Page 127 of Men of Fort Dale: The Complete Series

“Not that we’d want to,” Matt admitted, eyeing one of the containers. “Is that...breading?”

“Yeah?”

“Homemade breading?”

“Uh, again, yeah?”

Matt shook his head, “Just wondering.”

Nick gave him another suspicious look before returning to the rolled-up chicken, setting up a temporary breading station. “We haven’t put in for time off for a year. He won’t mind, I’m sure.”

“Well, if we can get the time off, then I’m all for making sure your mom doesn’t end up hunting us down herself and dragging us into the unknown.”

Nick set the breaded rolls onto a sheet pan with a snicker. “I know that’s supposed to be a joke.”

“It really, really wasn’t,” Matt intoned as his friend slid the tray into the oven.

“Pretty sure she already knew what the answer was going to be, but I’ll give her the pleasure of being right,” Nick said, setting the timer.

“You’re such a giving and kind son,” Matt told him.

“I know, it can be trying to be so generous, but it’s well worth the effort,” Nick said with mock gravity.

Matt laughed, backing out of the kitchen and letting Nick finish what he was doing without getting in the way.

Along with being the best cook on the team, Nick also happened to be one of the more fastidious.

All of them were pretty organized and kept their personal spaces clean, but Nick had once held the title of the most nitpicky of them all.

That was until Aidan joined the team, and Nick had to concede defeat.

Seriously, who arranged their sock drawer according to shape and color?

Leaving Nick to clean the kitchen, he retreated into the living room.

He let the sounds of Nick’s movements, drifting from the kitchen and the dining room, mingle with the soft Christmas music.

There were still a few decorations to be put up, and Matt set his half-drunk beer aside to start fussing with them.

There was a comfortableness in the two of them doing their own thing in his apartment.

Honestly, it didn’t matter where they were, he and Nick could exist side by side, and it was always easy.

Slipping between conversation, silence, or mundane tasks happened with an ease Matt had never found with anyone else.

Not even when he’d tried his hand at long-term relationships, none had managed the same level of comfort and ease as he had with Nick.

He lost track of time until he heard a call from the kitchen asking him to get his plate.

His stomach rumbled at the promise of good food, and he dropped the string of lights, with reindeer bulbs, back into its box before doing as he was told.

As per Nick’s rules, when eating, they sat at the table, albeit in companionable silence.

It was Nick who broke the silence. “What was the name of that guy?”

Matt looked up from his phone, blinking owlishly. “Uh, what guy?”

“The one you fooled around with before getting shipped off to boot.”

That did nothing to alter his confusion.

It had been years since Matt had drunkenly confessed to Nick about his little same-sex liaison.

He’d been eighteen and knew he was off to boot camp in a couple of weeks.

What friends he’d made had decided to throw him a sending-off party, which had really just been a bunch of people, alcohol, and a big ol’ bonfire on the back of a large property.

“That’s random,” Matt said slowly.

Nick shrugged, his face giving away nothing. “Popped into my head, and I realized I couldn’t remember the name.”

That was true for Matt as well. He could remember the young man’s face more than his name.

Faces had always been easier, and he could remember someone’s face ten years down the line but forget their name in ten minutes.

He might say it was shameful to forget the name of someone after you’d had your dick in their mouth, but it had been over ten years, and he’d been half-drunk at the time.

“Davis,” he finally said, the name popping into his thoughts.

Most of the party had been pretty fuzzy when he tried to recall it later.

Davis had been a year older than him, the brother of one of his buddies.

He’d been tall and well-built for someone who still had a little growing left.

Matt had never met him before, but after a few drinks, he’d been struck by how blue the man’s eyes were and how his blond hair caught the firelight and seemed to glow.

The two of them had got along instantly, and Matt hadn’t minded his presence.

He was surprised later when he found he didn’t mind the man kissing him either, shoving his steady fingers into the waistline of Matt’s pants.

And he sure as hell hadn’t minded what followed, with Davis on his knees, the two of them hidden in the shadows of a shed.

Nick nodded after a moment. “Right, Davis. I wasn’t even close.”

Matt squinted across the table. “Why were you even thinking about that in the first place? Like, what the hell sparked that weird trip down my memory lane?”

Nick shrugged again. “I don’t know, just popped into my head and wouldn’t go away. I didn’t talk to anyone about it if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Matt hadn’t been worried, only confused.

Other than Davis and himself, Nick was the only person who knew what had happened that night unless Davis had told anyone.

It had been a brief interlude that Matt had never revisited.

That night didn’t bother him, as he’d gone about his life unchanged afterward.

“And you guys say my brain goes to weird places,” Matt said.

“It does, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t have our moments.”

“Or you’re just as weird as you guys make me out to be, and you’re only now getting around to telling me.”

Nick snorted, gathering up their empty plates and silverware. “Sorry, but no one will take your place as the weird team member.”

“Even Aidan?”

“Hard contender, but you still keep your crown.”

Matt sighed heavily. “The king of fools is still a king.”

“I’ll be sure to tell Aidan he needs to show proper respect the next time we see him,” Nick said as he took their plates to the kitchen.

Matt snickered, relieved the previous conversation was over.

It was weird enough thinking about that night after so many years.

It was made even stranger by Nick bringing it up.

While Matt didn’t always know what was going on in Nick’s head, it was rare that he couldn’t understand where a sudden thought came from.

Nick had no rhyme or reason to bring up such an old, buried memory.

The worst part, the one he wouldn’t admit if he were drugged and put under interrogation, was the clarity of Davis’s face in Matt’s mind. He didn’t know if he remembered the face as clearly as he thought or if he was simply filling in the gap with more recent memories.

Because, bizarre and awkward as it was, he remembered someone who looked eerily like a young Nick.