Eddie closed his eyes and buried his face in Charlie’s neck.
“We’re gonna go, Cam,” Charlie said. “Dinner is getting cold.”
“Fine.” Andy could hear the pout in Cameron’s voice.
“You need to get some rest anyway,” Luke said. “You have class in the morning.”
“Be good, Cam,” Brad said. “Learn things.”
“I know. I will.” Cameron sighed. “I love you guys.”
They all shouted their love back at him, and Charlie ended the call, slipping the phone back into his pocket. He looked a little down, and Eddie wrapped a reassuring arm around him and pulled him close.
Andy took the brief respite in chatter to observe his brothers. All of them had found happiness, and that happiness took different forms. Cameron with Luke to balance out his emotional outbursts, Eddie, with his youth, grounded Charlie, and Levi, although just as sour as James, made him softer, then Brad and Theo…It was like Brad had lived his whole life hiding, but finally allowed himself to be seen, and only by Theo. It made Andy smile to know that his brothers had found partners who complimented them so perfectly.
And with that he looked at Leonidas, who had given him a home he didn’t even know he was looking for by giving him the freedom he never knew he’d been missing.
30
Leonidas
October in Cherry Creekreally was lovely.
It was cool and the air was less humid but not yet dry. It was barely fifty degrees, so he definitely needed a jacket, which Charlie had let him borrow since he hadn’t packed one when he’d come in the summer. The autumn weather wasn’t anything compared to the bright, sun-filled pictures Andy had been sending him from Hawaii, but he found it would do just the same.
Andy had been gone almost a full week, and from what Leonidas could tell, he’d spent half his time on the sand drinking daquiris and half of it firing off incendiary texts to Leonidas, demanding all sorts of sexual deviance. He’d expected both of these things, as it was what they’d agreed to.
Before Andy, Leonidas hadn’t understood how he could have all of the things he wanted at the same time; the freedom and the restriction, but Andy hadn’t ever questioned his ability to be both of those things, and so when Leonidas got the first text from Andy, telling him to look in the bottom drawer of the dresser, his blood had nearly boiled.
Andy had prepared for his trip in more ways than one, stocking an unused drawer with vibrators and plugs and the biggest tub of lube that Leonidas had ever seen. Since then, he’d been buzzed and plugged and stretched, and Andy hadn’t allowed him to come even once.
That was how he’d found himself at the studio with Greyson, helping him teach one of the paint and pour classes. He hadn’t had much else to do, and Greyson had asked for the favor because they’d had a bachelorette party from down the hill book and he didn’t think he could handle it on his own.
“Excuse me, sir?” A flighty looking blonde woman flagged him over. “I’m having a hard time with the coloring on the tree.”
She gave him a saccharine smile, and he flashed her a winning one, playing the part she’d cast him in.
“It’s easy,” he said, his accent maybe thicker than normal, maybe on purpose. He smiled and helped the woman hold the paint brush. “Just long strokes from the root to the top.”
“The tip?”
“Top.” He pointed toward the top of the tree where the greens expanded out into the branches.
“Right.” She giggled. “The top.”
Leonidas’s phone vibrated in his back pocket, and he startled, stepping away. He had never been one to carry a phone around the way everyone else seemed to, but Andy was insistent that he start, especially with them traveling on their own. It was part of his plan, he’d explained, because how else could they always be together if they were not together?
“Is that better?” he asked.
She answered with another sweet smile, then brushed a shaky line in the direction he’d showed her. Leonidas weaved through the tables toward the front of the room where Greyson stood near the canvas he used for demonstration.
“You need less pouring, more painting,” Leonidas whispered.
“Pouring equals tips,” Greyson answered with a smile. “Now let’s rinse the brush and get some black to do some detailing. This part might be a little complicated, but have another drink to relax and I think you’ll be fine.”
“You’re incorrigible.”
“I need to support the town somehow.”
