A Little Complicated (11 page)

“Here goes nothing.” I made my way to the table for drink orders. It was hectic. I’d almost forgotten everything that I was told (all fifteen shots, ten margaritas, three mojitos, and
twelve beers) when Brady’s gaze landed on me. He gave me his best bedroom eyes, making me nearly swallow my tongue. The gall of him, doing that right beside my damn sister.

I went back to the bar and punched the orders into the point of sale computer. “Would you stop t
rynna break the damn screen?” Tarsha swatted me away from the computer. “It ain’t the computer’s fault you’re a dumbass.”

“I hate you, really.”

“Shit, I hate you. Way he’s looking at you over there, I’d say what he’s lookin’ to order ain’t our our menu.”

Ashley, o
ne of the other waitresses that was standing by us, high fived Tarsha and laughed with a loud “A’ight! I know that’s right.”

I glared at them both.

“Oh, look Tarsha. He’s pissed. How cute.”

“Fuck both of you.” I walked off into the kitchen to make baskets of chips and
salsa for the table, leaving Tarsha to make all the drinks herself. I was on a roll being as asshole, why not go all the way?

I took chips and salsa to the table then a few servers helped me deliver all the drinks and shots. It took long enough that they’d all finished one round and chosen appetizers. I was ready to pull my hair out. Another saucy look from Brady had me wanting me to seriously consider throwing myself into the fryers in the kitchen. I didn’t know how I’d survive this party with my sanity intact.

A server took pity on me and delivered drinks to the party which had slowly grown from its original twenty-five to a little over thirty people. I took a moment in the back to catch my breath and gather their appetizers. The cooks in the kitchen were going a bit crazy as they usually did when a large party came in. I was just glad it was a crew of experienced cooks, none of the new guys being scheduled on a busy Saturday we’d booked such a large party.

“Hey, Ryan, I think you better come to your table,” my manager Renee squawked, pushing through the kitchen door.

“What’s up?”

“They’re getting more rowdy than usual. Could you remind them it’s a family restaurant
?”

I sighed. “Can you not do it, Ms.
Manager
?”

“You know them. They’ll listen. And when the manager gets involved they get hostile and with the mood you’re in tonight they’ll end up getting all that food for free ‘cause you’ll snap when they backtalk me.”

She was right. Company policy. Customer is always right and if they feel they’ve been wronged they eat for free. That was not the official policy of course but God knows that’s how it works at Lucky Star and it didn’t take long for people to figure that fact out.

I dropped what I was doing and took a deep breath, putting on my best pageant smile that I use when on the dining room floor. I pushed through the door and noticed my table was actually sitting quietly. I shot a confused glance over at Re
nee who was smiling alongside Tarsha. “What the hell?” I frowned and walked closer to the table and they all stood to applaud.

“Er. Did I do something?” Usually this only happened in the restaurant when you broke a dish and customers wanted to add insult to injury.

“Ladies and gentlemen, if we could have your attention.” I knew that voice. I choked on my tongue when I rounded into the karaoke lounge and saw Ellie at the microphone.

“What is she doing?” I asked one of her coworkers that I knew.

“Listen and find out.” She flinched under my glare but gestured to Ellie.

“Ladies and gentleman, you see, I’m a big believer in love. Probably a bit too much, if you ask my dumb brother—
” she pointed to me—“that’s him, the bozo in the apron. And you see, there’s someone in love with him. Now for those of you grossed out with the whole boy/boy thing, you may want to divert your attention, but this man—“ she pointed to Brady who I saw was holding another microphone—“has something he’d like to say. Brady.” She motioned for him to start.

Brady was blushing and obviously nervous. Me, I was trying to think of a way to
drop dead. I was pretty sure a stroke was imminent.

“Um, hi,” Brady spoke into the mic. He flinched at the screeching that came through the speakers. Someone yelled for him to go on. I looked around the restaurant which was surprisingly not busy for a Saturday, other than their table whose eyes were riveted. You could see the gleam of hope in them that they were about to witness public humiliation.

