AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Which was fucking shortsighted at the very least.
Jake shook his head. “Sounds a bit like his family might be like yours.”
To say Jake didn’t like my father would be an understatement. Jake thought my father was a dick and my father thought Jake was a degenerate…and they’d only met once. It’d been a glorious clusterfuck where Jake had wanted a surprise birthday cake for his partner and it’d ended up a disaster of epic proportions.
“That’s quite possible.” I hadn’t considered that. “I know he avoids my parents like the plague.”
My father hadn’t said much about Payton, though. He just hadn’t been terribly nice, but since that was normal for him, I’d ignored the old fart. I couldn’t decide if I’d missed him being an asshole or if he just made Payton uncomfortable, but I wasn’t sure I should step in there either.
Rolling his eyes, Jake scoffed. “Everyone avoids your parents. You are probably the only reason they’re still open.”
It was my turn to roll my eyes. “That’s ridiculous.”
We had good products and some people enjoyed testing themselves against crazy morons. It seemed to be an adrenaline rush or a rite of passage for the locals. I knew a few housewives who drove in from the suburbs just to be able to brag that they’d bought a cake from us.
People were insane but they were keeping me employed.
Which was a good thing because I wasn’t sure what else I’d do. When I was younger, it’d felt like having a passion for the family business was great and would make my life easier, but then my parents’ insanity had gotten worse and worse, and I’d ended up stuck.
“I’m not going to waste my time arguing with you about that. You’re too stubborn.” My relief only lasted a few seconds before he frowned and started gesturing at me with his finger. “But what I will tell you is that at the very least you need to talk to the guy and make sure he knows you’re not some kind of serial killer. God only knows what he was actually told.”
Unfortunately, the asshole had a point.
“Clear the air. Yeah. I just have to figure out how to make sure it doesn’t come across like me trying to hit on him.” And there was the fact that I wasn’t exactly sure what he’d overheard or been told, so I had to be careful.
And that didn’t even begin to touch on the fact that I wanted to hit on him.
Shit, I might end up outing myself over something he didn’t already know and that would probably make things worse.
“It’s one big fucking clusterfuck that says I need to get out more and start dating again.” That got a bark of laughter from Jake. “I’m too fucking—”
Oh.
I must’ve looked like I was living in an old cartoon because Jake laughed before looking over his shoulder. “Oh, I’m assuming things just got interesting? Cute twink that’s just your type. Wide-eyed innocent who’s looking for something naughty. Yep, that’s your heartbreaker, isn’t it?”
How in the hell…
“Yeah, that’s my…my something.” Hopefully. “You think he looks curious?”
Why was he at BJ’s?
It’d been a gay bar for longer than I could remember, and while the clientele had gotten a bit better over the years, it was still a place where people didn’t ask too many questions…or act startled when they stumbled over shenanigans going on in the back room…or the bathroom…or one of the booths.
So why was Payton here?
If we were living in some kind of dirty Hallmark movie, I’d have said his car just blew a tire outside, but life was not that well planned out or my parents wouldn’t be insane.
“Oh yeah, that’s one curious and confused sub, judging by how big his eyes are.” Jake chuckled as Payton’s surprised expression just kept getting more startled.
I’d forgotten about the couple having loud sex in the back.
After a while, tuning out the moans was easy but Payton hadn’t gotten acclimated yet. He hadn’t gone running out the door, though, but he hadn’t come any deeper into the room either.
“Should I say something?” If he was testing the waters, he might not want to see anyone he knew but I had to admit I didn’t want him testing the waters with anyone else.
I was still going back and forth as Jake barked out a laugh at how stupid I was and caught Payton’s attention.
I’d thought his eyes couldn’t go any wider.
I was wrong.
“If he faints and I have to call an ambulance, I’m going to charge you for every paying customer it chases out.” Jake’s flat tone had me fighting the urge to glare at him but I didn’t want to do anything to startle Payton any further.
“Asshole.” I said it low enough and mumbled it, so I was pretty sure Payton had no idea what I’d said, but he could see I’d said something.
