By the Numbers

by Chris Owen

  With a messy sounding slurp, Deuce came off Trey's cock. "When you get home tomorrow, meet me in the shower." Then he dipped his head again and sucked, hard.

  "Fuck!" Trey squeezed his eyes shut and bit down hard on the inside of his cheek as he came in one big pulsing shudder. His worry and emotion seemed to pour out of him as he climaxed, and he could feel Deuce receiving all of it.

  Deuce licked him clean and crawled up to kiss him again. "That was the hottest thing in forever, and I'm going to jack off about four times when I get home." He grinned, kissed Trey again, and started doing up his pants. "I'm actually shaking. Look." He held out is hand, proving his point. It was far from steady.

  Trey sat up slowly, but still got a slight head rush when he did. "Whoa." He blinked and looked around. "I haven't done that before." He'd never be able to climb on top of the engine again without getting hard.

  "Really?" Deuce looked both pleased and oddly shy. "Cool."

  "There's never been anyone who's made me want to do it." Trey grinned and got himself together enough to zip up his pants. He'd change as soon as he got inside, anyway.

  When they were both zipped up, Trey led the climb back down the side of the fire engine and hopped to the floor. "Text me when you get home."

  "I will." Deuce took a look around the garage and leaned in to kiss him again. "I'm sorry about this morning. I really am."

  "I know." Trey sighed. "I am, too. I felt like a total asshole for exposing you to that." He reached for Deuce's hand and began walking toward the door that led to the parking lot.

  "It's okay. We're okay." Deuce squeezed his hand. "I'll see you in the morning. Have a good night, all right? Get as much rest as you can." Deuce gave him a long look. "You're going to need your strength."

  Trey was about to press for details on what Deuce had in mind, but the door that led from the station to the garage opened. Both of them looked over quickly to see who had come in.

  Chance paused briefly on his way to the row of lockers that held their gear. "Thought you left," he said to Deuce.

  "Just going now. Thanks again for supper," Deuce said smoothly. "Stay safe, Trey. See you in the morning."

  Damn, this wasn't good. "Yeah, no problem. Night." He opened the back door for Deuce and let him out into the parking lot. When he turned back into the garage, Chance was busy hanging gear in his locker. "Night, Cap."

  Chance stood and turned around. "Hold it."

  Trey stopped, one hand on the door that led inside. So close. "Uh-huh."

  Chance gave Trey a quick once-over, taking in all the details that Trey just knew screamed "I got laid out here while no one was watching". Untucked shirt, mussed hair. Shit.

  "I warned you once." Chance came closer and spoke very seriously. "This is not cool, Donovan. Really disrespectful."

  Most of the good feelings Trey was holding had vanished. Chance was right, and the worst part was, Trey hated disappointing people. "Yessir," he mumbled. "I'm sorry."

  "Someone else could have walked out here. And if there'd been a call? Come on, are you fucking kidding me?" Chance shook his head and looked Trey in the eye. "We have to be careful. More careful than most. That fucking sucks, but I live with it. You need to, also."

  It was the perfect example of the double standard held by most people Trey knew. If he'd been caught up on the engine with a female, he would have still gotten in trouble and possibly fired, but it would have lauded him much back-slapping and congratulations from his peers. Caught up there with Deuce, however, would have been a much different story. No one knew it better than Chance, who was not only gay, but had a partner who worked in the fire department.

  "Yessir," Trey said again. "I know. You can write me up." He sighed heavily. There went his flawless record.

  Chance nodded. "I will, for some bullshit thing I'll make up. But this is it for you, Trey. Don't make me look like an idiot again, or you're done."

  "I won't. I'm..." Trey looked down at the grey cement floor. "I'm sorry, Chance."

  "Remember what I said." Chance turned back to his locker, and Trey knew he'd been dismissed.

  He wasted no time in getting inside and shutting the door to his dorm. That little escapade was the closest he'd ever come to getting in real trouble at work, and Trey was in no hurry to repeat it. He valued his job.

  Once he was dressed in sweats and T-shirt, Trey lay on his bunk and checked his phone. Sure enough, there was a message from Deuce.

  'Thanks again for dinner and dessert. Oh yeah, and the cookies, too.'

