Gideon (Boyfriend for Hire #3) - R.J. Scott

One

Gideon

“I, Darcy Jonathan Bridges…”

Gideon glanced at the select group of guests in the intimate venue in New Canaan. Darcy and Adrian exchanged their vows in the small room full of white flowers and with an arch decorated with greenery. The wedding was a simple indoor service with no more than twenty people, all of whom had been handpicked to attend by either bridegroom, consisting of their immediate family and their closest friends.

So why am I here?

Gideon was Darcy’s boss, but he still wasn’t sure how he’d ended up being invited to the wedding. He was convinced that his PA, the annoying but sexy Rowan Phillips, had simply decided they were both attending and barreled ahead with the plans. Rowan had organized hotel rooms for them both only a short taxi ride from here, and insisted that staying over was all for Darcy and making the day special. More likely Rowan wanted to drink copious amounts of alcohol, but there again maybe he had the right idea. Gideon glanced toward where Adrian and Darcy were standing hand in hand. A drink or three to get through the day was probably in order so a hotel was for the best.

Ceremony, dinner, celebrations, alcohol, staying overnight, then in the morning it was off to somewhere for the newlyweds and back to the office on Stuyvesant Street in Manhattan for Gideon and Rowan. Gideon had work to do, contracts to assign for next year’s events and last minute checks on Christmas events given it was only nine days away.

There would be the inevitable last minute panics for work parties or family events, and he recalled a request for a two week booking covering a huge family’s New Year gathering at a location in Vermont. While lucrative, the Vermont booking had been left way too late because backstories for the people he hired were complicated matters for long-term connections, and he never put his employees in situations they couldn’t handle.

He’d have to turn it down, but that wasn’t an issue. Bryant & Waites was solid, financially secure, and discreet, all the things he and Luke had planned the company would be.

And there it was. He’d thought about Luke and he knew he should stop focusing on the past. Just because he was at a wedding, and twenty years ago Luke and he were supposed to go to Canada and get married and be together forever…

Think about Rowan instead.

No, don’t think about Rowan. Not sexy, in my face, snarky, coffee making Rowan.

Christmas. Yeah, I’ll think about Christmas. The commercial stuff. I can do that.

Rowan shifted next to him, their hands brushing, and all kinds of forbidden thoughts rushed to his head. He and Rowan holding hands, he and Rowan kissing, he and Rowan…

Christmas decorations, music on repeat, parades, more gift cards to buy. He began to make a mental list of what he could handle in the run up to the usual meeting with family for the big day. He wanted the decks cleared so he wouldn’t be dragged under by family stress. His oddly matched and long-time divorced parents bickering about who’d get him and his sister for which part of Christmas. He was forty-three for fuck’s sake, his sister only a few years younger, and yet the two of them were still fought over as if they were small kids. Not to mention Gideon’s birthday fell on Christmas Eve, which made things even worse. Typically, he hid away on his birthday if he could manage it, but last year he’d spent it with his sister and her boyfriend, and that in itself had been a different kind of chaos.

“They look so happy,” Rowan said as he leaned into Gideon briefly.

“Uh-huh,” was about all Gideon could manage. He’d been lost in thought and anyway, no one should be talking at weddings.

“I might get married here,” Rowan added, and Gideon shot him a surprised glance.

“You’re getting married?” he asked louder than a whisper and got an irritated stare from another guest.

Rowan raised an eyebrow. “Of course.”

Shock flooded Gideon as they turned back to face the happy couple. He hadn’t even known that Rowan was with someone, let alone at the point where they were thinking of getting married. What if Rowan left Bryant & Waites? What if he left Gideon to run the company on his own? That didn’t bear thinking about.

What if Rowan leaves me?

Rowan moved again, this time a full body sigh as Darcy and Adrian exchanged a vow. He smelled wonderful, a fresh citrus