Bitter Taffy (23 page)

“I
beg
your pardon?” Rico asked, still freaking out.

Darrin shook his head and then looked over at the door on Front Street. “Bzzz,” he said, waving his hand. “Go bother your cousin some more. I’ve got at least four more years to straighten
him
out!”

“But I was going to offer him more work!” Derek said, sounding genuinely upset.

Darrin smiled and waved at a tiny waif in the gauzy dress who was standing at the door and then made a hurried gesture to a stocky girl wearing a Candy Heaven work apron with brutally short hair and horn-rimmed glasses. “Yes, Joni dear, that’s
her
.” Then he turned to Derek. “
You
will do no such thing. He can be yours when he gets out of school, but right now he’s mine. Do you have
any
idea how much damage I have to clean up in that one before I set him loose on the world?
Do you
?”

Derek stopped short and looked at Rico, who looked soberly back.

“I’ve got some idea, yes,” Derek said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Then could you possibly butt out of his life and let him stay here where he feels safe for a while? He’ll work for you through school too. He’s a good boy, that one. Works hard. He’ll be fine.”

“But—” Derek began, probably about to tell Adam’s boss that Adam could make a lot more money working for him full time, and possibly he’d get through school faster too.

“He’s right,” Rico said, grabbing his arm and going to bail Adam out of the family that wouldn’t leave him alone. Over his shoulder he said, “Thank you, Darrin. You’re right. We’ll stop worrying you and get out of your way.”

“
What
?” Derek asked, outraged. “Rico—!”

“My mom said she was sorry,” Rico said softly. “Adam’s never will. Look at him.” They both looked as Adam found his footing and started offering truffle samples to everyone and taking orders and filling them quickly and efficiently. “It’s simple work—and we both know he can do a lot more. But he’s capable. He’s dealing with people, and I never thought he could do this in a million years. He needs this. It’s his happy place. Let him stay here until it chafes, okay?”

Derek paused and squeezed his hand. “Yeah, okay. You’re right, you know that? But I thought you didn’t believe in—”

“I’ll believe in anything that makes him happy,” Rico said and then took a deep breath and prepared to launch himself back into Derek’s family. “Just like you.”

Derek kissed his cheek right there in the store. “That’s sweet,” he said. “And nice outfit! Did Finn pick that out for you?”

“You’d better believe it,” Rico said grimly. “Now be nice to your sister or this whole exercise was a waste of time.”

Well, a good steak was
never
a waste of time, and since Derek took them to a steakhouse in Old Sac, at the end of the day, Rico figured it was worth his time. They ate, drank good wine, and Rico and Derek pressed their knees together under the table when Renee went off on a ramble about margarine, butter, and vegan margarine substitute that lasted ten minutes and was punctuated with Hale’s besotted prompts of “That’s real smart, sweetheart. What else do you know about soluble fats?”

Derek’s parents asked him the “Does he talk in his sleep?” question again, and this time, Rico was able to answer with a solid negatory. “No, actually. I haven’t heard him once.”

“
See
!” Derek crowed in triumph. “I
told
you it was Dillon!”

“So Dillon was asleep when he told me to piss off the other day?” Renee asked, sounding confused.

“No, darlin’,” Hale said, the epitome of patience. “He was getting a sandwich and you were trying to make lemonade under his arms. You were actually being annoying.”

Renee opened and closed her mouth a few times and looked at her husband in shock, and then she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and sighed. “Yeah, I probably was. It’s really easy to forget I’m a grown-up when we’re all at my parents’ house, you know?”

Rico suddenly felt a bit of kinship for her that he never expected, and they started a conversation about when adulthood
really
began that actually involved the entire table through dessert.

A good meal—a pleasant family meal—and as Derek and Rico were walking back to the parking structure near Candy Heaven, Rico grabbed Derek’s hand and kissed it.

“What?” Derek asked.

“Just… you know. Your sister
is
an airhead, but you know what?”

“What?”

“She’s part of your family, and I love her too.”

“Aw,” Derek said, holding his face to the breeze off the river. The sweltering air was finally cooling down at nearly ten o’clock at night. “That kind of talk
will
get you laid.”

“Promise?” Rico asked breathily. Because even though they’d been having sex for nearly a month, it wasn’t getting
any
less exciting. The thought of it still squeezed his breath, and the touch of Derek’s skin against his own still sent an uncomfortable wash of heat through him.

It was beginning to dawn on him that this relationship had lasted almost as long as his and Ezra’s, and that this one didn’t have any reason to go away.

Here, under the stars and with the smell of water drifting over them, that promise was becoming more and more necessary to breathe.

