“What?” he asked.
“What’s that?” She pointed at his left hand.
Lucy toddled over and grabbed his hand, letting out a shocked gasp as she held it up. “The little rat bastard got married and didn’t tell us!”
“You two got married and didn’t tell us?” Aunt Roberta practically screamed.
“No!” He gently disengaged Lucy’s tenacious grip—since she was like in her eighties, she was definitely stronger than she looked—and walked over to the counter. “We’re engaged, not married. I popped the question last night and gave him a ring. He said yes. When I told him I’d bought both rings, he wanted me to wear mine, too. But no, we’re not officially married yet.”
“Whew!” Aunt Roberta said. “I’da had to spank you if you’d eloped!”
Lucy smacked him on the shoulder hard enough to give Rom a run for his money. “Damn right! I’da helped her.”
Then both women shot questions at him at a rapid-fire pace.
“When’s the date?” Aunt Roberta started.
“Where are you having it?”
“Do you have a theme?”
“How big will the guest list be?” Lucy asked.
“Oh!” Aunt Roberta turned to Lucy. “We need to make sure to put it in the newsletter going out tomorrow!”
This was getting out of hand already. “Wait—”
“Sherry will want to help,” Lucy said, cutting him off.
“I’ll start calling the girls.” Aunt Roberta whipped out her cell phone.
He held up his hands. “Um, hey, can we slow this down, please? I don’t want to make any decisions without Rom.”
Lucy patted his cheek. “You’re adorable. You boys won’t have to handle any decisions. We’ll take care of everything for you.”
“We have a budget, you know.”
Aunt Roberta waved him off as she excitedly began spreading the word.
Oh, boy.
It was twenty minutes later before he was able to get alone by locking himself in the bathroom so he could send Rom a text.
SOS. We’re sooo busted. Aunt Roberta and Lucy saw my ring first thing and have taken over our wedding plans. Heeelllllp!
He knew, because of Rom’s job, that he might not be able to reply right away. If Rom was at his desk and didn’t have a customer, that was one thing. But if he was working a counter station that morning, he might not be able to look at his phone until a break or lunch.
It wasn’t that he thought Rom would be upset by the women now pelting him with questions and ideas.
Quite the contrary.
He suspected Rom would be tickled plaid and vicariously enjoy a little bit of unintended sadism at Colton’s expense.
Except Rom surprised him by replying only seconds later.
HAHAHAHA! Why don’t you let them, boy? Check with Kent to verify their schedule. Besides staying within budget, I’d like them to be able to be there. And Chad and Ina and the boys, obvs.
Colton sighed and resigned himself to his fate. When he emerged from the bathroom, Lucy was standing by the door, waiting on him.
“How do you feel about luaus, hon?” she asked.
“Luaus?”
“Well, we were thinking a beachy theme.” She smiled and clapped her hands together. “Oh, your grandmother would have loved that! She loved the beach, loved Venice.”
He didn’t want to hurt her feelings. “We appreciate that you all want to help, but we have a budget we need to stay under. And it’s not very extravagant.”
She hooked her arm through his and led him back into the showroom. “Bless your heart, you’re adorable. Like you boys are going to have to pay for any of this.” She patted his arm. “Do you know how many of us have waited for this day ever since you came to live with Roz?”
She stopped, looking up at him. Because he didn’t want to break her fragile bones, he stopped, too. “She made us all promise that, if she wasn’t here, when you finally met Mr. Right, we’d welcome him into the family and throw you two the biggest fucking wedding this city ever saw.”
He swallowed hard. “Oh. I never heard about that.” Goddammit.
Lucy cackled. “That sweet ole bitch swore us all to secrecy, honey.” She squeezed his arm and nudged him to get him moving again. “You boys have about three dozen fairy godmothers and godfathers who’ve been planning for this day for the past twenty years, sugar. Get used to it.”
The full enormity of the situation finally started to sink in.
We are sooo screwed.
Chapter Four
Lucy, Sherry, and Aunt Roberta were deep in wedding planning mode when Colton snuck upstairs at lunchtime and called Kent.
Kent answered on the second ring. “How’s my favorite Adonis doing today?”
Colton didn’t mind joking around with Kent, because he knew Kent was happy in his relationship with Tim and Paul. And the man had introduced him to Rom.
“Um…well, long story short, Rom and I are getting married, my aunt and grandmother’s friends have taken over, and we’d really like you and your boys to be able to attend. So I’m checking schedules.”
Kent started laughing. “Mazel tov! How soon are we talking?”
“I’ll talk them out of having it this weekend, but apparently they want to get us hitched as soon as possible.”
“Excellent. Do you know where yet?”
“No, but apparently we’re being told we’re having a luau theme.”
“If you can do it next weekend, or the weekend after, or after that, we can have it here. In fact, I insist you have it here. It’d be our pleasure to host it.”
This was reeeeally spiraling out of control. “It’s going to be…vanilla.”
“Oh, I can do vanilla with the best of them, don’t worry. I host dinner parties a few times a year for local business owners, Rotary, things like that. We’ve got the pool and lanai, and if it rains, we can move the shindig inside. Is your aunt at the store right now?”
