by Ariel Tachna
“I had plans yesterday,” Derek said. “I had a date.”
“You could have brought her with you. You’re always welcome to bring a date with you when you come to family events.”
And inflict Marlene on Owen? Derek didn’t think so.
“We aren’t quite at the meet-the-family stage. If things get to that point, I’ll bring him to meet you.” If things went according to plan, they’d be at that stage soon, but Derek wouldn’t take that for granted, not until Owen reciprocated his feelings.
Derek’s father paused, but only for a moment. “You know Marlene always plans on everyone being at dinner. When you just don’t show, it messes up all her careful planning.”
“Then maybe she should only plan on the people who have said they’re coming,” Derek suggested. They’d had this conversation a thousand times, and nothing ever changed, but Derek would keep right on having it until it finally stuck.
“And come up short if someone gets free at the last minute? Or have you feel like you can’t come because your plans changed? No, Marlene would never do that. She cares too much about all her sons.”
Derek gritted his teeth against the response he wanted to make. She cared too much about the Brady Bunch image she tried to project.
“And when was the last time you called Preston? I know you talk to Brian regularly, but you have another brother, you know. You shouldn’t play favorites like that.”
“I talked to Preston a couple of weeks ago. I heard all about his new degree program. Marlene must be so proud.” At twenty-six, Preston already had two more degrees than Derek did and was starting a third. Marlene would be even more insufferable than usual next time Derek couldn’t get out of a family gathering.
“Oh yes, Preston will be the next in a long line of PhDs in our family. If only Grandfather had lived to see it.”
Derek smothered his retort. Marlene’s father hadn’t had time for any of them, even his biological grandson. He certainly hadn’t had time for Derek and Brian. Although a PhD might have been enough to merit a nod from him. It was another of those things Marlene insisted on for appearances’ sake. “I hate to cut you off, Dad, but I’m going to be late for work.”
His father sighed in the huffy way that conveyed all his disappointment that Derek hadn’t done great things with his life. “We expect to see you this weekend since you didn’t come yesterday.”
“I don’t know what my schedule is yet. We’re behind on our current project, and we need to get back on schedule.”
“This weekend, Derek.”
“Bye, Dad.” He disconnected the call before his father could say anything else. He obviously needed to find some new excuses. Maybe Owen would be free on Sunday. He was so much more than an excuse, but it was still something different he could use on his father.
OWEN would have denied he spent extra time getting ready on Friday morning if anyone had asked. He always checked his appearance before he opened the shop. He might run a casual business, but it wouldn’t do to look like a slob in front of his customers. He never went down to the shop without checking his outfit, spiking his hair, splashing on a bit of cologne, and making sure the earring he wore complemented the ensemble. He wasn’t putting in extra effort to impress Derek. He wasn’t. He wouldn’t complain if Derek noticed, but he didn’t need to catch Derek’s eye. He’d already done that, as Derek had proven quite conclusively last night.
Owen blushed again, thinking of how wantonly he’d begged and pleaded last night as Derek had driven him insane with need, always keeping him right on the edge of release, stoking his passion higher and higher until he didn’t know how he hadn’t gone up in smoke. Surely the human body wasn’t designed to contain so much pleasure, yet his had. He had. And when Derek had finally relented and given him what he wanted, it had been all Owen could do not to blurt out right then how much he loved Derek. Nothing could make the words untrue, but it was so soon, and even more than that, saying it for the first time during sex was a surefire way to not be taken seriously. When Owen told Derek he loved him for the first time, he didn’t want any doubt he meant it.
He was already half-hard again just from thinking about Derek—his big, capable hands and how good they felt on Owen’s skin, the way he’d kissed Owen so masterfully and what that felt like everywhere on his body, how safe he’d felt surrounded by Derek’s strength, cradled beneath that strong body for a few hours of blissful abandon….
