“Whattt?”
Guess he hadn’t seen that coming. “Fifty-fifty. On paper Tae would be my predecessor if anything happened to me, of course.”
“You and I both know he wouldn’t want any part of running the business.” Oscar knew his brother well, as I did.
“True,” I chuckled. “But it’s to ensure he was covered financially or job wise if anything happened to me. There would always be the option for him to sell his portion to you and then he’d be set. Either way, I need to know that Tae is taken care of in this merger. That is, if you agree to it?”
“Wow, Chuck, I’m blown away.”
“How so? You know I consider you and Samian family and Tae is my partner for life.” Working on verbalizing my feelings has been an ongoing challenge I’d be doing a better job with moving forward.
“Chuck, you coming into our lives was one of the best gifts our family has ever received. I know I was leery about you and my brother when you first mentioned dating him, but honestly, you’re the best man for Tae.”
I appreciated Oscar’s kind words, and he was well aware of our lifestyle. Being a Daddy wasn’t foreign to him, but as a bisexual male he wasn’t always greeted with open arms. Not until I introduced him to the club. Oscar was a great man and taking it upon himself to finish raising his brothers spoke to the depth of his maturity and love of family. I hoped he’d soon find his forever, especially now that Samian was eighteen.
“I want to ask him to marry me and I’d like your blessing.” By default, Oscar was my best friend whether he knew that or not. Guess it was past time I made sure he knew that. “As my best friend and hopefully as my brother-in-law.”
Oscar and I were out of our chairs, embracing each other. I was surprised to see tears in my eyes, but his as well as we drew back.
“Fuck man, you honor me. I’ve always considered you to be my best friend and sounding board and to me you’re already my brother-in-law. Hell, you and Tae have been together for what, three? Four years now?”
“Going on four. So, have we got your blessing?”
“You’ve always had it, though you never needed it. You take good care of Tae, hell of all three of us. I’d be honored to have you as a brother.”
“Good, that means you’d be equally as honored to be my best man too.”
“Fuck, you’re killing me, Chuck.”
“That’s a hell of a tag line, my friend.” One that I’d not soon forget. “So, it that a yes?” It played in my head like a song.
Oscar laughed. “It’s a yes to all of it.”
“Excellent. I’ll get our lawyer to draw up the documents. How’s Samian doing?” He’d just started his freshman year of college. Oscar, Tae and I were so proud of him. The kid was an honor student all through his primary and high school years. Never stepped so much as a toe out of line and always had his nose buried in a book. I’m sure watching his brother get arrested cured him of doing stupid shit.
“He’s doing great. Going for his business degree first then he’s talking about a bachelors in accounting.” Oscar shook his head. “So damn proud of that kid. We didn’t have it easy and he was so young when our grandmother died.”
Samian was the only brother who barely remembered their parents. He was still an infant when CPS removed them from their home, if you could call the dilapidated trailer the five of them were crammed into that. Their grandmother had been searching for them and took them right in when the cops reached out but given her age that was always a concern. Thankfully when she passed away Oscar was an adult and could care for the boys and didn’t even think twice about it. He too was a natural caretaker and I could easily picture him in a Daddy Dom lifestyle.
“Daddy?” my bleary-eyed boy wandered in, wiping his eyes as he curled up on my lap.
“Good morning, my love, how are you feeling?”
“Hungry.”
Oscar and I laughed. “He’s always been a bottomless pit.”
“Hey, Oscar. What’s new?” Tae perked up, noticing his brother was here.
“Nada. Just grabbing the paperwork for today’s jobs.” He snagged the papers he’d printed and slid them into his clipboard case. “Are you walking the Tetley job today, Chuck?”
“Yes, but I wanted to give Tae the good news before you left. Tae, I asked Oscar to be our business partner today. Fifty-fifty.”
“Ours? Don’t you mean your partner?”
“Nope,” I booped his nose. “What’s mine is yours and all that. This isourbusiness, so Oscar is nowourpartner. What do you think?” Tae’s eyes teared up and I feared I’d overstepped. “Should I have asked you first? Honey, I’m so sorry.”
“No, Daddy,” he swiped a hand across his eyes. “You have always been so good to us. I think it’s a wonderful idea.”