You’re witnessing it now.

“What the hell, Brady?” I gritted through clenched teeth.

“Uh, I’m Brady.”

“We know!” one of the teachers yelled. Ellie smacked the offender.

“I’m here because I wanted to tell her dumb brother, Ryan, that I love him.”

The whole room went silent. I stood stock-still, not sure I’d heard right.

“I love you, Ryan. I’ve loved you since you gave me directions to that damn toy store eight years ago. I’ve just been hoping one of these days I’d have the balls to ask you to have me. Well, it’s that day, and it’d be nice if it was the day you’d say yes.”

I was too stupefied to talk. Holy
shit.
He was doing this. Was it this easy? After all this time, after I’d fucked up so bad? I glanced at Ellie who was smiling and nodding yes like she could telepathically move my head.

“Sa
y yes you idiot!” I turned to Tarsha who’d screamed it. She crossed her arms defiantly as people from the table cheered.

“Ryan,” Brady spoke again into the microphone. I turned my attention back to him. “I’m here. I should have done this eight years ago. It’d have been way less embarrassing but you’re worth it, you know.”

What was this? A romance movie? Was I being punk’d? Shit like this didn’t just happen. Did it?

“I—
”

“C’mon, RyRy,” a caustic voice cut in.

“Oh shit. Both of you?” I groaned miserably.

“Since you won’t do this the easy way.” Brady gave me a cocky grin as he moved aside to let me see Lila sitting at a table behind him with Delilah.

“RyRy,” Lila said, puppy dog eyes blinking innocently. Oohhh I hate that kid. “Will you be my other daddy?”

It was impossible to stop—I couldn’t help it, honestly. I tried. Honest. But fuck… I doubled over and laughed my ass off. Everyone joined me. It was such a blatant manipulation that even the patrons who had no clue what was going on had to laugh at the silliness.

I shook my head looking between my nodding sister, the manipulative devil child and a devastatingly handsome Brady. “Will you settle for me dating your dad for a while and thinking about your proposal for a while?”

Brady’s face was painful to watch. You could see him forcing himself not to hope. It looked like it hurt. “Well, I can work with that. But, do you love him?”

“Delilah Jane,” Brady hissed at his daughter.

“Yes.”

Brady’s eyes snapped to mine. A slow smile spread across his face.

“God
! See how easy that was, boys?” Lila said. “And they say girls are complicated.” That got her a high five from Ellie. Brady walked over to me, smile firmly plastered on his face.

When he got to me he whispered, “It’s okay if you don’t mean that, so long as you’ll just give us a try.”

“Brady, hush.” I put my hand on his face and he leaned into it, chin wobbling. “I meant it.” I nodded. Remembering we were at my work we hugged, embracing tightly.

“Kiss him!” A random woman shouted.

“Yeah! Kiss him!” That was Renee. I laughed in surprise. Brady and I shrugged at each other and our lips found each other, welcoming and warm. I let myself go limp against him, and it felt so good.

“Nice touch with the kid,” I whispered in his ear.

“Desperate times, my friend…”

“And my sister.’

“This was her idea. You think I wanted to do this crazy shit? I was just gonna barge in your apartment and tell you you had to love me.”

I laughed and kissed him again. “That would have worked, but this was pretty fucking awesome.”

“Good, It all worked out.” Renee’s hands landed on our shoulders. “Now, it’s over.”

My jaw dropped, baffled. She laughed and pointed at me. “Your face! I’m just fucking with you. Go sit with them. I’d say this public humiliation earned you a free dinner.”

So I joined their party, with some claps to the back and congratulations. Lila called me daddy and I threatened to let the cooks do nasty things to her food. Ellie hugged me and let me know I was an idiot and should have smacked her for moving in years ago. “Honey, the no poaching thing works both ways. All you had to do was say.”

