by Trina Solet
"Should Teddy and Cory let Alec travel through space with them?" Cory asked.
Teddy voted yes.
While Cory was telling Teddy about their next adventure, he saw that Teddy had fallen asleep. Corey stared up at the ceiling and thought about the other two brothers who had shared this room. As he looked over at Teddy's goofy, sleeping face, he wondered if this is what it would have been like if he and Teddy grew up together, sleeping in the same room, doing everything together.
The next morning, Cory was leaving for work a little earlier than usual when Teddy ran after him down the hallway, already dressed.
"I'm going to open the store early for Mr. Gruber. He has a job on Berchville Road and needs a stump grinder." It seemed half the time people needed him to open early so they could drive to jobs miles away.
Teddy still didn't look happy to see Cory leaving.
"You want to come to the store with me?" Cory asked.
Teddy brightened instantly. "OK," he said.
Seeing Alec poke his disheveled, sleepy head out of his bedroom door, Cory asked him, "You are up too? Are you coming to the store with us?"
"No. But I'll bring you lunch," Alec told him.
When he and Teddy came home after work, Teddy found something new in the den. He came to get Cory so he could show him.
"It's you," Teddy said, pointing and smiling.
A sketchbook was propped up by the window. On it was a sketch of Cory, a flattering one too. Cory knew he didn't look that attractive. It was nice of Alec to make him look good.
"I want to do that," Teddy said, impressed with the sketch.
"I like the picture you drew of the two of us better," Cory told him.
"No. This one is much better," Teddy said, questioning Cory's judgment.
"But you aren't in this one," Cory told him.
Now Teddy understood. He marched out of the den in search of Alec. He found him in the kitchen, working on dinner.
"You drew it wrong," Teddy told him bluntly.
"What did I...?"
"You drew Cory wrong," Teddy said.
"Yeah, I'm not that good-looking," Cory said from behind Teddy.
"That's not it," Teddy disagreed then turned back to Alec. "You left me out," Teddy said, pouting.
"Aren't you possessive?" Alec accused him.
Teddy was confused by the word.
"Jealous," Alec told him to clarify.
Teddy turned to Cory for help.
"You're not jealous," Cory reassured him. "And even if you are, it's OK." Cory put his hand on top of his head.
Teddy turned his pouting face back to Alec.
"The brothers have united against me. I give up. I'll fix it," Alec said. He left dinner and went to the den.
Teddy followed him and watched him like a hawk.
"You're gonna watch me?" Alec said.
"So you don't mess up again," Teddy said.
Alec looked over at Cory but got no help there. He let Teddy watch until the last part. That's when Alec blocked the sketch pad with his body. Since he was a big guy, that worked out pretty well. No matter how hard he tried, Teddy couldn't get a glimpse.
When he was done, Alec showed them the result. On either side of Cory, Alec had drawn Teddy's face and his own.
"You too!" Teddy said, peering at the sketch in awe. "It's good now." He looked at Alec with solemn approval then smiled adorably. He then ran out of the room to draw something of his own.
"Thank you for making him happy," Cory said to Alec.
"Anything for Teddy," Alec said before he went back to the kitchen.
In the sketch, Teddy was drawn looking serious but with a look of wonder in his eyes. After gazing at Teddy's face in the sketch, Cory couldn't take his eyes off Alec's face on the other side. Alec wasn't as kind drawing himself.
"You are better looking than that," Cory wanted to tell him, but mainly he was surprised Alec had added himself. It was so unexpected, but it completed the picture perfectly. Cory did his best to shut down every ridiculous hope it encouraged. Alec had done it for Teddy. It didn't mean anything. Then why the hell did it have to look so right?
*
Just before his bedtime, Teddy came into the den. Alec was just cleaning his brushes and glancing at that sketch of the three of them, wondering if his face belonged there, next to Cory's.
"I drew a picture of Cory too," Teddy said and showed him.
"It looks more like a hill?" Alec said.
"It's Cory climbing the hill," Teddy said.
