Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Gage

“You’ve been staring at your phone like you’re waiting for a dick pic,” came a familiar voice from behind me.

Turning to look over my shoulder, I threw Quinn a glare. “Funny. Can’t I be happy that my boyfriend’s texting me?”

He smirked while ripping the door to his locker open and shoving his dirty shirt inside. “Not much texting going on, I see.”

He was such a turd, sometimes. Especially since getting together with Jase. Thankfully, that man had softened out our more than any of us could’ve ever imagined. Before they’d gotten together, they were like oil and water.

Though, I guess that came with the territory when one party used to bully the other in high school.

“He got his one year chip,” I said, showing off the picture on my phone.”

Quinn’s eyes softened. “Hey, man. That’s great. Sorry, I wasn’t trying to be a dick. I was only ragging on you because you’ve been distracted all day. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you take a boot to the face like that.”

I snorted at the memory of Mark slinging his turn-outs at me while climbing out of the fire truck. The damn thing had caught me right on the side of the head, too. Thankfully, the tread was thick enough that it’d bounced right off without leaving much of a dent behind, but damn was it embarrassing.

Quinn was right, though. I’d been distracted since this morning when I’d woken up to Xavier telling me he was on his way to his AA meeting to celebrate his one year. Pride didn’t even begin to cover it on how I felt about him accomplishing something so massive. He’d been working so hard on himself over the past year since quitting drinking.

That chip was more than just a small token. It was a symbol that he’d gone and done that damn thing, changing his life for the better. Meeting him and learning about his drinking had been tough. Especially seeing him as the kind of soul that didn’t deserve to suffer the way he had in life.

Sure, he’d messed up plenty, but no one deserved to go through that shit.

“It’s all good,” I said, swinging my leg over to the other side of the bench I’d been sitting on for the past twenty minutes. My ass was numb as I stood, making the pins and needles in my leg feel hot. Slapping my ass cheeks a few times did nothing, either.

Guess I just had to ride it out.

Quinn grinned at me. “Hey, you hear about the Christmas party Captain Clarke’s making us throw? I totally put Jase on the planning committee.”

“You wrote him in?” I tsked and shook my head. “How cruel. You know he can’t decorate for shit.”

He let out a roarous laugh. “Yeah, that’s the point. Come on, I have to pick on him somehow. It’s what keeps our sex life alive.”

That had me rolling my eyes. Leave it to Quinn to keep up with the light negging. I swear, you could take a man out of high school but you couldn’t reform a former bully completely. At least these pranks were much more tame compared to the shit Jase was put through back when he was a kid.

“It’s all in good fun, I swear.” Quinn lifted his hands up on either side of his head.

“What are you two asswipes talking about?” Jase was walking into the locker room, shedding his shirt that was soaked in sweat. The hair on his chest, normally wiry and curly, was pressed down on his clammy skin.

“Apparently he signed you up for the decoration committee for our Christmas party,” I said, smirking when Quinn threw me a glare for ratting him out. I was nothing if not the occasional pot stirrer.

“Really,” Jase drawled, looking over at his boyfriend. He grabbed the other man by his waist, slamming him back against the lockers and pinned him there with his body. “Do I have to teach you a lesson in behaving, Sanders?”

Quinn let out a breathy laugh when Jase reached around and slapped his ass cheek, holding it in a firm grip. “I mean… I wouldn’t mind.”

Rolling my eyes, I slammed my own locker shut. These fucking horn-dogs. “Can you two get a fucking room?”

At this point, they were completely ignoring me in favor of Jase running his tongue up Quinn’s neck while the other man let out a slutty moan. It annoyed me more than it should have—okay, maybe I was kind of jealous now that I thought about it.

With my significant other on the other side of the damn country, watching these two assholes get it on was giving me a serious case of blue balls. Don’t get me wrong, phone sex with Xavier and sending him sassy pictures throughout the day was all fine and good but it was nothing compared to the real thing.

I craved having him pressed up against me, his dick pounding into me while I begged for mercy. Replicating that with a dildo didn’t exactly suffice much anymore, no matter how many sweet words Xavier whispered to me on the other end of the phone.

Bypassing the two lovebirds, I strolled out into the fire station, spotting Ellie over by the bulletin board. “That for the party?”

She flicked her hair over her shoulder, the pen in her hand tapping her clipboard in quick succession. “Yeah. Cap wants us all to pitch in for something. I’m thinking a potluck.”

“I’m not much in the ways of the kitchen, so as long as you’re good with store-bought, I’m down.”

She turned and narrowed her eyes at me. “What kind of store bought?”

“Uh… the normal kind?”

Ellie rolled her eyes. “Earth to Gage. You have to at least make to seem homemade.”

Oh.

“Then from Krista’s Scratch Kitchen down the street.”

She grinned. “Excellent. I’ll put you down for being in charge of the main course.”

What the hell?

She trotted off to find her next victim, leaving me standing by the bulletin board like a complete dumbass. Such was the way of Ellie, though. She was always such a little viper that you didn’t realize bit you until much too late.

