Page 49 of The Jock
CHAPTER 21
COLBY
Everyone loved Milo.Colby nursed a beer and watched everything from his space behind Milo. After they’d eaten, Colby tugged Milo into his lap, where he’d stayed ever since.
Taylor, of course, loved Milo. The two of them spent most of dinner chatting back and forth. Taylor wanted to go shopping and he asked Milo to go along. At which point Milo had turned to Colby and asked if it was okay.
Immediately after the words left his mouth, he looked stricken, almost sick. Colby cupped Milo’s cheek and pulled him in for a quick kiss.
“You don’t need to run your plans by me,” Colby assured him, but what he wanted to do was find Neville and cave his face in.
If anyone else noticed the exchange or Milo’s anxiety about it, they didn’t mention a word about it.
“Colby was telling me that fire night came with live music.” Milo leaned back against Colby, draping an arm around his neck.
Jonah got up and headed into the house without a word, reappearing a minute later with their dad’s acoustic guitar. It was an old Yamaha that had seen better days, but it still held a tune like it was brand new.
“Twist my arm, why don’t you?” Their dad grinned as he took the instrument. He leveled a gaze at Milo. “Any requests? I can play anything you want to hear as long as it’s CCR.”
“What’s CCR?” Milo asked.
Taylor choked on his drink, coughing and sputtering and waving away any questions asking if he was okay or not.
“Creedence Clearwater Revival,” Colby supplied. “Dad’s a fan. He knows other songs, but part of fire night is listening to us butcher CCR.”
“Speak for yourself,” Taylor coughed the protest. “I happen to sound like an angel.”
“Are you going to live, kiddo?” their dad asked, absently strumming the guitar, just lightly enough to produce a subtle sound.
“I’ll be okay.” Taylor took a sip of the drink handed to him by Damon.
“Hey, Dad. Can you play ‘Have You Ever Seen the Rain?’” Nash asked. Something like curiosity stirred in Colby’s brain, but Milo shifted position, grinding his ass against Colby’s cock.
Milo melted into him, going all limp and loose as Colby’s dad started to play. Nearly everyone was singing along, even Colby, who kept his voice low as if it was only meant for Milo to hear.
Sometime during a lull between songs, Milo turned and captured Colby’s mouth in a kiss. It was his first time kissing anyone in front of his family and maybe it should’ve been weird or made him feel self-conscious, but the only emotion Colby had room for was this sort of elated feeling. Like he’d swallowed helium and was light enough to float up into the sky.
They stayed out by the fire until well past dark, when the chill of the night started to set in, making people scoot their chairs closer to the fire.
“One last song, and then we’re going to pack it in.” Dad strummed the opening chords of “Bad Moon Rising.”
Usually, everyone sang along to the song, but tonight, Colby watched Milo, who seemed enthralled by the whole event. He watched with stars in his eyes. Milo didn’t even try to hide his awe, wearing it on his sleeve. It made Colby want to wrap him up and hold him close. To protect him from all his past harms as well as any future ones, no matter how ridiculous or impossible that idea was.
The music died down and then everyone was moving around, putting things away and smothering the fire. Usually Colby had a role to play in all this, but tonight he was content to sit back and hold Milo. He didn’t know he could be this comfortable. And it had nothing to do with furniture.
Colby had come out to his family and he’d brought Milo over. He’d sat with him all through dinner and then after, and at first part of him waited to feel weird about the whole thing. But it never came. And then he realized it was never going to come. At least, not at home. He was safe here with Milo, and he hoped Milo felt a fraction of the same way.
Eventually, Spencer and Jonah made their excuses to leave, as did Nash and Damon.
“Don’t leave yet,” Taylor said, stabbing a finger in Milo’s direction. “Wait there.”
He vanished inside and Milo turned to look at Colby. “Should I be worried?”
“Only if you hate plants.”
Milo gaped at him. “Are you serious?”
“I’d lay money on him coming up here with a plant for you.”