"Hey, there he is. Nice job," Alec said, spotting a small figure on the side of the perfectly triangular hill with threes sticking out of it sideways. "Where am I?"
Teddy pointed at a tiny figure.
"Are you sure that's not an ant?"
"No. It's you," Teddy insisted.
Alec couldn't help worrying that the little guy might want to follow in his big brother's footsteps. "You know you can't go up there until we say it's OK, right?" he told Teddy.
"I know. I have to get bigger," Teddy said. "Cory and me are going together."
"Can I come?" Alec asked.
"Yes!" Teddy said and smiled.
Alec smiled too, reminded of how possessive he could be of Cory. Cory wasn't just someone who came into Teddy's life. Cory belonged to him and no one could take him away. Smart kid. Teddy recognized how important Cory was to him right away. Not Alec. All he knew at first was that Cory wasn't just another body. From the beginning, he was more real to him than any man he had ever been with, but he didn't know why. Now every minute Alec was getting more wrapped up in him. Cory got under his skin then pierced his heart. From the start, Alec knew he was dangerous and he still let it happen. He closed his eyes and heard his own voice calling Cory's name. He had never wanted anyone so much. All the time he was aching for him, greedy and desperate for his touch.
While Teddy was getting ready for bed, Alec went in search of Cory. He found him in Teddy's room, clearing the drawings from the second bed, and pulling back the covers.
"You're going to sleep here again?" Alec said, disappointed.
"Eventually," Cory said and showed him a book he was going to read since it wasn't his bedtime for a while. "Just one more time. Tomorrow night I'll go back to sleeping in my own bed."
"How about instead of going back to sleeping in your bed, you come sleep in mine," Alec said with a wiggle of his eyebrows.
Before Cory could say anything, Teddy came in. Looking up at Alec, he said, "Tell us a bedtime story."
"The kind of bedtime story I want to tell Cory..." Alec started to say when Cory elbowed him in the ribs.
"Tell us about getting in trouble," Teddy said as he climbed under the covers.
"I can tell you all about that," Alec's mom said from the doorway. Seeing Teddy and Cory in the twin beds, she sighed. "This takes me back."
Alec agreed. "Having Cory in my bed does bring up all sorts of things."
Cory sat up, glaring at him. Mom took a swipe at Alec and told him to behave. The comment paid off though. Cory was blushing beautifully.
With Cory and Teddy tucked in, Alec felt restless. His mother found him aimlessly pacing the house and told him, "Stop prowling like a man-hungry tiger."
"You approve, don't you," Alec accused her. He could see a hopeful gleam in her eyes.
"I don't even know what you're talking about," she claimed before going to bed.
She was so transparent. There was nothing she would like better than to see him settle down with a nice boy like Cory. With Teddy in the picture, he half expected his mother might march him down the aisle even if it took a shotgun to do it.
Alec sighed. He wanted to say a big sorry to everyone – Cory, Teddy, his mom. He was going to disappoint them all and maybe even himself.
As he leaned on the doorjamb of Cory's room, he measured the space with his eyes. He wanted to look at the room dispassionately, reject it as too small. Small or not, Alec couldn't help going in and falling into t
hat bed as Cory's limbs wrapped around him. Feeling him breathing, moaning, writhing under him, he had to bury himself in him. It was where he belonged.
"What are you doing here?"
Alec looked around groggily, barely awake and a little confused about where he was. He saw that he was in Cory's room. Cory was in the doorway, and it was early morning.
"I guess I fell asleep. I must have missed you," Alec blurted out. The realization had only just come to him that he missed Cory and how much.
"So you decided to sleep in this cramped little room?" Cory said.
"Next best thing to sleeping with you."
"Since when do we sleep together? I mean in the same bed. How can you miss it?" Cory asked as he pulled a change of clothes from the dresser.
"I hardly ever slept with anyone much, in the same bed, I mean. I passed out next to a lot of guys, but that's not the same thing," Alec said, thinking back to bodies lying next to his that might have been miles away. While stretched out on his bed, he eyed Cory more keenly. "That doesn't mean I can't miss sleeping with someone. You know better than anyone how a person can miss something they never had. It's your own fault for invading my dreams. I thought I was safe coming back home to the middle of nowhere and then you walk in. There goes my peace and quiet, my safe dreams about anonymous bodies," Alec complained.
