When she walked away, instead of leaving, too, he headed to the bar portion of the place.
Sitting down, he orders two drinks.
Doubles.
And once again, Alex Bartlett was alone in the world. Once more, he’d lost a little piece of himself.
So, he’d take care of himself.
The hard way.
Meanwhile….
Out in the lobby, her family was waiting for her. By the look on her face, they already knew how it all went down.
“Bad?” Gene asked.
She said one thing.
“Yep.”
This was likely the last thing she needed. There was already so much on her plate.
“What are you going to do?” Callen asked.
She was to the point.
“Alex is a grown man. He wants to know why, and hopefully, he asks Corbin, and they can work it out. He’s got a crush on him,” she admitted. “It’s clear that he’s taking this hard because he’s attracted to Corbin too. Like with Noah, he fell for him, and now, it’s heartbreak.”
Gene lifted a brow.
“Uh, he’s not gay. How is it that he’s fallen for not one, but two gay men and never had sex with men?”
She couldn’t tell them either.
His sex life wasn’t something she had any idea about. For all she knew, he had. Alex got wild when he got drunk.
What she did know was that Alex needed a strong male figure to lead the way. He needed someone to protect him, as he did the same.
He had granddad issues.
Welcome to the Blackhawk club, where father, and grandfather, issues ran rampant.
Been there.
Still doing that.
“Let’s just say he had a lot of trauma in his youth. To him, sex is nothing. He only uses it to hurt himself—not enjoy it. Alex would go the rest of his life without sex just to have faith in one person and to know they’d never let him down. He literally used to sleep at Noah’s place on the couch after a night of movies anddinner. He was dating the man without the benefits—because feeling loved mattered more to him. He was stupid in love with Noah, and never told him. That bit him in the ass when Lawless entered the picture.”
They didn’t say a word.
“We should try that,” she said, busting their asses. “Who needs sex?”
That got one of them protesting.
“Uh, no way,” Callen said. “I like sex. I already have to share and that’s cutting into my humpery.”
She stared at him.
