Chapter 2

Chapter

Two

HUCK ANDERS

I meet Ava’s pale blue eyes over Si’s shoulder and have to stifle the chuckle that wants to burst out. The boy’s panicking, and I feel her arms tighten around him even as my own lock to keep him in place. What happened to him last night was fucked up, but fortunately, we were there to prevent things from really going off the rails.

Silas has been sober for a couple years, a fact we know damn well from watching the shit he went through to get clean. So when Ava and I arrived backstage for the afterparty celebrating the closing night of our son’s band’s tour and saw Si totally wasted, we knew something had happened. Something bad.

“What happened last night?” His voice sounds so small, and my heart aches for the guy who tries so hard to be strong and make good choices.

“I feel you panicking, boy. You don’t need to. We got you. You’re safe and unharmed.” Ava and I have known Silas Green since our son, Jameson, brought him home from college and announced he was dropping out to form a band.

At twenty, Si was a brash handful with no regard for himself and hardly any for anyone else. Raised by grandparents who considered their duty done when he turned eighteen, he was already adrift when Jameson introduced us all. Back then, he was just a punk-ass brat who drove my wife and me crazy. We were worried he’d drag Jameson down with him, but instead, our levelheaded son constantly reined Si in.

Only three years later, when their band, The Assembly, was topping charts and playing to sold out venues, Si hit rock bottom and nearly took down the whole band with him. It had been the hardest thing I ever did to stand chest-to-chest with the broken young man and order him into treatment. He’d been so scared the other guys, our son Jameson, their lead singer Quinn, and their bassist Rhodes would replace him.

I understood where his fears stemmed from, but all Ava and I could do was watch from the sidelines and help on the rare occasions Silas let us in. After all, it’s not as if the mother and father of his bandmate had any right to his life. Even if bringing him into our lives and hearts was something we’d felt the urge to do almost from the start.

Ava and I have always had, well, I guess it could be called a bit fluid of a marriage. When the kids were young, we kept ourselves mostly to ourselves. We wanted to avoid any awkward conversations about why Daddy had a boyfriend or why Mommy was sitting in another man’s lap. Things changed once the kids were grown and the nest was empty, which happened younger for us than for most, considering Ava and I were high school sweethearts who finished having kids by the time we were twenty.

My wife has spent the better part of her lifetime devoted to me, but it’s easy to see she’s got more love to give than one man can ever receive. And watching her share her love with men I choose for her has always been a kink that cranked my chain. If they were also men open to accepting a bit of extra attention from me, too, well, so much the better.

“What did I do?” His breaths are deeper, more regular, but his slender body still tremors in my arms. Ava tucks her head under his chin, nuzzling her lips against his throat, and I feel his near silent groan vibrate through his back into my chest.

“Not a damn thing, boy. You were drugged. Jameson thinks you picked up a water bottle meant for Rhodes. Said something about a stalker that’s been dogging him? Bob said he’s got security looking into it. You were pretty loopy, so Ava and I brought you to the room with us to sleep it off.”

Tension bleeds from his muscles until he’s a melty armful of man between us. Ava’s eyes sparkle up at me when she lifts her head from under his chin, and I realize it’s possible not every bit of him has relaxed. She winks at me, and I let her take the lead. After Si tugged off all his clothes last night and demanded we take off ours for a snuggle slumber party, he’d been nearly impossible to resist.

Of course we didn’t let anything sexual happen while he wasn’t sober enough to give consent. Still, there had been no way to silence the truths he’d spilled into the dark room once we were all in bed. I’d been shocked when he’d confessed to having a crush on not just Ava but me, as well, and that had cemented the fantasies my wife and I shared for longer than we should have.

Silas Green is meant to be ours. Meant to be the third we share between us. And after last night, she and I have decided it’s time to be done daydreaming about it and turn it into reality.