by Ariel Tachna
A knock startled them apart as the door opened.
“Owen?”
Owen pushed away from Leroy.
“Oh, sorry!” Phillip stammered. “The door was open. I didn’t realize—”
“It’s fine, Phillip. What did you need?”
“When you’re free, we had a question downstairs. No rush or anything.”
“Wait just a minute and I’ll go back down with you,” Owen said firmly.
“Really, it’s no rush. We’ll be downstairs.”
Red-faced, Phillip stepped back out of the office and shut the door behind him. Owen turned back to face Leroy. “No. I’m not the pushover I was.”
“Baby,” Leroy wheedled, grabbing Owen again.
“No,” Owen said, finally fed up with Leroy’s refusal to listen. He kneed Leroy in the groin as hard as he could, taking great satisfaction in the pained shout Leroy let out. “I’m not your baby or your darling or any other pet name, and I won’t be ever again. We’ve finished our business transaction, so there’s no reason for us to have further contact. Find someone who wants what you’re selling. You know the way out.”
Owen opened the office door and waited for Leroy to leave. He locked it behind him, something he never did, but he didn’t want Leroy lingering. He didn’t think Leroy would sink that low, but some things had changed. He didn’t know what else might have. And Phillip had seen what looked like Owen kissing a man other than Derek. Owen had to set the record straight before Leroy ruined the best thing to ever happen to Owen.
Chapter Fifteen
“DEREK, can I talk to you for a second?”
Derek looked up when Phillip came into the bathroom where he was cutting drywall to go around the plumbing. “What’s up?”
“Not here. Can we go outside for a minute?”
Derek frowned. He’d sent Phillip to ask Owen to come down when he could, but he knew Owen was working, so it might not be immediately. “All right. Let’s go.”
They walked outside to the truck. Derek leaned back against the tailgate and waited for Phillip to start talking.
“I went upstairs to find Owen like you asked. He wasn’t in the front, and I heard voices from his office. The door was open, so I knocked but walked right in. Only….”
“Only what?”
“Only he wasn’t alone.”
“You heard voices. What did you expect?”
“Not for him to be kissing some guy!” Phillip exclaimed, looking miserable. “I’m sorry. I know you like him.”
Derek froze. He couldn’t reconcile Owen that morning saying he’d never had the chance at a real relationship with the idea of his kissing someone else. “Are you sure?”
“I know what kissing looks like,” Phillip said.
“Phillip, I’m serious. Are you sure Owen was kissing the other guy?” He remembered all too clearly his mother’s scream of fury when she’d walked in on Marlene and his father, but Owen wasn’t like that. He wouldn’t cheat. He’d told Derek just that morning. Then again, Derek wouldn’t have expected his father to cheat… right up until he did.
“What do you mean?”
He was grasping at straws, Derek knew, but he desperately needed to come up with a rational explanation, however farfetched, before he went storming inside to confront Owen. “Are you sure Owen was a willing participant?”
“Why wouldn’t he be?” Phillip asked.
“If you have to ask, we’re reviewing those lectures I know your uncles gave you on consent,” Derek said. “After I talk to Owen.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Phillip asked.
“That’s what adults do,” Derek said. “They talk about things rather than jumping to conclusions. If what you saw is true, then I’ll deal with it, but not without letting Owen have his say.” It wouldn’t have made any difference for his parents, with Marlene gunning for their marriage, but that didn’t mean history was repeating itself. Not when he’d finally found someone who looked at him the same way Blake looked at Thane.
He left Phillip standing by the truck and strode back inside. He met Owen at the door to the garage, but before he could say anything, Owen lifted a hand. “Please. Before you jump to conclusions or tell me it’s over, just hear me out.”
Derek nodded silently, braced for what Owen wanted him to hear, but Owen simply stood there for a moment. “I’m listening,” Derek prompted as gently as he could.
