Page 55 of Sean's Sunshine

“Fuck off,” he said, shoving the bag into Jesse’s chest before backing up and slamming the door.

Jesse stopped him with a booted foot between the door and the frame.

“Come on, Sean,” he said, his voice low and smooth. “You know it doesn’t have to mean anything. You, me, some good times—”

“I’m still on pain meds, you insensitive fuckhead,” Sean snapped, although mostly it was ibuprofen, but Jesse didn’t know that. “And no ‘good time’ with you is worth the shitty emotional hangover. Now move your foot before I—”

“What?” Jesse taunted. “Call the cops?” Behind him, the trees rustled in a particularly vicious burst of wind, and Sean’s next breath was a little rustier. Damp air—goddammit, it sucked when everything your mother said about “You’re gonna catch your death” was right.

Sean growled. “You think it’s the cops you should be worried about?” He held up his phone, which had Billy set to speed dial. “One touch of this button and I’ve got five bored porn stars here on my doorstep, ready to come take pictures with you and post them to the internet. Think carefully, Jesse. Is your dick today really worth your reputation as a straight man tomorrow?”

“Sean,” Jesse wheedled, but he’d straightened his posture, which demanded him pulling his foot out of the door, which was all Sean needed.

He slammed the door in Jesse’s face and slid the deadbolt home. He heard a frustrated crash of glass against his door as he stalked to the couch and tried not to groan. Fuck. He needed to clean that up before Billy got home.

He pulled out his phone and texted,Where’d you put the cleaning gloves?Although he could picture them hanging under the sink as he did so. As he sagged into the recliner for a second, he just wanted that contact with Billy before he got up again and confronted the evidence of his bad choices on his concrete stoop.

I’m not telling you. Whatever it is, ignore it. I’ll get it when I get home.

Sean smiled and touched the screen.There’s glass on the porch. I want to clean it up before you get home.

The phone erupted in his hand, and he almost fumbled it as he took the call.

“Glass? Who in the fuck threw glass at your porch?”

“It’s not a big deal,” he hedged.

“And now it is,” Billy snapped. “Those little words just made it ahugedeal.What happened?”

“My ex showed up with booze and condoms, and I slammed the door in his face.”

There was a stunned silence on the other end of the line, and for a moment Sean wondered if Billy had just dropped the phone to come storming over.

“Booze and condoms?”

“Yup.”

“Fucking. Classy. Are you sure he’s gone?”

Sean stood up and went to check through the peephole and the window. “I don’t see him,” he claimed. “I threatened to have porn stars show up and post pics with him to Instagram. He took off.”

Billy snorted. “They would never—”

“I know,” Sean said, smiling a little. “Your guys are too sweet to out him on social media, but he doesn’t know that. Look, I just wanted to know where the gloves are—”

“So I’d come home and clean up the glass.”

“So the glass wasn’t there when you got home.” Sean scowled. “I really can take care of myself—”

“On a dark and stormy night when you shouldn’t be out. Sit down, cop-man. Me and the guys will be there in twenty.”

The screen went dark when he hung up, and Sean stared at the phone in shock for a moment before he got up to go find the gloves.

WHEN BILLYgot there, Sean was at the point of wiping the Jim Beam off the front door, his chest hurting from the cold air, but feeling energized and a little bit angry and a little bit triumphant. He couldtootake care of himself, right?

Billy wasn’t alone—the Johnnies kids were still unloading from the Charger as he marched up to the porch, took the cleaner and the rag and the gloves from an unrepentant Sean, and proceeded to chew him out for doing exactly what Billy had known he was going to do and be stupid and independent and stubborn.

“Fine,” Sean said shortly as Billy slipped the gloves off his hands with absurdly tender fingers. “The next time I have to deal with that guy, I’ll call you, and I’ll tell him you’ve got my testicles in a jar under your bed and I’ll stand up for myself when I can get those back.”