Where We Left Off - Romeo Alexander Page 0,4

but who couldn’t love that big idiot? Doesn’t change the fact that he’s better with emotions than I am. You guys break up?”

The sudden shift back to the original topic had Tyler frowning. “Yes. Again…”

“Don’t want to talk about it, I know.”

“And yet, you’re talking about it.”

“Not anymore. But hey, maybe being back in Port Dale for the next few months will be good for you.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because there’s plenty of good looking men and women in the city to distract you.”

Tyler groaned. “I knew you were a slut in your life before Elliot.”

Clay pointed at him with a knife, narrowing his eyes. “That might be true, but don’t let Elliot hear you say that. Big idiot gets defensive about my ‘honor,’ it’s ridiculous.”

Tyler really shouldn’t have been surprised that his two very gay surrogate big brothers had been perfectly okay with his bisexuality. The fact that he’d realized he’d been bi when he’d been taken down by a man over a decade older than him was maybe not the best of sexual awakenings, but there it was. Tyler had once made the mistake of telling Clay and Elliot that. Which again had resulted in a blank look from Clay and a hysterical laughing fit from Elliot. Tyler counted that a win in his book, as he had pretty much told the man that once upon a time, he’d had a crush on Clay.

“You’re not going to play matchmaker, are you?” Tyler asked in sudden fear.

Clay let out a swift bark of laughter. “Hell no. I was just making a bad taste joke that there is plenty to distract you here in the city.”

“I guess that’s true,” Tyler admitted. Port Dale didn’t exactly lack diversions.

Clay squinted at him. “You have been with people other than her, right?”

Elliot chose that moment to appear, looking content. “He lost his virginity to a guy, remember?”

Tyler gaped at him. “That was supposed to be a secret!”

Of course, he hadn’t meant to tell Elliot in the first place. But when the man had caught Tyler raiding their liquor supply and didn’t immediately lose his mind, Tyler had relaxed. Enough to tell the story of the handsome guy from a different school district. Of course, it hadn’t been with the guy he would have preferred.

Clay cocked his head. “Nate?”

Tyler closed his eyes. “No. His dad shipped him back to private school before...well, no, it wasn’t him.”

“Before you got the chance to sleep with him,” Clay finished with all the tact of a sledgehammer.

Tyler glared at Elliot. “Thanks.”

Elliot winced. “Sorry, wasn’t thinking when I said it.”

Clay raised a brow. “Well, that spares a few awkward and probably embarrassing, for you, conversations. I really didn’t want to have a gay birds and the bees conversation.”

Tyler bowed his head forward, thunking it against the fridge. “Please...don’t.”

“Why were we talking about his sex life?” Elliot asked, nudging Tyler out of the way to grab a beer.

“He’ll tell you later, when he’s ready,” Clay said, cutting up some chicken.

“Ah,” Elliot said in understanding. “The heart to heart thing that you run away from like it’s a cross and you’re a vampire?”

Clay nodded. “The very same. And for the record, you’re lucky you’re cute or you’d be sleeping on the couch for that.”

Elliot grinned wickedly. “That and you can’t go too long without…”

“Don’t!” Clay and Tyler barked together, desperate to keep Elliot from finishing.

“I was going to say without one of my legendary massages,” Elliot said in a wounded voice.

“You’re a liar,” Clay accused.

“A dirty, dirty liar,” Tyler agreed.

“Insulted, in the confines of my own home,” Elliot said with a sniff.

Clay eyed him. “And you call me a pain in the ass.”

“Because you are. But you’re my pain in the ass.”

“Oh, don’t try to butter me up. I’m onto you.”

Tyler stood, leaning against the fridge and listened to them play-bicker back and forth. If he wanted to traumatize himself, he would associate their banter with a sort of foreplay. As it was, he thought the two of them just liked the verbal parrying, using it as affection as much as the light touches and hugs.

It hurt, watching them be loving and affectionate. It was a reminder of what he had almost had and been forced to leave behind. But then again, it was Clay and Elliot, the people he called family, and the couple he held up as a standard. The ache was subsumed in the warmth of familiarity, of listening to two people who loved him fiercely, as they went about their