Page 5

Chapter Five

Jax

Jax sat listening to the kid and did his best to hold his temper. It was beyond anything he could ever imagine happening in his simple life in St. Tammany Parish. People didn’t do the things Ashton Hayes was sharing with them.

“He’d wait until he had me totally alone and tell me what a sick pervert you were and how he didn’t know at the time when you babysat us that you were queer. He asked me over and over again if you molested me when I was six, and I told him, ‘no’, but he always acted like he didn’t believe me. He sent me to Fernwood where he thought it would toughen me up because I’m not a sports kinda guy and the school is very athletically inclined. Hell, even I knew you didn’t send a kid you thought might be gay to an all-boys school.

“Then, when I was home for the fall break in October, I was on his computer and saw in the browsing history he’d been researching schools in England to ‘retrain’ boys believed to have homosexual tendencies. I knew it wasn’t Mom doing the research because nobody’s allowed in Hudson’s study, but I know how to pick locks. I read the emails he’d sent to the school asking about treatment therapies, and it scared the hell outta me.”

Jax sucked in a breath. “Yeah, I bet.”

The boy continued. “At Thanksgiving, I broke into his office again to see if there were any more emails, but he’d erased everything. As I was leaving, I knocked into a drawer that was always locked, and it opened a little. I wanted to find my birth certificate and passport to hide them because I didn’t want to go to England for Christmas, and I figured if they didn’t have my stuff, I couldn’t go. As I was rummaging through the drawer, I saw a file with your name on it.

“Father told Mom he’d tried to get you to live with him after you turned gay so he could get you some help, but your mom wouldn’t even let you visit. He told Mom he didn’t want anything more to do with you because he was worried about what you’d done to me when I was a kid. As far as I knew, he hated you.”

Cade offered a humorless laugh. “He did, trust me.”

“When I found that file inside the drawer, I was surprised, but I needed time to look at it. I didn’t know when they’d be back home so I took it to my room and hid it. I locked the desk drawer with a pair of tweezers so he’d think he locked it. He wouldn’t open the office again while I was home, so I had Thanksgiving break to figure out where you were.” Ash stared at Cade, who gave no reaction.

“Well, what was in the file?” Jax chuckled at Ford’s lack of patience.

“Pictures of Cade over the years and the pictures and newspaper clippings with you guys. Weekly reports on what you all did, where you went, where Cade worked, and shit like that. After the pictures of only the two of you showed up in the file, the reports changed to only include Cade’s stuff. There wasn’t anything more about you guys and the reports stopped for a while,” the boy said, pointing to Jax and Ford.

“That must be after we, um...” Cade’s face fell.

“In October, the daily reports started up again, and they were about Cade and two different guys. Do you make it a habit of hooking up with two guys at a time?” Ashton smirked.

The three of them laughed. “No. Not at all. Those other two guys would be Cleveland Oakes—his mother was here earlier and made the ice cream—and Griffon Summers. They’re a couple and they’re both my friends. I live in Griff’s old apartment.” Cade slid his eyes to Ford’s and then Jax’s, his cheeks pinking up in an instant.

Ford gasped. “Wait, I went there and the old lady who opened the door said Griff didn’t live there anymore.”

Cade giggled. “That would have been Mrs. Fitzgerald. She comes over to watch their cable in the afternoons… well, her and her cat, Matilda. She didn’t have cable so Griff gave her a key to the apartment, allowing her to watch her stories on a nicer television. That cat was a damn menace, though.”

“She doesn’t live there anymore?” Jax hoped nothing happened to the woman.

“Oh, she’s still there, but her son finally sprung for a new television and signed her up for cable. Oh, and that fucking cat died. Cleve is allergic, and I think he might have done something to it, but I couldn’t prove it. Anyway, who’s been following me?” Cade crossed his arms over his chest and stared at them.

Jax found the whole thing fascinating, but what he really wanted was to go to bed, hopefully with both men he loved.

Ashton’s exasperated sigh made Jax chuckle. “Anyway, on Saturday before I had to go back to school, I picked the lock on the drawer and saw another file in there which meant he knew I’d picked the lock and found the other file. It was a report outlining information about the Clark Street Shelter in Boystown, along with the address. I wrote it down and closed and locked the drawer. After that, I started hearing more and more shit about a boarding school in England. Since I hadn’t found my passport, I couldn’t take the chance they’d force me to go, so I took off.”

Ford opened his mouth to speak before Jax pointed to the clock over the sink. “I hate to break this up, but I’ve gotta hit the hay. I’ve got practice in the morning.”

Ash smirked. “You’ve sucked lately. I’m surprised they didn’t cut you.”

Cade slapped his shoulder, but Jax only chuckled. “I thought you didn’t know who I was?”

