Sweet (Uncorked Book 5)

by Shea Balik

  Huh?

  Elden glanced over at Cabe, who had been watching the scene unfold, too. He shrugged, obviously having no clue who this Daisy was, or why she’d eat metal rings. That right there was the reason Shine and Montague belonged together. They were both just so… well, weird.

  Not that Elden could really say much since his childhood hadn’t been great and his adult life was spent trying to hide away, so he didn’t make a fool of himself.

  “Don’t’ make me take a switch to your ass.” Shine grabbed his coat off the seat and pulled out his own jewelry box. When he opened it, a set of rings eerily similar to the ones Montague held were revealed. “I was supposed to ask you, not you ask me. I had it all rehearsed and now you’ve ruined it,” Shine shouted at Montague as if he’d just told Shine there was no Santa Claus.

  Montague’s head bowed for a moment. Then he did the most amazing thing. He shut the lid on his jewelry box, put in the pocket of the sports jacket he wore and sat down. “Go ahead, sunshine. The stage is all yours.”

  Shine’s eyes went wide, like deer in the headlights wide. He glanced around, staring at all the people staring back at him. “Now?” He asked, his voice much softer than before. “In front of all these people?” This time, Elden could only just make out the words as if Shine were having trouble getting any sound out at all.

  Now that Montague was sitting in the booth, Elden could see part of his face as he smiled up at Shine. “If it helps, I’m going to say yes.”

  It was then, witnessing such an intimate moment that Elden felt like a voyeur and turned away. This was for Shine and Montague, no one else, and Elden refused to intrude.

  Apparently, Cabe felt the same way for he started eating the edamame Kobe had brought them just before the commotion started. The thing was, even though they weren’t watching any longer, didn’t mean they couldn’t hear.

  “I, uhm, I mean,” Shine stammered before clearing his throat and trying again. “There’s no point,” he blurted out. “You already asked and I accept so we’re engaged.” He sounded awfully proud of himself but Montague didn’t let it end there.

  “Oh, no, sugar britches. You wanted to ask me to marry you, so ask,” Montague insisted. “Now get your ass down on one knee.”

  Elden could hear the teasing lilt in Montague’s voice and the love. The love shone through the most. It was sweet, sort of. Elden would have been mortified to have the entire restaurant witness that scene, but Shine and Montague tended to make spectacles of themselves wherever they went.

  “Fine, you ass,” Shine grumbled.

  Elden assumed he’d gotten down on one knee for he heard him say, “Is this good?”

  “Perfect, sunshine,” Montague told him.

  Elden really didn’t want to listen in, but it was hard, when he already knew what was happening to stop listening. So, he reached for some of the edamame, hoping to distract himself. It didn’t work.

  “Montague St. Claire, you have a knack for pissing me the hell off like no one else. You’ve done it from the moment we met and you’re doing it now. Yet, somehow, you still managed to make me fall in love with you. Probably because when you aren’t being ornery as a mule, you’re one of the kindest, sweetest, most caring men I’ve ever known. You put up with my crazy-ass family and accept them as your own, even when they get you drunk as a skunk until you’re puking your guts up and praying for salvation. With them, it will never come, but you love them anyway. You make me happier than a pig in mud and I would be honored if you’d be my husband.”

  Elden had to hold his hand over his mouth to not laugh. Cabe was crying as he bit down on his lips to stop the laughter from spilling out.

  Quirky. It was the only word he could use when it came to those two. At the same time, Elden wouldn’t want to change a thing about them. They had a way of making the whole world smile and he envied them that ability.

  “Sunshine, there is nothing on this earth that could stop me from marrying you. Now, let’s give these people a proper show by giving me some sugar,” Montague said loudly enough for most of the place to hear.

  There was a small round of applause, then it grew louder with a few catcalls thrown in. Clearly, the two of them were putting on one heck of a show.

  Cabe’s hand landed on his and Elden didn’t hesitate to turn his hand over so their fingers could intertwine. “I love you, sweetie. I know, compared to that performance, this is going to be a little anticlimactic, but I was hoping you’d agree to move in with me.”

