We?I wasn’t sure I was okay with his mom knowing he helped me change. I might be his little buddy, but I was a big boy, too.
And wasn’t that some of the funniest stuff I’d thought all day?A big boy? Really?
“Come on, boys. Your uncle helped me pick up some plants for the front of the house and I want to get them in,” she explained as she handed each of us a plate. I listened, even though I was sure she was speaking to Jay more than me. “I swear, that man doesn’t understand the meaning of taking it easy. He tore up the beds in front weeks ago and I wasn’t ready to do anything with them. Now, he’s talking about inside renovations. This is not what I envisioned when I bought a fixer upper.”
“You knew he was like that before you invited him to move into the garage apartment.” He sounded bitter that his uncle lived up there instead of him. I understood why that would be difficult, but I couldn’t find it in myself to be upset on his behalf. If he hadn’t been living at Talbert, we never would have met. I was glad his mom gave the apartment to his uncle.
“Yes, but then you wouldn’t have met this cutie.” I swear, it wouldn’t have shocked me if she had reached over to pinch my cheeks. “You boys get something to eat, although I know it won’t live up to your roommate’s cooking. I do have a roast in the crock pot for you boys to eat tonight, and there’s a container of cookies for you to take back when you leave.”
“You’re the best.” Jay finally released me long enough to draw his mom into a tight hug. “Before you know it, Matt’s going to insist on coming over on the weekends for oven-fresh treats, and Brandon’s going to take over your kitchen.”
“You say that as if it’s a bad thing.” His mom laughed. “Tell him to give you a shopping list and I’ll even make sure it’s stocked before you boys get here.”
I tried to imagine a life where all four of us could escape the suites for a weekend. It would be nice to have a place where Matt and I could play without feeling like we were on top of one another. Jay and Brandon would be sitting on the couch chatting, as they watched the two of us. And then they’d put us down for naptime. Matt needed to be in a place where he could be him. Jay’s mom’s house could be that place.
I tugged on Jay’s arm, pulling him off to the side. “What’s up, buddy?”
“Can we invite them to come with us sometime?” It was too early in the visit to know for certain that we could be ourselves here, but I had a good feeling about Jay’s mom. She was the one who found my binkie and she didn’t think anything less of me. She was nice, and Jay was right; I felt loved already.
“Does my boy want to have a playdate?” Jay and I had talked a lot about Matt and how he didn’t know what kind of little he was. Jay agreed that I could help him. He’d mentioned The Lodge as a possibility, but I wasn’t sure I was ready go back there yet. Being little around people I didn’t know was scary.
“I think so. Would your mom be okay with that? Can Matt and I play in your bedroom?” I was eager to get upstairs and see the toys Jayden said his mom still kept in his bedroom even though he’d outgrown them.
“That’s a great idea.” Jay kissed me before guiding me over to the counter. “Let’s get you something to eat, and then maybe you can lay down for a nap.”
“Jaaaaaaaaay,” I whined. He wasn’t even trying to be quiet. His mom giggled before turning away. At least she was attempting to let me hold onto a thread of my dignity. Out of the corner of my mouth, I scolded him. “Don’t say things like that in front of your mom. She’ll think I’m—”
I couldn’t get the last word out when Jay leveled me with a glare. Crud. I wasn’t supposed to talk bad about myself. If I didn’t watch it, I was going to get a time-out. I couldn’t imagine Jay would spank me with his mom right there.
“Sweetie, you’re fine,” his mom reassured me. “Trust me, I’ve spent enough time around my brother, Jay’s uncle, that nothing fazes me at this point. If Jayden says you need a nap, you should probably listen to him.”
Shoot me now.His mom totally knew. There was no way she didn’t, but she wasn’t acting like it was anything unusual to suggest her son’s boyfriend take a nap.
When Jayden cut the sandwich he’d made into four triangles, placed a few plain chips on the plate, added some grapes he’d pulled out of the fridge, and handed it to me, my gaze darted to his mom again. She smiled at me.
Yeah. She knew.
It was nearly impossible, but I pretended there was nothing off about him making my lunch. I kissed his cheek and mumbled a quick thanks before sitting down at the table overlooking the backyard. I smiled up at him when he placed a plastic cup of chocolate milk in front of me, even though he was having a soda.
Jay made his lunch and the two of them joined me. The rest of lunch was uneventful. It was silly, but I kept waiting for his mom to grill me on why I was a little and what that meant for any relationships I might have, but she kept things blessedly vanilla. She asked about my major, my plans for the future, my family—basically everything any normal parent would ask their child’s partner.
“Do you want another sandwich?” Jay asked when I inhaled everything on my plate faster than usual. I dipped my chin and shook my head. It wasn’t that I was starving so much as keeping my mouth full kept me from having to talk too much. Jay stacked my plate on top of his and took both to the garbage. He returned and held out a hand to me. “Come on, buddy. I want to show you my room.”
“It was nice meeting you, Chase.” His mom pulled me into a hug. “You’re good for him. I hope you’ll start coming home on the weekends, too.”
“Thank you.” I swallowed hard around the lump in my throat, not saying anything else because there wasn’t much to say.
She leaned back, cupping my face when she released me, and patted my cheek. “Such a sweetheart.” Then to her son, she said, “Don’t screw this up, Jayden. You’ve got yourself a good one.”
“I don’t plan on it.” Although he was speaking to his mom, he looked directly at me. “Let’s go.”
“Do we have to? I’m not tired, Jay,” I protested as he led me up the stairs. Naptime when we were in the privacy of our room at school was one thing. When the guys didn’t see us out in the common area, they assumed we had taken off for the day. And when Jay called me on the weekends to tell me it was time to shut down for a while, I’d never had an issue. But here it felt different knowing his mom knew what was going on. I thought I’d done a good job not showing how nervous I was.
“Just because we’re away from our room doesn’t mean your schedule changes,” he told me as he swung open a door at the end of the hall. “What sort of Daddy would I be if I let you go full speed all day? You’ll be sleepy and too tired to enjoy tonight.”
“I get a bath tonight.” I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a bath. Maybe it was dumb, but it was one of those things I fantasized about. My Daddy would draw me a bath and help me into it before crouching next to me and washing all my bits. If I was a good boy today, maybe I could get Jay to play out that fantasy with me, right down to carrying me back to bed and having sex with me.
It was definitely dumb, but I felt like things between us weren’t really real yet because he made no effort to do that. He was great about the other things—the things I thought would push away anyone who might be interested in me—but sex was just on the other side of some invisible line he’d drawn. And I couldn’t stop myself from worrying it was because he didn’t see me that way, that someday he’d go out and find someone more manly to fuck before coming home and putting me to bed. The very thought of it had me tripping over my feet.