Ash laughed. “I couldn’t let you think I was a groupie, could I? I started looking into you when I saw your name in the file, and I’ve watched a few games. What was up?”

“I guess I missed your brother too much. Who is sleeping where?” Jax asked.

Ford started to speak, but Cade stood, studying his little brother. “You can sleep in the media room in one of those fancy recliners. Don’t turn up the sound too loud, okay?”

Cade stepped forward to pull Ashton into his arms, hugging him tightly. “We’ll figure this out, okay? Don’t lose hope.” The boy nodded before going on his way.

Cade looked at Jax and Ford, causing Jax’s heart to beat faster. “He knows the score, so there’s no use hiding it. Let’s go to bed, okay? I’m fucking exhausted and I’ve got to figure out what to do about him in the morning. I need to ship his ass downtown to his mother, but until I know the whole story…” Cade trailed off.

“I’ll take him with me to the stadium tomorrow. I can get somebody to give him a tour and feed him while I practice. Hell, maybe he likes football? We played Madden NFL and he seemed to know his way around the game. Anyway, Ford’s got a party tomorrow night at the club, so I’ll watch the kid. What about Christmas? Should we plan on him as a guest? We need to get him a gift at least, don’t we?”

Cade looked worried. “I’ve committed to staying at the shelter from the night of the twenty-third until the second of January so Stan and Sam can go skiing with family. I had no idea you guys would be in my life again before I made the commitment, and I can’t change it.” Cade’s sorrowful expression touched Jax’s heart.

Jax looked at Ford and smiled. “We’ll work around it. No worries.”

How they would work around Cade’s commitment wasn’t clear in that moment, but there was no way Ford and he weren’t going to spend the holidays with Kincade Hayes… and his little brother, he guessed. It was too damn important to miss.

Jax opened his eyes to see the sky turning a pale shade of lavender through the window shutters in the primary bedroom. He was spooned around Kincade who was snuggled into Ford’s chest. Jax’s morning hard-on was resting comfortably between the two gorgeous pillows of Cade’s ass cheeks, and it was heaven. The lack of sleep wouldn’t trip him up at practice either. He was running on pure sexual endorphins.

After the discussions in the kitchen, Cade took their hands and led them up to the master bedroom. “You’ll be okay with me sleeping… Have you two been sleeping apart?”

Ford chuckled. “Define ‘sleeping’. Look, after you left, we just sort of drifted. Jax and I haven’t been together since the last time the three of us were… yeah. I guess we’ve been performing self-service. I haven’t asked and he hasn’t complained or volunteered.”

Jax chimed in. “It just felt wrong without you, okay? We couldn’t help each other get over the hurt because we didn’t see it coming. Ford explained the whole thing to me, and I thought it was a great idea but when we couldn’t find you Kincade? We didn’t know how to handle it, so we didn’t. We went back to being the guys we were before you came into our lives and then we let it get worse.

“ We don’t kiss each other often. We sure as fuck don’t do anything sexual with each other. Hell, we’d probably be ready to break up by the end of the season at the rate things were deteriorating. I haven’t been back to Fairytails. We don’t do anything together…” Jax continued before Cade kissed him to shut him up.

“ How? You were at such a good place.” Cade pulled away.

Ford sighed. “We only got to that good place because we had you with us, Kincade. We do love each other or we’d have thrown in the towel a long time ago. Without you? We’re lost.”

All talking stopped as the three of them undressed each other and climbed into the king-sized bed. Jax didn’t remember the last time he’d slept there with Ford. He’d taken to sleeping in the recliner in the media room, and Ford never complained. It was back to being roommates, except they’d both completely lost the desire for sex. It just wasn’t there at all.

“ I’d love to be the guy who lays out all these rules about going slow and stepping back from where we were when things fell apart but I’m not that guy. I haven’t been with anyone, and I had my last round of tests in November.” Cade glanced between them.

“ I dragged Ford to the doctor two weeks ago because he was just ready to give up altogether. I’m negative, and he is too. What do you have in mind, chére?”

Cade chuckled. “First, I want a lot of kissing, then I want my dick in a mouth while someone else’s is in mine. What do you think?” Cade took Jax’s and Ford’s hard cocks into his hands and began working them.

They obliged his requests, and after the three of them had swallowed each other… Jax had Ford’s gorgeous cock in his mouth, but his cock was in Cade’s… they got up and brushed their teeth, showing Cade the wonders of the new en suite as Ford had designed it.

“ We’ll enjoy this room. Let’s go to bed. I’m exhausted.” They snuggled together, just as they had before, and Jax forgot all about the ice bath he’d been given earlier in the afternoon. His bones… and boner… were both warm.

He glanced at the clock and saw it was just after six. He got up to empty his bladder, then hopped in the shower to get ready to go to the stadium. He brushed his teeth as the water regulated, staring at himself in the mirror.

