by Anna Martin
“Is that because of the….” Tyler trailed off and finished his question by tapping his ear.
“No,” he said simply. He rarely thought about his hearing aids—they were just part of his life now. “I mean, I like music, but I’ve never really been into going to gigs or anything. I lost my hearing after a surfing accident.”
“Surfing?” Tyler asked, sounding surprised.
Max nodded. “Head injury,” he said. “I wiped out, then got bashed on the head a couple of times by my board. I was really lucky. The guys I was out with managed to get me to a hospital quickly.”
“I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”
Max waved off his concern. “This was… shit, about four years ago now. It could have been a lot worse.”
“You’re not completely deaf, though?”
“No, I’ve got about thirty percent of my hearing in my left ear and maybe fifty percent in my right. For the first year, it got progressively worse. Then I had surgery to try to fix it, and it’s been pretty stable since then. It’s usually fine. I just struggle when there’s a lot of background noise.”
Tyler nodded. “It doesn’t seem like it bothers you too much.”
“Like I said, I’m lucky.” Max genuinely believed that. “I know people have suffered far worse with sports injuries than what I went through.”
“Do you still surf?”
“Sometimes,” Max said with a grin. “I generally stick to calmer waters these days, though.”
“Sounds sensible.”
“So you’re just on your friendly neighborhood patrol?” Max asked, wanting to change the subject. Not because he was upset by Tyler’s questions—more that he didn’t like talking about himself all that much. He really didn’t like talking about his hearing aids either.
“Yep. I heard you were working on the shop here, and I thought I’d stop in, see how things were going.”
“Well, as you can see, John and I spent some very late nights putting together the cabinets and firmly cementing our nonparental but still very valuable relationship.”
Tyler laughed. “That sounds nice.”
“It was. I’m currently trying to make the place look less clinical and more artistic, which is a challenge, but I think it’s going okay.”
“You painted the wall?”
“That one, yeah,” Max said, gesturing to the one behind Tyler. It ran the length of the studio, and Max had picked a mid-gray tone to break up some of the stark white. He was pleased with how it turned out.
“It’s looking good.”
“Thanks. Did you get an invite to the grand opening yet?”
Tyler shook his head.
“Damn. Let me find one for you.”
As soon as he’d set the date, Max had added it to the flyer he’d already designed, then taken it down to the local print shop to get a few hundred copies made. He was working on sticking them up around town, handing them out to local businesses, and generally spreading the word. The problem was, he was spending too many hours in the shop working on getting it finished, which meant less time to go and drum up business.
“Give me a stack of those,” Tyler said when Max finally found the box. “I can hand them out for you.”
“Dude, are you sure?”
Tyler huffed a laugh. “Of course.”
“That’s so awesome. Thank you.”
“No problem.” Tyler looked awkward for a second, then blurted out, “Did you get lunch yet?”
“Nope,” Max said easily. “You hungry? I could definitely eat.”
“Yeah. Have you been to the bakery yet?”
“Man, I have avoided that bakery all week because I have a feeling once I go in there, you’ll never be able to get me to leave.”
Tyler grinned. “It’s good.”
“Let’s go.”
“Are you sure?” Tyler said. “The temptation….”
“Is strong, yeah,” Max finished for him, not entirely meaning just baked goods. He’d never had a uniform kink before, but there was something particularly appealing about the way Tyler filled out his. “I can handle it, I’m sure.”
Still not just talking about the baked goods.
Max grabbed his keys and wallet from the ugly desk and quickly locked up the shop. It was both sunnier and cooler out here than it was inside. Max vowed to chase down the AC guy later in the afternoon.
The bakery was busy, so they grabbed sandwiches and sweet tea to go and sat outside the old movie theater to watch the world go by. This side of the street was in the shade, meaning the temperature was perfect—warm and breezy. Max was aware he would be watched as much as he was watching. That was just Sweetwater’s way.
“So, are you busy?” Max asked after they’d both finished the first bites of their lunch and made suitably approving noises.
“Nothing’s ever busy around here,” Tyler joked. “Really. You’re going to have to adjust your big-city thinking.”
They sat shoulder to shoulder on the bench, because it was small, and Max could feel the heat of Tyler’s arm through his shirt. He tried not to be too hyperaware of how sweaty he’d gotten that morning. Tyler didn’t seem to care.
“Are you seeing anyone?” Max tried to keep the question casual.
“Nah,” Tyler drawled. “I come with a lot of baggage these days. Plus, most people our age are married and settled down already.”
“Jesus, tell me about it. It seems like the only ones who aren’t are the ones who left town.”
“Case in point,” Tyler said, knocking his shoulder against Max’s. “You didn’t leave anyone behind in Pittsburgh, then?”
“Nope,” Max said easily. “I haven’t been in a relationship in a while.”
Not since the ugly breakup, and Max didn’t want to get into that with Tyler. He was pretty sure Tyler knew Max was gay. That didn’t mean Tyler wanted to hear about ex-boyfriends who had abused Max’s trust and had very nearly managed to orchestrate him losing a lot of money in what turned out to be a pyramid scheme. Max was grateful for that lucky escape.
