Page 43 of Controlled Burn

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Great and horrible.”

He put down the book he was looking at and came over to stand next to me. “I’ll help you with the mysteries. You need to explain, and I don’t figure you want to be yelling it across the room.”

I chuckled. “Could you imagine if Nadine heard?” Our head librarian, Nadine Tatum, was awesome, but she was also very proper and would die of embarrassment if she overheard us talking about my Daddy problems.

“Please, no. Now spill it. What’s up?”

I told him about our movie night, how he’d left me that note, and how nice it had been to fall asleep next to him on the couch.

“Okay, I’m getting the great part. Where does the horrible come in?”

“He sent me a text yesterday about this month’s Daddy/boy night at the club. He wants us to go. He said he thought it might be easier for me to meet other Daddies if I had him with me for support.”

“Okay. I know you didn’t think the club was for you, but if he’s going to be with you, that sounds like it could be a win for you. Isn’t that what this whole thing was all about?”

“It was, and it isn’t the club. I even reminded him at first that I said I wasn’t going back there, and he told me it was completely up to me and he wouldn’t pressure me to go.”

“Like any good Daddy would do,” Giles insisted.

“Exactly, and that’s what’s so horrible.”

“I don’t get it.” He stopped messing with the books and turned to look at me. “What’s going on, Caleb?”

“I know this whole thing started off so I could see if having a Daddy was what I really wanted, but Giles, the man texts me every single morning and every single night. We talk about books, and the man opens the freaking car door for me like I’m something special. He asks me about things on my schedule, and he worries about if I’m happy. In every conversation and everything we do, he puts me first. No one has ever put me first. Do you have any idea how amazing that is? Cause it’s pretty fucking amazing.”

“Still not seeing the problem.” He gave me a look that basically said, What the fuck’s wrong with you?

“I don’t think going to the club to find the right Daddy for me is what I want. I think what I want is Keith.”

His eyes got wide, and he let out a quiet, “Oooh.”

“I know. I’m totally fucked.”

Chapter 16

Keith

I wasn’t sure if taking Caleb to another of the Daddy Nights at Kirby’s was a good idea or not. He was just starting to settle in to the idea of having a Daddy, and if things went south, it could really set him back, and if there was one thing I knew after this last month, it was that Caleb was a perfect boy. I would hate for anything to make him think the lifestyle wasn’t for him.

I was leaving the house when my phone rang, and I saw that it was Nash calling. Maybe he and Spencer were in town to go to the club. In hindsight, I should’ve asked them to come. Caleb and Spencer would hit it off, and having another boy there with him would make him more at ease.

“Hey there, little brother, what’s up?”

“Nothing. I hadn’t talked to you this week, and I wanted to see how things were going. Are you headed to the club tonight?”

“I am. I thought maybe you were calling to say you and Spencer were coming.”

“Not this month. I’m actually on the way back from Shallow Creek. There was an ugly situation there where there was a drug bust, and the people they arrested owned a couple of horses. We’re going to foster them until we see how things shake out.”

“That sucks. It’s good y’all are taking them, though.”

“That’s what we do.” I could hear the grin in his voice. He worked at a horse rescue, and between having a job he enjoyed and finding a boy he loved, I’d never seen my brother happier. “But enough about depressing shit. What’s up with you?”

I’d talked to him shortly after Caleb and I had started this little experiment, so he knew all about it.

“Not much. I’m taking Caleb to Daddy Night. That’s why I was hoping you were calling to tell me you were coming. It would be good for him to have a few other boys he could talk to.”

“I’m sure you know boys in Vesper you could introduce him to. How about Julius?”

---