Stephen turned his head and looked away from Brenden. His eyes were focused on movement outside the window. “You know, since the last case we worked together, my uncle’s been asking me to transfer to his department?”
Brenden nodded, Tucker Stevens was Brenden’s chief and Stephen’s uncle. Since they worked together on the O’Brian case Tucker, or Tuck to his friends, had been after Stephen to move and take a position on his tactical team as their behavioral profiler and computer analyst.
“I accepted the position. I will do what I’m doing now, with a few more responsibilities,” he told Brenden looking back at him.
“Like what?” Brenden asked.
“Later in the year, depending on my work performance, I will have my own team, once I requalify for my tactical training. But until then I’ll float around and work under you and Jaxson, similarly like the way we worked on the O’Brian case.”
There was tension between them, and it was thick like a fog, and he wondered if the entire diner could feel it. He didn’t understand why he felt so tense being around Stephen, considering they’d slept together a little over three months ago. He could still remember the erotic expression on Stephen’s face when he came. His dick got hard just picturing how fucking good Stephen looked riding his cock. His soft sexy lips begged Brenden for him to go deeper.
“But I will not be starting for a couple more days,” Stephen said cutting into his lustful thoughts.
“That’s great,” Brenden told him clearing his throat. He still wasn’t sure what Stephen was expecting him to say. “If that’s why you called for us to meet, you could have just told me all of this over the phone.”
He watched Stephen close his eyes. “You’re right. I’m sorry I wasted your time, I should go. It was wrong of me to think I could do this.” He made to get up, and Brenden stopped him, placing a hand on his that was still on the table. Brenden didn’t completely understand his actions. Stephen gasped and instantly looked at him.
“What the hell is going on with you?” Brenden stage-whispered. “You call me out of the blue and ask me to meet you here, and now you want to leave after I’ve wasted more than a fucking hour of my time waiting for you.” Brenden said letting out his frustration. “What the hell couldn’t you do?” he asked. “You can let me fuck you all night long, and now you can’t even sit in the same booth with me for longer than five minutes. So much for no fucking regrets.”
“This has nothing to do with that,” Stephen snapped.
“Then what the hell am I doing here then?”
Stephen didn’t answer, instead he reached into the inner pocket of his jacket and pulled out his cell phone. Brenden watched as he logged into it, then stared at the screen. He smiled before looking up at Brenden and then handed it to Brenden. Again, he was utterly confused about what the hell was happening. Brenden took the phone and stared at the screen in confusion. He didn’t know what he was supposed to be looking at or what he expected. It was a picture of a man with blond hair and graying temples with green eyes. Stephen was standing beside him, in his arms was a little boy that caught Brenden’s eyes. The kid had blond hair and velvet smiling eyes along with the smile on his face. The kid looked to be about four years old.
“Why are you showing me this?” he asked, looking away from the phone.
“His name is Nicholas,” Stephen said. “Nicholas Brady Smith Young.”
Brenden looked down at the boy in the picture, then back up at Stephen, who was watching the phone in his hand rather than at him. “He likes to be called Nick instead of Nicholas. I named him after my dad, he’s four years old. His favorite superhero is Batman, the 1960s with Adam West and Burt Ward. That day was a special day, I finally got him out of his Batman costume. I had to agree to let him wear the cape.” Stephen was rambling, and Brenden noticed the cape tied around the little boy’s neck. He was too busy staring at the kid’s face. “He’s so smart. I know every parent says the same thing about their kid. But he’s a genius. He hates broccoli or anything that resembles a vegetable and don’t try…”
“What are you trying to tell me?” Brenden interrupted Stephen’s ramblings. He was confused, but deep in the back of his mind, he knew what Stephen was trying to tell him, but he needed to hear the words from his mouth.
“Nicholas is our son,” Stephen whispered.
Brenden stared at Stephen in shock and then at the picture again. He heard the words, but he still couldn’t believe it. Stephen had to be fucking with him. He looked around the diner to see if he was being punked. None of the other patrons were paying them any attention, and no one was running into the restaurant with a camera and some B-list celebrity smiling behind them. He looked back at Stephen, who was staring at him and then it hit him.
I have a kid, a son. What the fuck is going on?
** ** ** ** **
“What the fuck do you mean he’s our son?”
“I didn’t stutter, Brenden,” Stephen told him.
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re playing at but this needs to stop,” Brenden snapped at him. His lips said the words, but his heart and mind were trying to process everything. “How the fuck could we have a kid this old together, we only had sex three months ago!”
Stephen would have jumped at the harsh tone coming from Brenden, but he’d expected it. He expected Brenden to be angry. “I don’t think I need to explain the birds and the bees to you, do I?”
“Just answer my fucking question and stop being a smartass.”
“What do you want me to say?” Stephen asked, leaning forward and picking up his phone looking at the picture on his phone.
“If he’s my kid…”
“Not if, heisyour son,” Stephen said cutting him off.
“Whatever, why are you telling me this now? Why wait so damn long?” Stephen picked up his glass of water and took a long swallow, praying that his stomach would settle some. He was a nervous wreck sitting in front of Brenden. He’d been hoping that he would never have to tell the other man about Nick. But now that they were going to be working together, sooner or later Brenden would end up meeting Nick and figure things out on his own.
