Ollie nodded, grin turning mischievous. “Yeah. He’ll be here later, and you can meet him. Don’t let his stern face scare you. He’s really a big softie.”
A slender guy around his and Ollie’s age stepped up to the table carrying a large stand mixer awkwardly. Emmett knew from experience that those things wereheavy. The guy—who had to be CJ—snorted at Ollie’s words as he set the machine on a clear space. “No, he isn’t. But he isn’tmean. He’s just… serious. And kind of quiet.”
“He speaks just fine with his body,” Ollie said, giving an exaggerated shiver and fanning himself. “His dick is fluent in?—”
“Okay, that’s enough,” a large Latino man said, startling Emmett into nearly dropping his box. He hadn’t seen the man come in behind them. The silver in his beard and hair, along with his darker skin, let Emmett peg him as the club’s President, Tomas, even though his vest wasn’t visible under his coat. “Howmany times do I need to walk in on you talking about Six’s fucking cock, Ol?”
Emmett’s face flamed at the crude words, but he was also utterly captivated by these people and their easy and obvious affection for one another.
Smiling in a way that made him look way more innocent than he was, Ollie shrugged. “CJ asked.”
CJ laughed loudly. “Um, no, I didn’t. Don’t try and get me into trouble.”
“Well, Emmett needed to know?—”
“He really doesn’t,” Roni interrupted.
“I really don’t,” Emmett chipped in, smiling shyly when Tomas turned and grinned at him.
“You’re Viper’s roommate, right?” Tomas asked as he held out a hand. Emmett shook it and nodded, shivering at the rough texture of the man’s large palm and the way he looked right at him, face stern in a way that had Emmett’s Dom radar pinging. “I’m glad you were finally able to come by. I wish I could stay, but I have some business to attend to. Viper.”
She nodded but waited until he walked away before saying, “I’ll be in the back in his office if you need me, okay?”
Emmett’s eyes widened. She was leaving him? Sure, he knew Ollie—and CJ seemed nice, and there was a ridiculously handsome man coming out of the kitchen who he recognized as Knuckles from Rebel Yell’s Instagram—buttheyweren’t his family, were they? He didn’t know how to tell her he wasn’t okay with her leaving without coming across as needy.
He could stand on his own two feet and frost some cookies… couldn’t he?
“Um, okay.”
Her smile said he wasn’t fooling her one bit, but she just ruffled his hair before turning and following Tomas. “I’ll be back in a bit.”
“Hey,” Knuckles said, standing on the other side of the table and extending his closed fist. The wordHOLDwas tattooed on the flat space of his fingers.
Feeling awkward, Emmett bumped it with his own. “Hi.”
“Don’t mind Ollie,” CJ said, holding the plug for the mixer in one hand and turning around in a circle like an outlet would magically appear within reach of the cord. “He just doesn’t have boundaries. He’s harmless though.”
“I have boundaries! They’re just different than yours,” Ollie said, planting one hand on his hip and jutting it out in a pose that shouldn’t be as sexy as it was. “Emmett knows that.”
Did he? Emmett set his box on the ground and pulled his superhero apron out of it, putting it on. He was wearing another one of his Christmas sweaters, though it was thick and warm and not thin and formfitting like Ollie’s. It also had Snoopy on it wearing a Santa hat.
“Wait. What the hell?” Ollie was suddenly right in front of him, grabbing the edge of his apron. Emmett’s stomach began to sink. He wished he’d had a plain one to bring instead, but he didn’townplain things. But then Ollie continued. “I want one of these!”
Realizing he needed to relax and stop assuming the worst, he smiled and nodded as he bit his lip in thought. “Um, I think I brought another one. You can use it if you want.”
Ollie clapped and nodded fast, face lighting up with excitement. “Yes! Is it superhero too?”
“No, but we can trade if you like.” He bent over and dug through his box. Cold air swept in as someone else came through the door, but he focused on finding his outer space apron. Once he found it, he stood and held it out to Ollie with a triumphant grin, but Ollie didn’t notice, too busy laughing at something behind Emmett.
When he looked over his shoulder, the floor shifted beneath his feet as he met the stunned eyes of the last person he’d ever expected to see in the Devil’s Hands clubhouse. A man he’d known most of his life, though he hadn’t seen him in years. And the man who’d made him realize at sixteen that he’d never be satisfied in a relationship unless he had someonelikehim taking care of him.
His oldest brother’s best friend, Grayson Bloom.
“Gray?”
2
“Gray?”
