“Give him time.” Adam’s strong hand held him possessively, and Rico wondered how he’d managed to live without being touched all these years. “He may come around.”
“I’m not holding my breath,” he muttered to himself, then faced the window, effectively cutting off the conversation.
Gideon and Jonah sat silent, not saying a word during the ten-minute drive to the store. Even after they’d arrived and Jonah went to put on a pot of coffee, Rico had little to say. The day, which had started out so joyful and promising, had disintegrated into a shit show. It wasn’t fair to ruin this day for Adam. He’d worked too hard and it meant too much in his career. They sat at the small round table in the front and stared at each other.
Unable to stand Adam and Gideon’s pitying looks any longer, Rico attempted to lighten the mood. “Gid, man. Make sure Jonah doesn’t blow anything up back there. We only just got everything set up back to normal.” After two mishaps in the kitchen, Jonah’s lack of cooking skills had become legendary and not in a good way.
“I heard that,” called Jonah from the back. “What’re you guys, elephants? Don’t you ever forget anything?”
“No.” He and Gideon spoke simultaneously, and they fell apart, snorting with laughter. It felt good to let go. Jonah rejoined them and set a cup of steaming coffee in front of Rico, then gave one to Gideon.
“Go ahead. Enjoy yourselves at my expense.”
“Aww, babe. You know I love you even if you do set the place on fire every time you make toast.”
Jonah’s eyes danced with laughter. “It’s not my fault that stupid knob on the toaster doesn’t work.”
The three of them continued to laugh, but Adam failed to acknowledge their hilarity and paced up and down the store, his face full of thunder. “I can’t believe those bastards had the nerve to jump on you like that.”
“Forget about it.” Rico caught him by the arm as he walked by and held on, trying to soothe him. “I’m used to it. And I wouldn’t worry too much. My father and the press love each other. He’ll tell them how he rejected me, his uptight constituents will breathe a sigh of relief, and he can go back to forgetting he has a son.”
Adam grimaced. “It isn’t right.”
“Don’t you know?” Rico’s tight smile was painful. “Since when does it being not right make a difference?”
They spent the rest of the afternoon discussing new ideas for the store. Both he and Gideon agreed to extend the store hours during the week and close earlier on the weekend. Now that he had someone to come home to, Rico no longer needed to stay late at the store. Even more exciting was their plan to join some of the online delivery services. Rico took copious notes, and the two of them sketched out a tentative plan to use high-school students to deliver the food orders. From all the research he’d done, Rico believed the future for their business lay in expanding their base, and Jonah offered to look into synagogues and schools that had no kitchen facilities, where they could become the in-house caterer.
Rico tossed the pen down. “Damn. We may need to hire more people full-time with all these ideas.”
Giving Rico his cocky grin, Gideon drained his fourth—or was it fifth?—cup of coffee.
“Livin’ the dream, right?”
They sure as hell were…with Rico’s dream now including Adam.
It was close to dinnertime before they finished setting all their plans to paper, and Rico’s excitement grew as he saw a future in front of him where before he’d lived day-to-day.
Adam’s phone buzzed, and his face creased. “Listen, I need to go back to the firehouse. Patrick said Dixon wants to talk to me about something.”
“Can I come? I need to pick up some of the equipment I left when I cooked for Judy’s party.”
Keeping busy and not dwelling on the negativity of the day could only help him.
“Sure.” Adam undid the top of his uniform, and Rico made a mental note to have Adam wear it more often. Like when they were alone and getting ready for bed, so he could strip him out of it slowly. “I want to get out of this getup, anyway, and I can change in the locker room.”
“See you later, guys.” He waved to Gideon and Jonah. “We have to talk about the grand reopening next week.”
“Okay. Call you later.”
He and Adam walked outside, and Adam took his hand. “No need to hide anymore, right?”
“Nope.” At a leisurely pace they headed down the block, passing the neatly tended brownstones with their colorful profusion of summer roses, pansies, impatiens, and crimson geraniums in pots on the stoops.
“Adam.”
They stopped in front of a townhouse with a beautiful iron scrollwork gate. A diminutive old man dressed in slacks and a polo with a cap on his head waved to them as they approached and opened the gate.
“Mr. D. How are you?”
