Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

K yler was gonna pop, he was so full. His belly was so tight he felt like a snake who had swallowed something way too big for it. He was surprised at how good the turkey was for being bought and not done in a smoker or deep fryer or something. This whole holiday thing was really good and he was super sleepy now.

He and Austin were sitting on the couch while Dallas sprawled on the floor reading a book, feet up in the air behind him. It was surprisingly quiet and peaceful, which Thanksgivings in his experience had never been before. and Kyler was pretty much in love with the whole idea.

Austin glanced over at him smiling. “You’re grinning.”

“Am I? I guess so. I’m having a good day.”

That smile widened. “I’m glad. We’re having a great day too, aren’t we, kiddo?”

“Uh-huh.” Dallas glanced up. “It’s been yummy and fun, but when are we gonna have pie?”

Kyler groaned. “Oh my God, you guys can have pie whenever you want, but I think I’ll probably wait for a couple of hours. ”

“I think we will too. You’re rocking back and forth on your belly, kiddo. That’s how full you are.”

Kyler was chuckling when his phone rang, and he checked it, knowing he had to answer because it was Paige. “Hello?”

“Hi, Daddy. I wanna come home.”

Crap. That was never a good way to start a conversation. “Are you not having a good time, baby girl?”

“I miss you, Daddy, and I miss my room, and I miss Dallas, and I wanna come home.” She sounded so put-upon.

“Oh, sweetie, don’t tell that to your mother.”

“I won’t. That doesn’t mean I don’t wanna come home.” Now she sounded so hopeful, and he knew he was gonna have to dash those hopes. She only had to stay there a couple more days.

“I’m sorry, baby girl, you know I told your mom you would stay until Monday.”

Her tone changed to a stage whisper. “Daddy, Momma and Granny are fighting.”

“Are they? Are they really, or are they more having heated discussion?” This was Texas Paige was talking about, after all. Heated discussions over Thanksgiving were all the rage.

“They’re arguing about everything, including what we’re gonna do tomorrow.”

“And what do you want to do tomorrow?”

“I want to go shopping. If I’m gonna have to stay here, I want to try to get a Christmas present for Mr. Austin and for Dallas.”

He chuckled again. “Not for me?”

“Daddy, you know that I wouldn’t leave you out.” Her tiny sigh told him he’d stepped in it.

He glanced at Austin who was making faces, waggling his eyebrows, and Kyler pointed his finger at the guy to hush him up, because he wanted to laugh. “I know you’re always good to me baby. ”

“Can I come home then?”

“No, and you can’t tell your mom you wanna come home, either. But I tell you what. We’ll ask her to come to our house for Christmas instead of you going to Granny’s.”

“Promise?”

“I do. Now who knows what Momma’s going to say to that, but I promise I’ll ask.”

“Okay, Daddy”

After that the conversation devolved into what did you eat for dinner and what stores are you looking forward to going to that you don’t have up here, that sort of thing. She talked to Dallas, too.

After about ten minutes she finally stopped asking to come home and said, “I love you, Daddy. I’ll see you soon.”

“I love you too, baby, you be good.”

He hung up feeling like the worst dad ever but also like he had been the best ex-husband he could be.

“It’s hard to be the dad. It’s a pain in the butt to be the reasonable one. I wanted to be the fun dad. but since I’m the only one, I can’t.”

Dallas rolled his eyes at Austin. “You’re fun. We just have fun in different ways. Some guys are football dads. Some dads are baseball dads. Some are weightlifting dads. Some dads are comedian dads. You’re a writer dad.”

“Oh, okay, I’ll take that and also trampoline dad.”

Kyler nodded. “And he’s a gymnastics dad.”

Dallas was sort of amazing there.

“He so is. He’s also a coffee dad. And a movie dad. Sometimes he’s a video game dad. Those are cool dads.”

Austin glanced over at Kyler. “I’m a cool dad, see? Mr. Kyler is a cowboy dad and a horse dad.”

Dallas nodded, so emphatic. “And a dog dad, and we don’t have a dog, Poppy. That’s a point off for you.”

Austin shot back with, “We can barely take care of the cat. I’m not even sure Mr. Kyler’s ever seen the cat.”

That wasn’t true. That was an exaggeration, and he knew Austin knew it. But part of Austin’s job was to exaggerate a little bit.

“He’s met Mr. Mistoffelees.” Dallas rolled his eyes. “He’s just not very friendly. Like me.”

Austin’s mouth literally dropped open. “You’re friendly. Paige is your friend.”

“Even Paige says that I’m not friendly. I’m a good friend. There’s a difference, Poppy.” Dallas was serious as a heart attack. “Friendly is like…always going to see somebody that you don’t even know and shaking their hand and saying ‘Hi, I’m Dallas. Let’s be friends’.”

“Now, son, you’re just a little?—”

“Poppy.” Dallas stared at his father like he had grown two heads. “Paige is friendly. I am a good friend. I love my friends, and I take care of them, and I ask for chocolate cupcakes in my lunch even though I don’t like them because she likes them and her daddy doesn’t buy them for her.”

Ouch.

“Good friends like me share their books and their puzzles. And when Paige wants to play dolls, they play dolls.”

Austin tilted his head. “You know it’s cool if you wanted to play dolls, right?”

“I know. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don’t. That’s not the point. The point is if you’re a good friend, and your good friend wants to play dolls, you play dolls. And then afterward, maybe she’ll play Sherlock. Like that.”

