“It’s so peaceful out here,” Reid said, taking in the calmness of the lake.
“You call that peaceful?” Nikolai said, pointing over his shoulder at Caden and Blade, who were fighting over a fishing rod. Marcus was just sitting in the boat, shaking his head as hischildrenargued over the rod.
Reid glanced over at the commotion, then turned back to Niko. “Well, it’s peaceful over here.”
Niko half chuckled.
“Can I ask you a personal question?” Reid asked, his voice suddenly low and serious.
Niko nodded.
“How come you aren’t seeing anyone?”
Taking in a breath of air, Niko looked out over the water, wondering why himself.
“I guess I’ve never really met anyone I connected with on that kind of level.” That was the best answer he could come up with.
The truth was that he couldn’t imagine spending every day and night with any of his sexual partners. Well, all except for perhaps one.
But that was crazy talk. He wasn’t gay.
You didn’t just wake up one day in your thirties and suddenly decide you liked dick and wanted to marry it. That wasn’t how real life operated.
“How about you?” Niko asked, curious as to why his old friend hadn’t been snatched up. He was a good-looking guy, with a sweet personality and a pretty good dick.
Reid shrugged his shoulders.
“I don’t know. Given everything we went through with Mikhail and then me being sold, I’m not sure there’s anyone who would really understand me as a person. Understand why I sometimes wake up at night in a cold sweat, or why I sometimes go days without talking. When people see that kind of behavior, they think that you’re sick or weird and don’t want to be around it. So, I guess I never really gave it a try.”
“The only thing weird about you is your fashion sense. Lime-green booty shorts for running? Please. Who are you trying to attract? All the hippies and their flower-power groupies?” Niko added, giving his friend a shake of his head.
Reid chuckled.
“Yeah, I guess you have to be sick in the head to wear what your best friend gave you.”
Hearing Reid refer to him as his best friend warmed Nikolai’s heart. It was nice having someone around who really understood him and wanted to be there with him.
The two of them had been through so much together when they were younger. Reid was right. No outsider would ever truly understand them.
A loud splash, followed by a barrage of laughter, caught their attention.
Niko glanced over his shoulder to see Blade wiping the water from his eyes as he reached for the side of the boat. Caden sat on the end, holding the fishing rod with a huge smirk on his face.
“You’re getting weak, old man,” Caden taunted, reaching for some bait to attach to his line.
“Your friends have issues,” Reid said nonchalantly.
“Yeah. They are the brothers I never had but always wanted.”
After fishing, they all went for a swim, then spent the afternoon drinking and ribbing one another. Caden wouldn’t stop teasing Blade, while Marcus kept telling embarrassing stories from when Ace was younger.
Listening to Ace plot Marcus’s murder was one of the highlights of the night. The man was a devious little monster.
“I won’t even be a suspect!” Ace said confidently. He was in the process of revising his “Marcus Murder Plan.”
“The first person they are going to suspect is the jealous younger brother,” Caden argued, laughing as he took a swig of his beer. He was leaning back against a rock, with Lucas safely tucked between his bent knees.
“Of course they will. But I’ve got the ultimate secret weapon,” Ace shouted. Well, he wasn’t exactly shouting. He was talking in his regular voice; it was just set to Latino mode.