  Trey couldn't help chuckling. Okay, so it had almost been worth it.

  Thirteen

  Deuce stood waist-deep in the ocean, watching the next wave roll closer. "No, seriously. This one is high enough to go right over your head. I swear to God."

  The ten-year-old he was talking to looked at him like he was nuts, then looked at Trey. "I think he's got sunstroke." Deuce knew he was ten because his mother had said something about not going too deep because he was ten, and Deuce had asked the kid what the difference was between ten and nine.

  Trey had said something like, "Do you have to talk to everyone?" but Deuce assumed it was rhetorical.

  "I don't have sunstroke. Seriously, if that wave crashes on you, your mom is going to drag you out. You should back up a step."

  The kid rolled his eyes and turned around, just in time to get swamped by the wave.

  "I warned him." Deuce looked at Trey, then made sure the kid came back up. "Told you."

  Trey laughed as the kid took up the exact same position again. "He doesn't care, man. And he may be right. I think the sun is getting to you." He waded over and grabbed Deuce by the back of his waistband. "Come on, I've had enough beach for one day. You ready to get out of here? Our reservations are at seven."

  "Time to shower and get fancy?" Deuce smiled and went with him, happy enough to have Trey drag him by the bathing suit. Trey could drag him by anything, really. He'd done a little dragging earlier in the day, and Deuce was hoping for more, later.

  They dried off and picked up their stuff, talking a little about how much time they should give the dogs out in the yard before they went out to dinner, and made their way to Trey's truck. Deuce was starting to love that truck. It was way more useful than his car ever was, and it was always clean. For some reason his car attracted clutter, even though he didn't even use it every day.

  "So, we're dressing up for dinner?" he asked as they started the drive home. "Or just jeans and a shirt that doesn't have rude graphics?"

  "I think the second one. Have you ever seen a restaurant in southern California where someone wasn't wearing jeans? For some guys I know, dressing up is jeans." Trey maneuvered through the Saturday traffic with ease and they were soon parked in Trey's driveway. The sound of the crated puppies barking could be heard through the truck's open window. "Yikes. They're pissed off."

  Deuce nodded, already opening his door. "I'll take point. You get the door to the backyard open." It was like planning a military maneuver. "At least we can be pretty sure they didn't make a mess in their crate." He headed to the front door, key out and ready.

  He went in, saw Q giving him a dirty look from where she lay on the kitchen floor, and went to release Six and Pi. "You two need to work on your harmony a little," he told them as they started to read him the riot act. "Shh, now. Be good babies." He let them out and watched them stampede to the kitchen. "Duck for cover, Trey!" he yelled, laughing as he followed them.

  Trey yanked open the back door and the dogs went barreling outside, bumping and rolling and pushing each other. Q followed at a more sedate pace, though she did pause to give Deuce and Trey another long-suffering look. "Sorry," Trey informed her. "The man and I needed some couple time. At least they weren't loose in the house."

  Deuce laughed. "She'll be okay." He wrapped his arms around Trey and watched the puppies play, pausing only for the calls of nature. "They'll wear themselves out. We'll leave
a movie on for Q. It'll be a good night for her." Cheaper than a babysitter, too, he imagined.

  "They're all asleep by nine anyway," Trey laughed. He closed the back door and leaned back against Deuce. Deuce liked how solid Trey felt against his chest. "So, we've got a couple of hours. I suppose we could shower."

  "We have to do that, yes. And probably really do shower things, as opposed to this morning." Which had been totally great, but Deuce wasn't sure how many times in a day they were capable of that kind of thing.

  "But I like it in the shower," Trey protested. If this morning had been any indication, he wasn't lying. "Doesn't mean we can't save water anyway," he coaxed.

  "Okay." Deuce thought maybe he should try to be a little less eager, but who was he kidding? If Trey was actually going to let him have a free-for-all that often, Deuce was all over it. And all over Trey. "You can wash my back this time."

  Trey leered at him. "That's not exactly what you washed of mine this morning." He began to pull Deuce in the direction of the bathroom when his back pocket began playing "Fire and Rain". "Whoops. Phone, hold on." He dug it out of his shorts and glanced at the display, then answered it. "Hi, Laceybug."

