Chapter 24

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

OWEN

My nerves were shot by the time we pulled into the parking lot at Wilde Dandies. I'd given the banquet staff instructions to the nth degree, but this was the first time I'd completely delegated setup to the staff. Our banquet manager, Saul, assured me he was experienced enough to handle putting everything in place, but his promises hadn't shaken the worry. If something went wrong, it would be my fault for not being present like I was paid to be.

"Babe, when Saul blows you away with his efficiency, does that mean you'll let him do his job?" Bear said it with a smug chuckle as if I didn't already allow Saul total freedom to do his job.

"I don't stop him from doing it now."

"You double-check everything he does. You never let him do the set up by himself. You only let him this time because I forced the issue. He said you tried to disassemble the risers yourself."

I thought that traitor Saul was on my side .

"I like to be hands-on, and that's not a crime." Bear's raised eyebrow mocked me. "I trust Saul." And his snort was rude. "But he's young and inexperienced. I'm only helping." I muttered the last part under my breath. "Some people like help."

"And some people come to us from a large, busy hotel where they worked for seven years after college to do the job they are currently doing now and are perfectly capable of following detailed diagrams because they aren't that young or inexperienced." Bear squeezed my hand, which made me feel slightly better, and added, "I'm just selfish."

I waited until he came around to help me out of the car to ask my next obvious question. "How are you selfish?"

"Because I want us both to free up some time. I want to keep traveling with you. I want to spend evenings at home with you, reading stories in your nursery. I want to go to dinner with friends at places that aren't Quill. I want to be a family with you."

"Oh. That's a lot of time together."

"If you stayed permanently, it would be easier on both of us."

Well, hell. I should have known this was coming, but I knew me, and I knew who I was.

"Bear, I love you, but I'm not giving up my house yet. Even if I spend every night in your bed, I need to know there's an escape hatch. My mom didn't protect herself. When my dad left, she was screwed because she put every scrap of herself into him. I'm not saying never or even not soon. I'm saying I need to give myself some time to breathe."

"Are we working toward a yes?"

"Yeah."

"Good enough for me."

Since we were participating in the festivities tonight, we checked in at the front desk to hand over our cell phones and receive our wristbands. While we both had teddy bears, Barrett's color indicated his position as a Daddy and my color told others I was a boy. We both added the red band to signal we weren't open to finding new romance.

There was nothing wrong with sharing, but I was a selfish boy, and I'd waited so long for Bear that I'd be damned if I shared him now. And I didn't know who I was arguing with in my head because I was fairly certain—read: completely convinced—that Barrett wasn't interested in opening our relationship either.

I slid my hand into Barrett's larger one and kept myself close. The Halloween party had brought out all the crowds, and I wanted to stay as close as possible to Bear. This was the first time I'd attempted to be around littles in public as a guest, and I wasn't entirely sure how it would go.

After our good time in the nursery, we'd popped into the shower and ended up back in the nursery. This time, Bear sat in the rocking chair, and I curled up on his lap. He'd hidden a dorm refrigerator in the closet, so it was easy enough for him to keep bottles with cold water up there for me.

One of the things we discussed was how I thought tonight would go with all the other littles around. He promised me he wouldn't leave my side one single time, and if it was necessary, he'd run interference with any staffing issues. Saul was on duty, too, so assuming nothing blew up, I was off the clock and could sink into my little headspace.

"Hold on, Bear. I need to fix your costume. You don't want to go in there messed up and someone thinks you're not a properly put-together forest ranger."

Bear looked deliciously hot in his park ranger outfit. His pants fit like a snug glove, and the button-down shirt did all the right things to show off his broad chest. But the leather boots and brimmed hat made all the difference. He looked yummy.

I'd made myself a fawn outfit out of a long-sleeve shirt and pants in the same shade of light brown. I'd attached a pelt of white fur to my chest and poufy white tail, and on my back, I'd attached a few white spots. Bear had helped me apply some white dots to my face and use an eyebrow pencil to give me a brown nose with a line that trailed down to my lips. I decided we were objectively cute.

When we arrived, the Rumpus Room was already packed. The Cuddle Crew had once again worked to ensure every little would enjoy the evening, with or without a Daddy.

The coloring station had spooky page options. The always popular cookie-decorating stations were stocked with every appropriately themed sprinkle imaginable, and the Cuddle Crew had insisted edible glitter would be needed to make the pumpkin cookies pop.

Their Daddies had tried to veto, but they'd gone to Saul, and he'd included it in the food and beverage call sheets. I signed the invoice before anyone could interfere because glitter was always the right choice.

