Page 68 of The Bartender Special

Today wasn’t the day.

Jack walked back in, box in hand, and the conversation was over.

Benny eyed the cardboard with deep suspicion.

Jack caught on and shook it.

“Don't worry. I checked it for any crawling things. We're clear.”

Benny still kept his distance as they said bye to Cal and left the house. It wasn't until the box was secured in the truck bed that he remembered what had happened before the whopping familial guilt had overtaken him.

The whopping hard-on.

And the wandering hand.

All because he had kissed Jack.

Suddenly, Benny felt like a giant cursor had found and clicked him.

If they had been going their own separate ways now, he might have buried his emotions.

Instead, they were going to paint a nursery together.

“This would be a great blog post,” he muttered to himself, sliding into the passenger seat.

“What's that?”

The flames of Benny were lit again.

There wasn’t a space left in the truck to hide from the blurting of words that came out next.

“So, yeah, Callum came in, we had to cover for our story, and things got a little too physical and I want to apologize for that and uh—well—this,” he waved his hand up between them, “but I promise it won’t happen again and I’m sorry…again. And if there’s anything I need to do to compensate you? Or if you want to end this, I get it. Or, you know, I can actually go to Roger’s myself and paint and you can take some time off to relax or whatever and that would be fine. You know, whatever you need to do after this.” Benny shook his hand again. His embarrassment grew. “I mean that— You know, what happened in there. With me and the kiss. And the… Well, my hand. Either way, it won’t happen again. Promise.”

Benny didn’t run out of steam, but he did run out of words.

He pulled the guilty hand in question back from the space between them.

Jack didn’t even flinch as he started the drive out of the neighborhood.

A wild worry that Jack had somehow not heard him almost earned a repeat performance.

Luckily, the other man was faster.

“Listen, I’m not about to complain about a problem I asked for,” he started, not blurting his words at all. “I asked you to play a part, and that’s what you did in there.” Jack gave a little shrug. “If you ask me, that was a good exercise in thinking quick. Even your hand knew it had to keep our cover.”

They rolled up to a stop sign and Jack rolled out a wink right after.

“Though, let it be known, that had we kept going, that hand of yours wouldn’t have been enough to cover anything of mine.”

Benny felt his jaw unhinge, mouth falling past agape and right below sea level.

Jack didn’t just laugh, he evil-stepmother cackled.

“It’s like we’re playing a game here, Benny Boy. You’ve got to learn to let loose a little and have fun with it. A kiss here or a grope there is only going to do us good in the long run with this thing. I know it didn’t mean anything other than we’re just two good-looking guys who can’t help but react when we press against things.” He actually reached over and patted the top of Benny’s hand.

That hand.

“Don’t sweat it, sweet cheeks,” Jack continued. “But maybe we can keep our clothes on during this next Southern hospitality, pain-in-the-ass favor. I know we can’t physically make a baby, but I’m thinking we shouldn’t try in Roger Norman’s nursery. I’m all for the play of it all, but even that might be beyond the bartender special.”