Chapter Thirteen
Family dinnerwith the Eldridge Clan was an interesting experience, to say the least. My family dinners growing up had always been formal affairs with everyone on their best behavior and dressed up. Tonight, I had been prepared to wear my khakis again, but Ladd told me I would be way overdressed. He was wearing jeans, a collared shirt, and a sweatshirt. I talked him into wearing a bowtie with it though. He laughed at me but did it to make me happy.
We hadn’t gone to the building today since there were workers there all day dealing with the mold situation. After waking up to a spectacular blow job from Ladd, I had offered to reciprocate, but he’d refused. He said he wanted to wait and this morning was just for me. My sweet man was quickly worming his way deep into my heart. So after a quick shower and simple breakfast of fruit and oatmeal, we had spent the day exploring some of the smaller cities surrounding Fairpoint. It was a wonderful day, but I was still apprehensive about dinner.
After we had gotten dressed, with me in jeans and a flannel shirt and praying I was dressed okay, Ladd grabbed my hand, and we walked over to the main house. It was so fantastic just to hold Ladd’s hand and walk with him in the cool evening breeze coming in from the Bay. Getting off was great, and I had loved everything we’d done last night and this morning, but this was what I had missed most about being in a relationship. There was something so simple and yet so profound about being connected with another person in public. At that moment, we weren’t two separate people. We were a team. Holding hands had always given me the feeling that if we could just hold on to each other, we could overcome anything. Lachlan would take the piss out of me for being romantic again, but I didn’t care. At this moment, all was right with the world.
When we got to the house, James was in the kitchen stirring something in the biggest pot I had ever seen. Ladd informed me we were having Uncle James’s famous gumbo tonight, so everyone would be here. No one missed James’s gumbo. James was in his zone. “We just have to make sure we get Lillian to make the rice when she gets here,” he told us. “And we need to keep Helen away from the kitchen at all costs. She’ll burn water if we let her get near it, but she’s convinced that she’s a gourmet cook. Gwen usually helps us keep her wrangled, but, Connor, help keep an eye out would you? She can get sneaky.”
James went back to the stove, and Ladd and I got busy setting the table. As we finished up, the front door banged open, and Rhett was roughly pushed through the doorway by a scowling Remy. Both of them had their hair on the longer side, and it tended to fly away on top. Rhett was dressed in jeans and a button-down shirt. Remy had jeans, too, but he had a black tee and a beat up leather jacket over it. Two of his tattoos traveled colorfully up his neck on each side. I hadn’t seen what they were, but I really wanted to know. He had ink on both hands, and I could assume several other places as well. I could only imagine with his personality. His right eyebrow was pierced with a silver hoop, and his left nostril had a silver stud. As I watched the twins walk side by side into the dining room, I saw how much they did look alike. I hadn’t met Rhett yet, but he looked like an exact copy of Remy, minus the piercings and tattoos. When you put them side by side, they were like a bad boy before and after photo.
Remy was carrying a case of beer under one arm and a casserole dish in the other hand. Rhett had one arm loaded down with loaves of French bread. He jostled the loaves around and held out his hand, “Connor, nice to finally meet you, man. I’ve heard good things about you from everyone.” He gave me a good firm shake, then gave Ladd a one armed side hug, “Good to see you, too, big bro.” He finished by ruffling Ladd’s hair which just managed to piss him off.
“Bastard, I told you to quit doing that shit! I know you’re taller than I am, but that doesn’t give you the right to treat me like your kid.”
Rhett just snorted at him and went into the kitchen with his armload of bread. Drawn into the dining room by Ladd yelling at Rhett, Remy wandered into the room. When he noticed me standing next to Ladd, finishing up the table, his usual scowl got fiercer.
“Hey, what’s Connor doing here? I didn’t know we could bring dates to family dinner.” He yelled to the whole house. “If I had known that, I could have brought—”
“No, you couldn’t have.” Rhett interrupted from the kitchen.
“But she was fun.” Remy whined. It wasn’t a voice I expected to come from such a badass. It was kind of cute. Ladd looked at me and rolled his eyes so hard I thought he’d lose his balance.
“Okay, well if not her, then I could have brought—”
“Hell No!” Rhett yelled from the kitchen yet again. I looked around the doorway and noticed he was making garlic bread out of the loaves of bread and wasn’t even looking at his brother. There must be something to the whole twin mind meld thing. Huh, who knew?
