by Trina Solet
John looked gloomy as he shut the door.
"By involving Colliers, I might have made things worse not better," John said. "He saw right through our scheme, and now he demands an audience with Brent."
"A what?" Brent said, echoing what Nate was thinking.
"Colliers connected the dots from Miss Pullman to Nate to you," John said.
"Best laid plans of rats and men," Brent misquoted.
"Now he wants a private meeting with you," John told him.
"Is that all?" Brent said and sat on the edge of the desk.
"Why aren't you more worried?" John asked him.
"Because that's why I have you," Brent said blithely.
"And look what a mess I got you into," John said, feeling responsible.
"I'm not in a mess, and it's not because of you. I'll just meet with Harvey and make nice. No big deal."
"How nice?" John asked and narrowed his eyes at Brent.
"Just nice enough to get him on our side. Relax. He's just a guy, not Jabba the Hutt," Brent said to try to reassure him.
John grumbled and looked at Nate as a possible ally. But Nate didn't want to second-guess Brent. If he thought he could resolve his issues with this guy, Nate wasn't going to doubt him or stand in his way. He did worry that Brent was so determined to meet with Colliers because Nate had become a target for Davis. The main thing that kept Nate from worrying was that he was going to be right there when Brent met with this Harvey Colliers.
Sitting in the library, Nate was trying to read but not making much progress. Whenever he thought about Brent meeting some sleazy guy for his sake, Nate's concentration would go out the window. Then Ricky ran into the library with a book in his hand. Seeing Nate at his desk, he ran over to him, a little breathless.
"Nate, Nate, the Little Mermaid, she died. She turned into foam." Ricky opened the book and showed him the passage. It was a little more ambiguous than that, but essentially correct. "What if Georgie finds out?" Ricky asked worriedly.
He had a point. Georgie probably only knew the Disney story or some other sanitized version.
"We won't let her find out," Nate decided.
"We have to hide the book," Ricky said conspiratorially.
"The best place to hide a book is with other books." Nate looked around. "We'll put it on a really high shelf. Good plan?"
Ricky nodded.
"I'll put it up. You stand guard," Nate told him. As he climbed the ladder, he added, "If you ever have to tell the story to Georgie, just say that the Little Mermaid married the prince and lived happily ever after."
"Stupid prince. It's all his fault," Ricky said.
After the book was safely stashed on the top shelf, Ricky still hovered anxiously near Nate's desk. Nate prompted him to speak up.
"Are there a lot of them, a lot of stories with dying?" Ricky asked.
"Some. But not too many," Nate told him. He could tell that Ricky wasn't just worried about Georgie finding out and getting upset. He was upset too, and Nate wasn't sure how to reassure him.
"Let's talk to your dad," Nate said and took Ricky's hand.
They found Brent by the sound of his laugh. He was in the sunroom, sitting in one wicker armchair with his feet on the armrest of another one. When Nate saw that Brent was on the phone, he made a cutting motion. Brent ended his conversation without too much ceremony.
"What can I do for you guys?" he asked. He got his feet down and leaned forward. His focus was on Ricky.
"We found out that the Little Mermaid dies," Nate told him.
"This is going to be the Little Match Girl all over again," Brent said.
"We're not telling Georgie," Nate informed him. Ricky shook his head to confirm it.
"So it's a conspiracy. Are we forming a secret society?"
"It's not a joke," Ricky told him.
"You know I always joke," Brent said to him. He reached out until he had Ricky's hands in his. Ricky went a little closer to him. Brent seemed to know what the real issue was without having to be told. "Sometimes we're supposed to be sad. We're sad because we're alive and someone else isn't. And we miss them."
"You mean Mommy," Ricky said. He looked ready to cry.
"And your other dad too."
"They didn't live happily ever after," Ricky said.
"No. But they were happy. Your mom and dad went all sorts of different places and did all sorts of fun things. And remember all the good times we had with your mom. She was happy for a long time. Try to remember her smile," Brent told him.