Now they’d established they were both single, Max wasn’t sure what to do with that information, other than continue to pine for his best friend’s brother from afar. He could pine plenty good with the rest of them.
“Well, I should get back to work. Just because nothing ever happens doesn’t mean it won’t one day.” Tyler stood and brushed the crumbs off his uniform pants. He adjusted his belt, and Max let his eyes be briefly drawn to Tyler’s crotch. Then he felt bad for leering.
“You’ll come to the party on Friday, then?”
“For sure. If I’m passing by before then, I’ll stop in and see how it’s all going.”
“Sounds good.” Max stuffed his hands into his pockets for lack of anything else to do. “See you around, Tyler.”
Tyler smiled at him, and Max tried, once again, not to swoon.
“Later.”
Chapter 4
Tyler sometimes fondly remembered the time when weekends meant he got a break. After years of being a single dad, he was sometimes surprised to still be leaning on his family as much as he had right at the start. He’d always imagined that after a while he’d get back on his feet, figure out the whole parenthood thing, and stop needing his parents’ and siblings’ help so much.
But every year brought new challenges, whether school, or hobbies, or Juniper’s growing sense of independence.
One of Tyler’s nieces, Dana’s middle child, was six months younger than Juniper. When Casey was born, Tyler had hoped June would be close to her, which would maybe make up for the fact that June didn’t have any siblings. And he’d lucked out. It wasn’t just Casey who June was close to—it was all of her cousins. Tyler was pretty sure they didn’t really understand the difference between a brother, sister, or cousin.
Tyler had always worked with the idea that it was a good thing for June to spend time with her female relatives. She had a close relationship with Dana—not as a surrogate mother, but mo
re as a woman she could look up to and love. Casey had stayed for a sleepover on Friday night after school because turnabout was fair play and Dana hosted Juniper for sleepovers far more often than Tyler returned the favor.
On Saturday morning, he heard them up and making far too much noise before 7:00 a.m., and forced himself to trust they would play quietly while he grabbed just a few more minutes of sleep.
He woke again to the sound of a huge crash and raced out of bed, stumbling blind into Juniper’s room.
“What the fu—what the heck was that?” he demanded, catching himself at the last moment.
“Sorry, Daddy,” June said. She was sitting in the middle of a Barbie Dreamhouse disaster. “We were playing that the house was on the hill, so we put it on the bed, and it fell off.”
Tyler rubbed his eyes.
“Sorry, Uncle Tyler,” Casey added. “We didn’t mean to wake you up.”
“That’s okay,” he said magnanimously. “I should have been awake anyway. You girls want breakfast?”
He laughed at their loud and enthusiastic agreement.
“Blueberry pancakes?”
“Yes!”
“Give me ten minutes. Then I’ll go get it started. Do you think we can make sure there’s no more earthquakes in Barbieland until then?”
June fell over giggling. “Yes,” she promised him. Then Casey said “earthquake” in a reverent sort of tone, and Tyler disappeared before he could be drawn into that discussion.
He had a couple of hours before the girls were due at their horse riding lesson, and though long, lazy Saturday mornings were a thing of the past, he hadn’t yet outgrown the desire for a big weekend breakfast.
But first, he wanted a shower.
For years, Tyler had hated sleeping in pajamas. Since he’d brought June home, though, they’d become a necessity. Even though she was six, she frequently came and got in his bed when she had a bad dream or just couldn’t sleep. Tyler didn’t mind. He knew she wasn’t going to be little forever, so even though he didn’t encourage it, he made sure he was appropriately dressed in case she did come and join him.
Even if it did mean his laundry doubled with the amount of pajamas they went through.
Tyler had a master suite so he didn’t have to share a bath with all of June’s girly shit—mermaids and bath bombs and wipe-off bath crayons and sparkly, sickly sweet smelling stuff. He’d thought she’d get to her teenage years before covering his house in glitter, but no. It had arrived last summer—courtesy of his sister, and Tyler hadn’t yet forgiven Dana for that—and looked like it was here to stay.
The house was a fixer-upper when Tyler bought it a few months before Juniper was born. That was when he was still married to Victoria, when they were looking forward to bringing their new baby into the world and starting a family. When Victoria died, he seriously considered selling. After all, it was supposed to be their family home, and his family plans had been completely thrown up in the air.
He was glad now that he’d kept it.
Work on the house either got done or put off until it couldn’t be ignored anymore. Tyler knew he was fortunate that his brother-in-law worked in construction and if Tyler begged hard enough, Mike would come over and help him fix whatever was not working or needed repairing. The bathroom had been one of Tyler’s pet projects, so even now it was a teeny-tiny sanctuary in the madness that engulfed his house.
They managed to get through breakfast without any more natural disasters, and then Tyler sent them upstairs to clean up and get dressed for their riding lesson.
That was his next mistake.
While Juniper was usually pretty good at getting herself dressed for school, rarely wanting or needing his help, it seemed adding Casey to the mix made the entire process an event. A big dramatic event.
“Girls, I’m not going to shout at you,” Tyler said, though he was definitely raising his voice. He took a deep breath and tried really hard to not do the Dad Voice. “It’s your riding lesson. If you want to be on time, you need to get ready.”
