by Cameron Dane
“You don’t need it, but you have it anyway. Good luck. You’re going to do great.” Garrick gave her one final thumbs-up and made sure to keep a smile on his face as she drove away.
Then, he couldn’t help it, he took one last look around the neighborhood, where the only thing he did was wave back at a guy across the street working on his lawn. Seeing nothing suspicious didn’t ease the buzzing wreaking havoc inside him one bit, though.
Garrick went inside to check on the kids and start looking for something to make them for breakfast. All the while, he could still feel the sensation of a target sitting smack center on his back.
* * * *
“Okay, Chloe.” Garrick squatted down and cupped his hands in the shape of a baseball mitt. “Let him have it.”
In front of him, Chloe nodded and wound her arm to make her pitch. A dozen feet in front of her, Shawn couldn’t keep his wrists and arms still, and the Wiffle bat he held waved all about as he stood not-quite-poised to make his swing. Just as Chloe released the ball, all the hairs on Garrick’s arms rose straight up on end.
He swirled to face the street, looking for that damned spy again ... and found Devlin watching him from his car parked on the side of the street. Pale gray eyes somehow pierced into Garrick’s soul through the distance between them and arrested his heart.
“Devl--” he started.
At the same time, Chloe’s voice penetrated Garrick’s stunned brain with, “Garrick, catch it!”
He half spun, just in time to catch a streak of white coming straight at him with laser precision but without a second extra for him to move. The ball cracked into the side of Garrick’s head with singular speed, stinging the hell out of his scalp with shocking pain, and took his knees right out from under him. Garrick grabbed the side of his head and muffled a string of foul curses under his breath.
Various voices in differing tones shouted “Garrick!” and seconds later bodies swarmed him and dropped to their knees around him. He could fucking feel Devlin kneeling, so-very-close, but Shawn’s squeaking, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” and the boy’s little fingers pulling on his shirt sleeve penetrated Garrick’s brain with the quickest sense of urgency.
He grabbed Shawn’s hand and stilled the kid’s frantic jumping with another hand to the child’s shoulder. “Look at me, kiddo.” The boy’s eyes brimmed with wetness, and it tore at Garrick’s heart. “It’s okay, Shawn. I know it was just an accident. It’s my fault for looking away in the first place while we had a game going on, not yours for hitting the ball. All right?”
Shawn’s chin still wobbled. “Do you promise?”
Chloe looked at Garrick too, her eyes wide. “Yeah, are you sure? Cuz the ball made like a cartoon noise when it hit your head. I heard it.”
Devlin touched his fingers to Garrick’s forearm and drew Garrick to the concern in his pale gaze. “Do you need me to drive you to the hospital?” He circled his arm around Garrick’s waist. “It’s smart to err on the side of caution with head injuries.”
“It’s not an injury.” Garrick shook off the lingering throb on the side of his head and rose to his feet with help from all three of his nurses. “The ball is plastic. It barely left a lump,” he probed at his scalp and came away with clean fingers, “let alone broke skin. I’ll live.”
With his arm still secure around Garrick, Devlin’s face was only inches from Garrick’s. “If you’re sure?”
Holding eye contact with Devlin, Garrick went a little light-headed for an entirely different reason than head trauma. “I’m sure, beau--,” shit, “Dev, I swear.” He tore his focus off the black drowning out the silver in Devlin’s eyes and put his full attention on the kids. Where it should be. “But holy momma, Shawnee,” Garrick mussed up the kid’s hair, “you pack quite a wallop with that swing.”
Shawn went from pale to beaming with one blink of his eyes. “Mom’s been teaching me.”
“She’s doing a good job,” Garrick told the boy. Meanwhile, Garrick still couldn’t shake the disturbing sensation swirling against his neck and down his spine, even though he had Devlin standing right next to him and knew whose eyes watched him.
I need two minutes alone to get a few things said.
Shit shit shit. This was not how Garrick wanted to talk to Devlin. “Listen, Shawn, can you run up to my place and get me a bottle of water?” He handed the kid his keys. “Chloe, will you go with him and bring me the bottle of Ibuprofen that is in the first drawer to the left of the fridge. Don’t open it,” warning laced his tone, “just bring the bottle to me. Can you do that?”