“I told you about my ex,” Owen said. “About how he turned me into his dirty little secret because his divorce wasn’t final and he wasn’t out. I didn’t tell you what an arrogant son of a motherless goat he is and how he never really understood the word no.”
Derek could feel his hackles rising, not at Owen now, but at the nameless, faceless ex. He might be going hunting if this story went the way he was beginning to suspect.
“I’d borrowed money from him right before we broke up to pay for the custom bookshelves in the front rooms. I know how he is, so I told him he’d only get the last payment when he brought a notarized statement saying I’d paid him back in full, but I’d forgotten he was coming today. He brought the paperwork, but he’d also apparently decided I’d had long enough to reconsider the error of my ways in breaking up with him and would be interested in taking him back.”
Oh fuck yes, he was going hunting.
“I know what he’s like, and I knew he’d make a scene, so I agreed to talk with him in my office instead of in the store like I should have done, but I didn’t want to make the drama public if I could help it. Anyway, as soon as we were alone, he told me his divorce was final and started trying to get me to take him back. I said no every way I could think of, but he didn’t hear me, and finally he grabbed me and tried to kiss me. Phillip walked in just in time to see that. He didn’t stay around long enough to see me knee him in the balls.”
Derek snorted. He couldn’t help himself. “Serves the fucker right.” Not that it would stop Derek from taking his own piece out of the bastard’s hide if he ever caught him skulking around.
“You believe me?”
Derek looked down at Owen’s open face and big scared eyes, and the answer came easily. “Yes.”
“Oh, thank you, Jesus.”
“Did he hurt you?” Derek asked, because he could deal with a shaken, even a scared Owen, but if the piece of shit thought he could hurt Owen, he’d answer to Derek for it.
“No. He’s not like that. He’s just so self-absorbed he can’t imagine I wouldn’t want him back. When we first got together, he made it pretty clear he was doing me a favor, being seen with someone like me. He was shocked to see the marks on my neck. I don’t think he’d even considered I might have moved on,” Owen said.
Nope, forget if the guy came skulking around again. Derek was going hunting.
“I’d call that hurting you,” Derek said, biting back his anger. Owen hadn’t completely lost the frantic look around his eyes, and Derek didn’t want to make it worse, no matter how justified he was in his feelings. He traced Owen’s cheekbone tenderly. “Do you want to go outside with me for a few minutes? We’ll have to let Phillip go back inside, but we can sit in the truck bed until you’re feeling more like yourself.”
“Or we could sit on the perfectly good patio furniture under the trees,” Owen replied, “but yeah, I’d like that.”
Derek turned back to Phillip, who was doing his best to look anywhere but at the scene unfolding in the garage. “Phillip, go ride herd on your brother for a while.”
Phillip practically ran inside, head ducked as he went past them.
“Phillip, wait,” Owen called.
Phillip turned back, red-faced.
“Thank you for interrupting when you did. That let me get away from Leroy.”
“You’re not upset I told Derek?”
“I would have preferred if you’d talked with me about it first, but you don’t know me very well, and your loyalty is to Derek. Just remember next time that there’s always two sides to
a story and what you think you see may not be the whole truth.”
“Yes, sir,” Phillip said. Derek jerked his head toward the door. Phillip took the hint and went inside, leaving Derek and Owen alone. Derek reached for Owen’s hand and tucked it in the crook of his arm as they walked up past the truck to the shaded patio tucked away in the back of the yard.
“That was kind of you,” Derek said when he’d sat down and pulled Owen onto his lap.
“It wasn’t his fault he was caught in the middle like that,” Owen said. “He did what he thought best, even if it could have made things bad if you’d been a different man.”
Derek tucked Owen’s head against the curve of his shoulder, ignoring the sweat building up almost immediately where they touched. It was really too hot to sit like this, even in the shade, but he wouldn’t have asked Owen to move for all the money in the world. “I’ll always try to listen, no matter what you have to say.”
