She shrugged, not ashamed in the least. “I didn’t trust him, and you asked me to stay close. That’s hardly snooping.”
“Having a lawyer for a wife works well for you, doesn’t it?” Curtis kept his tone light. He was too grateful to give Patty a hard time about her nosy habits.
“It does. Not so much when I have to deal with her, because man, she’s too damn good, but in comparison, everybody else is a piece of cake. Now, what do you plan on doing about the asshole?”
“Nothing—for now. I kicked him out and hopefully he gets the message. If not, I might have to talk to your wife.”
The smile on Patty’s face was that of a shark who had just homed in on a juicy seal. “You say the word, boss, and she’s going to crush that roach.”
“Thank you, Patty. Do you want the roses? I can’t stand looking at them, but they’re too beautiful to be thrown away.”
“I’ll take them.” Patty’s heels clicked past him. Once she had the roses removed from his sight, she gave him his schedule for the day before she returned to her own desk. Curtis looked at the long list of things he had to do, sighed, and got to work. At least this little morning drama would be of some entertainment value when he met the other boys tonight.
AT HALFpast seven, Curtis rang the bell to Dean’s home. Originally their meeting would have been at Collin’s place, but Richard had gotten a last-minute call from work, and Dean’s other babysitters had all been tied up as well, so they had decided to meet at Dean’s place. Curtis had picked up Emilio and Leeland on his way. A roaring sound told them Seth was on his way as well. Dean opened the door the same moment Seth parked his bike next to Curtis’s BMW. Peyton hopped down from behind Seth, a broad smile blinding them all as soon as he took off his helmet.
“Hello to you all!” Peyton sounded a little drunk.
Dean just grinned. “Hello to you, too, Mr. Speed Junkie. How fast did Seth go to have you beaming like that?”
“Hey, I didn’t break any traffic rules!” Seth sounded indignant. Dean simply stared at him. “Fine.” Seth huffed. “I might have gone a bit faster than strictly necessary on the highway, but it was almost empty, and we were running late!”
Dean shook his head. “One of these days…,” he muttered. “Just remember, there’s lots of people who would miss you two a lot.”
Seth stepped onto the stairs to the front door and hugged Dean. “I know, Dean. I know. I promise, I’m careful.”
“You better be. Curtis, it’s good to see you. I hope there is lots of news on the macaron front. Collin told me about meeting you and Andrew at the museum.”
“You had a date and didn’t tell us? I’m wounded, deeply wounded!” Peyton grabbed his shirt in the area of his heart in a dramatic fashion.
“I didn’t have a date without telling you.” Curtis did his best to keep a straight face. “I had two.”
“Two! What have I done wrong to be kept in the dark like this?” Peyton’s impersonation of a mortally wounded mama bear could have fooled Curtis if he hadn’t known the man for so long.
“That’s it. No more speed dates with Seth for you!” Dean put his hand on Peyton’s shoulder and dragged him toward the house. “You act even crazier than usual. Must be all the adrenaline in your system. As for you”—Dean glanced sternly at Curtis—“I hope for your sake the story is good. Two dates without saying a word!”
“I’m sorry.” Curtis grinned, showing how not-sorry he truly was. Dean rolled his eyes before he ushered them all in. The food was already there, in huge insulated boxes, waiting to be plated. Once they all had their favorites on the plates, they went to the dining room and started eating. As always, the first ten minutes were spent in happy silence, only broken by the occasional moan. For all of them, eating was a lot like good sex, and Curtis was more than happy to spend his time with men who knew how to enjoy life. As usual, Peyton was the first to be sated enough to start a conversation.
“Now, Curtis, I believe we all want to hear about yourtwodates.”
Curtis rolled his eyes, took another sip from his sparkling lemon water, and dabbed his mouth with a napkin, a move he knew would make Peyton explode with tension. When Peyton’s left eyelid started twitching, Curtis winked at him. “Well, as you all know, my first date with Andrew was kind of terrible.” They all winced. It had been bad. “I had resolved myself to forgetting about him, and I was on a good way, if I do say so myself, but then he sent me flowers and tickets to an exhibition at the Museum of Art.”
“Aww, that’s sweet. I can see how you could forgive him.” As an author, Dean tended to romanticize things, when he didn’t come up with gruesome ways of killing people off.
“I called him back to tell him that I already had tickets and that the exhibition would be full of rich people trying to outdo each other. He told me he had expected as much and that he was willing to try again if I let him. I couldn’t say no to such a determined apology.”
“Good for you!” Seth toasted Curtis with his Coke.
“It must have gone well, given the smug grin on your face.” Leeland elbowed him.
“It went very well. Andrew endured over two hours of pompous idiots ogling him while talking to me about all the money they have spent on art. Then Martin and Collin came, and he survived his first meeting with Martin in full-on protection mode as well.”
“He just doesn’t like how people often talk to me.” Collin defended his fiancé immediately.
“Which is a good thing, Collin. Nobody said anything to the contrary.” Dean was quick to interject. Collin took another bite from his pasta, a happy grin on his lips.
“What happened then?” Peyton was practically bouncing on his chair.
“Andrew took me to dinner at a diner, which was very romantic, and then we went to Whisper. Martin had invited us, and even though Andrew was a bit reluctant—this whole money thing makes him very uncomfortable—he decided to grab the bull by the horns, so to speak. We had a very nice evening there, with Dean, Collin, and Leeland. Emilio was there as well, but I doubt you noticed us. Garrett was doing a demonstration on caning.” Curtis dropped their names casually. He had no problem revealing that the three had known about one of his dates. Emilio blushed a little, though Curtis wasn’t sure if it was from embarrassment or arousal.