“’Kay,” and “All right,” came out of Shawn and Chloe respectively. Shawn tore up the stairs to the garage apartment as fast as his little legs would carry him, but Chloe moved with a more deliberate pace, and she kept glancing back at him as she ascended the steps.
Questions. Garrick could see them flashing in her eyes. He could sense them in Devlin too.
As soon as Chloe disappeared into the apartment, Devlin murmured, “Cute kids.”
Garrick whipped around and found Devlin studying him. Uncomfortably so. “I’m keeping an eye on them today,” he said, determinedly holding Devlin’s gaze with a steady one of his own. “They live in the house with their mother, and I rent the apartment above the garage. They aren’t my children, Devlin.” His tone held strong, and he couldn’t look away from this man for the world. “I don’t have kids of my own.”
Devlin shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans and shifted his focus from Garrick to the apartment above the garage. “So I gathered,” he said, his voice sounding far away. “I would guess the girl is about ten or eleven, and the man I knew for six months never could have had a daughter all that time and not bragged about her to me. It just wasn’t in him.” With a blink, Devlin came back to Garrick and penetrated him with one look. “In you.” He shrugged and a little light twinkled silver in his eyes. “Aside from that, they don’t call you dad. Kind of a giveaway.”
“Right.” Duh. Jesus, Garrick had to get his mind back in the game. Speaking of which... “Listen, were you here earlier this morning?” he asked, watching Devlin closely. “Did you drive by the house or were you in the neighborhood around eight-thirty this morning?”
A frown immediately marred the beauty of Devlin’s face. “No.” Just as fast, he stiffened to fully alert. “Why? What’s wrong?”
Noise of a door slamming and shoes clomping down wood stairs had Garrick lifting his focus to across the yard. Shawn and Chloe elbowed and took verbal jabs at each other on their way down the narrow flight of stairs.
Garrick shouted, “Don’t fight on the stairs or we’ll go inside!” The kids slowed their steps--a hair--and Garrick quickly turned back to Devlin. “Listen to me.” He grabbed a patch of Devlin’s shirt and crumpled it under his fingers. “My name is Garrick. Please don’t challenge me on it today.” As the kids bolted across the grass toward them, Garrick’s skin felt clammy under his clothes, and he implored Devlin to comply with every fiber of his being. “Do you understand?”
Devlin closed half the distance between them. “You’re Garrick to them. I understand.” He covered the fist Garrick had curled against his sternum and rubbed down each finger with a soothing touch. “I’m not cruel, you know.”
“I know.” A deep breath released the knot twisting in Garrick’s chest. With Devlin’s help, he was able to let up the lock-hold on the man’s shirt too. “Furthest thing from it.”
Shawn and Chloe each skidded to a stop in front of Garrick and thrust out their respective finds. Garrick grabbed the bottle of water, and Devlin intercepted the pills before Garrick could get his hands on them.
“Nuh-uh.” Devlin sidestepped Garrick’s reach. With a laugh that reached right inside and caressed Garrick’s very soul, Devlin shook the bottle of pills in Garrick’s face as if it was a maraca. “I’ll do it for you. It takes two hands to open these little suckers.”
Garrick dipped his head. “Thanks.”
Jesus Christ, heat burned in his cheeks, and he fucking thought he might be blushing.
“Here’s your keys too,” Shawn said, as he deposited the set in one of the pockets of Garrick’s cargo shorts. “And I remembered to lock the door.”
“Good job, Shawnee. Guys,” Garrick moved and put an arm around each kid, “this is Devlin Morgan. He’s...” Everything I’ve ever wanted in a man? Maybe not the right circumstances for such a declaration. “...a friend of mine. Devlin,” Garrick’s heart skipped a beat as the very best, wonderful result of an accidental meeting in his life officially met the next two down on his list, “meet Chloe and Shawn Fine.”
Devlin squatted down and stuck out his hand. “Chloe,” Garrick could tell he gave her a good, solid handshake, the very best choice he could have made, “and Shawn,” he put his hand up to receive one hell of a high-five from the boy, “nice to meet you.”
Chloe responded with one of her half-smiles. “Nice to meet you too.”