Ricky frowned like maybe he couldn't. Nate wondered if Ricky only remembered his mom from the time when she was sick.
"Remember how her hair was very straight and dark, and she had dark eyes like Georgie. And she would slap her desk when something made her mad. And you used to play on the floor of her office, but she would forget and say a bad word when she was talking on the phone. Then she would say, 'Mommy is sorry, peanut.' And you would laugh."
Ricky thought about it really hard. Then he said, "Kind of." His eyes had gone wide like he wanted to see everything Brent told him and remember it forever.
When Nate went back to the library, Brent followed him.
"Are you here to distract me?" Nate asked him.
"I could rub your feet while you read," Brent offered as a bribe so Nate would let him stay.
Since Nate was a sucker for a massage, he agreed but pointed higher.
"Shoulders."
"I can do both. I could rub you all over." Seeing Nate's look, he scaled back his offer, "Fine. Just the shoulders."
"You don't have to," Nate said taking Brent's hand as he got behind him. Nate looked up at him.
"I want to," Brent told him.
They stared at each other too long, and Nate felt a ticklish warmth coursing through him and his cock stirring. His mind went right back to the night when Brent had worked him over in and out.
"Stop being sexy. I'm trying to work," he told Brent. His voice was low and thick. He suddenly felt overheated.
"Then stop looking at me with those damn gorgeous eyes. Keep those gorgeous eyes on your own paper," Brent said and pushed his head forward lightly.
Nate felt another rush of warmth spread through him from his touch. It only got worse as Brent took hold of his shoulders and kneaded them at first lightly then firmly. Nate groaned.
"I'm throwing you out," Nate said decisively and stood up.
Brent opened his mouth to object.
"You don't know how not to be sexy. Out," Nate ordered him.
"You can bend me over the desk real quick," Brent proposed.
"Not helping your case," Nate told him as he escorted him to the door. "Later," Nate promised him, giving him a quick kiss before he went back to what he was doing. Right before he turned away, he had seen Brent's face brighten. He did like making Brent happy. Too bad it was a school night.
When Nate came home from his class and went to his room, he found Brent there. Brent lay sprawled on his bed, asleep. Nate closed the door gently. He put down his book bag and enjoyed the view. After a little while, Brent turned then rubbed his eyes to wake himself. Nate got to watch him like that for a few moments before Brent noticed he was there.
"You're back," Brent said sleepily. "I was enjoying your bed." Brent looked at him so sweetly, Nate just wanted to jump him.
Chapter 27
A few rainy days had followed one another, making the kids a little stir crazy. Today sunshine was back, and Nate was going to take the kids outside. Just as he was about to round them up, he heard the front door open and Georgie scream with excitement.
"Quin is back!" Georgie announced to everyone as she ran to him and jumped in place with her arms raised until he picked her up.
"Gimme presents!" were her words of greeting to Quin.
"What are you talking about? I don't have any presents," Quin told her.
"Gimme!" she insisted, not fooled.
Quin reached in his pocket and handed Georgie a bag
of some cheap looking, strawberry shaped candy. She screamed in delight and ran off with it.
"You got that at a convenience store, didn't you?" Nate accused him.
Quin didn't hesitate to own up to that.
"Yes, I did," he said as Ricky came to greet him. "I hear that under Nate's regime, all the rules are flying out the window, so you get this." Quin handed Ricky a comic book. It looked like an issue of Justice League.
Ricky was ready to walk off with it, mesmerized. As Nate stopped him, Ricky looked worried that he was about to lose his precious new reading material.
"You forgot to say thank you," Nate told him.
"Thank you, Quin!" Ricky said. It was possibly the most heartfelt thank you anyone had ever uttered. He was already reading as he walked away.
Quin pointed after him.
"This is the moment. This right here. The boy's first comic book," Quin said.
"You mean he wasn't allowed to read comic books?" Nate asked. "But he was born to read comic books."
