade.’
Madden had found a chair under the shade of a tree, at the far corner of the garden, and had let his eyes wander over the people gathered for the party, except that his eyes returned to Adryan every time.
The man’s hair turned to gold under the sun.
He was relaxed, casually talking to Michael and Shane.
Shane… that jerk. Why was he all over Adryan like that?
Every time he looked, Shane had an arm around Adryan’s neck.
Once he even caught him grabbing Adryan’s ass.
Locker shit, probably, but it was making his blood boil.
‘Madden,’ he heard a familiar voice call. As he turned to see where it was coming from, he recognized Susan’s cousin. He remembered clearly how Michael had set him up with her on a blind date once.
‘I thought she might make you normal again,’ he had laughed when he came home.
Susan hadn’t spoken to him in a month. She should have dumped him, Madden thought, and he had encouraged her often to do so.
She was too good for his brother and to this day he couldn’t understand what she saw in that piece of shit.
Luckily, he hadn’t come his way, like Adryan had promised.
‘Madden,’ the woman repeated.
Susan’s cousin was a nice enough girl and had he been straight, he wouldn’t have had a problem dating her, but he wasn’t and, unfortunately, she had not wanted to understand that fact.
After their failed blind date, she had messaged him, called him, and done everything she could to gain his interest. She could never accept it would never happen, no matter what he said, until he left town.
And now she was coming his way. A cold sweat ran through him, one that triggered him to push the emergency call button in his pocket before bringing it out and putting it to his ear.
‘Madden,’ she said once more, reaching him.
‘Hey Jessica, sorry, I need to take this call.’ He proceeded to get off the bench and roam around aimlessly.
‘Madden Price,’ he said, as if he was answering instead of calling out.
‘I know who you are, I have caller ID’ the deep voice answered.
‘I see. I can arrange that.’
‘Ah, you’re being anti-social again.’