  Elden’s heart stopped as he prayed to God that he hadn’t just misheard Cabe. “You want me to live with you? Really?” Elden whispered over the lump that had formed in his throat. “Like permanently?”

  A tug on his hand had Elden climbing from his seat and moving next to Cabe. Lips landed on his, calming Elden’s now racing heart as all of his dreams were coming true. “Yes, permanently,” Cabe whispered against his lips before continuing their kiss.

  Elden hadn’t even noticed that the clapping and catcalls had started again, this time for them. How could he have, when the entire world once more melted away the moment their mouths touched.

  “Wow, two shows in one night,” Kobe chuckled as he placed their food on the table. “If this keeps up, we’ll have to start charging admission.”

  That wasn’t something Elden could have ignored. His entire face heated up as he hid it against Cabe’s chest.

  The vibration of Cabe’s chuckle warmed him in another way entirely. Elden had no idea why he loved that sound so much or why it had a way of making his dick stand up at attention, but it did.

  “It’s Valentine’s Day,” Cabe said. “Kissing is kind of expected.”

  “I wish,” Kobe replied a bit forlornly.

  Elden lifted his head and looked at Kobe. “I thought you and Tate…”

  The panicked expression on Kobe’s face stopped Elden from continuing what he was about to say. Because he was shy, Elden didn’t interact with people a lot, but he did people watch and he was positive he’d seen Kobe and Tate, one of the brothers that owned Three Brother’s Fudge, kissing in the parking lot behind his apartment more than a few times.

  “Would you mind bringing me an extra helping of yum yum sauce?” Cabe asked, saving them all from an awkward situation. When Kobe left them alone, Cabe murmured in his ear, “That’s a story I’m going to want to hear about later.”

  Elden smiled. That was Cabe, he always had a way of making him feel better. “I love you.”

  Cabe kissed him briefly. “I love you too, my sweet.”

  Then he reached across the table and grabbed Elden’s chopsticks. He handed them over before picking up his own. “Let’s eat,” he said. “I’ve got plans for you tonight at home.”

  Elden shivered. He had no idea what Cabe had planned, but Elden was sure he was going to like them, especially now that Cabe’s home was also his.

  CHAPTER 18

  “Cabe, can you give me a hand?” Jaivon called out from the behind the bar.

  Cabe had been cleaning tables and straightening chairs to get ready for the evening rush. “I’ll be right there.” Wiping down the last table he went to see what Jaivon needed.

  He rounded the bar to find Jaivon on the floor with the wine fridge and another cooler they used for storing juices for mixed drinks pulled out with all the contents placed neatly on the back counter.

  “What are you doing?” Cabe asked shaking his head.

  They had maybe another twenty minutes before the after work crowd came in. This was not the time for that, but with Jaivon, one never knew when he was going to get a bee in his bonnet when it came to cleaning.

  Cabe swore the man had OCD or something. There was one time, during a busy Friday night, that Jaivon got it into his head they needed to scour the cooler in the kitchen. It had taken the threat of sending him home to stop Jaivon from scrubbing it down.

  “I noticed the orange juice was on its last day, so I started to check the other dates and saw there w
as a spill, so I figured since I had everything out anyway, I might as well clean it.” The thing with Jaivon, he could make it all seem so logical, but it didn’t change the fact that the rush would be there before he could finish.

  At least this time he had the sense to ask for help. With the two of them working, they might get it all put back together in time. Of course the normal behind the bar stocking hadn’t been done but since it was a Wednesday, the crowd shouldn’t be too bad that they would need it fully stocked.

  “Where is he?” A shrill, yet demanding, voice yelled as the door opened. “I demand you tell me where I can find that ungrateful child.”

  Doris.

  As much as Cabe preferred Elden working in the bar, he was happy that Elden had decided to go home early to get some work done. He was behind on a project and it was challenging for him to get much done when the bar started to fill up. He’d only left about fifteen minutes earlier. Just barely having to miss his mother’s appearance.

