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I decided not to argue the point. I appreciated that Bubbles trusted me enough to explain. “Thanks for your candor. Seriously. I was impressed that Davy had enough integrity to keep someone’s secrets, and yet, I was going to have to insist he share more with me at some point.”

“He can talk freely now, but only around you. Not others.”

“While I have the two of you here,” I said, “and I realize we may need to pull Bash in, but I don’t think it’s time for that yet. Just a heads up on where Davy and I may be headed. Last night went splendidly well, and we’ll be sitting down to draw up a temporary contract tonight. I’m not ready to move him in with me, so it can’t be a permanent arrangement yet and it isn’t time for that anyway, but I feel like Davy needs something in black and white, and to be honest, I feel better with everything in writing as well.”

“Davy has needed a keeper for a while,” Brain said. “I’m happy to hear things are going well.”

“His fantasy is to be completely owned, and yet, he doesn’t want to give up his job, which I understand and respect. He’s conflicted, though, and I have to admit I’d like more time with him during my off times. He’s quite loyal to your organization, and says even if he was going to quit his job, he’d work out a six or eight month notice because you’ve promised jobs pretty far out.”

“We just hired another guy who specializes in the passenger compartment, and that includes upholstery. You’re home six weeks this time?”

“Seven, but we’ll schedule some practice sessions the last week, so we’re polished when we hit the stage again.”

“Give us three weeks with Davy working his ass off,” Bubbles said, “and then I think we can give him a vacation. I’ll talk to Bash and figure out the specifics, but he hasn’t taken any time off since he came to work for us, so we’ll make it work. In the future, if you let us know in advance when you’ll have downtime, we can schedule Davy off a few weeks at a time.”

“It’d be great if I can leave with him after work Friday and have him back to work Tuesday morning, and then a longer vacation later. Also, maybe he can have four or five days in a row off about once a month when we’re on the road. Maybe days off around a weekend to make it happen? I can have him flown to me and then flown back home. I don’t want to go four months without seeing him.”

“Davy mostly chooses his own hours,” Bubbles said. “I’ll talk to Bash about this Monday, and then toss around some ideas for the rest of it. As long as he meets promised deadlines, we don’t care which hours he works within our regular business hours. I’m sure he can work some twelve-hour days before and after taking an extra two or three days off around a weekend and manage to stay on schedule.”

“Agreed.” Brain said. “On another subject, I’ve worked it out with your people but it occurs to me you may not know our plans for your final show of the tour.”

“Hailey said the Chattanooga, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Birmingham chapters bought a huge block of tickets with her discount code, and that our after-party is being planned in a venue big enough to handle all of you as well as everyone else you’ll invite, plus our guests.”

Brain nodded. “We bought enough extra tickets to invite some of our business associates as well, and your people have a list of the ones we’d like to be invited to the after party.”

I shrugged. “If you vouch for them, I don’t see a problem.”

“One more thing. Matty’s best friend has been out of the country and unreachable for around eight months. Work thing, big top-secret project. Completely out of touch, which is driving Matty crazy. The ol’ladies have done their best to fill in, but I think Davy has done the most to keep him on an even keel. My guess is that Matty’s going to want to schedule a time for him to spend time with the two of you together, or perhaps he’ll bring Razor in and make it a double date. Either way, I’d consider it a favor if you welcome Matty in as Davy’s friend. Allow him to come to the house and spend time with Davy, when he’s there.”

I smiled. “And this is one of the things that impresses me with you guys — you take care of your own. Davy and I are so new, so I’m not sure what next week will look like, but as soon as we’re settled enough to begin socializing together, I’ll see what I can do about having Razor and Matty over.”

Chapter 8

Davy

Bubbles told me everything went fine with Will, and that I could talk to him about whatever I wanted to. I hadn’t asked him to spill everything to Will, but as soon as I explained our conversation from the night before, Bubbles had offered to talk to him for me.

It was such a relief, I wanted to hug him, but Bubbles gets really uncomfortable when I try for any kind of physical contact, so I don’t.

I thought the day would drag on forever, but once Bubbles came back from lunch, the rest of the day flew by. I finished one project and started the next, and even remembered to text Will and let him know when I thought I’d be finished. I gave myself an extra fifteen minutes, and it worked out well because I’d finished cleaning up and organizing everything when Will texted me he was about to pull into the parking lot.

I’d considered whether to go into the bathroom and beat off, but it hadn’t felt right. For one thing, I don’t do that at work, but also, I wanted to show my new Sir that he could demand more of me.

One of the last things he’d said before dropping me off was to write a minimum of twelve things I wanted included in our temporary contract, with at least five things I wanted, and five hard limits or other things I wanted out-of-bounds. I have a notepad I use to keep notes on each job — things the client especially wants, problems I find that I want to be certain to fix, dates supplies are due, and whatever else I need to remember. Before I left for lunch, I tore an empty page from it and took it and a pen to the restaurant, so I could make a list for my new Sir.

I thought the first would be easiest, but then I could only come up with three things. I wanted to call him Master, I wanted my rules to be spelled out so I could memorize them, and I needed him to respect my job obligations.

I went to the second category and easily came up with five — nothing permanently disfiguring, no emotional sadism, no scat play, no ass-to-mouth, and I wanted to be able to veto any piercings, though I’d be willing to get rid of that for a permanent arrangement, if we got there.

Since this category seemed easier, I tried to come up with two more things, and landed on keeping me out of the public eye unless we discussed it and agreed to do otherwise, and that he’d need to be careful not to use toys or products that would bring about an allergic reaction. That last one was kind of cheating since he’d already agreed to it, but I couldn’t come up with anything else so it would have to work.

And then I had to go back to the first category. I noted that I wanted to spend enough time with him so I got to know him fully before we decided on a permanent arrangement, and that I wanted an opportunity to go back over our temporary contract at least every other month to discuss any changes. Finally, it felt tacky to write it out, but I wrote out that my bank accounts are solely mine.

I went back through and counted to be certain I had at least five of each and a total of at least twelve. It felt like I should go higher than one over his minimum, but nothing else came to mind.

The thing I like about the MC’s restaurant’s menu is that there are things always on it, like burgers and steaks, but there’s also a daily special, and today’s was chicken and dumplings. There isn’t much of my childhood that brings back fond memories, but this meal does.

I mean, I suppose it makes sense. If you make it from scratch, it isn’t a terribly expensive meal, and this foster family grew their own chickens, which I’m guessing made it an even cheaper meal.