“What was wrong with him? He was cute and funny, and he had the most unbelievable ass.”
Rhett stopped what he was doing and stepped into the dining room to point his finger in Remy’s face to make his point crystal clear.
“That twink was louder than a three-alarm fire bell. All night long all I heard was,Harder, Daddy! Yeah, that’s it, spank your boy, Daddy!I swear I didn’t get two hours of sleep that night. So, no, your booty call twink would not have been eligible for family dinner, no matter how fine his ass might be.” Rhett turned to go back into the kitchen, then whipped back around making a complete circle, “And another thing, he drank all of my orange juice the next morning and then put the empty container back into the fridge. Who the hell does that?”
While the twins continued to argue over the OJ and the twink, I leaned over to whisper into Ladd’s ear.
“I take it Remy is an equal opportunity dater?”
Ladd tilted his head in my direction and nodded, never letting his eyes stray from his little brothers. It was like watching someone argue with themselves. It was fascinating and freaky. I tuned back in to listen to the escalating argument.
“Plus the last dude you fucked left the cabinet door open in the kitchen, and I hit my head on it, only to also find out he used the last of the toilet paper and didn’t replace the roll. So, no, you couldn’t have brought that glorified one night stand to family night either. Get over yourself, Remy, and admit you can’t commit long enough to even have a date, let alone have someone like Connor.”
Remy flinched before he bowed back up to his brother and yelled, “Well at least I’m out there looking unlike you, Rhett! If I didn’t know you liked women, I’d be convinced you’re closeted and afraid to come out!” At this, Rhett had obviously had enough. He grabbed Remy, balling his hands up in the front of his jacket and pushed him back until he fell into one of the dining room chairs. I moved forward to separate them, but Ladd grabbed me by the hand and shook his head.
“They need to work it out on their own. I have a feeling this has been coming on for a while.”
Rhett pushed into Remy’s chest as he spoke now, he was using a lower tone, but it was even more forceful for the lack of volume.
“You know what it is for me, just like I know what it is for you, Remy. I’m looking for my one, and I refuse to settle for anything less. I’m not gonna go from one mediocre lay to the next. That’s not what I want, and it’s not me. I know for a fact you’re looking for your one and only, too. You can deny it all you want, but you’re desperately hooking up with men and women trying to find your missing piece and never finding it. But what you haven’t thought about is maybe you’re looking in the wrong places, or it’s not time yet. When it’s your time, you’ll meet them, Remy. You just have to be patient and believe in yourself that you’ll recognize them when they come along.”
Rhett leaned down to the now silent Remy, whispered into his ear and gave him a huge hug. For a minute, Remy hung onto his twin for dear life. The front door opened again announcing the rest of the family was arriving and the moment was over. Rhett let go of Remy with one more quick squeeze and went back into the kitchen, leaving Remy to jump up and greet the new arrivals to see if they needed any help. Now that the storm had blown over, they acted like it had never happened at all.
Neither one acknowledged the profound moment I had just witnessed. It hadn’t even fazed them, but I couldn’t help noticing what Rhett had told Remy was almost the same as what Lachlan had told me all those weeks ago. We were all looking for our forever. We just needed to recognize it when it came along. On the tail end of that thought, I caught a glimpse of Ladd in the next room saying hello to Taylor and getting hugged by Helen and Lillian when I had an epiphany. Ladd was my one. It was early and new, but he was what I’d been looking for. I was going to fight tooth and nail to make it work.
When Lillian saw me, she made a beeline over and reached up to hug me around my waist. “Connor, it’s so good to finally meet you. I wanted to catch you the other night, but it was so busy. I wanted to see if you’d be interested in making a mold for my collection. With your”—she eyed me up and down with a smirk—“size, I’m sure you would make a fabulous tablet holder.” I almost choked on my own spit and looked for help from Ladd. There was no help there though because he was giggling like a loon. I looked past him and saw Remy and a newly arrived Taylor standing there smothering their own laughter at my expense. Just fucking great!
“Um, I’m not sure I could make a tablet holder actually.”
Her face fell, and she looked so embarrassed all of a sudden. “Oh, my, I’m so sorry, Connor. I just assumed, sweetie. Not everyone lives up to expectations. I get it. You could make a lovely phone holder.” I heard the barks of laughter coming from Remy and Taylor and began to protest again.