  Considering she looked madder than a hornet, that was definitely a good thing. Elden had moved in four months ago and in that time they had tried twice more to have dinner with Doris. Both had been disastrous.

  They had actually managed to start eating the last time, but had only taken about two or three bites when the guy Doris was sleeping with brought up camping. Doris turned that into the story about Elden tubing down the river and being stupid enough to eat catfish from a vendor in a shack that was clearly rotting. When she started talking about him shitting in her car, Cabe stood up, took Elden’s hand and left without a word.

  That had been two months ago.

  Elden had spoken to her on the phone a few times, but most of the time he let her calls go to voice mail. If Cabe had his way, Elden would block her calls until she learned some damn manners.

  “He’s at home,” Cabe told her, not at all worried she’d find him, since she had no idea where they lived.

  “No, he’s not,” she said way too loudly in his little bar, especially as it was mostly empty still. “I was just at his apartment and the person living there told me he had moved out more than four months ago.”

  Doris stomped over to stand at the bar right across from him and slammed her fist on the top of the wood. He did his best not to smile when she winced in pain at the stupid action. “You tell me where you’ve taken him or I’m calling the police.”

  As threats went, it was pretty lame. “You do know your son is twenty-nine.” His birthday had been last week and Cabe’s cock still twitched every time he thought about that night.

  Her scowled deepened and Doris began to take on the look of the crypt keeper in his opinion. “That doesn’t mean he can’t be kidnapped. I want my son back,” she demanded.

  That wasn’t something Cabe had ever expected her to say. She seemed almost to hate Elden, at the very least resent him. “Then why don’t you try being nice to him for once?” he shot back.

  “Don’t tell me how to raise my son,” Doris yelled.

  Cabe stood there for a moment, sure the woman was coming unhinged. “Again,” he said calmly. “He’s twenty-nine. He’s an adult, not a child you’re still raising.”

  The problem with people like Doris was they believed they were in the right, always. So convincing them they weren’t wasn’t going to happen. Cabe should have remembered that before getting into this argument with her, but when it came to protecting Elden, he tended to go overboard.

  Still, he hadn’t expected her to pull out her phone and dial the cops. “Yes,” she said when someone answered. “I’d like to report a kidnapping. Please come to The Cure All.”

  Then she hung up before they could ask her any more questions. Considering one of the questions would have been how old the child in question was, that was pretty smart of Doris.

  The smug look on her face made Cabe doubly glad Elden wasn’t around to witness this. “Is there a reason why you are trying to make Elden’s life a living hell?”

  Snide? Maybe. But Cabe was also very interested in the answer. His own mother wouldn’t ever be mother of the year, but she also didn’t go out of her way to emotionally hurt him.

  “I’m saving him,” Doris insisted. “You’re the one who’s getting his hopes up, pretending to love him. What happens when you get tired of his inability to make friends or have a simple conversation without sounding like a fool?”

  She waved a hand as if to indicate the bar. “I mean, you own a bar. The ability to relate to people is kind of a big deal. He’s only going to end up embarrassing you. When you realize that and toss him away like yesterday’s garbage, don’t you think that’s going to hurt him more than my trying to toughen him up?”

  “Wow, lady,” Shine must have come in through the back because Cabe hadn’t noticed him there earlier. “You really are a bitch. I’ve heard of animals eating their young, but even they would be horrified.”

  Doris narrowed her eyes at Shine. “No one invited you into this conversation.”

  “Then you shouldn’t have had this discussion in a bar,” Shine told her. “Although, seeing as how you decided to speak unkindly of Elden, I’m making it my business.”

  “What would you know about Elden?” She scoffed. “That boy wouldn’t know how to string two words together to make any friends, especially with an obvious redneck like you.”

  The way she said redneck clearly was an insult, but Shine, being Shine, wasn’t one to think of it that way. He was proud of his roots, redneck, hillbilly, and any other term someone threw at him.

