Page 4 of Joey’s Trick

4

S eated on the blanket, Anthony, Veronica, and Trick accepted drinks and sandwiches from his mom. Joey exited the water, grabbed his shirt, pulled it on, and took a seat on the blanket close to his dad.

Thankfully, Anthony sensed Joey wouldn’t want to discuss anything in front of their mother, so he didn’t ask. “You picked up some skills in your time in Orlando. When you left, you could never make it past me.”

Joey gave a smirk he didn’t feel. “It’s been seven years, Ant. More practice.”

“Surprised you’ve had time with how busy you’ve been,” he said.

He knew that was a dig at not coming home sooner. “Usually after work. No weekends in my line of business.”

Of course, that was bullshit. He had plenty of days to do what he wanted, but coming home and possibly seeing the one man who’d broken him definitely wasn’t what he’d wanted. He accepted a sandwich and a can of soda from his mom. While the four of them relaxed on the blanket, his mother and father went for a quick swim in the ocean. Joey smiled when he saw the way his dad still cared for his mom, making sure she didn’t get knocked over by some kids running around or holding her hand as they entered the water.

“How long did you think you could hide the tattoos from us?”

Joey mentally sighed. His peace had lasted all of sixty seconds. “I didn’t want mom to freak out. You saw how she was at the house about my arm. Can you imagine my back? I’m surprised she didn’t say anything about the one on my leg this morning.”

“Is that all it is?” Anthony asked, brow raised.

“Why else?” Joey said.

“Did they hurt?” Veronica asked.

“Not that bad. Certain areas hurt more than others.” Then Joey slipped up in a way he wanted to slap himself for. “The one on my inner wrist hurt the most really. Guess it’s a more sensitive area.”

“Your inner wrist?” Trick interjected, frowning while looking at Joey’s left wrist, which was blank.

Joey flinched. The black band covered it. Even going into the water, he hadn’t removed the band. “Uh, yeah. I keep it covered when meeting clients and, of course, my mom.”

Veronica didn’t let it go at that, though. “Can we see it? I’ve thought about getting one but I didn’t know if I could handle the pain.”

He glanced at the ocean to see his parents were pretty far away before flicking the buttons free and pulling the thick band away. The Celtic tree was rather large, enough to cover the three-inch scar. Before they could look closer or even touch him, Joey closed the leather cuff back into place. “That’s really beautiful, Joey,” Veronica said.

“Thanks.” He shifted in discomfort. Everyone seemed to target the things he had no desire to talk about. “So how is the landscaping business?”

They embraced the change in topic with ease, and Anthony and Trick began conversing about the modifications they planned to make soon. They wanted to bring on another couple of guys to help, since their business was growing so quickly. “Sounds like you guys are doing great.”

“Whoever expected me, Anthony Waters, to have his own business,” Anthony said. “It’s totally a mind fuck, bro.”

Joey chuckled. “I think it’s great. I’m glad you’re happy.”

“What about you? Are you happy, Joey?” Trick asked, surprising Joey.

“I’m great. Nothing to complain about.” Joey shrugged. “Got a great job, nice car, nice house. Can’t ask for more really.”

“No significant others in Orlando?” Veronica asked.

“Nah. Too many fish in the sea to pick just one,” Joey said, laughing. “Just playing the field for now.”

“You’ll know it when you find the one,” Veronica said, looking at Anthony with adoration in her eyes.

A twinge of envy struck Joey. Something which shocked him because he truly had no intention of ever settling down. He swore to let no one close enough again to destroy him like Trick had. But seeing the way Veronica looked at his brother caused his heart to ache. No one had ever looked at him like that. Joey shifted in discomfort and switched his gaze to the ocean, watching his dad swimming. When he glanced back at Trick, he saw Trick watching him, a strange look in his sapphire blue eyes.

Instead of commenting, Joey just cleared his throat and stood from the blanket. “Going to go for a walk.”

He grabbed his phone and started off down the beach, away from his family and Trick. He wanted to hate Trick, wanted to despise the air the fucker breathed, but even now, his heart clenched whenever Trick was nearby. Sighing, Joey ran a hand through his hair, brushing the strands tousled by a passing breeze away from his face.

His cell vibrated, alerting him to a text, and Joey looked at the screen, scowling at the sight of Vince’s name. He never would have dipped into that well if he’d known how clingy the little shit would get. The agency didn’t have a no fraternization clause, so if it became a bigger problem, he may just have to talk to his boss. Ignoring the text, Joey walked a little farther, working on what the hell he’d tell Anthony about the tattoo when his brother got him alone.

