have to control the narrative.”
“He’s right. That’s exactly what we did when Isaac and I went public, remember?”
I did. We’d played up the fact that Isaac had been the one to save Jesse when Caleb had attacked him that night
in Lisbon. We’d failed to mention that Isaac had been Jesse’s bodyguard at the time, and thankfully, no one had
dug too deeply into our story. Isaac had been hailed a hero, and the press had been happy to run with the
romantic aspects of the story.
Charlie and I couldn’t hope for the same. He didn’t have a crazed stalker—thank fuck—and I wasn’t going to
swoop in and rescue him from a near-death situation. There was no romantic spin to put on our relationship.
“I’m a coward,” I muttered, and I stood to lose the man I loved because of it.
“It’s okay to be scared,” Jesse said. “The media was awful to you, but that was a long time ago.”
“And no offence, but even in your hay day, you weren’t Charlie Faire,” Isaac said. “He has an incredibly
successful nine-year career behind him. He might take a bit of a fan base hit, but he’ll bounce back.”
“Do you love him?” Jesse asked.
“Yes. So, so much.” That was the only thing I didn’t have doubts about.
“Then you need to stop making excuses and get on a plane. You need to be with him. You need to show him that
you’re not ashamed of your relationship.”
“I’m not.”
“Then prove it.”
“Right now?” I asked around a watery laugh.
“Yes. Right now. Go home, book a flight, pack your bags, and go.”
I saluted him. “Yes, sir.”
Knowing I had Jesse’s and Isaac’s support meant the world to me. With their backing and Charlie’s love, I hoped
I would have the courage to face anything—even backlash from the media.
10
Charlie
I was getting ready to go to my soundcheck for the concert in Boston that night when Austin rang. I’d been
waiting for his call since I woke up, wondering if that was the day he would tell Jesse and Isaac about us. It was
probably wrong that that was at the forefront of my mind rather than whether or not everything had gone okay with
finalising the twins’ adoption.
“Hey,” I said. “Is everything okay?”
“You sound nervous,” Austin said.
I could hear laughter in his voice. That had to be a good sign.
“Well, yeah. You might have told Jesse about us.” I swore under my breath. What a dumb thing to say. “How was
the party?”
Boston was five hours behind the UK, so mid-afternoon for me had to be evening for Austin.
“It was great. Well, mostly.”
“Mostly?”
Austin sighed. “Flannigan showed up and pressured Jesse into setting a month for his album release.”
“Shit, I’m sorry.” Although I should have been thanking Flannigan for…well…everything…he could be a real jerk at
times.
“You’d think I’d be used to this business by now,” Austin said wearily. “Everything always comes down to money.
They’ve spent lots producing Jesse’s album, which they can’t recoup until it’s released.”
“Yeah, but he’s just become a dad.” It made me wonder how much time Flannigan would be ‘happy’ for me to
have off if Austin and I ever had a child together.
“Other than that, it was a good day,” Austin said. “Colby and Jasper are officially Jesse and Isaac’s sons.”
“That’s fantastic.” I’d send Jesse a congrats text once I was done talking to Austin.
“I told them,” he said softly.
“And?” I held my breath.
“They’d already guessed. I suppose that goes to show we weren’t all that good at hiding our relationship. Or I
wasn’t, at any rate.”
“I think having a go at each other in front of Jesse probably didn’t help.”
Austin laughed. “That’s when Jesse said he first started to suspect something was going on between us.”
I smiled as I flopped onto my bed. “Technically, we weren’t together then.”
“No, but we’d had sex.”
“Weeks before. Over your piano.” My cock went hard just thinking about it. “Happy memories.”
“Sexy memories,” Austin corrected.
“Mm. Very.”
“I want to join you on tour,” Austin said.
My heart did a happy one-eighty. “Really?”
“More than anything. I’m looking at flights right now. I can get one around five on Friday afternoon that arrives just
after eight your time. Assuming you want me to come, obviously.”
“I do. Of course I do.” My head was spinning. “But, Austin…if you do come here to be with me…we’re not gonna
be able to keep sneaking around. There’s only so long you can spend in your monkey form stuffed in a bag.”
“I know.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
There was a
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