Page 44 of Subtracting the Heart

Cade sat up between them and leaned against the headboard. “How about instead of aField of Dreamsapproach to the business, you go out and create a base. Get Stan to book you on some local shows to talk about fitness and what’s in-store for Jackson Delacroix going forward. You have to attend rehab after that cast, and you can use it as an opportunity for people to come out and get healthy with you.

“Oh!Channel 8 is sponsoring a wellness fair in a couple of weeks, and you’ll have your cast off by then. Get a booth and sign autographs and come up with a brochure regarding a spring boot camp you’re going to sponsor and run yourself. Make it cheap, fifty bucks for five Saturdays. Get them to meet in a park in the area and work them out like you’d work out with the team. Maybe get some of the guys to help you kick it off. I’m sure they’d help, Lucky.” Cade waited for the big man to respond.

Jax snuggled up into him, leaning against the left side of Cade’s chest while Ford did the same on the right. They held hands and reached for Cade’s, pulling his hands onto their respective chests.

“What do you think, babe? I need to drop some weight anyway because my leg’s gonna be weak for a while. I’m not playing football anymore, so I can trim down. Would you two try it with me?” Jax sounded hesitant to make the request.

Cade knew Ford worked out to keep himself in shape, and Cade hadn’t done much in a while—since the breakup, if he was being honest. He’d been working out with the dancers back then, but he’d noticed lately how his skinny jeans were getting a little snug since Miss Winnie was feeding him so well. Working out was probably a good idea.

Cade like the thought of working out with his men. “I could stand to tone up. I’m in.”

“I haven’t worked out much since we moved, and I don’t want to get a gut, so I’m in. You design us fitness regimens, and I’ll follow mine,” Ford said.

Jax sat up. “That’s it!Specialized fitness goals. Lose weight. Build muscle. Tone up. That’s perfect. I’ll start with individual plans and boot camps to see what the reception’s like before I go sink an assload of money into a piece of property. Thank you for helping me figure this out. With some direction I can make things happen.”

Ford and Cade both smiled. It appeared a crisis had been avoided.

Jax continued. “I might start taking classes online to get my master’s in sports medicine since I have time. Yes, this is perfect. I love you both.” The three of them shared a sloppy kiss. Cade thought it was perfect.

Kincade was at Griff and Cleveland’s house helping Griff stitch clear, plastic-globe ornaments onto the thick, white, boy-cut briefs they’d bought for the dancers. “You can’t go too low, or they can’t sit down.” Cade giggled.

“They won’t be sitting down in these. Just go to the bottom of the legs and leave the crotch area uncovered so they don’t look like they have a ball shoved up their asses.” Griff and Cade were of one mind.

It was the Monday night before the Saturday party, and Cade had put it up on the website earlier in the day as he worked away at the club. There was a great response, according to the reservations, and he was looking forward to the party on Saturday.

“So, have you and Cleve talked about getting married?” Cade had a feeling in his gut it was on the horizon, but when he’d approached Ford and tried to pump him for information, he’d received a kiss and a slap on the ass with anunyabefore Ford went to another room. It was a little condescending, but he remembered it was Ash’s go-to answer most of the time when he’d stayed with them.

Griff sighed. “Miss Winnie is morally opposed to it. She’s okay with Cleve being gay and even with me living with him, but as far as marriage, it’s not gonna happen. Momma Oakes’ apron strings are wrapped tightly around my big teddy bear. I’m fine with it, really. I mean, you’ll never be able to get married either, right? We all remember the grand exodus over the summer, Kincade. Until a few years ago, queers dared not even think of the M word being available to us, and now these politicians go putting ideas in our pretty little rainbow-filled heads.”

Cade glanced down and was almost at the end of his thread, so he tied off a knot and grabbed the spool. He threaded the needle again and continued with the pair of boy-cut briefs to complete the job. He wanted to get home. He was tired, and he missed his guys.

“Yeah, well, if people want to be together and committed, I’d say they should go for it.” Cade wasn’t happy with the acrid sound of his voice.

Griff giggled. “Don’t kill the twinkling messenger, hot stuff. I’m with you on this one, but I’m just saying we might be two girls who take our maiden names to the grave. I’ll be fine with it. How about you?”

Changing his name wasn’t something Cade had considered, but maybe under the right circumstances? Whatwerethe right circumstances?

Chapter Nineteen

Ford

“Branford, you remember Abigail.” It was his mother, Alicia.

Oh, he remembered the girl, and she didn’t look a hell of a lot different than the last time he’d seen her. Based on the sneer on her face, she wasn’t too damn happy to see him either.

“Of course, I do, Mother. Abby, you look like the same chubby girl from grade school, except something’s a bit different. Did you go to Switzerland or Los Angeles? The nose job is amazing, and the capped teeth? I wish I’d have thought of it first.” His angry taunts weren’t well received.

It wasn’t Abby’s fault they were being forced together. Her father, Charles, was a client of Ford’s father, Neil. It was his parents’ attempt at securing a lifelong bond with the Mellon family because they were far wealthier than the Thomas family.

As Ford stood in the foyer, he knew for a fact there was no way he was going to allow his parents to steer his life along the path they’d chosen for him, as it seemed they had done with Sela. He’d leave home and live on the streets before he allowed it to happen to him.

His older sister, Sela, was a beauty. She was a tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed femme fatale who had a desire to be the woman behind the camera, not in front of it. She wanted to go to Rhode Island School of Design and study photography.

She’d taken pictures of the family since she was a small girl, and Ford thought her photos were amazing. He’d even taken some of them away with him to boarding school.

Unfortunately, his parents believed Sela’s job aspirations to be a flight of fancy. A common photographer had no place in the family, and it definitely wasn’t good enough for Neil and Alicia Thomas’ oldest progeny.

Their parents had goaded his sister into moving to France to attend the prestigious Sorbonne. She was to study painting, at which she was already proficient because she had a knack forusing color to its best advantage. Painting, however, was not her heart’s desire.

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