Shawn cocked his head and crossed his arms against his chest. “Do you play baseball, Mister?”
“You can call me Devlin, and yes, I know how to play baseball. I’ll even do you one better.” Devlin propped his fists on his hips and made his voice sound like someone telling a grand story. “I even play on a team with the local police officers because we don’t have enough people at the firehouse that can play in order to have a team of our own.”
“You’re a fireman?” Shawn’s eyes grew big and round, and his voice rose so high Garrick thought the neighborhood dogs might hear him.
“Yep.”
“So awesome.” Shawn grabbed Garrick’s knee and started jumping up and down. “Can I go see your fire truck one day, Devlin? Please please please?”
“Shawn!” Chloe clenched her hands into fists and stomped her foot into the ground. “You are soooooo inappropriate.”
Devlin shifted his attention to Chloe. “It’s okay. I understand Shawn, Chloe. Fire trucks get me hopped up and excited too.” He put his attention back on the boy. “I’ll have to talk to my boss, and you’ll have to talk to your mom, but we’ll see what we can do. I think it’ll be okay.” With his hand cupped around one side of his mouth, Devlin leaned in and pretended to whisper in Shawn’s ear. “The chief is my big brother, so I have a little bit of pull.”
“So cool.” Shawn grabbed Garrick’s hand and tugged. “Don’tcha think it’s so cool, Garrick?”
Garrick smiled down at Shawn. “Very cool, Shawnee.” His stomach fluttered as he looked at Devlin and said softly, “I think I was just replaced.”
Devlin dropped his focus to Shawn’s hand firmly latched onto Garrick’s. “Doesn’t look like it to me.” He looked up and made eye contact with Garrick once again, and they shared a smile that felt like an unexpected shaft of sunlight warming his skin on a chilly day.
“Hey,” Shawn took Devlin’s hand and pulled Garrick’s attention back down to him, “so Devlin can stay and we can play two on two. Come on, come on.” He let go and locked both hands firmly around Garrick’s one. “Me and Garrick against Devlin and Chloe.”
Devlin shoved his hands into his pockets and raised his brows at Garrick as if to say, What do you think?
With brows arched right back, Garrick silently conveyed, Up to you.
“Ms. Fine,” Devlin began. He paused to study Garrick and Shawn, his lips pursed and stare narrowed. He then nodded and came back to Chloe. “What do you think? Would you like to team up with me and whip their butts?”
Chloe glanced from her brother, to Garrick, and finally to Devlin. Abruptly, she grabbed Devlin’s wrist and pulled him a few feet away.
Garrick took a discrete step closer to them and listened in.
“Are you serious about beating their butts?” Chloe asked Devlin. “Lots of times adults let my brother win cuz they’re afraid he’s too little and will cry like a baby if he doesn’t get his way.”
Devlin responded with, “When we were kids, I never let my little sister beat me at anything without a fight. She lived and does just fine today. If we beat your brother and Garrick fair and square, Shawn will live too.”
Garrick glanced over just in time to see Chloe thrust her hand out to Devlin. “Then I’ll be on your team.”
The two of them shook on it, and Shawn yelled, “Come on, come on, come on!” He had his arms outstretched, ball in one hand and bat in the other. “You guys are taking for-ev-er.”
Chloe shouted at her brother to be quiet, then ran over to him and snatched the ball out of his hand. She took her position behind the two-by-four serving as their pitching rubber, and Garrick jogged the rest of the way over to Devlin.
The man Garrick wanted more than anything stood in his yard, willingly spending time with him, and Garrick could hardly contain the knocking in his chest. He felt almost shy, but he also couldn’t keep a smile off his face. “Let me give you the playing field specs. See that white Frisbee in the grass there?” He pointed to his right. “That’s first base.”
Devlin sidled up close and followed the line of Garrick’s arm. “Got it.” As he spoke, his breath rustled against Garrick’s ear.
“Right.” Shit, heat filled Garrick’s cheeks again. Pretending he wasn’t blushing, and that Devlin’s shoulder wasn’t brushing against his arm and driving all of his nerve endings crazy, Garrick shifted and pointed at a silver object partially obscured by the grass. “Now that hubcap straight out, that’s second.”
