Page 12 of Liberating Love

I nod but don’t speak.

“Nice to see you again, Aiden,” Delaney says.

“Y-you too,” I mutter.

Before I can make a bigger fool of myself, three dogs—Holds’s Peanut and Gav’s Nana and Brutus—come running into the living room, obviously having been let in from outside. Holden bends down to pet the dogs, and even though I feel one of them nosing and licking my fingers, I can’t stop staring at the gorgeous man on the other side of the living room.

Delaney glances down at Holds and sees he isn’t paying attention, then mouths to me, “Sorry,” and shrugs like he doesn’t know how he ended up over here either. All I can do is nod, and luckily, Peanut’s pathetic whine snaps me out of it. I sit on the couch and let the three dogs attack me with kisses, trying my best to ignore the man across from me that somehow seems to fill the entire living room with his mere presence.

If I thought being around my friends was going to be awkward before, I’m pretty sure my face will be flaming red all night long now. And it is. All through dinner, I’m basically a tomato with arms and legs. It’s freaking fantastic—not.

After we finish eating, Delaney corners me in the kitchen while we’re both bringing in our empty plates and says, “I couldn’t get out of it. I tried, but they wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

I sigh. I was familiar with the ways of Holds and Gav. “They can be very persuasive.”

“You’re telling me,” he breathes out. “Still, I’m sorry. I don’t want to intrude on your time with them.”

My time with them? And that… that isn’t fair to him, is it? And it’s not fair to his kids either. Not after he’d been gone for so long, not after he’s finally home and free. He was given a shitty hand when he was wrongfully convicted, and his family suffered because of it. My nervousness and embarrassment has no right to take time away from him now. “No, Delaney, you shouldn’t have to sacrifice your time with your sons just because I’m… well…” I shrug and cringe because I don’t really know how to finish that sentence.

He shoots me a tiny grin. “I’m sure this is weird for you. It’s weird for me, too, but you’re important to my kids, so… maybe we can try being… friends?”

I bite my lip for a moment, thinking about it, before I nod. “Friends.”

We head back into the other room, but I can hardly pay attention to anyone. Of course the one guy I’ve slept with in the last six months would have to be a good guy…andtotally unavailable, at least unavailable to me. I try to act normal, but the truth is that I have no idea how to be friends with or even friendly with a guy that’s seen me naked. It’s just… too embarrassing to think about. What if every time he looks at me, all he sees is what I looked like with his cock in my mouth? Or how it felt when mine was in his mouth? Or…Shit. Do not, I repeat, do not think about Delaney’s cock, or his chest, or his arms, or—you know what? Don’t think about him at all.

I glance across the room—because he’s apparentlyallI can think about, ugh—and find Delaney staring at me with a furrowed brow, and now I can’t help but wonder if he’s thinking about me being naked as much as I’m thinking about him.

My cheeks flame, for the millionth time tonight.

Get it together, Aiden. For fuck’s sake, stop it.

As the night wears on, it doesn’t escape my notice that my friends keep shooting each other worried looks. They know something’s up, but there’s no way I’m talking about it. Not to them, not to anyone. No one needs to know. I’ll… figure out how to be normal again… eventually. But they can’t find out.

5

Delaney

With satisfaction, I survey the inside of my new townhouse. Luckily, even though my ex-wife and I had divorced while I was in prison, I ended up with a nice little nest egg in the bank. All her family had wanted was total separation from me, and since the house we’d lived in had been one my family had purchased for us as a wedding gift, she’d taken half of the sales amount as her fresh start in life and the other half went into savings for me. Of course, there were many nuances as to why that happened so easily, but that wasn’t my problem anymore. That was the past.

Gazing at my new reality fills me with a sense of satisfaction I haven’t had in my adult life except for with my children. After my stint in prison, I want to live somewhere warm and comfortable. In my mind, I picture all of the various pieces of furniture that I found on Craigslist. The chocolate brown sectional is the perfect size for the living room and the bar-height dining table will leave the kitchen with a nice airy feel. Strolling around, I head up to the bedrooms, a wide grin spreading on my face as I picture the king-sized frame and mattress I lucked upon for the master. Images of Aiden’s flushed, freckled body immediately spring to mind.Friends? Yeah right!As much as I know I shouldn’t want the man, the desire to see him inmybed has buzzed in my head since I got the keys to this place a week ago.

“Dad, where are you?” I hear Jameson yell, jerking me from my fantasy of his fucking friend, or really, of fucking his friend—again.

“Up here. Come on in. I’ll be down in a second.” Jameson, Holds, and Jovany are already wandering between the living room and kitchen when I walk down the stairs. I saw my younger son and his boyfriend this morning, so I walk over and exchange a one-arm hug with my oldest.

Holds nods his approval as he says, “You three did a nice job painting this place.” I’d found all the furniture in the last two weeks and all of the sellers had been kind enough to hold it while I got everything situated, including my sons and I spending a couple of nights together hanging out and painting. Holds had helped me pick out all of the paint colors after I expressed the desire to have my new place feel warm and homey. We’d gone for a natural almond in the living room and what they called a french colony blue in the kitchen. Holds had picked a dark pewter for my bedroom, which I hadn’t really been sold on at the time, but once the room was fully painted, I had to admit it was perfect. Tranquility, the paint color of the attached bath, complemented it perfectly.

“Thanks,” I say, proud of how it turned out.

Holds lifts his hand in front of him as he giggles. “Oh brother,” he says, looking between the three of us.

Before I can ask him what he’s talking about, I notice Jameson, Jovany, and I are all standing with our legs spread and hands on our hips as we survey our work. “What can I say? They’re my boys.” Then we all chuckle.

“They certainly are,” Holds says fondly.

Jameson walks over and brushes a kiss to his boyfriend’s cheek before rubbing his hands together briskly. “So what’s first?”

“I already picked up all of my stuff from storage, so I guess we can start there. We’ll get it unloaded and then I have the addresses of the homes the furniture needs to be picked up from. It’s all paid for, so whoever wants to go, that would be great.”

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