Maybe he could just tell Anthony he’d just really liked the sentiment. But Anthony wouldn’t buy that. His brother knew him too well. Maybe just lie about a nasty breakup? It wasn’t entirely a lie, but it wasn’t exactly the truth, either. He’d broken up with Trick in his mind because Trick had never really belonged to him. Then again, it would probably be better to just tell Anthony to leave it alone. Better than lying to one of the people he’d never lost faith in.

Joey turned around and walked back to where his family sat. His parents were packing up the cooler and blanket when he got there. “Just gotta rinse off the sand,” he said and headed to the little nearby freshwater showers.

The water washed away the sand from his feet. He slid on his flip-flops and trailed behind everyone to the SUV. They all took their original seats after laying down a couple of towels to keep the interior from getting damp. “Anything else planned for today, Mom?” Anthony asked.

“We’ll give you all your freedom for the rest of the day, but we’re going to Diego’s Steakhouse for dinner so make sure you’re ready to go by five. The reservation is for six-thirty.”

The ride to the house was relatively silent. Everyone seemed tired after their outing. Joey leaned his temple against the window and closed his eyes. He’d almost fallen asleep by the time his dad pulled into the driveway. “Joey,” Trick murmured, touching his arm. “We’re here.”

Joey sat up straight and wiped at his eyes. “Are you still okay with going somewhere to talk?” Trick asked.

Shrugging, Joey nodded. “Just let me get changed first.”

“Sure.”

Trick followed him into the house, but stayed downstairs while Joey headed up to change into dry clothes. He dashed a comb through his hair to straighten it before going back down to the living room. Trick was by himself. Frowning, Joey asked, “Where is everyone?”

“Your parents wanted to take a nap and Anthony and Veronica headed out to shower and change at their place.” Trick stood from the easy chair. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Joey followed Trick outside.

“Do you mind if I drive?” Trick asked.

Joey didn’t want to be a pretentious asshole, but he certainly didn’t want Trick in his brand-new car with wet clothes and sand from the beach. “That’s fine.”

He climbed into the passenger seat of the black Toyota Tundra Trick had unlocked with his key fob. “Nice truck.”

“Thanks. Just got her a few months ago. Really helps with the landscaping business.”

Awkwardness settled in and Joey forced himself not to fidget while Trick drove. He didn’t pay too much attention to where they were going, but he sat up a little straighter when Trick turned into an apartment complex. Frowning, Joey asked, “I thought we were going to get coffee?”

“I just wanted to have a little privacy. Plus, I need to change out of these clothes as well.”

Nervous about them being alone, Joey worked hard to hide it while following Trick into his building. Trick let them into his apartment and tossed his keys on the small table just inside the door. “Make yourself comfortable. I’ll just be a few minutes.”

Joey grunted in reply. Trick disappeared into a room nearby, closing the door behind him. He took the reprieve to look around the apartment. The walls were a bright white, while the floor was a gray wood laminate. The living area had a large flatscreen TV against the wall opposite the black leather couch, with a black recliner next to the couch and a coffee table in between. There were a few framed photographs on the wall on each side of the television. From where he stood, Joey could see Anthony and Trick in a couple of them, some of Trick with his football team in high school, and what looked like a work truck with the name of their business on it. There was a large abstract piece of artwork on the wall behind the couch. There was a counter which separated the living area from the kitchen, with two barstools in front of it.

Instead of sitting down, Joey wandered to the window and looked out onto the courtyard below. It was one of the newer buildings in the area, for sure. His mother had mentioned they were popping up all over the area like weeds. Crossing his arms, Joey leaned his shoulder against the side of the sliding door leading onto the balcony.

This certainly wasn’t going the way Joey had imagined. Coffee in a public shop with people around them would have been much safer. Not that he believed Trick would ever hurt him. But he didn’t trust himself around Trick by himself. Joey wasn’t sure if his anger would get the better of him and he’d punch Trick or if he’d lose his mind and kiss the hell out of the gorgeous bastard.

“You can have a seat, you know?” Trick said, interrupting Joey’s thoughts.

Joey turned and almost swallowed his tongue. Trick had changed into a pair of tight faded blue jeans with a dark blue t-shirt which hugged every damn inch of each muscle the guy had. His feet were bare. “I’m fine.”

Trick sighed and sat in the recliner. “My parents were extremely vocal in their venom and hatred of anyone they considered different. That included anyone in the LGBTQIA+ community. It was all I ever heard from them whenever the topic came up or they saw someone who was obviously gay. Teenagers aren’t really all that different. Everyone wants to be popular. Wants to fit in. I thought it was the only way to survive.”

Joey gave Trick a confused look. “What do you mean?”

“When I said those things to the others on the football team, I didn’t mean them. They’d been ragging on me about the way you follow me around, the way you’d look at me, the obvious crush you had on me, and they were just being all-around assholes about it. It was what I thought they wanted to hear.”

