Page 12 of After Hours

“Oh wow! Look at you,” Oscar crooned as he rubbed and scratched all over her. “You’re the most adorable thing in the world.”

A big silly grin spread all over my face.Hewas the most adorable thing in the world. Wyatt turned around to watch, too. “Hey, this is Oscar. Oscar, my brother, Wyatt.” I shot a pointed look at his drooping towel as he stepped closer.

“You can call me Wy. I’m gonna go get dressed.” He bounced his eyebrows at me once before sauntering down the hall toward the bathroom.

Oscar tore away from Sugar’s affection and stood up. “I didn’t know you were a twin.”

“Yeah.” I leaned over and bussed his cheek with a kiss. “I’m the handsome one.” Was I acting possessive? Maybe.

“Can we take Sugar on the walk with us?”

I quickly amended my plan for one of the more rugged hikes at the place I loved to go climbing. “Sure.” The moment she heard the word ‘walk’ she had resumed her wild wiggling. Now, she danced on her toes and cocked her head back and forth. “Yes, Lady, we’re going on a walk with our new friend, Oscar.” She bounced over to where I kept her harness and leash and looked back at me.

Oscar followed me to the kitchen where I loaded a mini cooler with water bottles, tangerines, and a couple of protein bars. “New friend?”

He had the cutest, wide-eyed look on his face, but a hint of knowing smirk underlaid it. “Well sure, you are my friend, I hope.” I dropped the last bar into the bag, zipped it closed,and stalked closer to wrap my arms around his waist. Nothing felt better than his trim body against mine. Except maybe… I pressed my lips against his once, twice, before teasing my tongue over the bottom one.

“More than a friend,” he muttered before he kissed me again.

I wasn’t even sure if he knew he said it out loud, but I nodded. He grabbed the bag. I got Sugar set up in her hot pink harness with sparkly bow clip. We walked out to my car and set out on our next adventure together.

Chapter 7

Oscar

It wasn’t odd to wake up to the sound of Finn’s rumbling voice coming from the kitchen. Whenever Carter had to head into the city for business, Finn always hung around to see him off. I only made the mistake of going downstairs twice before I decided to stay in my room until the front door thumped closed, and the Mercedes engine faded into the distance.

My uncle and his partner weren’t shy. They always stopped grinding and grasping when they noticed me, but they were often too wrapped up in their goodbyes to take notice of anything else at all. At least the cucumbers never made another appearance.

Carter said something I couldn’t make out before the front door closed and his car started up outside. I opened my door and stepped out into the hall only to hear Finn speak up again. “You have no business here, Colin. I can’t believe you wasted your time flying out here.”

The name and the tone of my father’s voice responding made me freeze at the top of the stairs. I could make them out standing on the far side of the living room. Finn stood half a head taller than his older brother and a considerable amount wider. His hands fisted on his hips, but my father would never back down. He stood a few inches too close, his jaw set.

“You have no right dragging my son across the country to this… This…” He waved a hand toward the window. He meant the inn. An LGBTQ+ friendly vacation spot would top his list of unholy places that deserved destruction.

Finn shook his head. “I didn’t even know he existed until you called, and he showed up at the door. Maybe you should think about why your son felt the need to run across the country to get away from you.”

“You piece of…” My father stepped closer to Finn, a move I considered idiotic. I mean, my father wasn’t small, but Finn was massive and scary.

Forget hiding upstairs like a child waiting to see how things played out between the adults. I bolted down the stairs and squared my shoulders. I looked laughably small compared to the two men arguing about me in the middle of the room. “Dad, stop it.”

My father swung toward me and scanned me up and down, probably to make sure I wasn’t wearing a skirt or leather fetish gear or something. Not that my father probably knew what that looked like. Finn raised his hands and took a step back.

I nodded to my uncle, glad that he’d let me handle this mess. His confidence that I could handle things gave me a much-needed shot of my own. It was more respect than I could imagine getting from the other family member in the room. “He didn’t drag me across the country. I came on my own volition. I am an adult, you know.”

My father reached out to clap his broad hand on my shoulder, but I dodged away before it could land. Some dark confusion flickered through his eyes before he set the scowl back in place. He’d done that to me and every other kid in the family so many times. A heavy hand on the shoulder could lead us back to good behavior without any need for threats. He wasn’t a violent man. This wasn’t about escaping abuse. It was just about being me… finally, just me.

I sighed. “I’m making a life for myself here.”

“Here? With these…”

Finn growled. “You want to watch what you say there, brother.” The last word snapped out as harsh as any curse could.

He clenched his jaw before speaking to me again. “You need to come home and forget all this nonsense. I won’t have my son associating with…” He paused and shot a look at Finn. “With this kind of thing. It’s wrong, and you know it. You’re breaking your mother’s heart.”

I could take my father’s lack of acceptance. I could accept his anger because I knew this was exactly who he was. There was no way my father would ever hug me and say, “We love you no matter what, son.” If I had thought that was a possibility, I wouldn’t have left.

Breaking my mother’s heart? That was a low blow even from dad. She was the one who walked in on Sam and me in my bedroom and started screaming. Maybe her heart was breaking, but it wasn’t because of me. It was because of hateful, hurtful beliefs she considered more important than me.

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