He jerked his thoughts away from his fantasies. He had to go down and open the shop, and he really didn’t want to do that with a hard-on. Not exactly conducive to a professional environment. Now if it were just Derek coming over, that might be different, but Kit and Phillip would be with him, and some things didn’t need to be shared. He took a deep breath to settle himself and went to the kitchen to make coffee. He’d just poured the first cup when a tap on the kitchen door startled him. He looked up to see Derek outside.
With a smile, he crossed the room and opened the door. “I thought you said you wouldn’t be here early,” he said as he let Derek in.
Derek walked into the kitchen and bent to kiss Owen softly. “I know, but I was awake and didn’t see any reason to wait. The boys will be here later, but I can get things started without them.”
“Or you could sit with me and have a cup of coffee. Or tea if you prefer.”
“Coffee is fine,” Derek said. “But I really should get to work. We’ve got a deadline to meet.”
Owen frowned at the off tone of Derek’s voice. “Hey, what’s up? Or if you just need to pound out some frustrations, tell me that directly instead of making excuses, okay?”
“Sorry,” Derek said with a grimace. “It hasn’t been the best morning.”
“Then sit and have a cup of coffee and tell me what’s going on.” Owen poured a second cup and set it on the table across from his own.
“My father called while I was getting ready this morning. Totally ruined the buzz from last night.”
Owen shuddered to think of his own reaction if his father had called while he was fantasizing about Derek this morning. “Not a good conversation?”
“Conversations with my father rarely are,” Derek said, but he sat down and picked up the coffee, so Owen counted that as a win. “Apparently I upset Marlene by not coming to the family Fourth of July picnic yesterday, so of course my father had to call and nag me. He wants me to go see them later this weekend. I told him I had to work, but he didn’t like that excuse.”
“Is there any excuse he would have liked?”
“Probably not, but I’m going to have to use another one for a while or he’s going to start complaining about Thane again. He can say whatever he likes about me, but none of this is Thane’s fault.”
“Use me as an excuse,” Owen offered.
Derek smiled his slow, sexy smirk that always got Owen right in the gut. “You’re much more than just an excuse, but I have to be careful about that too, or you’ll end up dragged to one of Marlene’s dinners right along with me.”
“At least you’d have company?” Owen lifted his cup toward his mouth as he spoke to hide how much he wanted Derek to invite him to a family dinner, even if it was miserable.
“When I’m sure meeting them won’t run you off,” Derek said.
“No chance of that,” Owen replied.
Derek squeezed Owen’s hand. “You say that now….” Owen laughed as Derek had intended, but he resolved to prove Derek’s fears unfounded as soon as possible, because Derek clearly wouldn’t believe a declaration until he had. That was okay. Owen could be patient. He’d run the gauntlet of Derek’s family, and then he’d tell Derek how he felt.
“Tell me when and where and I’ll prove it to you.”
“You don’t have to prove anything to me or to anyone,” Derek replied. “You’re perfect just as you are.”
Owen was far from perfect, but he’d settle for being perfect for Derek. “Then let me meet your family. We can horrify them together.”
It took Owen a minute to remember Brian was the brother Derek actually liked. “Maybe we should start with meeting him. That’ll make you feel better, if nothing else.”
“And if the only time you happen to be free is Sunday afternoon, that would get both of us out of Sunday dinner with Marlene,” Derek said.
“I gave Mel today off, so she insisted on working on Sunday, which is her usual day off, so Sunday is fine with me,” Owen replied. “If it suits your brother.”
“Any excuse to get out of being dragged to Marlene’s will suit my brother,” Derek replied. “We can have dinner at my place instead. How does that sound?”
“It sounds perfect,” Owen said.
Chapter Nineteen
“OWEN?” Owen looked up from where he was working on quarterly reports. It had been slow for a Saturday, so he’d left Mel to cover the front while he caught up on paperwork. “I’m sorry to disturb you, but there’s someone here asking for you.” She paused, an odd look on her face before adding, “He used your old name.”
