by Ily Jacks
My club brother, Greg, notices Shiv’s reddening face and turns to look at me. He’s the second biggest guy in the club after me and has the mouth of a man who’s won too many fights.
“Greg, Shiv, and Boyd, this is my boyfriend, Adam,” I say and lift Adam’s hand to kiss the top of it.
I get a little evil charge out of so obviously pushing their buttons. When Greg tears his gaze from Adam to look at me, I know he isn’t planning to congratulate me on finding love.
“Is this the little faggot jizzing all over your place?” he asks.
He spits out the last few words as my fist makes contact with his fat mouth. Greg stumbles back before throwing a punch at me. Considering his shitty aim, I suspect he’s on his third beer.
My fist nails him in the cheek, and his ass hits the ground. Behind me, Adam warns I’m about to be tackled, but I don’t move quickly enough, and Boyd takes me to the ground. I elbow the sixty-year-old grampa in the nose, and he howls like a sixty-year-old grampa.
Returning to my feet, I look at the two men moaning in pain. I glance at Shiv to find him mentally struggling to deny how his club is filled with old men no longer able to take a punch.
“Anyone else?” I ask.
“I’ll punch you,” my club brother, Dean, announces and hands his beer to one of his kids.
He isn’t the only one who decides they need more practice brawling. Rolling my eyes, I glance at Adam.
“Give me five minutes, and we’ll eat chili.”
Shiv nods at Adam. “Lisa knows how to make the best chili.”
The man who took me off the streets discusses beans and chili powder with the man I took off the streets. While they chat about food, I have to fight ten guys. Two of them complain about chest pains after I punch them. One of them needs his teenage grandsons to help him stand afterward. The only one to get in a shot is Shiv’s fifteen-year-old grandson.
“Don’t be a bitch,” I growl at the kid after he sneaks up on me and hits me on the head with a bottle.
Tossing him on the ground, I look around and throw up my arms. “Anyone else?”
The crowd shakes their heads while I catch Maura near a doorway rolling her eyes. I give her a dirty look that makes her laugh. My kids shove their ways through the crowd to check on me.
“Are you okay?” Emma asks, poking at the back of my head.
“I’m fine.”
Eric looks around at the moaning men left behind from the brawl. “You fought a retirement home and lived to tell the tale.”
“Funny,” I say, ruffling his hair. “We’re a dying breed.”
Emma smirks. “Based on the sounds they’re making, you mean dying literally.”
While my kids enjoy the idea of old people in pain, I turn to find Adam showing Shiv something on his phone. Joining them, I learn they’re talking about the community college in nearby Midpoint.
“Getting an AA can’t be that hard,” Shiv tells Adam. “My son got one, and he could barely read in high school.”
Adam smiles at the insult, but he’s faking his calm demeanor. His expression isn’t so different from Maura’s when she put up with the club crap. Grin and bear it, she’d say back in the day. Now Adam has the pleasure of pretending to enjoy these functions.
♂◈ Adam ◈♂
I use every ounce of self-control to stay put when Declan gets jumped. He’s a big guy, and I know he can fight younger men than these, but I still want to help him. Then Shiv steps closer to me, and I think I might actually have to get physical.
“Heard you’re getting your GED. Any plans after that?”
“I thought to take some courses at a college, so I can learn how to do more than wait tables.”
Shiv surprises me by talking about different degrees I can get at the nearby community college. He doesn’t mention the fight taking place or give me trouble for showing up to the club event. I nod at everything he says, afraid I’ll ruin his good mood by adding anything.
Declan is suddenly at my side, looking fine except for a few out of place hairs on the top of his gorgeous head.
“Are you okay?” I ask, reaching for his face before thinking better of showing public affection.
Declan grabs my hand and places it where I was aiming. “Yeah, except for the bump that little asshole gave me with the bottle.”
I rub his head, finding no bump yet. Despite his cool demeanor, I’m certain everyone’s watching and judging us. Then I glance over my shoulder and realize people are more interested in the whining men with their minor injuries. The only ones watching us are Maura, Eric, and Emma.
