by Lisa Worrall
“You heard me.”
“You hit him?”
“Yep,” Aiden grinned, looking extremely pleased with himself. “Epic right hook. I knocked out two of his teeth.”
Finn shook his head, his brain swimming in confusion. “But you kissed him back.”
“I did not!” Aiden was furious. Why was he furious? Wasn’t Finn the injured party here?
“Well you looked pretty cozy to me!”
Aiden stared at him, the fire gone from his gaze and leaving raw pain behind. “Do you really think I would do that to you—to us?”
“What am I supposed to think?” Finn’s shoulders slumped in defeat, his own anger dissipating. “He made it clear he wanted you back, and when I saw you in the garden I thought you’d fallen for it. I mean,” he shrugged, pushing his bangs from his eyes. “He’s Mary Poppins and I’m the chimney sweep with the bad English accent.”
“Shut up!” Aiden snapped. “God you’re an asshole, you know that? Do you honestly think I’d choose Zach Armstrong over you? Have you met you? You’re kind, honest, sensitive, not to mention hot as hell. You make me laugh louder and harder than I have in years. When I look at you I get the warm and fuzzies in the pit of my stomach, and just the brush of your hand against mine makes me so horny I can hardly stand it. You’re everything I never even knew I was looking for until I found you.” Aiden threw his hands in the air, his frustration palpable. “Jesus Christ, you moron, don’t you get it? You make me happy. And to top it all, you love my kid. Why would I want Zach Armstrong when I’ve got Monty the fucking Meerkat?”
Finn stared at Aiden as he gazed at him, all red-faced and heaving chest after his frustrated speech. He didn’t think Aiden had ever looked more beautiful than he did at this moment and he’d tell him so, in a minute. First he wanted to say something else. He’d never said it before, to any man, and he’d be damned if he wasn’t going to say it first. Scrambling off the bed, he crossed the room to stand in front of Aiden, so close he defied even a breath to come between them, his slightly one-eyed gaze unwavering.
“I love you.”
Aiden stared back for a moment then a soft, slow smile curved his lips. “I love you, too.”
Finn pulled Aiden into his arms and kissed him, saying sorry more adequately with his mouth than he could ever have said with words.
A while later when they were panting out more air than they were taking in, they lay spent in each other’s arms. Finn felt boneless and completely wrung out, having finally received his promised award for having participated in the volleyball game. He kissed the top of Aiden’s head where it lay on his chest and a question skittered across the surface of his mind.
“So, you knocked his teeth out, huh?”
“Damn straight,” Aiden replied, lifting his head to reveal a wide satisfied grin. “Last I heard he was yelling at the guy in reception to get him an orthodontist.”
Finn laughed loudly and then claimed Aiden’s lips in a tender kiss. “So, are there likely to be any more exes showing up this weekend?”
Aiden frowned as if he were thinking about it and then shook his head. “Nah, I think we’re good. Unless Tommy Richards steals his dad’s car again to take me out to Hickson’s bluff.”
“Huh?”
“Eleventh grade bad boy. I was grounded for a month.”
“Oh really?” Finn waggled his eyebrows suggestively. “You like bad boys, huh?” His cock twitched at that and he licked his lips, loving the way Aiden’s gaze darkened with heat at the movement. “How bad do you want me to be?”
Aiden slid slowly down his body and his smile was pure wickedness as he said huskily. “Let me show you.”
I
“Are you sure I look okay? Should I have worn a suit?”
“You look fantastic.” Finn’s tone was reassuring as he patted Aiden’s shoulder. “Stop worrying.” He chuckled at the glare Aiden threw him. “Anyway, if they hate you we’ve got Kaylee as our fall back plan. They’ll have to tolerate you to keep her.”
Aiden forced a smile and turned his head to gaze around the busy concourse. Was meeting your boyfriend’s parents supposed to be this stressful? His heart raced, his palms were clammy, he couldn’t stop his left foot from tapping and the woman ahead of them in the line for the checkin desk kept shooting him snooty looks over her shoulder. This was ridiculous; they hadn’t even gotten on the plane yet for God’s sake. He was going to be a babbling mess by the time they reached San Antonio. Groaning inwardly, he could see Finn introducing him to his parents in his mind’s eye. “Mom, dad, this is Aiden, investment banker and village idiot, isn’t he a dream?”