Owen’s eyes widened. If someone was asking for him using his birth name, they were from Bailey Switch, which couldn’t be good news. “I’ll be right out.”
He took a minute to compose himself for whatever challenge was waiting for him and walked out into the front of the store. He saw the young man with the duffel over his shoulder immediately, but it took a minute for the face to register. “Ephah, is that you?”
“Uncle Uriel!”
Owen barely had a second to brace himself before Ephah had thrown himself into Owen’s arms. Owen hugged him close.
“What happened? Why are you here?”
“I didn’t know where else to go,” Ephah said. “And I didn’t have a way to call to tell you I was coming.”
Owen squeezed his nephew tighter. “You don’t need to call ahead. You’re always welcome here. Come into the kitchen and we can talk.” He guided Ephah toward the back of the shop. “Mel, can you keep an eye on things?”
“Sure thing, Owen.”
“Owen?” Ephah asked when they were alone in the kitchen.
Owen shrugged. “I changed my name after I moved to Lexington. Too many years of being called Urinal or worse by bullies. You still haven’t told me what you’re doing here. Do your parents know where you are?”
Ephah shook his head. “I left them a note telling them I was leaving and I’d let them know when I got somewhere and could call, but I didn’t tell them where I was going. I didn’t want them to follow me.”
Owen blinked a couple of times, trying to decide where to start. At the beginning, of course. “Do you want something to eat or drink? I’ve got sodas, coffee, tea, or pretty much any kind of fancy water you could think of. And there’s leftovers from dinner last night if you’re hungry.”
Ephah’s stomach rumbled.
“Leftovers it is.”
“I didn’t eat lunch,” Ephah admitted. “I had to get to London before two o’clock so I wouldn’t miss my bus. There’s only one each day, and I didn’t want to spend the night in the bus station.”
“How did you get to London?”
“I was going to walk, even if it took me two days, but someone stopped and offered me a ride.”
Owen wanted to shout at Ephah for taking chances like that, but spending the night out in the open wouldn’t have been a whole lot safer. To cover his reaction, he opened the refrigerator and dug out the leftovers to heat up. When they were ready, he set them down in front of Ephah, who bowed his head and said a prayer before gobbling down the food.
When he stopped cramming food into his mouth like a madman and settled to eating normally, Owen asked, “Why did you leave?”
“Grandfather started talking about my coming-of-age ceremony,” Ephah replied. “I couldn’t do it. My friend John got bitten a couple of months ago. His faith was strong enough to save his life, but he was sick for weeks.” Ephah set his fork down with a clatter and leaned toward Owen, fear etched around his eyes and mouth. “What if my faith isn’t strong enough? What if I get bitten and die? But if I refused, he’d kick me out. I didn’t know what else to do, but you left, and I know you call every year on our birthdays, so I hoped you wouldn’t kick me out too. I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”
“Of course I won’t kick you out,” Owen said, even as he scrambled mentally to figure out what that would mean. He knew one thing for sure—Ephah had taken a huge leap of faith in leaving the way he had, and Owen would not let him fall. “But we have to let your parents know you’re here and safe. We can figure the rest out after we call them, okay?”
“They’ll come up here and drag me back,” Ephah said, his voice so frightened Owen couldn’t stand it. When Owen had run, he’d had the excuse of going away to college and no expectation of him returning before the semester ended. That had given him four months to figure out a plan for Christmas break and another four months to decide what to do about summer. By then he’d turned eighteen and couldn’t be forced to return if he didn’t want to. Ephah had a few more months of limbo before he could legally choose his residence, but Owen would do everything he could to help until then.
“You don’t know that. If they realize how serious you are about not handling the snakes, maybe they’ll support you.” Nathaniel would never stand up to their father, but Owen had to say something to calm Ephah down. “And if they don’t, we’ll see what our other options are.”