I really was annoyed at myself for not thinking of that sooner. But hindsight and all…

“And for the record,” Ellie said, rolling her eyes, “I should have known back then because despite my best efforts I couldn’t get this one into bed.”

“So you two never…” Ryan and Ellie looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

“Not that I mind this love-fest. But Can we get drunk now?” One of the teachers asked.

“Drunk!” They all shouted in unison and Brady and I were quickly phased into the background of the night. I was fine with that as I sat there holding his hand.

“Payback for this is gonna suck isn’t it?” He spoke into my ear.

I never stopped smiling, speaking discreetly through my
clenched teeth. “You have no fucking idea.”

And payback
sucked
for sure.

EPILOGUE

One Year Later

“Damn you look good in a suit,” I rumbled in Brady’s ear, wrapping my arms around his waist from behind.

“Behave. We only have a few minutes ‘til this show is on the road.”

I reached my hand down into his pants which he’d left unbuttoned so he could tuck his shirt in. I found his cock and gave it a playful tug as I ground my own into his ass.

He moaned. “We…We, really…don’t have time for this.” I love the way he shudders in my arms, coming unglued in my hands. I licked his favorite spot just behind his ear lobe.

“We have plenty of time,” I said, grinding into his ass again. “The door’s locked.” I kissed the nape of his neck and pushed his suit pants down. His beautiful, round ass bared to me. I knelt and separated the firm globes, sinking my face in, flicking my tongue over his hole. He instinctively leaned forward, bracing his hands on the wall in front of him and canted his knees open a bit wider.

I nibbled and sucked, gripping his firm cheeks in my hands, tight enough to leave finger prints when I pulled away. He moaned as my tongue speared into his hole. “Goddamn, Ryan.” I flicked my tongue, enjoying the taste of my man. I loved the taste of every part of his body. I’d discovered he was an addiction over the last year.
And I never got enough.

Lila, Brady and I had all moved in to
gether three months earlier. I loved Lila but she was a bit of a cramp on the sex life. She was homeschooled now so it was rare she wasn’t around. I stuck around the house more, cutting back to part time at my “big boy job” so one of us could be home with Lila. Brady had feared I’d come to resent it, but the devil kid and I got on better than we ever had. I’d even talked Brady into getting her one of the racing chairs so she and I were often in the park exercising together.

But now, this was not the time to think of Lila. Or my sister’s wedding. Ugh, this dreadful event we were preparing for. I had my man all to myself for another forty-five minutes, and it was the first time in over a week since I was my sister’s official
Man of Honor
. I intended to use these forty-five minutes wisely.

I stood and put my cock in the crack of his ass, fucking myself in there. He turned his head for a kiss and I obliged. It was sloppy and our tongues went more on our faces than in our mouths but it was just what I needed.

“You gonna keep teasin’ or are you gonna fuck me?” His Southern accent always got so thick when he was turned on, which in turn made me fucking crazy for him. Precum spurted from my cock and slicked my way between his ass cheeks. I pulled the bottle of lube out of my back pocket. I’d known my objective when I snuck into the men’s dressing room.

I leaned back and popped the cap of the lube, dribbling a stream onto my cock and stroking it on myself. I put a dab on my middle finger and worked it in him with a twist, earning a sexy little gasp.

It drove me crazy knowing I was the only man who’d ever done this with him. Yeah, he’d told me about me being the only person to ever top him. I felt like a royal asshole after the way I’d treated him afterward. I tried to make sure from now on that every time I made it as good, as full of love as I could.

I aimed my cock at his hole with one hand, gripped his hips with the other and sank slowly into him. When I was seated fully inside him, he leaned back on my back, head on my shoulder. I kissed his cheek, wrapped my arm around his wide chest, and started rolling my hips in and out. We didn’t have much time to it soon turned into fast, upward jabs. My balls slapped against him and I moaned in his ear.