Until the Stars Fall (Just the Way You Are Book 1)

by Abigail Kade

  “So, what exactly happened with Parker anyway? I thought it was going well up until now.”

  I walked over to the table and sat down next to him to start looking over the plans. As I scanned, I shared. “Well, he stayed over last night, and the action was less than stellar.” I returned his surprised look with a nod of my head. “I made the mistake of telling him some of the things I liked. How was I supposed to know he would think I was a freak? He kept trying to boss me around and be all dominant and shit. I like that kind of thing. You know, I need to get out of my head to have a good time, but he wasn’t natural with it. I know he’s bigger than me, most guys are, but he had this attitude that just turned me off.” I snapped my fingers as the perfect analogy came to mind, “It’s like I was his servant and he expected me to jump whenever he called. That’s not sexy, that’s bullying and a complete turnoff. Then he told me this morning that I was a freak and everything I wanted wasn’t right.”

  Taylor nodded his head in agreement, “Yeah, I can see that about him for sure. He’s pretty to look at, but his attitude sucks most of the time. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to be taken out of your head for a while. If anyone needs to be out of their head, it’s you. And I know you like the big buff dommy types just like I do. I may be too big to reside in Twinktown, but I still like my guys bigger than me and deliciously toppy.”

  I wasn’t prepared for that bit of sharing and had the misfortune of having coffee shoot out my nose at his confession. “For fuck’s sake, Tay, warn a guy next time you’re gonna be all witty and shit first thing in the morning.” I jumped up and grabbed some tissues from the box on my desk to wipe up my mess. “And Twinktown? That’s where I reside these days, is it?”

  He looked at me with a sincere nod, “Absolutely, Ladd. You, my red-headed twinkie friend, with your bow ties and sweater vests, are the Mayor of Twinktown.” I glanced down at my outfit and nodded my agreement. I was indeed a nerdy but professional twink. I loved my bowties and my crisp clothes. The feel of the tight tie and the starched lines of my pants and shirts comforted my mind and assured me they were clean and perfect.

  “Well, if I’m the Mayor of Twinktown, then I give you permission to live there. I’d be lonely by myself. You know James doesn’t qualify, Remy’s Bi, and Rhett’s supposedly straight. What would Twinktown be with just me and no one else? Unless it was located right next to Bearville, then you could keep your ass here, and I’d keep all of the big guys to myself.” I smirked into my coffee. Taylor had a fixation on big hairy guys, and I knew I’d get a reaction.

  “Fuck that! You may be my best friend and like a brother to me, but don’t get between my hairy construction worker fantasy man and me.” I couldn’t help but laugh because my best friend was funny as shit. I waved him back to what he was doing, and I was happy to see neither my white starched shirt nor my aforementioned pink and navy striped bow tie had sustained any damage from my impromptu spit take. I’d hate to have to change this early in the morning, although I did always have three backup outfits in the closet just in case. Yes, another quirk. Can’t have wrinkles or stains. It was unprofessional.

  I sat down at the table next to Taylor and looked over the blueprints. “Okay, let’s get this proposal finalized. I’m meeting their rep in a week and want to put our best foot forward. I really want this one to be the best we’ve ever done.”

  As I was making my way out a little after five p.m., Aunt Helen called me into her office. I had been dreading this all day but knew I had to talk to her at some point. I shuffled into her office and shut the door, taking a seat on the rich plum velvet camelback sofa she had nestled in the bay window of her office. She had designed the space beautifully in shades of plum and gray, and her classic taste was on display for all of her clients to see. The room was as relaxed and inviting as Aunt Helen’s softly rounded coastal accent.

  She was actually my great aunt, sister to my grandfather. She never married and still had the Eldridge name which she bore proudly. She had become like a mother or grandmother to my brothers and me when we had moved here with Uncle James. Along with her sister, my aunt, Lillian, they had helped us settle into the family home on the Bay, and we’d all created one big family in the sprawling creole. The twins had both excelled in school, graduated early and were now both lawyers in town. Rhett’s career looked exceedingly promising and Remy, well, Remy was just Remy. He had a side gig that seemed to make him happy. We hoped for the best for him and he usually always surprised us. They were both out on their own, and I had moved into the carriage house behind the main house two years ago when I came back after graduation.