Owen didn’t know what it would take to win a custody battle, but he could make one hell of a case for child endangerment if it came to that.
WHEN Ephah finished eating, Owen showed him upstairs and left him to take a shower. Owen didn’t have a guest room, but the couch folded out and wasn’t miserable to sleep on. He had used it as a bed for several years before he bought the one currently gracing his bedroom. It would do for Ephah until Owen could figure out what to do.
First things first. He needed to let his brother know Ephah was safe. Then he could call Derek and break down. He braced himself for his brother’s possible reactions and hit Call on his cell phone.
“Hello?”
“Hello, Nathaniel. It’s Owen.”
“I don’t have time to talk, Uriel. Ephah’s missing.”
“That’s why I’m calling. He’s here in Lexington with me. He showed up about an hour ago,” Owen said. “I’ve fed him, calmed him down, and sent him to take a shower while I called you.”
“That ungrateful little brat. Running away with nothing more than a vague note to keep his mother from worrying. I’ll tan his hide when he gets home.”
“He doesn’t want to come home,” Owen said. “He’s afraid to face Father and tell him he doesn’t want to handle the snakes.”
“What nonsense! Of course he’s going to handle the snakes. He can’t be a full member of the church until he does.”
“Nathaniel, listen to yourself. A friend of his nearly died not long ago. Those snakes are dangerous, and Ephah is your son. Are you really going to force him to go through with that… that barbarous ritual?”
“His faith will protect him,” Nathaniel intoned. “That so-called friend of his is weak. He always has been. Of course he faltered and got bit. Ephah will be fine.”
“No,” Owen said before he realized he’d made a decision. “Ephah is going to stay here in Lexington. I’ll put him in school for his senior year and make sure he’s taken care of, but he’s not coming home unless he wants to and unless you agree he doesn’t have to handle the snakes.”
“You have no right to make those decisions!” Nathaniel roared.
“And you have no right to force a child to handle venomous snakes.”
“To hell with you both,” Nathaniel spat, and Owen knew a curse when he heard one. “You’re both dead to me. Don’t call me again.”
“
Natha—” The line went dead before Owen could try to bring his brother around. He ran through his options, not that any of them were good. All the uncles and cousins on his father’s side of the family were as deep under his father’s spell as Nathaniel was, and his mother didn’t have any siblings, so no cousins there for Owen to reach out to. He could ask Ephah to contact his friend John, but from what Ephah said, John had recovered, which his family would view as proof of their righteousness, not as proof of their craziness, so asking them to take Ephah in would put him back in the same jeopardy. He could contact Child Services, but Owen knew the statistics for kids Ephah’s age. He’d spend a year in a group home and then be on his own with little or no support. Owen couldn’t do that to him. Well, criminy… it looked like he had a nephew to raise. God help him, he’d just taken on responsibility for a seventeen-year-old boy. What did he know about raising kids? All he had was his own parents’ pretty awful example, and Ephah wouldn’t be here if he responded to that kind of parenting.
The water turned off in the bathroom, signaling Ephah’s imminent appearance. Owen took a deep breath and pulled himself together. He could freak out later. He had to stay strong for Ephah’s sake. He needed to focus on Ephah now, despite how desperately he wanted to call Derek and fall to pieces, so he sent Derek a quick text asking him if he could come over that evening. Owen needed some time to introduce Ephah to the idea of Derek’s presence and place in Owen’s life before Derek showed up.
What time?
After dinner. Around 7?
See you then.
Owen took another deep breath and reminded himself Ephah had come to him precisely because he’d rejected the teachings of their church. If he was strong enough to do that, he was strong enough to deal with the full truth of who Owen was.
When Ephah came out of the bathroom, Owen smiled at him. “What do you want to do this afternoon? The bookstore doesn’t close until six, but Mel can probably cover it without me. We can go see a movie and gorge on popcorn or take you to get some new clothes or just drive around Lexington so you can get your bearings.”