Owen rested against Derek’s shoulder for a few minutes, letting Derek bask in the moment. He couldn’t say they’d weathered a storm—it hadn’t gotten to storm stage—but it felt just as momentous. They’d been in a situation that could have torn them apart, but they’d dodged the bullet. They’d trusted each other enough for truth to win out over fear and conjecture.
When Owen finally lifted his head, his gaze glittered with the same awareness that suffused Derek. Derek didn’t know which of them moved first, or perhaps they moved at the same time, but they were suddenly kissing, deeply, desperately, Owen writhing in Derek’s lap in deliberate provocation. Derek wanted nothing more than to scoop Owen into his arms as he’d done the night before and carry him inside and up the stairs, but he’d either have to go past Kit and Phillip or through the kitchen, where they ran the risk of encountering Mel, and he wouldn’t do that to Owen. Yes, Owen had chosen not to hide the marks Derek’s stubble had left on his skin, but that was his choice, not Derek’s.
Owen finally tore away from the kiss, panting harshly. “We can’t do this now, but come back after you take the boys home? Go to your place, grab a bag, and stay tonight.”
“It’s not too soon?” Derek asked, ignoring how desperately he wanted exactly what Owen was offering.
“Who cares?” Owen replied. “It feels right to me.”
It felt right to Derek too, and that scared the shit out of him. He’d never fallen as fast or as hard as he was falling for Owen, and it was so much more than mere lust driving him. He wanted to wrap Owen up in his arms and never let anyone hurt him again, while at the same time wanting to step back and laugh at the sorry bastard who’d let a treasure like Owen slip through his grip.
“I’ll be back before the store closes.”
“I guess that means we should go back to work.”
“You should go let Mel know you’re all right,” Derek said. “If she saw Leroy come in, she’s probably worried about you.”
And later, Derek would see if he could get her alone to see if she knew Leroy’s last name. Owen might have kneed the fucker in the balls, but Derek could think of a few other choice places to plant his boot.
Chapter Sixteen
“HAVE you decided about Thane’s party on the Fourth?” Derek asked Owen as they shared their lunch a week later. Since the night Derek had stayed with Owen, they’d taken to planning their lunch breaks at the same time so they’d have a few minutes alone to talk, even if that was all they saw of each other on any given day. Owen treasured those minutes like he treasured few things in the world.
Derek sounded so hesitant Owen wondered if something else was going on beneath the surface, but he didn’t have plans and no reason to refuse, especially not since Derek had invited him.
“I’d love to go.”
“Great. I’ll let Blake know. He always says we should invite whoever we want as long as we give him a count, but I’ve never actually brought anyone before.”
There was the subtext he’d been missing. “What time should I be ready?”
“I’ll pick you up at three thirty.” That assumed Derek wasn’t already—or still—there, but Owen didn’t mention it, however much he hoped to persuade Derek to spend the night. “Thane thinks it’s funny to have the Fourth of July party start at four o’clock.”
“He’s a very funny guy.”
“He’s an ass,” Derek replied, but he was smiling, so Owen accepted the name-calling as the way of brothers everywhere.
OWEN picked his brightest shorts for the picnic and found a print shirt that matched the blue in his shorts. He shaved and meticulously spiked his hair—red, white, and blue for the holiday. He could hear his mother’s sigh and his father’s tirade, but he ignored them. He might know Kit and Phillip and have met Blake and Thane, but he wasn’t leaving anything to chance. Derek approved, and the rest of them didn’t matter. A splash of cologne and a hint of eyeliner completed the ensemble. He was as ready as he could be.
He’d just started down the stairs when he heard the doorbell. Derek was prompt as always. Not that Owen was surprised. Derek had only left a few hours ago to run some errands before the picnic started. Just enough time for Owen to dye his hair and get ready.
“I like the hair,” Derek said. “Very patriotic.”
“It seemed appropriate,” Owen replied even as a part of him relaxed at Derek’s reaction. He’d debated leaving his hair the lavender it had faded into because he’d been so wrapped up with Derek he hadn’t taken the time to bleach it and dye it again, but the colors had seemed to fit the theme of the day.