That was also part of her charm, though.

“She get you, too?” Carmen asked, wandering over.

“Yeah. You?”

She laughed. “Oh yeah. By the end of today, she’ll have everyone signed up on the damn list.”

Just as I was about to hit her back with another comment about Ellie, my pocket buzzed. Digging my phone out, I was expected to see Xavier’s name pop up, but to my surprise, it was Greyson’s.

Excusing myself from our conversation, I ducked out the left door of the firehouse and out the back alley where it was much more quiet.

“Hey, you, long time no talk.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Greyson said. “Wanted to call in and check on you.”

“Worried I took a nasty fall and couldn’t get up?”

I could hear the grin in his voice as he said, “You caught me, old man.”

I rolled my eyes.

Little shit.

My brothers loved picking on my age despite them being not so far behind me. Now that they were both nineteen, they were going to get a nice little dose of reality once they got up to be my age and their bones were beginning to creak every time they rolled out of bed.

“Ha, ha. Very funny.”

“I know. Poor, Ash. I got the smarts and the humor.”

Smirking, I quipped back. “But not the beauty.”

He let out an offended gasp. “Rude. I’m taking you off my Christmas card list.”

“Hey, now. Don’t be saying that. You’re coming home for Christmas, mister.”

There was a weird pause on the other end of the line. One that I didn’t like at all. “Well…”

Uh-uh, no way. This was not happening. My baby brothers were both going to come home to me for the holidays because I wasn’t going to be taking any other excuse other than an act of god. They’d been away from home long enough to give me grays every time I looked in the damn mirror by being out in the world without me.

If I was about to spend a holiday by myself—my first holiday without them—I was going to fucking lose it. Xavier was going to have to commit me to the nearest psych ward.

“Grey, don’t you dare,” I warned.

“It’s just… my boss is kind of being a hardass and wants me to stay through the holidays.”

I wanted to groan. This fucking boss of his was not only messing with me reuniting with my brother after him being gone for almost an entire fucking year, but was slowly worming his way into Grey’s life in more ways than what I was comfortable with.

To me, it was becoming increasingly obvious that my little brother’s crush on the man was going from juvenile puppy love to something that was full-blown. How deep it really was, I had no idea. Greyson wasn’t exactly chatty on the subject. But the unspoken shit said plenty as it was.

“Grey, you’re coming home.” My tone was firm. There was no option of him telling me ‘no’. I’d fly out to Texas and drag his sorry ass back home kicking and screaming if I had to.

“We’ll see,” was all he said to that.

“I mean it, Grey. You and Ash are coming home for the holidays.”

“Do we get to meet this infamous Xavier if we do?”

“Seriously?”

“What?” Greyson’s voice flipped from challenging to all innocent. “Come on. You talk about him enough whenever we call. Isn’t Christmas the perfect time to introduce us?”

I had a funny feeling that was the original reason for my brother calling. If Asher hadn’t put him up to it first, then they definitely conspired together. I’d been slowly working my way into introducing Xavier into their lives with small mentions here and there about him whenever they called me.

It wasn’t much, sure, but I wasn’t completely leaving them in the dark about it, either. I wanted my brothers to get to know my boyfriend, even if he was across the damn country. At some point, I would actually like for us all to meet and hang out, mostly so I could get a read on whether my brothers approved or not.

It sounded silly to want that from two nineteen year olds when I was well into my adulthood and didn’t need their approval in the slightest. However, it would also mean a lot to me, too. My history of dating had never been stellar in the past, with me hardly bringing anyone home on top of that.

Certainly not to meet my brothers.

So doing this with Xavier meant a lot. He meant a lot to me. I loved that man and hopefully, eventually, my brothers would, too.

“How about I think about it and get back to you,” I finally said.

Greyson made a small noise. “Fine. I’ll get back to you about Christmas, too.”

“Tell your boss that if he doesn’t give you time off, he’s going to find me on his doorstep.”

He huffed. “Fine.”

“I love you, Grey.”

“Yeah, yeah. I love you, too. Asher should be calling later.”

I flipped my wrist up to check my watch; I had about an hour before that happened. With him already having graduated boot camp and started on his specialized training, that typically ended around five and dinner was at six.

“Got it, thanks.”

After ending out call, I pulled my phone away from my ear and stared down at the log. As much as I hassled my brothers, I did mean what I said about seeing them. They could play it off as a joke all they wanted but when push came to shove, they were mine.

We were brothers in name, but honestly, they were practically my kids. I’d raised them proudly, despite my struggles in doing so over the years. Them leaving the nest and becoming successful was a testament to what I’d sacrificed in order to cultivate them into the young men they’d become.

It hurt, of course, them leaving me behind to go spread their wings and fly. But damn if I wasn’t proud, too.

Pulling up Xavier’s text thread, I shot him a quick message about a phone call later before heading back into the station.

Hopefully, my brothers weren’t going to give me any more grief about coming home.

Because if I had one thing going for me, it was following through with my promises.