Cory turned to him with a frown. "If you want to push me away, maybe you shouldn't tell me you dream about me."
"I'm done pushing you away. It's too hard. A man could break his neck," Alec told him, sitting up.
"Now I'm completely won over." Cory rolled his eyes.
"Come over here and make out with me," Alec said, making a grab for him. In such a small room, Cory was within easy reach.
"I'm getting ready for work." Cory didn't try to evade him, but he didn't let Alec pull him into bed either.
Alec ran his hands up his legs in pajama bottoms and over the curve of his ass. He felt his breath catch in his throat. His voice was husky as he tried to lure Cory into his own bed.
"I'll help you undress. Scrub you down in the shower. I promise to button all your buttons once I'm done with you." He would have continued to try and persuade him, but a hard, wet kiss sealed his mouth shut.
Alec moaned when Cory ended it too soon.
"Lie back down," Cory ordered him and locked the door. "This is what we have time for." He got upside down on the bed and let Alec free his cock while he did the same to him. Seeing it spring free, hard and ready, Alec used it to stifle the moan building inside him. Kneading Cory's ass, he brought his cock deeper inside him.
Positioned head to toe, they sucked in rhythm. Cory's eager sucking drove him crazy. Good thing he had Cory's beautiful cock to keep him busy. Alec licked it lovingly and sucked hard. He was going to give Cory what he wanted – a fast, thorough suck to keep him thinking about him all day and bring him to his bed at night.
Chapter 22
Alec had so many ways to drive him wild. Every touch of his tongue was beautiful torture as he toyed with the length of Cory's cock. When he went from teasing to hard sucking, it drove Cory out of his mind. Cory wanted to give him the same crazy feeling so he sucked for all he was worth. He wanted Alec to remember him, but then he just gave himself over to the sensation of loving Alec's cock.
He relived every second of it in the shower, while it was still fresh and real to him. Slumped against the bathroom wall, he squeezed out the last drops of come as he dreamily tasted himself on Alec's kiss. Why couldn't every morning be like this one?
When Cory got into the kitchen, he found that Miriam hadn't gone to work yet. She had coffee going and poured Cory a cup. Cory tried to dismiss every indecent thought of Alec from his mind.
"So you found something you like about this place," she said to him with a knowing smile as she handed him the cup.
Cory hoped he didn't have a deer caught in the headlights look. He sat next to her at the kitchen counter.
"Relax, I'm not going to meddle in what you and Alec have going on. I just don't want my son to end up some kind of recluse. And you've raised my hopes."
"Me?"
"Who else? There are only two other gay guys for miles. One of them is old and still in the closet. The other one might as well be, and neither one is even remotely attractive."
"You could have said because I'm a great guy," Cory said.
"I could have," she said and squeezed his hand. "You are every mother's dream. But do you think you can tame my Alec?"
"He doesn't need taming. He needs to figure out what he wants."
"And what do you want?"
"Alec," Cory said simply. In that moment he again felt just how much he wanted to be with him in every way. He also felt the pain of not knowing if he would be or if one day Alec would pack up and leave.
"It's just good to know that he isn't a hopeless case," Miriam said.
Cory took Teddy to work with him again. He gave him a measuring tape and now Teddy was measuring everything in sight. First he would measure then he would nod with approval. He jumped when the chime on the door rang.
Mr. Muldoon was in early. He was very old and always fixing something. Cory noticed that he often frowned over prices then put a lot of things back without buying them. He could guess that the old man didn't have much money. Mr. Muldoon came up to the counter and started off with a sigh.
"I'm fixing up this old cabinet that's been in my wife's family since the dinosaurs were around, the way she tells it anyway. It's a monster of a thing. Won't even fit through the door. There's this one part I can't manage without a band saw. Is there any way around that security deposit?" Mr. Muldoon asked.