“Shiv, the fight was fun,” Declan says and wraps an arm around my shoulders, “but I want to get chili before Maura sneaks out.”
Shiv rubs the top of his bald head and nods. “Glad you came.”
“Me too.”
The men share a smile that I suspect means I’m accepted as Declan’s bitch now.
Arm still around my shoulders, Declan guides me through a crowd of people he greets quickly. We emerge on the other side where Maura and the kids pile food onto paper plates.
“Remember,” Declan whispers in my ear and his hot breath soothing my nerves, “no potato salad.”
Grinning, I lean against him and enjoy showing public affection. The people around us aren’t interested anyway. They’re living their lives and don’t care how we live ours.
And this is my life now. Declan is a package deal with his nosy ex-wife, two teenagers, a restaurant, two lazy greyhounds, and a crew of old, tattooed men. Plus, he’s set in his ways while I’m just learning who I want to be.
Our road ahead might not be always smooth, but meeting Declan ended my bad luck, and I’m ready to face whatever comes next.
Epilogue
♂◈ Adam ◈♂
A year later
A year from the day I get my ass kicked at the gas station, I’m a student at a small community college. It’s quite the turnaround for a former rent boy.
I rarely think of Leto or my old life. Though when Declan and I visit Indianapolis to try a sushi place, I get the idea in my head that we’ll run into my former pimp. Of course, we don’t, and I eventually stop worrying.
These days, I only wait tables at the restaurant for a few short shifts per week. On the weekends, I act as the assistant manager. Declan figured the position would look good on my resume.
I save my tips for trips I have in mind. Declan will look so damn good in swim trunks that I know I have to get him to a beach one day.
Shiv suggests I save up to get a Harley, but I prefer riding behind Declan. What’s better than wrapping my arms around his hard body while my balls hum from the roaring engine.
Declan does teach me to drive his Harley and even rides bitch a few times. As soon as we arrive home from those trips, he fucks my ass raw to remind us both how he isn’t the bitch. I’d complain if it didn’t feel so damn good.
“I’ve never ridden bitch before,” he says one night as a not-so-subtle hint that Maura asked to drive his Harley and he said no.
“You should have let her drive.”
Frowning, he nudges me with his foot. “Why?”
“She would have gotten a great fuck out of it.”
“Doubtful. That hard dick after a ride thing only works with you.”
Smiling, I feel no guilt at setting up the conversation just to get my compliment. A man needs to know where he stands.
The most difficult part of getting my TASC is spending hours each night in class rather than watching movies with Declan. We still manage to annoy each other with our picks on the weekends. Though we do eventually find some common ground movie-wise. I enjoy classic movies such as Casablanca while Declan doesn’t mind paranormal horror movies.
“I don’t believe in ghosts,” Declan says one night as we watch The Autopsy of Jane Doe. “So these movies don’t bother me. The slasher ones are too real to enjoy.”
Smiling, I look up from where my head rests on his thigh. �
�The point of horror movies is to be scared.”
“Neither scares me. One just makes me think I should buy another gun. The other makes me think about how the actors pretend to see ghosts. I prefer the latter.”
Even laughing at his logic, I’m happy we can sit through a movie without Declan fondling me as a distraction.
Many guys my age might hate having such a solid routine, but I thrive with it. Growing up with my mom and then uncle, nothing was ever certain. Now I always know where I’ll be and what’s expected. I do wish I could lounge more with Declan. Soon, though, I’ll get my associate degree in applied science, and have my evenings free. Uncertain what I’ll do work-wise once I finish with school, I hope a consistent second income in the family will convince Declan to move to a house.
“I hate yard work,” he instantly says whenever I mention moving.
“I’ll do it.”
“You say that, but then you’ll get busy, and I’ll end up mowing.”
I pause to imagine a shirtless, sweaty Declan pushing a mower. Smiling, I shake my head. “I’m not an irresponsible kid. I’m your adult boyfriend, and I said I’ll be in charge of the yard.”
Declan scratches his beard. “If you did get busy, I doubt it’ll cost too much to pay someone to mow.”
