Page 10 of A Little Discovery

Jace is abigguy. He’s almost seven foot tall and even though he’s got no body fat on him, he weighs in at over three hundred fifty pounds. The man looks like he should be a professional wrestler or leading a motorcycle gang, but on the inside he is an insecure little boy who just wants to cuddle everything cute. We all decided to surprise him with his very own kitten on his twenty third birthday this November, but based on the way Jay is talking, maybe we should move that up.

“What happened when they met?” I ask as we take off our shoes in the foyer area. Scott is meticulous about shoes in the house, something that some of the former roommates didn’t quiteunderstand… hence the former part of that equation. I can’t help but notice an unfamiliar pair of Chuck Taylor high tops on the shoe rack. They appear to be custom made with various anime characters featured.

Jay notices as well, even picking one up to examine more closely.

“Guy’s got some good taste,” he mutters as he turns the shoe side to side. “He’s got some obscure ones featured on here, not just the Shonen mainstream stuff.”

If there’s one thing Jay will have an opinion on, it’s anything related to books. Literature, comics, manga, or the smut that everyone’s mom reads but swears she doesn’t… Jay consumes it all. He even jumped in on the social media influencer thing kind of by accident. He did some sarcastic book reviews on his YouTube channel to piss off an ex-girlfriend and the authors and publishers loved it for some reason. He went viral, and now he gets at least twenty books sent to his PO Box each month in the hopes he will review them. Even the books he dislikes have ended up best sellers, and he hates that most of all.

“Hey guys,” Eli whispers as he comes out from within the house to meet us. “Lucky is sleeping on the couch in the parlor. He damn near had another panic attack when he found out that one of us would be giving up a bed to him for the night.”

Eli looks worried over this guy. The only person Eli worries about his mom. Between this and hearing Jace is upset, I’m regretting not taking an earlier flight home. Maybe if I had been here, everyone wouldn’t be so worked up.

“Don’t even go there, Spence,” Jay says, giving me a smack upside my head. “I wasn’t there either, but from what everyone has said, the guy is strung tighter than Toby got himself when he thought he could do self-bondage with panty-hose last year.”

Eli and I both chuckle at the reference, remembering the subsequent trip to the emergency room for stitches when the genius convinced Shiloh to cut him out using a steak knife.

“We’re lucky it was only twelve stitches,” Eli mutters with a smile.

I reply with, “We’re lucky it was Shiloh and not Eric wielding the knife.”

Jay slaps his hand over his mouth to hold in his laughter. The man can sleep through anything, but a belly laugh from him will wake the dead. That’s the real reason why he has the only soundproofed room in the house, here on the first floor with no one around him. It means he won’t disturb us at night when the rest of us are all asleep.

Eli shoots him a look of gratitude and leads the way for us to head into the kitchen. Glancing into the parlor on the way past, all I can see is the top of a head with closely cropped brown hair, and a bright green sock sticking out of each end of the blanket. The Daddy in me wants to go in to cover his foot, but I don’t want to chance waking him. If Eli is being this careful over him, he must be in a pretty bad way.

CHAPTER 7

SPENCER

After Eli finishes relaying the events of the encounter at the bar, I can understand why our resident teddy bear is worried that he upset our visitor. Based on what Eli said about Lucky’s reaction to the blood, I think it might be the guy I remember. If it is my party boy, his fainting can be pretty frightening if you don’t know what is happening. He told me what the issue was that night, and I was still freaked out.

Jay and I are sitting on the front porch, waiting for the sun to come up, when Eric pulls up with his typical music blasting. It is almost six in the morning, but the man is full of energy as he climbs down from the cab of his truck.

If it wasn’t for the hill we drive up to get to the house, he would still be driving his Fiat every day. Getting stuck at the bottom thanks to the snow last year convinced him to invest in something bigger. Of course, he made the logical leap and got the biggest used truck he could afford. I’m pretty sure it used to be a work truck for Carlisle Construction. If you squint, you can almost see where the decals were ripped away. I would have told him to give it back if Jace’s brother hadn’t looked it over and given it the okay. The Carlisle family aren’t to be trusted.

“What’s got the grump puss action goin over there Crocodile Dundee?” Eric asks with a horrible impression of an Australian accent. “Missin you some kangaroos already?”

Jay snickers into the beer bottle he’s holding before taking a swig. I can only glower at the freshly showered and definitely freshly fucked drag queen. “Mind the noise,” I tell him nodding my head toward the window to the parlor. “Lucky is on the couch. And you might want to get that limp checked out. I heard they do stick removal surgeries at low cost at the animal shelter, Bitch.”

I shoot him a wink and receive his signature saucy snap in response. It took a long time for Eric to open up enough to the house to show his true self off of the stage. He’s got a lot more in common with Sassy than he does with the guy he was pretending to be for so long. I just wish we could find someone to get it through his head that therealEric is welcome to come out any time, not just at the house or McKinley’s.

“How’s the boy doing?” Eric asks, dropping onto the steps and swiping one of the beers out of the bucket we brought out. “He didn’t look so good when I had to skedaddle out of the bar to get to my gig.”

I look at Jay and then give a shrug. “We weren’t here when Eli brought him home, and he’s been asleep since before we got here.”

He hums and takes a healthy swig of his beer. The look in his eyes is one that I hadn’t seen before. I thought we broke through the secrets with him, but it looks like there’s more we don’t know about our favorite queen.

“Aside from the fainting at the sight of blood like a damsel wearing a corset in one hundred degree heat, there’s something chasing that boy,” he says after shaking himself. “He’s all alone, and that ain’t right.”

I can’t stop myself from saying it. Blame it on the beer. Blame iton the lack of sleep. Blame it on the overwhelming irresistible urge that was ingrained in me upon birth.

“It ain’t right, but I am. I’m Mister Wright.”

The two men on the porch with me give the appropriate groans in response to my terrible pun.

“Being a Daddy does not give you a free pass to tell Dad jokes, dude,” Jay says as he gets up from his chair. “You guys staying out here or should I hole up in my room until the house meeting?”

Eric and I look at each other and shrug.

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