  “Why, thank you, ma’am,” Shine gave a tilt of his imaginary hat. “I am a redneck. Born and raised. As for Elden, I count him as one of my good friends. He was even there the day I got engaged.”

  Cabe didn’t bother to mention they happened to be eating at the same restaurant, not that they were actually a part of the festivities. Although, considering how close they’d been sitting to the other couple, it kind of felt like they had been invited.

  “Now, I suggest you think real hard about treating your amazing son like he’s not good enough to lick the dirt off your shoes or you’re going to end up without him in your life,” Shine warned her.

  Doris laughed, more like cackled. “And just who do you think is going to keep him away from me?”

  “I am,” Cabe said. “And it won’t be me keeping him from you, it will be keeping you from him. In case you haven’t noticed, he hasn’t called you once in the past four months.”

  Doris opened her mouth as if to refute that claim, but closed it again when the door opened and two officers walked in. “Oh, thank goodness you’ve arrived. I would like to report that this man,” she pointed to Cabe, “has kidnapped my baby.”

  The two officers, Gia and Walker, glanced over at Cabe with their brows raised. “Cabe,” Gia said. “Mind telling us what’s going on?”

  Before Cabe could, Doris screeched. “Why are you asking him? It’s my child and he’s the guilty party. You should be arresting him. If you’re going to ask him any questions it should be what he’s done with my child?”

  “Mother? What’s going on?”

  Cabe’s heart sank when he saw Elden walk through the door. The last thing he wanted was for his sweet man to have to deal with any of this.

  “Ma’am,” Walker said. “Is Elden your son, because he’s well over the legal age. Plus,” Walker glanced from Elden, to Cabe and back to Doris, “I’m fairly certain they’re living together.”

  Doris pointed straight at Cabe. “Because that man is forcing him to live there. My son has no idea what he’s doing and Cabe is lying to him by telling him he loves him.” She laughed again. “I mean, seriously.” She waved a hand between Cabe and Elden. “Look at them. Do you honestly believe a man like Cabe would have anything to do with Elden if he wasn’t trying to trick my son?”

  The dejected look on Elden’s face spurred Cabe into action. He went to him and pulled Elden into his arms, holding him as he softly reassured him how much he loved him. Reliev
ed to feel Elden lean on him, Cabe held him a little bit tighter.

  It wouldn’t be easy to deal with what his mother was spewing, but at least Elden wasn’t listening to her lies about Cabe. “Can you two remove her from the building, please?” Cabe asked of the officers.

  They nodded but Doris started to scream about Cabe’s lies and Elden being too naïve and how she would go to the police chief. Walker had just taken Doris by the arm, when Elden stopped him.

  “Wait.” Those cinnamon eyes, so full of grief, looked at Doris. “Why do you hate me so much?” he asked.

  Her dark brown eyes were confused, as if she honestly had no idea what Elden was saying. “I don’t hate you,” she said. “You’re my baby. I’m only trying to protect you.” She glanced over at Cabe. “Men like him can’t be trusted. All men will hurt you if you give them the chance.”

  There were a lot of things Doris could have said that would have made more sense than that. “But I’d never hurt Elden,” Cabe told her. “He’s my world. My…” Cabe leaned over and placed a kiss against the top of Elden’s head. “Everything.”

  Elden tilted his head and placed his mouth over Cabe’s for a brief kiss. “I love you, too.”

  “Don’t you get it?” Doris said, this time instead of screeching, she sounded almost… broken. “They all say that at first. Even your father,” she said to Elden. “But they never mean it.”

  Elden stiffened in his arms and Cabe held him even tighter. He had no idea what was happening, but somehow Cabe knew Elden would need him more now than ever.

  CHAPTER 19

  Flashes of yelling from long ago went through Elden’s mind as he stared at his mother. Things said that he’d forgotten about or not really understood at such a young age. Now that he thought of them again, they made more sense.

  He wasn’t sure he wanted to ask his mother about the specifics, but he also didn’t want their relationship to remain as strained as it had been. She may not have always been the greatest… Who was he kidding? She’d been dreadful for so much of his life.