Kyler sort of sat and watched. This was like a weird tennis match or something.

Paige was…not quite as complex as Dallas in some ways. And yet in other ways she was so much more mature. So much more savvy, he guessed .

Dallas was very precise.

“Sherlock is good, huh?” Austin grinned at his son.

“Uh-huh. Can I have pie?”

“If you want pie, son, you can totally have pie. Pumpkin?”

“Poppy! I don’t like that one!”

“No?”

He could tell this was a regular tease. Austin was hiding a grin for all he was worth.

“No. I want apple, please.”

Ah. He’d wondered why there were three kinds of pie. Clearly Dal didn’t do pumpkin or pecan. His favorite was pecan. He also knew how to make his ex-mother-in-law’s chocolate pie.

“Of course. Whipped cream or ice cream?”

“Squirty cream?” Those were hopeful eyes.

“Of course, son.” Austin levered himself up off the sofa. “One slice of pie, coming up.”

Austin’s ass was right there, close enough to touch.

He wanted to touch it.

What the heck was that? He’d had thoughts about Austin before, but nothing that…specific.

“Can I help?” He stood fast enough to whack them together.

“S-sure!” Austin grabbed him, swaying dangerously.

“Hey. Whoa.” He held Austin up, his breath catching as he stared into Austin’s eyes, which was weird, because he had to look up.

He never had to look up.

Austin’s eyes were like a storm, gray clouds rolling in. He couldn’t bring himself to glance away, desperate to know what happened next.

Austin’s lips parted, and the fine son of a bitch leaned in…

“Poppy! Pie! ”

“Right.” Austin pushed off his chest. “Come on, buddy. I’ll get you pie. You want whipped cream?”

“Poppy! I said spray cream! Did you forget already?”

“I must have! I’m getting old, huh?” Austin was pink-cheeked and heading for the kitchen.

“No. You’re just silly.” Dallas followed his dad to the kitchen, which gave Kyler a moment to breathe. And to thump his dick with his middle finger, willing it to go down.

“What the hell was that?” he murmured to himself. He would swear Austin had been about to kiss him, and he’d been damn sure about to kiss the man back. Whew. That was hotter than a two-dollar pistol, and he would have to unpack that when he went to do the feeding, and he could talk to the horses and the air.

Right now, he needed to breathe, to focus on something other than…Austin’s eyes.

Maybe he was in a pie sort of space. Pecan pie might render him comatose and he could nap it off.

“Did you want anything?”

“A piece of pecan?”

“Sure. Whipped cream?”

He shook his head. “Nope. I think I’m going to have to change into a pair of sweats, though.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Austin offered him a quick grin. “I might have to do the same here in a minute.”

“No shit on that. I mean, shoot, I mean…” Dammit .

Dallas rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry, Mr. Kyler. My poppy cusses all the time. I just know to ee-nore it.”

“Ignore.”

“That’s what I said. I ee-nore your cusses.” Dallas grinned. “All of them. Even the super bad ones.”

“Thank you, son. You’re a tiny ray of sunshine.” Austin sighed, so dramatic. “Go change. I’m going to finish making him his pie and make sure he doesn’t spread it all over the earth or the cat or let the cat steal it or?—”

“Poppy!”

Kyler headed back to the teeny office and shut the door, grabbing his bag with his baggiest sweats. God knew his jeans weren’t getting any looser, and he wasn’t going to ponder the whys of that. It had nothing to do with gaining weight.

He kicked off his boots, sitting in the desk chair to do so. Austin’s office was wild, this big converted walk-in pantry filled with books of all sorts, including a big old stack of his own. The walls were painted in a dark brown, and the desk seemed like a monster of a thing, bigger than the space needed, but there were papers and index cards and sticky notes and stacks of papers and reference-type things all over it. It was actually kind of cool—like Austin had curated the room to scream author .

The weirdest part about the whole thing were the pictures covering the walls. There were five framed posters, great big old things of him. All with titles emblazoned on them.

Maverick’s Choice.

Maverick’s Dilemma.

Maverick’s Call.

Maverick’s Home.

Maverick’s Man.

All with his damn body on them.

It was weird, because he’d never really felt hot before, but seeing these? Even all photoshopped and color-corrected. No freckles, no moles, no scars even—and God knew he had those—he was kind of sexy.

And that was weird.

He stood up, put on his sweats, and walked over to the one closest to the door— Maverick’s Man .

Emblazoned across the poster were five gold stars and then this quote in italics: Austin Williams’ Maverick is the hottest hero in gay romance.

Man, he wanted to read these books.

There was no way he was going to ask to read these books.

There was no way he could get caught reading these books.

He had a phone though. Then if he got one of them e-books or an audio book or something…

Nobody would know he was reading these books.

It wasn’t even that he was all that interested in some hot boy-on-boy action. Although he kind of was.

God, he really was.

Mostly he wanted to know what was going on in Austin’s brain.

He pulled on his sweats. Was Austin confusing him with a book character, or was he using Kyler for inspiration now or what? Was that weird? Was it hot? He wasn’t sure.

He wasn’t used to being confused and worried. He wasn’t used to all of this. He wanted?—

He wanted to find out what Austin tasted like, though. He really did. He was going to let that side of himself out, explore it a little. Maybe a lot.

Now he had to figure out how he was going to go about it.