“You ready to go?”
“Unless I need to bring something? I know you said Blake and Thane would take care of everything, but I feel funny showing up to a party empty-handed.”
“I tossed a case of beer and a couple of two-liters of soda in a cooler in my truck,” Derek said. “That can be our contribution.”
Owen frowned. “Does anyone drink scotch? I have a bottle I got as a Christmas present a couple of years ago that I’ll never drink. I could bring it.”
“Blake loves whiskey and bourbon and the like. I don’t know anything about it beyond drinking what he serves me, but he’d probably appreciate it.”
“Let me grab it.” He went back inside and dug through the cabinet in the kitchen where he kept the liquor people had given him over the years. He pulled it out when he had guests and hoped they knew what to do with it. He could make screwdrivers, mimosas, and cosmos. Everything else was pretty much beyond him. The bottle of scotch was all the way in the back. He’d had the sense to realize it was top-shelf when he’d gotten it, even if he didn’t have the palate to appreciate it.
“Okay, now I’m ready,” he said, coming back outside with the bottle in hand. He showed the label to Derek, but Derek shrugged.
“I’m sure Blake will know it. He’s always trying to get us to try new things. Did you know he and Thane went to Ireland and Scotland for their honeymoon? To hear Thane tell it, they stopped at every distillery in both countries.”
Owen laughed despite himself. “Then I’d better hope I’m not insulting him with this one.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Derek rested a hand at the small of Owen’s back, guiding him down the steps and toward his truck. “Thane said Blake had fun but was just as happy to come back to his good ol’ Kentucky bourbon when it was all said and done.”
“What did Thane get out of that trip?” Owen asked with a grin.
Derek winked at him as he opened the door to his pickup for Owen. “As much sex as he could squeeze into two weeks with no teenagers. Believe me, he wasn’t complaining about anything Blake wanted to do during the day.”
Owen’s cheeks felt hot as he slid into the passenger seat, but he ignored the squirmy sensation that such frank conversations and Derek’s casual—and not so casual—touches still left him with. He was no longer ruled by his father’s definitions of morality. “Sounds like a good time was had by all.”
“You know it.”
Derek shut the pass
enger door and walked around to the other side. Owen was glad Derek had relaxed enough to pick up Owen in his truck now, but the gentlemanly touch of opening and closing the door for him remained. The bench seat between them beckoned invitingly, but Owen fastened his seat belt and stayed resolutely on his side of the cab. If he scooted closer, he’d be tempted to rest his hand on Derek’s tree trunk of a thigh. Derek wouldn’t protest, but Owen wouldn’t be a cocktease, and they had hours of picnic ahead of them. From what Derek had said, the picnic would go on until the fireworks at the Idle Hour Country Club, which had given the name to the neighborhood that included Thane’s house. “Who else is going to be at the party? Blake and Thane, obviously, since they’re hosting it.”
“The boys. Kit’s boyfriend, Trevor. Apparently Phillip invited a girl, although I’m not sure what the status on that is. Thane always invites the guys from the crew and their families, but since I’ve been working with Kit and Phillip at your place, I haven’t heard who might be coming and who isn’t. Um… they usually invite their neighbors, but again, no idea who will actually be there.”
Owen could handle this. He might have grown up in the country, but if there was one thing a preacher’s kid learned besides all his Bible verses, it was how to act at a gathering. Granted, he’d usually been running back and forth helping his mother with the organization, but eventually she’d always let him loose to go and enjoy. He could work a crowd with the best of them when he had to.
With the traffic light that early on Fourth of July, they arrived in Idle Hour in about ten minutes, well before the four o’clock start time Derek had indicated. “Is it okay if we show up early?”
“I told them I’d come a bit early to help with any last-minute setup. Blake probably has a list waiting for me.”
Owen didn’t laugh, but his respect for the man who had successfully henpecked both Derek and Thane went through the roof. “Let’s go be useful, then.”