Page 17 of The Jock
“Oh, that’s easy. He breaks and enters in his spare time,” Colby answered and took a sip of his drink.
“Excuse me? I do not break. I just enter.”
Colby smiled at Taylor, then turned to Milo to explain. “His apartment is a fucking jungle. It’s one big plant nursery. And does that stop him from growing more? No. But when he runs out of room, he smuggles them into other places. The diner. Dad’s place. My place. He’s probably hit Spencer and Jonah by now.”
Taylor grinned. “I have plans for their classrooms in the fall.”
“How are you going to pull that off?” Milo asked.
“I know the principal. He’s chill.” Taylor cut his gaze to Colby and narrowed his eyes. “If you spoil it, Colby, I swear to fuck I will gut you.”
“My lips are sealed.”
Milo found himself amused by the brotherly ribbing. They seemed to be close, but what he enjoyed most of all was that their banter never excluded him. They didn’t talk in nothing but inside jokes and things he wouldn’t understand without ten years of family history.
“Is Jonah the other brother or is Spencer? Sorry if that’s a dumb question.”
“Well, those two are definitely tying the knot one day, so technically they both are, but Jonah is the oldest of us three. Spencer is his boyfriend. They’re both teachers at the high school.”
“You should see the shit Spencer makes. It’s so cool.” Taylor whipped his phone out and opened up Spencer’s Instagram page. “Jonah has taken it upon himself to run Spencer’s social media now, so there’s a lot more content up than there used to be.” Taylor handed his phone to Milo.
Apparently, Spencer was some sort of artist. Milo brought the phone closer to his face. “Is that a bear?”
“It’s ten feet tall or something. Give the man a welder and he can make anything.” Colby sounded as impressed as Milo felt.
Milo scrolled through a few more equally impressive photos before handing the phone back to Taylor.
“Jonah is a math teacher,” Taylor offered, sounding proud.
“So we have a teacher, a gym instructor, and a diner cook.”
“He basically runs the place. He took over the kitchen a few years ago and ever since then he’s taken on more and more responsibility.”
“Well, it’s not like Dad is going to live forever and after years of being chained to that place to provide for us, I want him to know he can do the things he wants to do. If he wants to.” Taylor frowned at his empty drink. “What’s in these? Holy shit. Can I have another? This round is on me.” Taylor fished a couple bills out of his wallet and shoved them at Colby.
“Do I look like your server?”
“Pretty please, big brother. I don’t even know what they’re called.” Taylor batted his eyelashes. “If you get me one more, I promise to forgive you.”
Colby squinted.
“Water under the bridge. I swear.” Taylor grinned when Colby got to his feet and headed for the bar again.
Taylor glanced over his shoulder to make sure Colby was out of earshot then leaned close to Milo. “Why did he really bring me here? I feel like there’s something he’s not telling me.”
Milo wet his lips. “He told me how he barged in on you and how you were trying on makeup and stuff.”
Taylor’s face turned red, indicating that his embarrassment still lingered. “Yeah…”
“Well, I’m a retired drag queen, and in about three minutes, a drag queen is going to step out on that stage. And whether or not you ever intended to do drag, I think he wanted you to know that he supports you, however you choose to express yourself.”
Taylor blinked at Milo and he was struck with how long and dark his eyelashes were naturally and how pretty they’d look with the right product on them.
“I could show you a few things, if you wanted.”
“Drag things?” Taylor scrunched his brow.
“That, or just makeup things. Things you might not know being surrounded by, no offense, typical males.”