  Deuce smiled. "Tell her I said hi, when you get a word in edgewise." He stayed there, nowhere near the bathroom and not really in the hall, not really in the living room, and started peeling off sandy trunks.

  After watching Deuce for a minute or so, Trey finally dragged his gaze away and moved to the kitchen. He stayed there while he talked to his daughter, presumably because watching his boyfriend undress while talking to his child wasn't high on the "good choices" scale. Deuce couldn't really blame him.

  Trey appeared in the bathroom after a while and leaned on the sink, watching Deuce rinse sand out of his hair. "She says hi. And that she bought Q a new collar today."

  "Q?" Deuce laughed. "That kid. How come not one for Six? Wait, how does Lacey have money to buy anyone a collar?" He looked over at Trey and hoped most of the sand was gone. "What's up?"

  "Huh?" Trey broke out of his thoughtful pose. "Oh, nothing. Really, nothing." He shook his head and stripped off his shirt. Sand drifted down onto the bathroom tile. "She gets money for her grades and her allowance. She's got twenty-seven dollars saved up." Trey slid open the shower door and stepped inside. "She says she wanted to get collars for all three, but it would cost a lot. So she asked Holly which dog she should get one for, and Holly told her for Q. Keep in mind that this was all through the perception of a seven year old, so who knows what really happened." He stuck his head under the spray and more sand fell to the shower floor.

  "That's... really sweet of her." Even as Deuce said it he wasn't sure which her he meant, and that gave him even greater pause. He made room in the shower and let Trey rinse off, only touching a little. "I'll make sure she knows how nice that is, and how much Q and I appreciate it."

  It spoke volumes to Deuce that Trey didn't respond to the touching with more than a smile and a nuzzle. Trey washed his hair quickly and got the sand off before answering him. "Okay," he said with a nod. "You know... Holly didn't have to let her. She could have told Lacey to buy something else. Kind of weird, I guess."

  "No, I know." Deuce nodded. "And she sure didn't have to suggest my dog." He shook his head a little. "I don't get it. I don't. It's clear she hates me and everything I stand for. Why would she do that?"

  "She... I don't know. Can we talk about this outside of the shower? I'm too distracted by you in here."

  Deuce couldn't help a bit of a chuckle. "Sure." He opened the door and reached for the towels, giving one to Trey as he stepped out. "I'm reasonably sure we'll live if we skip a round right now."

  Trey smiled ruefully. "As long as we can come back to it later." He dried off and wrapped his towel around his waist. "Let's just get some clothes on first, then we can talk."

  Deuce nodded, regretfully tearing his gaze away from Trey's abs and went to find something to put on. He wasn't going to dress for dinner yet, so he settled for track pants and -- as an afterthought -- a T-shirt. His clothes were all living in his room, even if he was spending the nights when Trey was home sleeping in the master bedroom, so after he dressed he went there to find Trey. "All un-naked. Better?" he teased.

  "No, actually. I'm always a fan of the naked." Trey was wearing an old department T and clean gym shorts, obviously having opted for pre-dinner clothing as well. He sat on the edge of his bed and looked at the floor. "I guess we need to talk about Holly a little. I promise not to make it too detailed."

  Deuce didn't sigh. He'd known they would have to talk about it all, but he'd been hoping they could... not. "Okay," he said, though, and crossed to the bed. "Can I sit here with you or is that too weird?"

  "Nah, it's better, actually. Unless hearing stuff about my ex-wife will freak you out." Trey sounded resigned, as if he'd been down this road before.

  "I'll be fine," Deuce told him as he sat down and offered his hand. "I'm not going to get all freaked out or upset or anything. I promise. She's Lacey's mom." If he could keep that simple fact firmly in mind, maybe he'd figure out how to deal with her.

  "She is that." Trey nodded slowly. "The thing I try to keep in mind about Holly is that my kid is always happy to see me and she never says shit like 'Mom said you blah blah blah'. I'm not there to see or hear what goes on at Holly's house, so all I have to go on is how Lacey acts. And so far, she acts like a kid that doesn't hear fucked up shit about her dad."

  "Uh-huh." Deuce assumed there had to be more to come, and he wasn't going to jump in and argue. That much was true; of course it was. He just had absolutely no faith that it would stay that way, now.