“Daddy, can I sit by the window?”
Aiden looked down at Kaylee by his side and hoped his smile wasn’t as wobbly as it felt. Swallowing down his nerves, he nodded, “I don’t see why not.”
“But Daddeee,” Finn interrupted in a high-pitched parody of a child’s voice. “I wanna sit by the window.”
“Well.” Aiden shrugged. “She did ask first so she’s got dibs.” He chuckled at Finn’s sulky harrumph and the stamping of his sneakered foot.
“You always take her side.”
“That’s ‘cause I’m his favorite,” Kaylee said in her patented “duh” tone, without actually saying the duh part—although Aiden could tell she really wanted to. “I’m the girl.”
“Well that’s not fair,” Finn grumbled, shuffling forward as the line moved and pulling their two suitcases behind him. “I’m the oldest.”
“I’m the cutest,” Kaylee snapped back, her smug expression twitching Aiden’s lips.
“I’m the tallest.”
Aiden shook his head, did Finn really think he was going to win?
“I’m the smartest.”
Aiden laughed out loud as Finn struggled for a response. “I think the words you’re looking for are check and mate.”
Finn scooped Kaylee up and lifted her onto his shoulders. “I think you’re right, and so is she.” He folded his arms across Kaylee’s feet, holding her firmly in place. “I have no doubt that she’s the smartest. Smart enough to call dibs on the window anyway. But I bet she can’t lick her elbow.”
“Can, too!”
“Go ahead, Short Stack,” Finn drawled. “Prove it.”
“Finn,” Aiden admonished.
“It’s okay, Daddy.” Kaylee reached out a hand and patted him on the head. “I can do it. I’ve done it lots of times.”
Aiden raised an eyebrow but didn’t think there was any point in telling her off for the white lie and informing her it was a physical impossibility to lick your own elbow. He figured, as she was currently attempting to do that very thing, she’d find out for herself. At least it had taken his mind off wondering how he was going to impress Finn’s parents, if only for a few minutes. He sighed heavily and moved with the line, relieved they’d almost reached the desk, with only Mrs Snooty ahead of them.
The flight was three hours from LAX to San Antonio, and he was hoping to kick back, have a complimentary drink and catch up on some of the sleep he’d missed last night. Not all of which had been Finn’s fault. Aiden had tossed and turned long after Finn had fallen asleep. Unable to get his brain to switch off, which had been more than irritating considering the mind-blowing sex they’d had. The one time he needed all his faculties and an intense orgasm hadn’t had him snoring in ten seconds flat.
“Good morning.” The checkin lady had one of those annoyingly chipper voices that immediately grated on Aiden’s already fragile nerves. “Three for San Antonio?”
“Yes, please,” Finn replied in an equally chipper tone and pushed his passport and booking confirmation across the desk to her.
She quickly dealt with Finn’s paperwork and his suitcase, wrapping the label carrying the flight details around the handle, before sending it on its way into the mysterious, magical land hidden behind the checkin desks. Handing Finn his boarding pass, she smiled and then turned her attention to Aiden.
“You
r passport and booking confirmation, please, sir.”
Aiden placed both his and Kaylee’s albeit slightly sweat-stained passports onto the desk and did his best to return her sugary smile. He listened and answered her round of questions about whether or not he’d packed the bags himself, and if they’d been out of his sight, blah, blah and then he watched the suitcase containing his and Kaylee’s clothes disappear the same way as Finn’s.
“Where do the cases go, Daddy?” Kaylee asked, the top half of her body practically covering Finn’s face as she tried to lean down far enough to try and track the suitcases’ journey.
“No one knows,” Finn said in a stage whisper. “There are a team of elves who magic all the suitcases to the right planes, and they get paid in bowls of cream and candy canes.”
Aiden’s grin wasn’t forced this time as his daughter’s eyes widened, her curiosity peaked. “Really?” Kaylee questioned the woman behind the desk. “Is that true?”
