Page 21 of Just A Little Joy

“One on one, they’re more than happy for us to play with them. But when it’s all of them together in a group, they don’t want us to ruin their good time,” Levi said.

“And by ruining their good time, it means telling them something they don’t want to hear,” Levi added with a grin.

“No. They don’t want to hear us say no,” Gabe interjected.

“No?” Barrett said and swung his head toward Gabe. “When have you ever told Rory no?”

“I’ve thought about it.”

“When?” Barrett asked.

“Fine. Once. I thought about telling him no once, and then I realized how unreasonable I was, changed my mind, and kept my mouth shut.”

“That only works because he’s not a brat. I can’t even imagine the chaos that would happen if I let Nico do whatever he wanted.”

“If you could explain to me how to get Nico to listen, that would be great. I want to know your ways,” Gabe said.

“Yeah, sorry, my friend. You’re on your own with him at work. Good luck though,” Levi said with a crooked grin. “You probably need a lot of it.”

It was like watching a Ping-Pong match between them. It was clear they all loved each other and their boys just as much as their boys loved them, but it was interesting to see how intertwined their lives actually were. Owen and Barrett worked together. Nico, Levi’s boy, worked for Gabe. Reed and Jakob didn’t work together directly, but they worked at the same hospital. Gabe had done work for all of them, including Levi with his architectural business. As best I could tell, there were no secrets between any of them.

“Travis, to get back to your original question, even if we’re not there, Anders is usually around to keep an eye on them.”

“Who’s that? I don’t think I’ve met him before. Is he another boy?” I asked.

“No, he’s not a boy, but he’s their unofficial babysitter who tries to be the voice of reason.”

“‘Tries’ is the operative word,” Barrett said with a laugh. “He does his best, but it’s never his fault when they go off and do shenanigans. Nine times out of ten, he warned them it was maybe not a great idea, and they just didn’t listen.”

“And the tenth time, he definitely told them it was a bad idea, and they absolutely did not listen,” Reed added.

“Any luck getting him to join your company?” Reed asked.

It was like a light switch had been flipped. The group suddenly went from silly and good-natured to somber.

“Unfortunately, no,” Gabe admitted with a shake of his head. “He said there was some issue with the books he was working to get straightened out before he could even consider it.”

“Fuck. That asshole boyfriend of his is bleeding him dry.”

“With money?” I asked.

“Maybe,” Gabe said. “I’m not really sure. I know emotionally he’s like a goddamn vampire, but I don’t know if he’s taking his money too. It wouldn’t surprise me if he were. He’s done everything else to make his life miserable, and I sure as hell don’t understand it.”

The guys exchanged looks as if they’d said too much to someone who wasn’t privy to it. Rather than push for more, I glanced down at my empty hands and said, “I forgot to grab a drink on my way in. Give me a second, and I’ll go grab one.”

They waved me off while I dodged and weaved my way through the crowded room. I wasn’t blind enough not to notice a few interested looks from some of the boys, but none of them made my breath catch or stopped me in my tracks. They didn’t have deep brown eyes or dark black hair. None of them had the kiss of the sun on their skin or were built like a barrel just waiting to be tapped. None of them was Casey.

While I waited for a boisterous group of littles to move to their next station, I looked over the crowd again. The clear advantage to being slightly taller than average was the ability to look out over the crowd. Off in the far corner, I spotted the boys.

Rory and Jakob stood out with their red and almost white hair, respectively. Nico was slightly more difficult to spot as he was whispering in the ear of Owen, who had a stuffie and a bottle in his hands. There was another person in the group, but his face was obscured by the boys. Whoever it was, they were excited to see him because the amount of bouncing would put Tigger to shame.

I bought myself some time with the drink, but it was still too early to bail. There was no way in hell I was going to try and find someone whose best feature was that they reminded me of someone else. I was no saint, but I wasn’t shitty enough to do that.

The crowd closed around the boys, and I could no longer see them, so I moved on to the bar and got my beer. Before I returned to the table with the cuffed and happy Daddies and boys, I needed a minute to give myself a mental shake and pep talk. Leading on Casey, no matter how attracted I was to him, wasn’t fair, and I knew it. He was a damn good barback and even better cook, and if I were smart, I’d chalk it our kissing up to holiday foolishness and move on. It was the only route I had.

“Travis! You made it!” The sound of sunshine was directly behind me, and when I turned, I was greeted with a radiant smile.

“Jakob! Your Daddy told me you were around here. Nice to see you.”