The band saw was one of the tools with a higher deposit. After thinking it over, Cory said, "What about collateral?" That wasn't their official store policy, but Cory didn't want the old man to have to leave empty handed.
Mr. Muldoon scratched his chin as he thought it over.
"Hmm. I could let you have my wife," he said.
"We don't take wives as collateral," Cory told him.
"What about my dog? She's a good one," Mr. Muldoon said.
"We don't take dogs either."
"I'm just pulling your leg. I would never give you my dog. How about my wedding ring?" Mr. Muldoon held up his hand to show him his ring.
It was a thin, beat up circle of gold. Seeing it on his gnarled finger, Cory doubted that it would even come off.
"The dog, the dog," Teddy said, pulling on Cory's shirt.
"I told you I was just kidding about that," Mr. Muldoon reminded Teddy.
The pleading look on Teddy's face didn't go away.
"Is it a nice dog?" Cory asked.
Mr. Muldoon thought about it and looked over at Teddy before he answered.
"Her name is Cookie because she's a sweet, old thing. But you don't get to keep her," he told Teddy.
"Just bring back the saw in one piece and you'll have her back," Cory told him.
"I guess I'll bring old Cookie by the mayor's place," Mr. Muldoon said.
Cory typed up an agreement, improvising some of it and printed it up. Mr. Muldoon signed it while shaking his head.
"I'd rather you took the ring or the wife," he said.
Next to Cory, Teddy was brimming over with excitement.
Mr. Muldoon brought his dog to the house early the next morning. Alec wasn't up yet, but the rest of them came out to greet Mr. Muldoon and his dog. Cookie was a large, black and white collie, and Teddy was beside himself when he saw her. Miriam was still in her robe with a cup of coffee in her hand.
"Poor Mr. Muldoon is never getting that dog back," she predicted.
That morning, Teddy had gotten up even earlier than usual, gotten dressed, then waited impatiently, looking out the window. Now he was running around with Cookie. It scared Cory that she was so big, but she seemed just as sweet as Mr. Muldoon said. The old man smiled and shook his head watching her play with Teddy. When he left, Cookie did whine a little. Teddy c
onsoled her and gave her a hug.
That morning, Teddy didn't have any trouble letting Cory go to work without him. Cory wondered if he should be jealous of Cookie. Seeing how he looked at Teddy and Cookie, Alec offered to go mind the store in his place. Damn, that was sweet. Cory didn't take him up on it, but all day he smiled thinking of everyone who was waiting at home for him.
In the evening, Cory and Alec were walking through the field behind the house. Miriam was on the porch, sipping a Heineken. Teddy was playing with the dog, running with her through the tall grass. To the west, the clouds covered the sky in fluffy folds. They were already starting to glow a deep gold from the sun sinking toward the horizon. Every minute their color grew deeper, turning from gold to red. Alec pointed them out to Teddy, who tried to get the dog to take an interest. Cookie did bark at them, making Teddy laugh.
"I miss having a dog," Alec said as he saw how much fun Teddy was having with Cookie.
"No reason why you can't," Cory said.
"Not with the way I live," Alec told him.
"You are trying too hard to be a hopeless loner."
"And failing?" Alec finished for him. "If one day I decide that this life is not for me, I'll break everyone's heart including my own. I can't live with that."
"Maybe that means you won't bail on us, now or ever." Cory turned to him, looking for a sign. "You might not want to be my hero, but you can't seem to help it."
"And what do you think I can offer you?" Alec asked.
"Don't know. My feelings aren't about having something to gain. I just can't stop wanting you."
Alec closed his eyes.
"We're all looking for a home," Cory told him. In that way they were the same.
"Some of us might spend the rest of our lives looking for it," Alec said. His blue eyes were full of hopeless longing.
"What do you mean? This could be your home."
"Like those signs, If You Lived Here You Would Be Home Right Now?" Alec asked with a crooked smile.
"Yeah, like that."
"This place just isn't me, never was. I couldn't wait to leave and start my real life." Alec looked around like he wanted to see skyscrapers rise up around him.