“Yeah, she’s downst—”
“Spectacular. I’ll call her right now. Roberta, right?”
“Yes, I mean—”
“No worries. My treat, Colton. Seriously. It’ll be our pleasure to have it here. And parking won’t be a problem, either. I’ll coordinate everything with her. Later!”
Aannnd Colton found himself staring at a “call ended” screen.
Shit.
Even at a dead run, he didn’t make it halfway down the stairs before he heard the phone ringing in the store and Aunt Roberta answering it.
He stopped at the bottom of the stairs and closed his eyes. Grammy, I love you, but did you have to sic them on us from beyond the grave?
* * * *
Rom couldn’t help but giggle at random moments throughout the day. He could almost hear Colton’s plaintive tone as he sent text after text to Rom, detailing how the plans had literally been taken out of their hands.
And how they were rapidly spiraling out of control.
With Kent now involved, Rom knew it’d be a doozy of a party, even for a vanilla soirée. Probably even more so once Ina got involved in the planning process.
By the time Rom was ready to leave work that afternoon, the date had been set for three weekends away, at Kent’s house in Venice, and the guest list was already up to forty people. That was before Rom had even started inviting co-workers.
Which he did before he left work, bumping the guest list up potentially by another twenty people.
In fact, he was enjoying the remote and effortless sadism so much that he nearly forgot to stop by his apartment on his way home. The management office was open, and he let them know he would be moved out by the end of the month. Since that left only a month on his lease, and he’d never been late with a payment during his entire residency there, they were still going to refund his full deposit without any penalties.
Not to mention they had a waiting list for renters wanting units.
As he stood in his apartment and looked around
, he realized he needed to get boxes so he could begin the move in earnest. He walked into the bedroom, dug a suitcase out from under the bed, and began the process of emptying his closet. Three garbage bags took care of his dresser, and that meant all his clothes would now be at Colton’s place.
Our place.
That would take a little getting used to. While he’d already started referring to it as “home” in conversations, finally drilling that factoid firmly into place in his mind felt the good kind of scary.
He’d never “lived” with someone before Colton.
He sank onto his bed and stared at the gold band on his left hand. His boy had not only proposed once, but twice.
Had spent all their time together since they met showing him how he felt about Rom.
In conversations with Chad over the years, Rom had learned his parents were liberal and likely would have accepted Rom being gay without any problems. When Chad had “the talk” with Rom when he was younger, he’d told Rom what their dad had told him—gay or straight or whatever, there were few things Rom could do that would make Chad not love him, and those items would also get Rom imprisoned.
Meaning he’d be accepted regardless.
Which was why, once he’d realized at fifteen he was gay, Rom had felt safe coming out to Chad and Ina.
Colton hadn’t had that support from his own parents.
Throughout his life, even though he felt loved, there were still times Rom had felt nearly overwhelmed by grief and the unfairness of it all. Sure, their parents likely would have divorced at some point, given their father’s infidelity. But they weren’t here. He felt that keenly during every major holiday when they got together with Ina’s family, at his high school graduation, his college graduation. Watching his nephews go through their firsts—that there was a missing pair of grandparents who never got to meet them.
That he didn’t have parents to bring Colton home to and proudly introduce.
That he couldn’t call his mom and text her a picture of his ring the way he had Ina at lunchtime.
Ina’s parents had adopted him and Chad both, in some ways, but they weren’t his parents.
And wasn’t it awfully whiny of him to sit there and…well, whine, when Colton’s parents had discarded him at twelve?
Rom didn’t have an interest in having kids of his own. But when he’d turned eighteen, Chad and Ina had sworn him to secrecy and taken him to their attorney to add him to their will. In case something ever happened to them while Jeff and Allen were still minors, Rom would get custody of them and raise them.
At the time, it’d nearly overwhelmed him, but of course he’d said yes.
He’d never say no to Chad and Ina. Especially not in light of how Chad had stepped up and raised him.
But did it make him selfish that he hoped he’d never have to make good on that promise? Jeff was fourteen and Allen was twelve, so it wasn’t like they were little kids any longer. And they felt more like younger brothers to him than they did nephews. In fact, growing up, they’d referred to Rom as their older brother and it was easier for all of them to let them do that, even if it did sometimes cause confusion.
He loved them like little brothers, had gladly babysat for Chad and Ina when the boys were younger.
After loading everything into his car, he grabbed several reusable grocery bags and removed stuff from his cabinets and pantry, nonperishable food items he hadn’t moved to Colton’s yet. He’d emptied his fridge of most everything else weeks ago.
I need to file a change of address form.
There was so much to do still.
As he surveyed his apartment, he smiled.
At least planning their wedding wasn’t one of those things. From the sound of it, all he’d have to do was show up when and where he was told to by the grannies. Which was fine by him.
Because as long as at the end of it Colton was his husband, that’s all he truly cared about.
* * * *
Rom wasn’t expecting Colton to be upstairs when he returned, because he knew the studio was still open and Colton had taught a class today. So he did his best not to make too much noise as he unloaded the car, not wanting Colton to interrupt whatever he was doing and come help him.