He needed to shave and get a haircut, deciding to do it the next day to be presentable for the Saturday telecast. In the past, he hadn’t cared how he looked on television, but now he had a new purpose.

Jax didn’t want to shower away the scent of his two lovers, but he didn’t want the other guys to give him grief if they got too close. He was surprised when Kincade came into the bathroom, looking adorable as he rubbed his eyes. Jax pulled him into the shower to slowly wake him with gentle kisses.

Cade giggled. “I hav’ta pee, Lucky.”

“Just go in the shower. It’ll wash down the drain.” His comment brought another delightful giggle from the little brunet.

Cade turned his back and peed toward the drain as Jax adjusted some of the shower heads so they didn’t smack him in the face. He and Ford were taller, so they shifted the heads up. It was a welcome change to have the shorter man with him rather than showering alone.

After Cade finished, Jax pulled him against his body and adjusted the rainfall showerhead above them so it would gently wet their hair. “How’d you sleep?” He kissed Cade’s neck and snaked his tongue over the streams of water caressing Cade’s soft flesh.

The brunet scooted back into his body, and Jax’s hard cock rested in the small of his back just above the trench of his ass. “I wish I was taller so I could take that slab of meat back into my ass cheeks like last night. That was a great way to sleep, Lucky.”

Jax chuckled. “Yes, well, I’m sure Branford wasn’t unhappy crossing swords with you all night. It felt good to feel him in bed next to us. I’ve missed him as well.” It was then he realized how much he’d almost lost, and it made his eyes well up.

Cade turned to look at him, wrapping his arms around Jax’s neck. “I’ll never understand the two of you,” he whispered as Jax let himself cry.

He’d never grieved the losses. He’d laid in that recliner in the dark and remembered laughing with Kincade and Ford over something stupid on television. The memories were precious, and he couldn’t get out of them enough to begin living again. He supposed he hadn’t wanted to until Kincade came back.

Cade kissed the side of his neck and pulled away, wiping the tears and water from his face. “Sit down and let me wash your hair. It’s getting long, but I guess you want that for the winter, huh?”

Jackson sat down and handed him the shampoo. When Cade massaged his scalp, he remembered the one time he’d done it for Ford, and it made him sad that the two of them let the intimacy they’d worked for slip away. He wanted to get back to the place where Ford proposed to him again. He wanted the three of them settled into their forever.

“Yeah, but it’s kinda shaggy right now. I could use a trim. I might stop on the way home from the stadium today. I guess we better hurry this along, as much as I’d like to take my time and have some fun. I need to go wake Ashton if he’s going with me. I gotta do extra drills, and Tony wants to work on some new plays after he studied the game film from last weekend.

“Say, do you wanna bring the boys from Clark Street Shelter to the game? I can get a box and we’ll make a day of it. We play DC and the game starts at noon. I’ll arrange for a bus to pick all of you up… don’t worry about it. I’ll set it up. I’ll call Stan and get him on board with me. He can work miracles, trust me.”

Jax thought for a minute and decided to come clean about something less important. There were things to reconcile so he needed to start confessing what he’d done to find Cade.

“Look, don’t be mad at Stan, but that’s how I found you. For the longest time, he didn’t say anything about knowing where you worked or where you were, but the day before yesterday, he sent me a text with the address, telling me he thought maybe they’d know where you were.

“I prayed you didn’t end up in some other club as a dancer. Ford and I worried about you so much Kincade. That’s why we couldn’t imagine a life without you in it. We both love you as much as we love each other, and without you, we were having a hard time seeing the future. We bought this house because he just kept saying you’d come back, and we’d need a home. Please forgive us.” Jax dried himself and wrapped the towel around his waist.

Cade touched his arm and looked at him with those big, amber eyes full of love. “I already have, Lucky, or I couldn’t have made love with the two of you last night. We all must commit to making things work, but I promise you, no more running off. I’ll make sure you know where I am when I’m not with the two of you.

“Now, I need to hurry. I’m expected at the shelter by seven to relieve Sammy. You sure you’re okay with Ashton today? I can take him with me. He’s met the other guys, and they all seemed to get along okay.”

Jax thought for a minute and landed on the perfect solution. “Tell you what. I’ll drop you off this morning so you won’t have to get a car. Then, I’ll bring him by at three after practice. I’ve got some things to deal with this afternoon but you call me when you’re ready to come home and I’ll pick you two up.

“Ford has a party tonight so he won’t be home until late, but maybe we can do something to surprise him. You game?” Jax accepted Cade’s hug as all the confirmation he needed.

The football player had many things to accomplish that day, and his new plan was to enlist the kid to help him when they could speak in private. He hoped it would all go smoothly. They all deserved a happy Christmas.