  Trey looked at his hands and Deuce saw him rub at the fourth finger on his left hand. "I loved her when I married her. And she loved me. Even though we were starting to argue a lot by the time Lacey was born, I still loved her. She was funny and energetic and liked to play sports, but she could dress up and be this pretty, put-together society girl. She was a good fireman's wife. All the guys thought she was hot and she got along with them. For a few years, anyway. Then we started fighting about how much I was working and dumb stuff like that."

  "I... Okay, I know that your marriage fell apart. And I know there has to be more to her than what she's showing me. I do. But I'm not... Why are you telling me this?" Deuce didn't want to hear all about the final days of their marriage. He didn't want to hear about the final days of anyone's marriage. "This is all past stuff. We're having trouble with the now, and even if you do feel guilt or something, you have to admit she's been pretty horrible."

  Trey's jaw worked and it took him a moment to answer. "I'm trying to give you background. I'm not making excuses for her."

  "I didn't say you were, honey." Deuce sighed. "Fine, go ahead. Give me background."

  "You asked why I was telling you this." Trey shook his head, clearly frustrated. "Okay, so you don't need or want to know it. You're right. The bottom line is that I feel guilty because I know what she had to endure when I left her. Even though it fell apart for more reasons than just me being gay, for more than just us fighting like cats and dogs, I know she was blamed heavily by her family and probably suffered a huge amount of emotional abuse from it. That's why she's angry at me. That's why she plays up the gay thing, even though the truth is she likely doesn't care one way or the other if I like men or women. Me being gay is a way for her to save face with her family and friends. She seized on it and made it her focus. Until you, she's never had anyone else to focus it on but me. I took it because I kind of deserved it. But you don't. She's not completely blind, Deuce. She does have a heart, or she used to, anyway. She'll come to realize you don't need to hear her shit. And if she doesn’t, then I’ll tell her she needs to shut the fuck up."

  Deuce let him get all the way to the end and stopped himself from butting in more than a few times. He could see at least a couple of points that he knew he wasn't going to be able to live with silently for years and
years, but it clearly wasn't yet time to point out to Trey how unfair it was for Trey to pay the price for her family's disgusting behavior. There was no acceptable reason why Trey should be the fall guy, and Deuce would make it his mission to deal with that -- but not yet. Right now what he needed was to find a way to co-exist in a life that contained Holly.

  "I hear you," he finally said. "There's a lot there for me to think about. But I really do need you to hear me on one matter. Just one, I promise. I need to know that you hear me -- and believe me -- when I say that I have a huge concern about what she's going to tell Lacey. She may not be homophobic, but she was very clear that she disapproves, and she flat out said that she'd be honest with Lacey about what she thinks and feels. To me, it felt like a threat. Until now, she's been great, like you said. I have a real concern that it might change."

  "I believe that you have a valid concern, yeah. I see why you would think it could happen." Trey rubbed his chin and sighed. "It's really easy for someone to look at us from the outside and say how both Holly and I should be acting toward each other. There's shit she should be called on and the same for me. But we don't because of Lacey, and that's just the way it is. If she were to sue for full custody, she'd get it. I'm gone for twenty-four hours at a time, plus I'm the father. Mothers are the ones that the kids are always placed with, fair or not." He paused again and shook his head. "Doesn't matter. I hear and understand you, and I can't tell you at this point what she'll do if Lacey goes home and tells her she saw us kissing or whatever. I can only say that I won't tolerate her coming after you for any reason, and if I have to pursue it legally, I will. That's all I can say at this point. I'm sorry." And he did look truly sorry, almost to the point of misery.

  "Hey." Deuce spoke softly and touched Trey's cheek with the back of his fingers. "Hey. I keep saying it -- you don't have to be sorry. Listen to me. I walked into this knowing you have a kid and an ex. That means I knew there was going to be another person in our lives -- two other people. It just so happens that I'm kind of crazy about one of them, and I'll accept the other one if it means I get you. You are worth it, to me. You're completely worth it, Trey. I'd take on an army of Holly's if it meant I got you." He was a little blown away by how completely he meant it. "Don't be sorry. I chose this."