“Got it.” It seemed liked Devlin pushed his shoulder into Garrick with a bit more pressure. “Where’s third?”
Garrick grinned, giddy as a fucking schoolboy, and explained the rest.
* * * *
In the kitchen, Garrick paused behind Devlin. The man stood at the counter shaping ground beef and pork into balls that he then handed to Shawn who pounded them into hamburger patties. Garrick stood dangerously close to Devlin and tried not to get high on the remnants of sweat left over from their game of baseball clinging to the man’s body and clothes. A few damp tendrils still spiked the edges of hair at his nape, though, and Garrick ached to lick them and taste him, and then to push the collar of Devlin’s shirt aside and bury his face in the curve of that warm, tan skin.
Garrick dipped down; just as he breathed in deeply, maybe even hummed with pleasure, Devlin shifted out of kissing range and shot a pointed look at Garrick from over his shoulder.
Shit. Garrick’s heart almost stopped. Shawn stood on a stool right next to Devlin, and Chloe was spreading mac-n-cheese into a baking pan only half a dozen feet away. That was too close.
Devlin bit his lip and his shoulders shook. “Do you need something, Mr. Langley?” he asked, laughter in his voice. “Shawn and I have this part of our lunch covered, and we’re doing a good job, thank you very much.”
“Damn good!” With his declaration, Shawn slammed his hand down on a defenseless ball of meat.
The crack of sound hurled Garrick the rest of the way back to reality. “No damning anything, buddy.” He tugged the kid’s shaggy hair. “It’s ‘darn good.’ Got it?”
“Got it,” Shawn said, without turning around.
Devlin met Garrick’s gaze. “Seriously, go ahead and relax for five minutes,” Devlin said. He bumped his hip to Garrick’s in a way that made the contact feel like a hand soothing his back. “We have this covered here.”
Feeling restless, Garrick clasped his hands behind his back and strolled over to Chloe. “How about you, Miss?” He leaned forward and rested his elbows on the kitchen island. “Do you need any more help?”
Chloe nudged the foil-covered glass cookware in his direction. “If I open the oven, can you put that in? It’s kinda heavy now with all the noodles and cheese.”
The second Garrick touched one finger to the dish, Chloe raced to the oven and whipped open the door.
“You want it to get all bubbly on the top, right?” he asked as he slid the dish onto the top rack. “That’s what we’re going for?”
“Yeah.”
/> “Okay, so to do that I think we need to let it cook for a little bit longer and then remove the foil and switch the oven to broil.” With his hand on the oven controls, Garrick looked to Chloe at his side. “Sound about right to you?”
She sucked her lower lip between her teeth. “I think so.”
“Then that’s it for us for now.” As Garrick double-checked the oven settings one more time, he said to Chloe, “Grab us a couple of juice boxes and let’s go kick our feet up.”
By the time Garrick was satisfied they wouldn’t burn the mac-n-cheese, Chloe already had their drinks and was tucked into the booth table in the corner of the kitchen. Garrick slid in next to her, and she handed him a drink. They both stabbed their straws through the small seal, took a sip, and settled into watching Shawn wrangle condiments out of the fridge as Devlin grabbed a frying pan and asked Shawn to get him some butter or cooking oil.
Chloe squished her juice box, clearly testing her ability to get the liquid close to the tipping point through the straw without spilling it over the edge.
“Can I ask you something?” she asked, her voice almost a whisper.
Garrick could feel the vibrations of her heels kicking into the base of the booth seating. “Shoot.”
She looked up at him and then back to the body of the kitchen. “Are you and Mr. Morgan gay together?”
Holy shit. Garrick’s hand compressed. Juice shot out of his straw and rained down on the table. Where’s her mom? He grabbed napkins out of a holder and busied himself with wiping his mess.
“Well?” She looked up at him without blinking. “Are you?”
Careful. Be careful. “That’s a word a lot of people think of as being for adults.” Garrick chose each word deliberately. “Do you understand what gay means?”
The kid rolled her ever-loving eyes at him. “I’m eleven, Garrick.” She sat up straight and tipped her chin up high. “I even know what transgender and transvestite means.”