  My Architecture Degree from The University of Florida had been a great accomplishment for me. Aunt Helen had been thrilled to welcome me into her business. I looked up to her not only for encouraging me to follow in her footsteps and giving me a job right out of school but also for being the stable motherly figure we all needed in our lives and had never had with our own mother. That was one of the reasons I wasn’t looking forward to this conversation. I really didn’t want to ever disappoint her.

  This evening, she looked elegant as always with her silver hair cut in a sleek bob that framed her slightly rounded face perfectly. She had told me once that she had prematurely grayed and since she liked it, she decided to own it. It suited her. Her cream slacks and bright blue top made her blue eyes stand out even more than usual today. She really was an attractive woman. Her lady friend Gwen would no doubt agree.

  Aunt Helen cleared her throat, pulling me from my straying thoughts. She stood up and came around the desk to sit next to me on the sofa, lightly placing her soft hand on my navy slacks clad thigh. “Ladd, sweetheart, can you tell me what happened between you and Parker this morning? I got a call from Mary Katherine this afternoon saying you went crazy and attacked him.” I looked down at her hand on my leg to avoid her searching gaze. I was embarrassed at my actions but owed her an explanation. So, I laid out my conversation with Parker from that morning in its entirety. Finally, I ended the tale with my ill-advised punch to Parker’s perfect face, all the while looking anywhere but at her. I knew she would be unhappy with my actions. I didn’t often let my temper flare, unlike Remy, but I was almost always embarrassed when I did.

  She was quiet for a moment, then squeezed my thigh tightly. “That’s what I thought, but I wanted to be sure. Parker has always been a prick ever since he was knee-high to a grasshopper. That Mary Katherine never did a damn thing to discipline him. Good riddance if you ask me, and good for you for hitting the little shit in the kisser. He’s been needin’ to be brought down a peg or two for years, and I’m tickled shitless it was one of us that got to do it.” I snapped my head up and saw that Aunt Helen’s face was flushed and her smile went from ear to ear. Was she happy? No, not happy, she was elated.

  “You mean you’re not mad that I broke up with him? You’re the one that set us up. I thought you wanted me to give him a chance.”

  She looked puzzled for a moment, and then clarity shot across her face followed by annoyance. “Did that little piece of shit tell you that I gave him your number?” I nodded because that was exactly what had happened.

  “God, that woman is gonna be the death of me, I swear. If I didn’t have to serve with her on the Fairpoint Historic Preservation Board, I would just as soon never talk to her again.” She looked out the window for a few seconds, then glanced back to me. “I gave Mary Katherine your phone number because she said she wanted to get your opinion on having her husband’s library redesigned and she knows how beautiful you’ve made your own library in the carriage house. I let that slip one day, and evidently, she took advantage of the information. She’s a piece of work, I tell ya. I’m so sorry I didn’t say anything sooner, but when you asked about him and said you were dating, I didn’t want to cause you any problems if you actually did like the boy. But now that you know, you keep away from those Redcliffs, Ladd. They’re bad news.”

  Well, all I could say was, �
��Yes, ma’am, I definitely know better now.”

  She gave one firm nod of her head, then gave a little shake of her hand on my leg, “Well, now that that’s settled, let’s get back to the homestead. Lillian and Gwen are meeting us over there for family dinner, and we’ve all got the meteor shower to watch on the pier tonight.”