"He'll never pick up a regular book again. All thanks to your new, anything goes policy." Quin gave him a big, evil grin.
Nate had to defend himself.
"It's not anything goes. We're going to ration those," Nate decided. He didn't want Ricky to drop regular books.
"Did you get me anything?" Brent said as he came downstairs.
"You bet. Not out here though," Quin said as he looked in the direction where the kids had gone.
"We need privacy? Must be good," Brent said.
John poked his head out of the office.
"Not the way you think," John told him.
They went into the office where John had some papers spread out on the desk. He finished up with something on the computer then explained.
"We might not need Colliers. Quin found something we can use against Davis," John said. He was wearing a proud smile as he looked at Quin.
"Is that where you've been?" Nate said.
Quin confirmed it.
"Davis spends a lot of his time on the West Coast so I went digging over there, to see if anything turned up," Quin said.
"You hit pay dirt?" Brent asked.
"In Seattle. That's where Davis was based for a while, but he hasn't set foot there since. The way he went after Greta gave me an idea. Davis has an eye for women with money so I looked into that. One relationship in particular raised a red flag. Davis got real chummy with a certain Lana Porter-Reed. She is rich and well past middle age. Davis had a close, personal relationship with her. Only after they broke up, she wasn't as rich as she used to be."
"Davis swindled her," Brent guessed.
"Had her invest in some resort that was going to be built in the Philippines. Then he claimed the money was lost when the project got derailed because of local politics and unrest. It turned out to be pure fiction. That's when Lana kicked Davis to the curb."
"Is that all she did?" Nate asked.
"Not at first. She had investigators dig up proof against Davis. She wanted to get her money back without the embarrassment of going public with how she got taken by her pasty, little boy toy. She confronted Davis with the evidence, and the asshole showed her sex videos of her he got with a hidden camera. Threatened to put them online."
"What a sleaze," Nate said.
"Yup. She wasn't looking to be a porn star so that pretty much neutralized Lana."
"Where is the good news?" Brent wanted to know.
"Davis couldn't get her to hand over the evidence. Unfortunately, neither could I. But she did share some good information with me. With her pointing out the shortcuts, I dug up some of the same evidence. It's not enough to land Davis in jail, but it will catch the eye of the other investors who lost money in that resort scheme. And I don't think Davis has sex tapes to hold over their heads. Even if they don't all go after him, his reputation can't take that kind of hit. We show the evidence to Davis first. If he doesn't back off, we pass it around."
"So this woman just told you about the sex tapes and everything?" Nate asked.
"The lady was looking for a way to get back at Davis," Quin said modestly.
"Still, you must have been persuasive," Nate said. Quin wasn't officially a private investigator yet. Nate was pretty impressed with him.
John narrowed his eyes at Quin.
"How persuasive were you?" John asked.
"Come on now. You know I wouldn't give it up just to save his ass," Quin said and indicated Brent. He then smiled at John disarmingly.
Brent got in the way of that smile so he could hug Quin. As he thanked him he didn't let go for a while. He kept that hug going just long enough for Nate to get a little jealous.
"I didn't do it for you. I was honing my PI skills," Quin claimed as he pushed Brent off him.
"Did you know Quin was doing this?" Nate asked John.
"You think my boyfriend leaves town without telling me where he's going and what he's doing?" John asked, appalled.
"No?" Nate said.
"Damn right he doesn't." John said then he turned to Brent. "This gets you off the hook with Colliers."
"I can't cancel on him now. I can't afford to offend him again," Brent said with a shake of his head. "Maybe we don't need Harvey, but we also don't need him taking Davis's side against us.
"You're still going to make nice?" John asked, astonished. Then he turned to Nate as if he expected him to object.
"I'm not planning on leaving him alone with this guy. So I have no problem with it," Nate said. He would make damn sure Colliers didn't get out of hand while Brent tried to charm him.
Quin and John went off together while Brent teased them about their reunion.