The Jack-o-Lantern station had mini pumpkins that could be drawn on or decorated. The story-time corner was presided over by a trio of drag queen witches who would be doing Drag Queen Bingo later for the whole group. There were also sensory bins filled with spiders and slime, which I would be skipping. Thank you very much.

The banquet crew had set up passports for the littles to get stamped by the DMs monitoring each station. At the end of the night, they could submit the stamped passport for a prize drawing. There were a few smaller prizes, but the grand finale was our popular prix fixe weekend brunch for four at Quill.

Saul had been right. He knew how to set up the party without my supervision. My sketches and design notes had been followed perfectly. The room had been transformed into a Gothic garden with carnivorous plants and grasping vines. Overhead, ghosts darted along the ceiling. The stations were marked with faux old-fashioned cemetery fencing and gravestones. The staff wore livery that matched the room.

People paid a fortune for club membership and expected to get their money's worth out of it. We'd nailed the assignment. Even though I was still annoyed at them, I knew Jakob and Rory had worked equally as hard to make the party a success.

I'd purposefully not thought about what I would do when I saw them. What they'd done wasn't okay, but my ego wasn't their problem. If they'd known it had started the way it had, they wouldn't have done it. If they'd thought I'd be upset about it at all, they wouldn't have done it. Hindsight and the leftover blowjob endorphins had me realizing that maybe I had overreacted a tad.

A scintilla.

A smidge.

Bear squeezed my fingers when he noticed I was getting extra clingy. "Babe or Baby?" Damn, I loved this man.

"Babe, but fading fast. I need to find Rory and Jakob." I looked around through a sea of unicorns, clowns— WTF, people, why would anyone pick a clown costume for a party full of littles ?—and superheroes. There were so many guests already here that my scanning was slow going. Bear, on the other hand, had no such problems .

"They're sitting on the couches at the back of the room."

With my hand still in his, Bear made a path through the people for us. He was so large that people automatically moved out of his way. I was more than a little jealous because if it was just me, I'd still be trying to dodge around people halfway back.

Jakob and Rory were cuddled up in their Daddies' laps but not talking or playing. They both looked so sad and upset. Their Daddies' expressions weren't much better. They spoke in low tones while rubbing their boys' backs or thighs.

"Hi, Jakob. Hi, Rory." When they looked at me warily, I added, "Could we go talk?"

They both jumped to their feet.

"Yes!" they said in unison.

I led them over to a deserted seating area. Our Daddies could see us, but it was too far away to be overheard. I smoothed my hands down my pants while I gathered my thoughts.

"Owen, is it okay if we go first?" Rory asked.

I nodded because that meant I could put off my part a little longer.

"We're so sorry. As much as we wanted you and Barrett to get together, it was wrong of us to interfere. It wasn't exactly a secret to us"—Jakob stopped to look at Rory, who nodded in agreement before he continued—"that you're very private about who you date, the kind of Daddy you want, and being a little. It was wrong of us to interfere."

"If you still want to be friends, we promise it won't happen again. Please don't be mad at Anders. He warned us it was a bad idea that would blow up in our faces. When we met Barrett to talk about it, Anders refused to go," Jakob said.

And now it was my turn.

"I overreacted. We're friends and love each other, and when I calmed down a little, I realized you two were only trying to help. I didn't like it, but there wasn't a reason for me to walk out all dramatic the way I did." I paused for a breath. "One of the reasons I was really excited was that I thought someone had bid that high, and my ego took a hit."

I wanted to be honest with them, even if I sounded silly about the whole thing. If nothing else, hiding my true feelings from my friends had become exhausting.

"Oh! Oh! Oh! This one we can fix!" Jakob and Rory bounced hard enough on the seat that their feet left the ground. Jakob was so excited that his words came out in one big jumble, "The next highest bidder was so bummed at losing out that he emailed us and asked us to see if you'd consider doing a consult for him anyway, even though he wasn't the winning bid. He said he bid on the date to get the consult."

Well, huh, that was cool. And ego soothing if I was honest with myself.

"Are we good?"

"We are sooooo good," Rory shouted while throwing his arms around us both.

"Yay-yay-yay-yay-yay," Jakob chanted. Naturally, we had to join in with him.

"Is Anders coming tonight?"

Rory shook his head. "No, the bossy boyfriend said he needed him to sit in a meeting tonight and take notes."

"What? Who has a business meeting on Halloween?" I was dumbfounded by this one.

"They are such assholes. If it's like last time, the family talks business while they eat dinner, and Anders has to take notes, so he has to eat later."

"I still don't understand why they can't just record it if it's that important."

I thought Jakob's question was a fair one because that was a dick move .