“Whatever you need to tell yourself. I just know having a house is my dream.”
A soft smile warms his handsome face. “Of course, it is, Adam.”
My love understands what it’s like to grow up not having a real home and how easily a person can idealize what they missed out on. So even though he doesn’t want to leave the apartment, he’ll relent one day. He says I have a good heart, but he’s got the biggest one I’ve ever known.
Declan told me to want more out of life, and I’ve learned to do just that. I dream of a house, a puppy, and vacations with a shirtless Declan. These might seem like small dreams to a lot of people, but the loser I was a year ago only hoped for a warm meal. No way did he imagine shaking off his bad luck long enough to find the kind of love Declan provides me every day.
Epilogue
♂◈ Declan ◈♂
Five years later
Adam and I are still getting to know each other during our first holidays together. We eat Thanksgiving dinner at Maura’s place and buy a tiny tree for the apartment. The newness of our relationship encourages us to keep everything simple and subdued.
In comparison, the first holidays after we move into our brick ranch-style house are as festive as the ones when my kids were little. Adam and I visit three places before choosing a tree we spend a hundred dollars decorating. Another few hundred go to adding Christmas pizzazz to the house. Blowup snowmen and Rudolph jiggle in the winter breeze on our front lawn. Colored lights hang in the hallways. The living room looks like a tinsel factory exploded inside it. Adam transforms our house into a Christmas wonderland.
And for his gift, we adopt a puppy that Adam names Jigsaw in honor of the first horror movie we watched together. The black Labrador mix reminds me of why I hate puppies. He chews on everything before peeing on it. He barks at every noise, bounces around the house as if drunk, and sends Abbott into a mental breakdown.
Adam takes raising Jigsaw very seriously. He works as hard on training and caring for the dog as he does with his job as an office manager at a local medical device company. Every week for months, Adam and Jigsaw attend classes. Every morning, he gets up early to let the dog out to our fenced yard. Every day after work, he takes Jigsaw for a long walk. Abbott sits at the front bay window and watches them leave. I know they’re returning when her tail begins thumping against the hardwoods.
Sitting in my La-Z-Boy, I listen for the thumps to know Adam will be in for the evening. That’s when Jigsaw will chill, Abbott sleeps, and I get my man to myself.
“I wonder how Jigsaw will do at Maura’s while we’re gone,” he murmurs that night while we stretch out naked in bed.
“He’ll whine a lot. Shit on the floor a few times. Eat her couch. The usual stuff dogs do when their daddies ditch them to go on vacation.”
Adam rolls to his side and gives my nipple a pinch. “You’re going to love every fucking second of the cruise.”
“Doubtful.”
“I saved up for it, so you have to go. That’s the deal.”
Exhaling, I don’t want to spend a week on a cruise surrounded by strangers. On the other hand, a week with Adam shirtless, swimming, and smiling is something I’m sure to enjoy.
This is our life now. We fix up our house. A few times a year, we travel. On weekends, we ride my Harley along country roads. Back at home, Abbott is our lazy, old lady while Jigsaw acts like a wild toddler. Adam decides he had no interest in having human children and claims we’ll get our baby fix when Emma and Eric eventually have kids.
My son and daughter begin introducing Adam as their stepfather long before he and I marry on the fifth anniversary of the day we met. We make things official at the VFW hall, surrounded by my elderly club brothers, Maura and the kids, along with half of Haystack Forks who’ve fallen for Adam as much as I did.
For the first time in his life, Adam has a real family with real traditions. Thanksgiving dinners are at our house while we enjoy Christmas evenings at Maura’s.
During the summers, Adam mows the lawn with Jigsaw following close behind. I sit with Abbott on the shaded porch and enjoy the view. We’ve built a damn good life that never would have happened if I hadn’t given a ride to a drowned rat with beautiful eyes.
About Ily
Living in Indiana with my three sweet sons, three wacky cats, one super mom (and her ugly dog), I love cats, 1970s rock, Call of Duty, and sitcoms canceled before their time.
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