It was a pleasant, sunny afternoon after a few days of rain. Nate was outside with the kids. There were several swings set up all over the grounds. Nate pushed Georgie on one of them.
"Higher! Higher!" she kept demanding though Nate was pushing her as hard as he dared.
"Georgie, there is no higher unless you want to flip over."
"Yeah!"
"No."
Once Georgie got tired of that, Nate sat under the tree to read and take notes. Birds were calling to each other as leaves rustled overhead. When Nate looked up, he could see the lower clouds moving across the sky while others looked like they were pinned in place. Georgie was playing nearby. Some tiny, brown birds perched along a low branch had her excited. When they landed to peck at the ground, she believed she could catch them with her bare hands. Nate raised his eyes off the page every few minutes to check on her. As he did it again, he saw Brent standing with his eyes raised to the canopy of the tree looking for Ricky. When he spotted him, he waved to him then came closer to Nate.
"Is that homework?" Brent asked seeing that Nate had two notebooks in his hands.
"I'm writing a paper on some of Professor Pullman's work. I think it's important to relate what he wrote to his reference materials. Since I am looking through that stuff, it's a good opportunity to note how his particular sources influenced his conclusions. Who knows where his collection will end up, maybe scattered."
Nate looked up to see Brent giving him one of those bemused looks.
"You're so cute," Brent told him.
"When I'm talking about this stuff, do you just watch my mouth move?" Nate asked him.
"No. I am using my imagination as well. You're doing some seriously obscene stuff right now," Brent whispered.
"I bet you could repeat everything I said word for word," Nate said to him.
Brent's eyes widened.
"How dare you accuse me of paying attention?"
"Stop faking boredom and sit down," Nate told him.
"I assume some contact comes with that invitation," Brent said as he sat down next to him.
"Of course it does," Nate said as he leaned against him.
"More," Brent demanded.
Nate only laughed at him. To get what he wanted, Brent shifted and put his arm around Nate.
"See, I'm better than
leaning against a tree."
"You're better than pretty much anything," Nate admitted.
Brent nuzzled him and held him tighter. Nate couldn't help but think about living his whole life in Brent's arms. He had never had such a desperate feeling of wanting to make someone happy. Above, he noticed Ricky looking down from the tree at them. Nate smiled up at him and winked.
Chapter 28
On the night of Harvey Colliers' visit, everyone was nervous but Brent. The kids had sensed the excitement in the air and made trouble before they were finally put to bed.
In the big, formal sitting room, hors d'oeuvres and drinks were set up while innocuous music was playing in the background. John had insisted on approving everyone's clothes. Nate barely passed inspection. Quin seemed calm, but every few minutes he would crack his knuckles. John paced, stopped, glared at everyone, then paced again. Nate tried to keep still and act cool, but he knew he was doing a bad job faking it when Brent gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
When he finally arrived, Harvey Colliers was a vision in a purple shirt, gray, pinstriped suit, a yellow and gray striped tie, and a ring on every finger. His hair was thinning but precisely styled. He carried himself with great seriousness, and he spoke exactly like Dan Rather. Everything he said sounded like he was delivering some grave news of national importance. At first he was merely polite as Brent greeted him at the door and led him to the sitting room. Then he saw Nate, Quin, and John waiting there, and he beamed. They all might have had the intention of acting as Brent's bodyguards, but that's not how Harvey Colliers saw them.
"My dear boy," he said to Brent in his sonorous voice. "You certainly know how to welcome an old friend." Harvey looked at them like they were some kind of offering.
"Does he think we're on the menu?" Nate whispered to John, who only shushed him.
After looking longingly at each one of them, Colliers opened his arms and went up to Brent.
"All is forgiven." He clasped Brent to him. "I was a bit tipsy, what can I say."
"And I overreacted because of Greta," Brent said.
"I would have kept it strictly between us," Harvey said as if he wasn't aware that discretion wasn't the main reason he was rejected.
