Touch And Go - Aiden Bates Page 0,27

word. “Fighting fit.”

I chuckled. Perfect choice of words to describe the boys. “We’re all first responders. Except Braxton is an artist.”

“The colorful pajamas?”

Cute, funny, and he paid attention. I was screwed. I swallowed a lumpy bite and nodded. “Mm. That’s him. But the rest of us are on the frontlines.”

“Frontlines?” He finished the last of his electrolytes and poured himself a huge glass of orange juice from the pitcher on the table.

“Owen—the redhead—”

“The co-kidnapper.” He pursed his lips and I almost moaned out loud, like I’d never seen a beautiful man before.

Talking about my brothers should keep my hormones in check. I hoped. “Right. He’s an EMT. Brought you in that night…with the bridge…” Only an idiot would have brought that up now.

He took a deep breath and sat back, his face the color of ash, his eyes lowered. “Huh.”

I moved on, voice low and even, soothing. I wanted him to feel safe here. “Sean and Matthew are Marine and ex-Marine, respectively.”

“The hunky twins?”

Hunky was an apt word for Sean and Matt. Of course, it fit the rest of them with equal truth. “That’s them. Hunter, the one in the tank top?”

“Wait, let me guess. Beach rescue?”

I couldn’t wait to tell him he’d been pegged as the Baywatch babe of the family. I chuckled and wiped my mouth with a napkin. “FBI.”

“No way!” Seb snorted, and I laughed as I threw him my napkin. “My second guess was a swimsuit model. Never in a million years does that guy look like he belongs in the FBI.”

“Is it the long blond hair? The ultra-relaxed posture?” I did my best impression of Hunter by slinging an arm over the back of my chair and slumping into my seat. Seb let out a laugh and pointed at me as he nodded.

“Yeah. I’ve never seen a fed look so…at peace.”

“Sure, sure.” He passed back the soggy, sticky napkin, and for some reason, I accepted it, simply because he met my eye while he did it. “And you’re all…”

“Gay?”

His eyes went wide, and his cheeks turned a deep, dark—utterly adorable—red. Even blushing this guy was better than anything I’d seen in a while. “Uh, I was going to say close.”

“Sure, you were.” I chuckled, and waited until he joined in before I cleared my throat. “Yeah, we’re as close as it gets. And we’re mostly gay. Richie, the fireman, and Sean…we don’t know for sure, but I have my suspicions.” Neither of them had come out as being into men, but I’d spotted a familiar longing on Sean’s face whenever the other brothers talked about their homoerotic encounters, and Richie never spoke a word about anyone he hooked up with to the point where he’d refuse to refer to his lovers as anything except ‘this person I met.’

“Huh.” Seb stared at me and the silence lingered heavy between us. “A lot in common for brothers from different mothers.”

“Mm. We’re all big on making a difference and helping people out of tough spots. We’ve all been through…our own bits of heartache and pain.” I bit into my toast to stop myself from spilling seven life stories I wasn’t authorized to share with strangers. I wasn’t prone to oversharing, and I didn’t like that this gorgeous young man had made me feel comfortable enough my tongue couldn’t stop flapping when I was around him. The line between wanting him to stay for his sake and wanting him to stay for mine blurred. His company put me at ease in a way I hadn’t been in years. Damnedest thing.

His breakfast annihilated, he leaned back in his chair and looked me over with those eyes that seemed to sparkle even brighter in the morning light beaming through the high windows. “And you’re the doctor… That’s a lot of school. Why doctor?”

I didn’t want to sound trite or practiced, but I got this question a lot. Especially when I was making the decision. “That part was easy. I always wanted to be able to save lives. Being a doctor made obvious sense, and I made sure it happened.”

“That all”—he flapped his hand at me–“sounds a little white knight to me, Lancelot.”

I raised my eyebrows and sat back, insulted. My cheeks burned. I didn’t have a savior complex, if that was what he was insinuating. And even if I did, I was one of the good guys with the power to save lives because I worked at my craft, studied, learned. But why the hell did I care what Seb thought