“We haven’t been seeing— Forget it,” Riley said, shaking off Cole’s obnoxious description of their relationship.
“Congrats,” Shawn said, a wide grin on his face. “That’s awesome. Chase has told me a bit about you guys. It’s good to see you again, Cole. I know I’ve beenan asshole in the past, but I’m trying to do better for Chase. If you aren’t comfortable with me being here, I can totally leave.”
Cole’s eyes narrowed, but Chase swore Cole was more amused than he let on.
“So, what would you do if Chase and I started making out in front of you?”
Shawn opened his mouth to answer but got cut off.
“I’d kick you out of my gym for assaulting my employees,” Tobias snapped, and everyone turned to him. The heat in Tobias’ cheeks delighted Chase.
“Assaulting your employees, huh?” Cole said. “You sure it has nothing to do with this specific employee?”
Tobias’ gaze flicked over to Chase for the briefest second before he turned back to Cole.
“Nope,” he barked, before returning to his computer. It would have been the perfect time for Tobias to claim him, but apparently he wasn’t ready for such a thing. Maybe because Shawn was here and Tobias was so nervous about meeting him. “I just don’t want to have to deal with a body in my gym when your girlfriend finds out and comes here to murder you.”
Cole scoffed. “Please. Elena would be fine with it as long as she got to watch.”
“Jesus fuck,” Tobias muttered faintly.
“Uh, to be fair,” Shawn cut in, noticing Tobias needed a topic change. At least his brother was still aconsiderate person. “I wouldn’t enjoy watching my brother make out with anyone, regardless of gender. He’s mybrother. But if Riley and Josh decided to make out right now, I’d be totally fine with that.”
“Yay!” Josh yelled before lunging at Riley and planting a big sloppy kiss on him. Riley chuckled and put Josh in a headlock, and eventually they wrestled each other to the ground.
Shawn laughed and smiled at Chase.
“Is it usually this entertaining here?” Shawn asked.
“This is totally normal. Although, there used to be a lot less tongue when they did this,” Cole said, gesturing at the two men rolling around on the ground.
With the distraction, no one had noticed Garrett enter the gym. He walked in armed with a squirt bottle, aiming it directly into Riley and Josh’s faces until they separated.
“Like herding fucking cats,” Garrett muttered as he quietly returned the squirt bottle to his cubby.
“I get why you wake up so early now,” Shawn whispered to Chase, and they shared a healing laugh.
Chase loved how normal this felt, and he was ecstatic as Shawn folded into his group so easily. Part of him resented Shawn for keeping this from him for so long, but he didn’t want to waste time anymore. Having a bit of his family back in his life was more than worth it.
Gym Rat Pack Group Chat
RILEY:Soooo is Shawn gonna be around now?
JOSH:Yeah, have we forgiven him?
CHASE:Uh…we? COLE: We are a unit, Chase! Don’t you ever forget it!
GARRETT:Unit, dependent. Same thing.
CHASE:We’re not back to normal, but we’re getting there. Today was definitely a big help. Thanks for not giving him too much shit!
COLE:That’s great! If you’re cool with him, then we’re cool.
GARRETT:Let’s be real, no one would ever call Cole cool.
COLE:True, more likely to hear awesome, hot, irresistible…
RILEY:Obnoxious.
