Rather than stop on the other side of the bar, Jeff kept coming at him, joining Mack behind the bar.
“You’ve given up.”
He preferred to think of it as giving in, but hey, either worked. Since it wasn’t a question, Mack didn’t feel the need to answer. They both knew Daniel would win eventually.
When Jeff finally stopped moving, there was only a breath between them. Mack maintained eye contact, though he would’ve preferred a quick retreat.
“Why?”
“Why what?” Mack asked.
“Why are—”
Mack cut him off by holding up a hand. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”
Jeff’s head canted slightly. “No?”
“No. But that’s not why you’re here, is it?”
Jeff stepped closer, crowding him. Instinct had Mack backing up until he hit the counter behind him. As usual, his body heated, warmed from the inside out. His cock thickened behind his zipper, that familiar need flooding his bloodstream despite the fact Mack knew this shouldn’t happen.
“You think that’s all I want?” Jeff asked.
“It’s the only thing I’ve got left to give,” Mack said between clenched teeth.
“Well, in that case…” Jeff’s eyes dropped to Mack’s mouth. “I’m willin’ if you are.”
For the first few days after they’d returned to their normal routines when the holidays were over, Mack had considered telling Jeff to stay away from him. Unfortunately, his selfish side had kept him quiet. And every night since, he’d work up a sufficient argument as to why the hell they couldn’t do this, but even he didn’t believe the nonsense rattling around in his head.
So Mack had given in and he knew tonight would be no different.
“No talkin’,” Mack grumbled.
“Only fuckin’?” Jeff countered, his hand slipping beneath the hem of Mack’s T-shirt, gripping the waistband of his jeans as he stepped closer.
Mack hissed a breath when Jeff’s long, strong fingers dipped into the denim, his knuckles scraping against sensitive skin.
Yeah, this he could do, because they both knew it was going nowhere. Soon enough, Mack would be gone, living a life of torment in a city he had no business being in. Because that was his penance, his just punishment for lying to his son, for leaving Daniel’s mother, for not being the father he should’ve been.
He could make it up to the boy and Daniel had told him exactly how.
Perhaps he would hate himself every single day, but Mack knew he owed the boy, and he would go to the ends of the earth to prove to Daniel that he was the most important thing in his life.
Mack just hated how it was going to play out.
*
Jeff had purposely come to the bar because it seemed a fitting backdrop for the conversation he’d wanted to have.
However, he realized Mack had no intentions of talking or explaining his irrational thinking. Selling Moonshiners was as idiotic a plan as moving to Austin, but Jeff knew Mack. He would do whatever Daniel wanted, no matter the cost to himself. He’d proven it four years ago when he’d abruptly called a halt to their relationship.
Familiar anger bubbled in his chest, but he shoved it down, choosing to focus on the task at hand.
Flipping open the button on Mack’s jeans, Jeff continued to stare into those ocean-blue eyes. Mack never flinched, not even when Jeff eased the zipper down, thechhh-chhh-chhhheard over the compressor on the refrigerator kicking on.
He took it as a sign that Mack wasn’t pushing him away.
They maintained eye contact as Jeff went to his knees on the foam mat behind the bar. He dragged the denim down Mack’s thighs, waiting for him to say something. He would, eventually.