  Now, this I had been looking forward to for weeks. The meteor shower tonight was supposed to be the most active in recent memory. I had always loved watching the skies, never knowing when the next star would fall. I had seen a few in my lifetime, and I always made a wish. Rhett said it wasn’t logical to call them falling stars or to make wishes on random space debris burning up in the atmosphere. Remy had always been too restless to sit still long enough to watch for them. Uncle James always watched, and I secretly thought he made wishes, too. I just had no idea what he would wish for since he seemed to have everything he could ever want, well, except a partner. Actually, maybe I did know what he wished for. He had never dated much since we had come into his lives. It bothered us to think that he put his life on hold for us. The last time I saw Remy, he said he had an idea to help. As with most things Remy, I knew better than to ask.

  It didn’t matter to me though if any of them believed or not. It was my thing, just like my jelly beans and my crisp dress shirts. Tonight, I’d lay out on the end of the pier behind my carriage house and watch the skies for my falling star. I knew exactly what my wish would be.

  I wish I may, I wish I might, have this wish I wish tonight. Please let me find someone to love me just the way I am and help me become the man I wish to be.

  Chapter Two

  “Oh, God, baby, I’m gonna come so hard.” I groaned as I pumped my cock into the warm wet throat. “Ung, God so good. I’m almost there, baby, yeah, right there.” God, I hadn’t felt this good in months. I needed to get off in the worst way, and this was exactly what I needed. I was concentrating on the growing pressure in my balls and the tingling that was starting in my lower back when I heard a faint sound I couldn’t quite place. I shook it off and got back to getting there. But the sound was getting louder.

  What the Hell is that?

  The sound of a man’s loud voice echoed through my wet dream induced haze. “Asshole calling! There’s an asshole calling! Hurry up and answer the phone! There’s an asshole on the other end of the line!” I was suddenly back in reality and recognized the ringtone I had set for my brother. It was annoying as all hell but fairly accurate. He really could be an asshole most of the time. The present situation was a prime example. I removed my hand from my quickly deflating dick and reached for my phone. “Fucking hell.” I yelled out to the empty loft as I finally shook off my dream and hit the screen to answer the call. I immediately lit into my baby brother since it was always better to have a strong offense. “Lachlan, I swear to God there better be blood or a family emergency for you to call me at the ass crack of dawn like this. I was enjoying the best dream I’ve had in months, and you ruined it before the money shot, asshole.”

  All I got in response was hysterical laughter. See, asshole. “Connor Michael McDaniel, is that any way to speak to your favorite sibling on this very fine morning?”

  Yep, Lachlan was a morning person, too. Asshole all around as far as I was concerned. “Lach, what do you want, you bloody arse? I didna get to bed until one in the morning, and now you’re callin’ me at six. What’s so important that it couldna wait until after noon?”

  “Oh, Connor, I do so love getting you riled.” Lachlan was practically giddy, “Your accent really comes out when you’re all pissed and emotional. Dammit, why are you the only one that still has any Scottish brogue? Even if yours isn’t really noticeable unless you’re mad. What I wouldn’t give to be able to whip out that accent whenever I wanted. I’d get more action than even I could handle. Men and women would be falling at my feet.” He let out a heavy sigh like he was mourning his sad lot in life. “It’s so unfair the antisocial bear of the family got the sexy accent.”

  Throughout all of this utter nonsense, I had reached the end of my very short fuse. “Lach, I swear, if you don’t tell me what the fuck you want, I’m gonna hang up on you in two-point-five seconds. Then I’m gonna call Mom and tell her all about the fascinatin’ conversation I had with you this mornin’ where you told me about fuckin’ your twink conquest all over the house last night. You are still house sittin’ for them, right? How long do you think it’ll take Mom to get you in her sights? I’d give it two, maybe three, minutes before she had you apologizin’ for things you’ve never even thought of doin’.” I had him by the balls now. No one ever wanted to be on Maeve Douglas’s bad side, especially her children.

  “You wouldn’t dare! Connor, you know she’s still mad about that thing with Isobel last year.” He had a slight tremor in his voice. Playing with the sibs was always so much fun.

  “Fuckin’ yes, I would dare. Just try me, brother mine.” I couldn’t help chuckling a little at his discomfort. He’d deprived me of my morning nut, and this was almost as satisfying.