“I’m afraid not, sweetie,” the woman replied, stemming the flow of Kaylee’s disappointment by quickly looking over her shoulder and then dropping the little girl a conspiratorial wink. “They’re fairies and they get paid in honey and peppermints.” She handed the passports and their boarding passes to Aiden and smiled—again. A sudden image of air stewardess Barbie at the end of Toy Story 2 skittered across the surface of his mind, and he had to fight the urge to say, “Bu-bye now.” Luckily, Finn was already ushering him in the direction of departures.
Aiden began to relax when they were finally all strapped into their seats, A, B and C in row 1, on the United Airlines flight. He wished he could have said the trip through security had been uneventful, but of course he was traveling with Monty the Meerkat, or more precisely, Finn Thomas. When the security scanner had gone off the first time Finn walked through and he’d joked about the metal plate in his head, everyone had laughed. After the fifth time—not so much. He and Kaylee had had to wait while Finn was taken to a side room to be searched, the other passengers stealing looks at them as they passed. Ten minutes later Finn came out of the room with a big smile on his face, holding up a dime that had slipped between the fabric and the lining of his shorts, through a hole in his pocket.
Aiden smiled at Finn and Kaylee’s dark heads pressed tightly together, fighting to get the better view of the tarmac as they taxied to the runway. He wasn’t sure who was the bigger kid. Leaning back against the headrest, Aiden closed his eyes, enjoying the extra leg room of being at the front of the plane. He took a few deep breaths as the plane began to pick up speed—okay, so he wasn’t the best flyer in the world. For Aiden, planes were more a necessary evil to get from A to B, but today, the flight was the least of his worries. He hadn’t met a boyfriend’s parents since, well, ever. Telling his family he was gay had not been high on his bucket list, and Zach’s parents had passed on before they’d met and he was an only child, so being invited to dinner hadn’t been an issue—until now.
Will you stop? You haven’t even met them yet. Give them a chance. Aiden tried to shut out the sympathetic tone of the voice in his head, knowing what it was going to say next. They’re not yours.
The plane’s engines roared as it took off and Aiden’s stomach flipped at the familiar sense of being pushed back into his seat as the giant machine climbed higher. He heard Kaylee’s squeals of delight and Finn’s laughter, whether it was at Kaylee’s enjoyment or his own excitement, Aiden wasn’t sure, because he kept his eyes closed. He also heard Kaylee call his name and then Finn hushing her and telling her he was asleep and once the seat belt sign had gone off, they could get her coloring things out of her backpack.
You did hear what I said, didn’t you? They’re not your parents.
Aiden swallowed hard. His mind was really going there? Now?
Well, you’re not gonna go there without a push, are you? You can’t let the past define your future. Isn’t that why being with Zach was so convenient? Because he was alone? You can’t be rejected if there’s no one to reject you, huh?
He could still remember the utter disgust on his mother’s face when he’d told her Holly was pregnant. Not that he’d expected anything else, of course, not from Donna Reid—she may have had the name, but living with his mother hadn’t been like a fifties TV show. Donna Reid had been from the actual wrong side of the tracks, not the fictional side she’d accused Holly, Kaylee’s mother, of residing on. Of course, she’d never have admitted it. He gleaned that little sound bite when he was about fourteen and had overheard an argument between his mother and Patti during one of his aunt’s more vocal visits. Apparently, marrying money gave his mother all kinds of airs and graces she wasn’t born with, and for Aiden it certainly explained a lot. Why his mother’s standing in the community was so important to her, why it was necessary that the Reid name be squeaky clean. Which meant no scandal of any kind. No parking tickets, no drunken exploits and definitely no gays or illegitimate children.
She’d been so cold when his father had handed him the check and given him his marching orders. Not a flicker of emotion on her face—nothing. They’d thrown him out without a backward glance—how could they do that? To their own flesh and blood? Aiden couldn’t ever imagine Kaylee committing a sin big enough to make him wash his hands of her… to never see her again.
“Can I get you any drinks, sir?”
Aiden listened to the stewardess speaking to Finn, and his answer.
“That would be great, I’ll have a black coffee and the Short Stack will have an orange juice.”
“What about the other gentleman?”