Clenching his hands into fists, Joey scowled at him. “That doesn’t excuse a fucking word.”

Trick held up his hand. “I know it doesn’t. I’m just trying to make you understand why I said it. The thing is… I was also hiding who I was. From everyone.”

He frowned at Trick. “Hiding what?”

Locking gazes with him, sapphire eyes shining with determination, Trick said, “I’m gay, Joey.”

Shocked couldn’t even begin to cover the emotions which raged through him at Trick’s words. Joey stumbled to the couch and sank down, his hands gripping the leather fabric of the cushion. Trick moved closer, sitting next to him. “I’m truly sorry for what I said that day. I was afraid. No, terrified, because if my parents found out they would have disowned me. Thrown me out onto the street.”

Trick gave a mirthless laugh. “They actually did. After high school, I still lived at home while going to community college. My mom walked in on me and a friend from school making out while we were supposed to be doing homework. That night I was out on my ass with nowhere to go.”

The memory of his mother telling him Trick had lived with them for a while surfaced. “That’s why you stayed in my room,” Joey whispered.

“Yeah. Your parents took me in. Gave me somewhere to stay while I got my life sorted and got back on my feet. I had to drop out of community college because I couldn’t afford to pay for it. Started working with a landscaping company where the owner taught me everything he knew.” Trick set his hand on Joey’s knee. “I never, ever wanted to hurt you like that, Joey. You were like a little brother to me. If I’d known you’d heard me, I’d have apologized sooner. Is… is that the reason you were so closed off whenever I was around your last year of high school and why you never came home to see your family?”

Looking at the clear regret on Trick’s face and knowing what Trick went through didn’t completely assuage the anger he’d held in his heart for so long, but it settled something inside of him. Joey studied Trick for several moments before he turned his gaze toward the television, concentrating on the black screen, before shrugging. Trick cursed and squeezed Joey’s knee gently. “God, Joey, I’m so fucking sorry,” he rasped.

“It doesn’t matter,” Joey said.

“It matters. Every time you didn’t come home for Christmas, Thanksgiving, even the summer, your family was devastated and it’s all my fault.” Trick flexed the fingers on Joey’s knee. “Please forgive me, Joey. If you can’t, I understand, and I’ll avoid your parents’ house while you’re here. You can’t stay away from them anymore because of me. They love you.”

He nibbled the inside of his bottom lip, still not looking at Trick. A slight gasp escaped him when Trick touched the side of his face, urging him to look at him. “Do you believe me?”

They were so fucking close to each other that if Joey leaned even a fraction of an inch toward Trick, their lips would meet. “I believe you,” he whispered.

“Do you forgive me?” Trick’s voice had grown deeper, huskier, sending flickers of lust through Joey and straight down to his cock.

Did he? Could he? Not realizing he had heard the words didn’t diminish their cruelty or the pain they caused Joey. It didn’t change the fact of how far he’d spiraled during his first year of college. “I don’t know.”

Trick rubbed his thumb along Joey’s bottom lip. A slight whisper of his name left Trick a split second before his mouth brushed over Joey’s. The soft caress of Trick’s full lips on his was better than he’d ever dreamed of. Joey threaded the fingers of his left hand through Trick’s dark chocolate locks, tugging lightly as Trick deepened the kiss, tongue surging into Joey’s mouth. He responded eagerly, tangling his tongue with Trick’s, dancing that age old dance of seduction and desire.

Joey broke the kiss, gasping for air, chest heaving. “What was that?”

“I’ve been dying to do that from the moment I laid eyes on you again,” Trick said.

There was absolutely no way Joey could hide the bulge in his pants, but he stood anyway, moving away from Trick. He needed breathing room to think. “Why? I’m just your best friend’s little brother.”

A noise rattled in Trick’s throat and then he stood, crowding Joey close to the wall next to the sliding door. “You were more than just Anthony’s little brother. I know you won’t believe me, but I wasn’t exactly oblivious to how gorgeous you were growing up to be back in high school, Joey.”

Trick nipped at Joey’s lip, sliding his tongue along it to soothe the tiny bruise. “You’ve only become even more beautiful and sexy.”

The abrupt change in circumstances left Joey breathless and his head whirling. He pushed at Trick’s chest. “Stop.”

Trick immediately backed off, his breathing also giving away how affected he was. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to overwhelm you.”

Joey snorted. “This whole situation is more than overwhelming, Trick. I’ve spent the better part of the last decade thinking you hated me for being gay, for… for having a crush on you back then, and then suddenly you’re gay and kissing me? How the fuck am I supposed to feel?”