"Beats the hell out of me." Rory sighed. "But there are a lot of things I don't understand about their relationship. Owen, if it's possible, he's even more closed up about his relationships than you."

" Damn ."

"But when we texted earlier, Anders said the only thing that would make the meeting bearable would be a picture of us together."

"No phone, remember?" Jakob pouted.

"C'mon, Operation Save Anders's Selfie is a go."

I jumped off the sofa and grabbed Jakob's and Rory's hands. With a tight grip, I dragged them through the club, dodging puppies, otters, and more than a few bears. Once at the front, we stood in line because no one liked people who pulled rank. Jackie, the front desk receptionist, was working as fast as he could.

"Oh hey, Owen. How can I help you?" he asked when it was our turn.

"Hey, Jackie, I need to check my phone out, but we'll be in Barrett's office and then check it back in."

"Yeah, sure."

Jackie noted the computer system, retrieved it from the locked pouch, and placed it in my hand. The minute I had it, the three of us were off like a shot.

As a privacy precaution, cell phones were banned for everyone in the club, guests and employees, but Barrett made an exception for his office.

We crisscrossed the maze of corridors until we finally reached the office. I put in the lock code, dragged the boys in, and slammed the door.

We spent the next fifteen minutes taking and deleting selfies until we'd created the perfect series of silly pictures for Anders. We sent him the photos, but none of us were shocked when he didn't respond. It was a little disappointing that he hadn't because then we would know Anders could get some dinner after working all night. I hadn't attended many business meetings, but I'd never heard of someone being forced to take notes at a table while others ate. It sounded straight-up mean.

"We're good?" I looked at both Rory and Jakob.

"We're good and no more shenanigans," Rory said with a firm nod.

"No shenanigans," Jakob agreed.

"Oh, thank goodness because I'm so hungry, and surely, by now, they've set up the food."

We reversed course, dropped the phone off at the reception desk, and headed back to find our Daddies. They were exactly where we had left them, and each of us landed on a lap.

"Love, we were getting a little worried," Reed said as he smoothed Jakob's curls away from his eyes. "Did you get everything sorted out?"

"Yes, Papa. Everything is fine now. We told Owen we were sorry for butting our noses in."

Jakob snuggled in close to Reed. Jakob was dressed as a dinosaur, but I think Reed cheated by wearing scrubs and a coat.

"Yep, we are best-esties again. Anders is too, except he didn't really do anything wrong." Rory, dressed as the world's cutest bunny, looped his arm around Gabe's neck and then kissed his nose. Gabe wasn't in a costume at all. Boo. Hiss.

"Oh good, Bunny. I know how sad you were that Owen was upset with you."

"I'm the one who owes all of you an apology." Bear turned to Rory and then Jakob. "I should have told you no right off. It didn't occur to me that Owen would be upset because I was too excited about getting my way. If I'd thought about it for longer than two seconds, I would have known. I'm sorry to you both. "

"Thank you, Da," I whispered into his ear. "I love you."

Bear gathered me closer and gave me a little squeeze. "I love you too, baby, but I have to do one more thing." Bear cleared his throat before he addressed the group, "Given my behavior, I think a punishment is in order. Gabe? Reed?"

"Absolutely, it is," Reed guffawed, "but I'm not spanking your ass."

"Papa, my ass is the only one you get to spank."

Jakob's indigent protest could only be soothed with a kiss. It was cute. I caught a low warning about language and how he would end up with one if he didn't watch it. Jakob looked smug, so I couldn't imagine he was upset about the threats of a good time.

"Punishments are important," Gabe said with a smirk, but then couldn't keep a straight face and started laughing. Everyone knew he never, ever punished Rory because Gabe was a complete and utter pushover for his boy.

"I gotta idea," Rory offered.

"Yeah, what is it? You name it, and I'll do it."

"Uncle Barrett, you was naughty with littles, so you gotta be a little tonight, not a Daddy."

The suggestion perked Jakob right up, his pout about his Papa spanking anyone else completely forgotten. "Rory, you the smartest boy ever." Rory blushed and preened at Jakob's praise. "Yeah, Uncle Barrett, you gotta make a jack-o-lanterns wit us and…and…oh-oh-oh glitter! You gotta make a sparkly ghost."

Reed held up his hand to stop them before they went off the rails. "Hold on, guys, let's make sure Owen thinks it's a fair punishment."

It was beyond me how I'd ever thought I needed to worry about protecting myself around them. There wasn't a damn thing for me to worry about then or now. Rory looked at me from his Daddy's lap and gave me a wicked smile and a slow wink. Bear's punishment would keep him near me all night without anyone questioning why a naughty Da was doing all the little's activities. I returned his grin.

"Let's start with the glitter station, Da."