  “All right, fine, you big bully. I drew the short straw to call you and remind you that you’re meeting with the rep from the architecture firm this morning. We all know you’re not a morning person and you never keep an accurate calendar, so we decided someone needed to call and make sure you remembered. I didn’t know you’d be so mean about it though. Threatening me with Mom was low, even for you.”

  I clicked my tongue at him. “Pouting doesn’t suit you, Lach. You know I always play for keeps.”

  I had been sitting up in bed still trying to shake off my dream throughout this whole asinine conversation, but at the reminder of the meeting this morning, I heaved a heavy sigh and flopped back onto the mound of pillows. I scrubbed my left hand through my thick hair and then ran it down my face scraping my palm on the permanent scruff before finally digging my thumb and index fingers into my gritty eyes. Fuck, I had forgotten the meeting. Thank God Lachlan had called, or I would have been up shit creek. Hell if I would ever tell the bastard the truth though. I sifted through my fuzzy brain and picked out the pertinent pieces of information to make it sound like I wasn’t a complete idiot. “The architect meeting, right, it’s this morning at”—I paused and just grabbed a time out of my ass—“nine this morning. But I still don’t understand why we’re hiring outside help on this project? Why aren’t we using some of our in-house guys like we normally do on renovation jobs?”

  “Right, you’re meeting him at nine”—I gave myself a mental high five for guessing right—“and he’s going to need to take some measurements first thing for the walk-in freezer and cooling units you want to have added. This is your baby, Connor, I know, but we need these guys to make it work. This is a historic building and has some importance to the community. As soon as we’d finalized the sale, we got a proposal from their firm, Going Coastal Designs, explaining their experience in renovating period architecture in the area and their knowledge of the historical preservation policies we’d be coming up against throughout the project.”

  “Okay, I get it, but I hope they don’t try to take over or tell me what I can and can’t do with the project. I’m determined to build this into the pub I’ve always dreamed of having. I don’t want to have to deal with some pencil pusher telling me my ideas are shit.”

  “Connor, quit borrowing trouble. Everything will be perfect. This is the whole reason you moved from Atlanta and hauled your ass to the lovely town of Fairpoint in the first place. Well, that and you were looking to make a fresh start.”

  “Right, a fresh start. Is that what we’re calling it now? Not like I had much of a choice.” I said under my breath, but of course, Lachlan heard me.

  “Of course you had a choice, Connor, and you made the smart one. It’s been nine months since the thing with Troy. You were still in the apartment you two shared, going through the motions. We were all so worried about you.”

  I absolutely did not want to talk about this right now. “Lach,
not now. I really don’t…”

  “Conn, I know you don’t want to, but you need to put it behind you. It sucks that you were ready to commit and Troy wasn’t. It sucks even more that he had been cheating on you and left you for a new guy…”

  “Guys,” I said softly, and my face heated with embarrassment. This was the part of the story no one but I knew. Lachlan was right, and I needed to move on. Part of that was facing my humiliation. “He actually left me for two guys, not one. Apparently, I wasn’t good enough, so he went out and found a committed couple that wanted to add him and make their perfect triad…throuple, or whatever the fuck it is.” This was where it got personal, “When he told me he was leaving, he actually told me that he had never been satisfied with just me. He had been staying with me as a stand-in dick or placeholder until he found someone, or several someones, to satisfy him. So, not only did he not want to commit, he actually never loved me in the first place. It was all just games and lies, Lach.” I looked out into the distance through my glass balcony doors and sniffed back the stinging in my nose, ignoring the unexpected moisture in my eyes.

  This was the first time I had said all of this out loud, and it was affecting me more than I liked to admit. I had thought Troy was the one and had already bought a ring when he dropped his bombshell. He had been planning his escape from me for over a month before he told me. He gave two days’ notice before he moved out. Now it was over nine months later, and I was still letting his cruel words affect me.