“It’s okay, I think we’ll let him sleep for a while. He doesn’t really do flying, so unconscious is probably how he’d rather stay right now.”
Aiden sighed and gave his head a mental shake in an attempt to clear it of unwanted memories. He enjoyed the warmth of Finn’s thigh pressed against his while he listened to the sounds of Finn and Kaylee’s voices, and the thrum of the engine as it carried them toward their destination—hoping the combination would allow him the sleep he needed, although he doubted it.
“Babe,” Finn’s voice was soft against his ear, his hand warm on Aiden’s forearm. “We’re going down.”
“On the plane?” Aiden muttered, his mouth dry. “Isn’t that against company policy?”
Finn chuckled, the sound deep and rich. “Well we might have time to join the Mile High Club before they put the seatbelt sign on if you’re really quick.”
“Very funny.” Aiden opened his eyes and blinked owlishly around him. Clearly he’d been wrong and he’d managed to sleep after all, because the stewardesses were walking the gangway, clearing trash and securing tray tables. “How long was I out?”
“Well, you were asleep practically before takeoff and the flight was three hours,” Finn pretended to calculate using his fingers. “So… almost three hours.”
Aiden didn’t feel the need to divulge that it had been less than that considering he hadn’t been as asleep as Finn thought. Stretching in the confines of his seat, Aiden yawned widely and then rubbed his hands over his face. “Did I drool?”
“No more than usual.”
“Wow, you’re on fire, Mr Quippy.”
“Well, Short Stack flaked out about an hour after you did,” Finn said, capturing Aiden’s lips in a soft kiss. “Polishing up my one liners waiting for you to wake up was as good a way to pass the time as any.”
“You mean there’s more?” Aiden asked with a raised eyebrow, unable to do anything but shake his head at the grin on Finn’s face. “Can’t wait.”
“Don’t worry,” Finn countered. “Most of ‘em are for AJ and Ben. I haven’t been home in a while so I’ve got some catching up to do.”
Aiden pitied Finn’s older and younger brother—maybe he wasn’t the only one who was nervous about their visit. He leaned forward in his seat to smile at his sleeping daughter. She’d been so excited this past week she’d practically bounced off the walls by last night. It was hardly surprising s
he’d been wiped out. He sat back and turned his head to look at Finn.
“How far is it to your parents’ from the airport?”
“Not far,” Finn replied, linking their fingers as the plane began to make its descent. “They live in Terrell Hills, which is about fifteen minutes by car depending on traffic. AJ’s picking us up from the airport.” He chuckled fondly. “The whole family wanted to arrive in convoy, but I persuaded them too much at once might frighten Kaylee. Although I had to agree to AJ instead of getting a cab—Mom insisted. Some sappy shit, sorry,” he turned to check Kaylee was still asleep, “about family needing to be met by family. I’m telling you, that woman has every episode of the Waltons on Tivo.”
“They sound nice.” Aiden knew it was lame, but what was he supposed to say? I can’t meet your parents because I’m terrified they’ll hand me a check and throw me out on my ass? No—nice was definitely better.
“Hey,” Finn said softly. “They are. I know I joke about them, but they’re good people, Aiden and, at the risk of sounding as corny as my Mom—they’re going to love you and Kaylee as much as I do.” He gripped Aiden’s hand as they landed and Aiden hung on, grateful for the support—landing was the worst part for him—his anxiety lessening until Finn decided to cheerily add, “the only one you really have to worry about is AJ, he’s like a Rottweiler—he can smell fear.”
II
Aiden walked beside Finn, who had once again lifted Kaylee onto his shoulders. Security had been a lot quicker at San Antonio International than LAX, with Finn making sure all his change was accounted for this time. Of course, it had been more than enough time to amp up Aiden’s anxiety once again, but the fact that he was walking toward the exit instead of running in the opposite direction, gave him hope.
“Hey!”
Aiden’s gaze flitted between Finn and the giant heading toward them, waving his arms and bellowing Finn’s name at the top of his lungs. Holy crap—that was AJ—the Rottweiler? He made Finn, at six foot three, look like one of the seven dwarves. The guy was huge. If Aiden said he was six feet eight, he thought he’d still be short-changing him. Now he wanted to run in the other direction.