“You’re right,” Trick said, moving back to the recliner and sitting down. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

He didn’t know how to process everything he’d learned in the last ten minutes. To go from believing the person he’d thought hated him to suddenly being gay and kissing him? How the fuck was he supposed to unpack all of that? He felt sorely tempted to call his therapist right then. “I just need time to process this.”

Trick stood, slid on his shoes, and said, “I’ll drop you back at your parents.”

Joey didn’t argue, just followed Trick out of his apartment and to his truck. The ride to his parent’s house was quiet. When Trick pulled into the driveway, Joey didn’t immediately get out of the vehicle. “I wasn’t trying to mess with your head,” Trick murmured.

Staring at the house he’d grown up in, Joey thought back over the memories he had of Trick before the incident in high school. He’d thought Trick hung the moon and stars. Trick had been kind to him even when Anthony was being a jerk about Joey trailing behind them. But he found it hard to reconcile that this Trick and the Trick who’d said all those things years ago were the same.

“Do you really hate me that much?” Trick asked. Joey didn’t miss the sadness and regret in Trick’s voice.

“I thought I did,” Joey murmured. He still didn’t move to leave the truck, digging his fingers into his thighs where his hands rested. “I don’t know what I feel anymore.”

He couldn’t separate his attraction to Trick from the other emotions he’d felt for so long.

“I’ll stay home tonight,” Trick said. “Give you some time to think without my presence being there to confuse you further.”

Frowning, Joey finally looked at Trick. “You have to come to dinner. My parents expect you to be there.”

Trick sighed. “You should spend some time with your family without constantly being on alert with me there. I know I’m the reason you’ve barely been around since you got home, and when you are around, you’re not yourself. You have this massive fucking wall around you.”

Joey didn’t dispute what Trick said. He had kept a wall up to protect himself. A wall he was beginning to see may not be entirely necessary. “Come to dinner.”

Eyeing him, Trick asked, “Are you sure?”

“They’re as much your family as they are mine,” Joey said.

“All right. I guess I’ll see you guys tonight.”

Joey nodded, opened the truck, and got out. He slammed the door shut and jogged up the driveway to the front door. When he turned around, Trick hadn’t moved to back out of the drive, just stared at him with a pensive look on his face. Joey tossed him a short wave and headed into the house.

Everything was quiet as Joey went upstairs to his room. He shut his door, took out his cell phone and hit the speed dial for his therapist before collapsing on his back onto his bed. “Dr. Garrett.”

“It’s Joey Waters.”

“Joey, how are you? How are things in Fort Lauderdale?”

The dam broke and Joey spilled out everything, his heart pounding in his chest, his stomach twisting. Once the words came, they didn’t stop. Not until he confessed, “I’m so fucking confused, Doc.”

Dr. Garrett made a non-committal noise. “It sounds to me as though Trick has grown up a lot since then, Joey. Do you believe him?”

A rough laugh erupted from Joey. “Believe him? How the hell am I supposed to do that?”

“Do you want to believe him?”

Joey’s throat tightened and he flung his arm over his eyes, burying his face in the crook of his elbow. “Yes,” he murmured. “I do.”

“Then why don’t you? Until something shows you that you shouldn’t?”

“What if… what if he breaks me again?” Joey hated the weakness in himself. The emotion he’d tried so hard to shove down and stomp out of himself.

“Only you can let him do that, Joey. You can choose to believe him, but he has to show you he deserves your trust.”

That was the part that scared the shit out of him. How did he separate the obvious feelings he still had for Trick from the outright fear of letting the guy back into his life? “I have to go, Joey. My next appointment is here. We’ll talk when you get back, okay?”

“Sure, Dr. Garrett. Thanks,” Joey said, disconnecting the call. He dropped the phone on his bed and continued to lie there, his head spinning in circles over everything. His entire perspective of his past had become distorted. He’d spent the last year of high school miserable, depressed, and lonely, no longer tagging behind Trick and Anthony. Then in college, he’d made friends, gone off the rails with alcohol and sex, before the attempt to take his life. Finally, for the last six years, he’d been in therapy, still lost himself in sex most of the time, and continued to find his thoughts constantly dominated by Trick.

Now Joey wondered if he hadn’t wasted the last eight years by being angry at Trick, letting that rage drive him, only for it to be pointless. A derisive chuckle echoed in the quiet bedroom. Dr. Garrett’s words about believing Trick were hard to swallow, but that was all Joey wanted to do. Because if he did, Trick suddenly became available. Something Joey had wanted since he was thirteen years old.

His phone vibrated next to his ear and Joey grabbed it, cringing when he saw Vince’s name and the start of the text message. The guy just wouldn’t take no for an answer. Instead of responding, Joey deleted the alert and let the phone drop to the bed again.

Sighing, he rolled over, buried his face in his arms and dozed, needing an escape from the endless train of thoughts circling in his brain.