Work. That always had to come first.
Now, if the studio was closed, yes, he’d be asking his boy for assistance.
Besides, he needed the exercise anyway. He’d thought about getting a gym membership at the same one Colton worked at, but two problems with that—he hated working out at a gym, and he knew he’d end up getting both of them thrown out the first time he punched a guy for making a pass at his boy in front of him.
That wouldn’t be good for either of them.
Appreciative looks, that was one thing. And he honestly didn’t care if women tried making passes at Colton because, come on, the guy had never slept with a woman. Rom didn’t even care if guys whistled at Colton, or made catcalls at one of Kent’s parties, because there was a different tone to those. No one would touch Colton there, because Colton always had his collar on when they were there. It was like taking a dog to a dog show and getting upset if someone looked at it. He was proud to have his snuggle puppy on his leash and wearing his collar.
In public, however, Rom had found himself feeling…territorial.
Which was something he’d never felt before about any other guy he’d dated.
Maybe it’s because I know that, this time, it’s for life.
He couldn’t call it jealousy, either, because he honestly didn’t feel “jealous.” He had no issues with Colton’s behavior, or with Colton’s friends, or with Colton doing things with his friends, or any of that.
More gratifying was the fact that when he’d confessed all this to Colton, after his boy had asked if Rom wanted to join the gym and take advantage of his employee discount, Colton had reacted…well, happy.
He’d liked that Rom had felt that way about him—and that Rom was emotionally mature enough to admit it and not be a douche about it. But, also, that someone else felt possessive of him.
Something Colton had never had before, either.
Yet another way they were perfectly matched with each other.
After Rom finished unloading the car, he made sure the blinds were tightly drawn and headed in to take a shower. He’d unpack later. There wasn’t enough dresser space right now, anyway, something moving his dresser here would rectify.
I can’t believe I finally found my husband.
One thing for sure—he’d never take Colton, or his love, for granted.
Chapter Five
By the time Colton finished closing the store for the night and headed upstairs, he realized Rom was home. Hurrying, he made it into the master bath only to hear the shower shut off.
Dammit.
“Sorry, Sir,” he called out. “I didn’t realize you were home.”
Rom poked his head around the end of the shower curtain, a playful smile curving his lips. “I could be persuaded to extend my shower.”
Colton leaned in and kissed him. “Mmm. Yes, Sir. Please?” He loved showering with Rom.
Rom retreated into the shower and Colton heard the water start again while he quickly stripped so he could join Rom.
Pulling Colton in for another kiss, Rom draped his arms around his neck. “I stopped by my apartment on the way home and grabbed more stuff. All my clothes are here now.”
“Really?”
“Yep. And I told them I’ll be moved out by the end of the month.” He smiled. “Hope you meant the proposal.”
Colton grinned. This time, he slanted his lips over Rom’s. “Not letting you get away from me, Sir. I will do whatever it takes to get you completely moved in here as soon as possible.”
“I need my dresser, for starters. But that’ll have to wait until we get the rest of my furniture. I can make do until then.”
“So I should book the moving truck for this Sunday?” Colton asked in all seriousness.
“I
think the grannies are going to have us busy with wedding plans. Besides, there’s a rope class at Venture on Saturday afternoon that I want us to attend. Meaning we’ll be up late. Meaning I want us to sleep in Sunday morning. Besides, don’t we still have to rearrange the storage room to put my stuff in there?”
Those were all excellent points.
Colton fought the urge to pout, even though that’s exactly what he wanted to do. “I want you moved in now, Sir.”
“I know, buddy. We’ll get me moved. Maybe Sunday afternoon we can tackle the storage room. I’d rather not spend the extra money to rent a warehouse, and then have to move the stuff twice, or rent a truck twice. One and done, saves us time, money, and effort. Even if we don’t have everything upstairs ready and rearranged, at least we’ll have room for it downstairs.”
“I hate your logic, Sir,” he grumbled.
“Get used to it.” He patted Colton on the ass before releasing him. “Turn around, and I’ll scrub your back for you.”
Closing his eyes, Colton braced his hands against the wall as Rom took the scrubby, dumped body wash on it, and slowly worked his way from Colton’s shoulders, down his arms, up again, and down his back. More a sensual tease than an actual bath, the evening’s foreplay already in full swing.
With the length of his body pressed against Colton’s, Rom’s hands roamed Colton’s body. Slippery with soap, he encircled Colton’s body with his arms and skimmed his hands down his chest, his abs, one hand circling Colton’s balls and the other his cock.
“My beautiful boy,” Rom whispered.
Colton shivered the way he always did at the reverence in Rom’s tone. Colton wasn’t an idiot, and he wasn’t full of fake modesty. He knew he wasn’t bad-looking. He worked hard to stay in shape, but it was part of his literal job, not simply a narcissistic pursuit.
Except having someone wanting not only his body, but his soul, his love, his submission, someone who appreciated him for who he was inside, not simply outside—that was precious and perfect.
Especially in light of the rejection he’d faced from the people who’d given birth to him in the first place.
You Don't Know What Love Is Page 3