Casey snapped to attention. “I don’t want to be late,” she said.
“Well, then, you need to move. Get dressed, then come downstairs so I can do your hair.”
He took a quick detour to his own bedroom to grab his boots, knowing he needed them rather than sneakers on the trail if he was going to walk with them, and today he wanted the exercise. The class the girls took was more pony trekking than horse riding, but they went out on the same trails that the older children took, and the forest wasn’t always easy to navigate.
The sun burning through the early morning mist threatened to be hot by midday, so Tyler smeared some sunscreen on his face too and grabbed his sunglasses. Last time he’d forgotten them and had been miserable all morning.
Tyler wasn’t talented at fixing his daughter’s hair, but when it had started to get long, he’d vowed she wouldn’t miss out on anything at school just because she only had a dad and not a mom to do fancy things with it. Between Dana and his mom’s careful tutoring, he was now at least competent.
The girls tumbled down the stairs at a speed that always made Tyler nervous, though they never seemed to hurt themselves. June plonked herself down in front of him first and handed him a brush and a hairband.
“Braid, please,” she said.
“I don’t have time to do a fancy one,” he warned her.
“That’s okay.”
She’d at least brushed it while getting ready, which made Tyler’s life much easier as he started the braid. Normally he’d start from the very front and meticulously fold the hair into even strands. This morning it was a more slapdash affair, though it looked okay when he was done.
“Same, please, Uncle Tyler,” Casey said when she swapped places with June.
Casey had inherited her father’s strawberry blonde hair rather than Dana’s dark brown, and it curled a little at the ends. Tyler had done this enough now that he knew how to avoid tangles, but it had definitely been another learning curve.
He managed to pile the girls into the back of his car and pull up at the Beckett Ranch with five minutes to spare.
John Beckett had been running the activities center here for as long as Tyler could remember. With his warm, familiar personality, it was impossible to dislike him. The center was open year-round, with the different activities on offer changing with the seasons. Now the weather was warming up, the lakeside center had opened along with the camping and hiking tours farther up in the mountains.
“Sorry I’m late,” he told John when he checked in at the main reception.
“You’re not,” John said with an easy smile. “Are you coming out with us this morning?”
“Thought I would, if that’s okay.”
“Of course. You’re always welcome. It looks like it’s going to get hot out there today.”
“I had the girls put sunscreen on in the car.” Tyler winced. “I’m not sure how much of it they got on their faces and arms, and what ended up on my car, though.”
John laughed. “There’s extra in my pack if they need it later.”
“You’re far better at this than I am.”
“Practice,” he said with a shrug.
“Hey, John, I can’t find any of the—” Max burst in through the office door and stopped short, blinking when he saw Tyler.
“Can’t find?” John prompted.
“The… the….” Max waved his hand around his head demonstratively, not looking away from Tyler. “Things.”
“Morning, Max,” Tyler said, amused. Max’s eyes were bleary, like he was tired, and his brain was clearly not working as quickly as he’d like. It was cute.
“Yeah. Morning. Hats!”
“Did you check the storage shed? We don’t always get all the sizes out if we’re not sure how many will be in the group.”
“Storage shed. Right. Tyler, you’re wearing shorts.”
Tyler looked down. “It’s warm out there.”
“And boots.�
�
“Yeah.”
“You look like you belong in a TLC music video from ninety-three.” Max blinked at him twice, grinned, then left.
“Was that a compliment or an insult?” Tyler said, turning to John.
“When it comes to Max, I’m never sure.”
Tyler laughed as he walked out toward the paddock, where the girls had already climbed up onto the fence to look at the horses. Tyler crept over carefully with the express purpose of goosing June from behind, making her jump and squeal at him. He already had her around the waist, though, meaning she just fell back against his chest.
“Daddy!” she laughed. “That was mean.”
“Aw, I was just playing,” he said, covering the side of her face in kisses.
They picked their horses when John came over, and Tyler helped June and Casey up onto their noble steeds. These were the most placid and calm horses Tyler had ever come across, perfect for excitable children.
A long time ago, Tyler used to run through these trails, back in high school when he was trying to stay on top of his game for basketball. A few of the trails stuck pretty close to the town, rather than going up into the mountain, and they were wide enough for riding or mountain biking as well as running.
Tyler took a deep breath of the warm pine smell, dirt, and horses, and felt himself relaxing. He spent so much time running around, either at work or with June, a walk through the trails on a Saturday morning actually felt like a break.
They set off at a fairly sedate pace, the sound of many horses crunching through the dirt filling the air. John moved through their small group, gently correcting a kid’s posture or showing them how to hold the reins properly. After a few minutes, Max fell into step next to Tyler.
He was dressed in denim shorts that were much shorter than most guys in Sweetwater would dare to wear them, and a very loose tank, which gave Tyler plenty of opportunities to look at his tattoos. He didn’t want to get caught staring at Max, because that would make things uncomfortable between them. He stole little peeks instead, wanting to look closer at the curve of Max’s bicep and the little dent in his chin. Max certainly was nice to look at.