A
T
THE
beginning of August, Rico and Derek took Adam and Finn to a Giants game. This took subterfuge and planning, and Rico was surprised they managed to pull it off.

He couldn’t say exactly where the idea took root—sure, he’d semipromised to take Adam earlier in the year, but suddenly, after that day in the candy store, the idea seemed to sprout full grown.

Rico wanted to give Adam something amazing.

He tried to explain it about two weeks after the dinner with Derek’s parents. They were sitting in the living room, watching professional wrestling—which was an extremely odd choice, but Derek had left the remote on the coffee table and was now lying on Rico, head on his chest. They were both too comfortable to move, so guys in rainbow leotards mauled each other mercilessly. Rico gave up staring at them and trying with half his brain to figure out if they were fighting or just really
well choreographed.

“So,” Rico said after thirty seconds of trying to decide if the guy in the purple cape had a really big jock strap or a really big erection, “he’s starting school, and he’s going to be working two jobs, and you know? He keeps asking when I want him to move out, and the thing is, I don’t. And I don’t think he gets that. I don’t
want
him to move. He’s happy there with Finn. I’d rather give
them
the apartment and—”

“Move in with me?” Derek said, turning to look at him earnestly.

The question wasn’t unexpected. Rico was spending, at most, three days a week over at the apartment, and that was to help take care of the animals when Finn and Adam were busy.

But it was also to walk to work with Adam and talk to Finn and have an excuse to pet his dog. It was just that now that Rico knew how family worked, he was happy. He was comfortable. He was sort of reluctant to go start one on his own—he didn’t want to screw this up.

His uncertainty must have shown on his face.

Derek raised a hand to his cheek and stroked gently. “What are you afraid of?”

“This is as good as my life’s ever gotten,” Rico said honestly. “I mean… in a million years, I didn’t think I could be this happy.”

Derek widened his eyes and blinked. “So you don’t want to move in with me because….”

Rico cleared his throat and shifted, feeling superstitious and silly. “Uhm… you know. What if I mess with what we’re doing and it breaks?”

Derek pushed himself up awkwardly and reached for the remote to turn off the television. “You’re afraid that moving in will break us,” he said slowly, like the concept was foreign to him.

“Uh, yeah.” Rico tried a quick smile. “I mean, I’m
happy
. I know this happens to you a little more often, and I just want to make sure it’s all stable and shit before I go jinxing it by trying to do too much.”

It occurred to him that he sounded about twelve years old, and he didn’t know how to fix that, and he didn’t know how to
not
be afraid either.

Derek stood up and stretched and then offered his hand to Rico. “C’mon,” he said, smiling sleepily.

“Where we going?”

“Well, first we’re going to my laptop to buy four tickets and to reserve two hotel rooms in the city.”

Rico smiled. “Yeah?” Oh good. They were going to forget completely about Rico being superstitious and dragging his feet and not wanting to rock the—

“And then we’re going into my bedroom, where first we’re going to watch porn for, like an
hour
,
and then we’re going to have
real sex
, and you’re going to see the difference.”

Rico flushed. “I, uhm… I mean, I’ve seen porn before, Derek. I know the difference between what’s on screen and what you and I do in real life.”

Derek arched an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”

Rico flushed harder. “Yeah. I mean, I was celibate for seven years. Real life is better.”

“But not as pretty,” Derek said soberly. “And you usually have to clean stuff up afterwards.”

Rico couldn’t meet his eyes. “Your point is…?”

“That I’m not positive this is going to work out—but I sure do hope it will. I get being a little bit nervous, but don’t let that… that
fear
keep this from becoming something amazing. ’Cause no matter how good something looks in fantasy, real life is better.”

Rico looked away. “We already are,” he said softly.

Derek sighed and shook his head. “Yeah. Okay. I get it. Let’s go prove to
Adam
that happiness exists.”

Derek turned to the kitchen table, where his laptop was set up. They’d both needed to wrap up some work that evening, and they’d eaten takeout companionably as they’d finished.

Derek apparently had the page bookmarked.

“You were making plans?” Rico asked, looking over his shoulder.

Derek’s grunt was a little wounded. “I thought you and I were going to go sometime this summer. I didn’t think we’d be taking Adam and Finn.”

“We don’t have to—”

“No, no—it’s a good idea,” Derek said on a sigh. “It’s just… I don’t know. I get the whole family thing, okay? I have one of my own, and they love you. Hell, they love
Adam
at this point.”

“Adam’s won two softball games for them so far.” That meeting at Candy Heaven had resulted in Adam’s draft onto the family business softball team. Finn got time off to go to his games and cheer him on. “And I liked them too—”

“Then why are you so worried about leaving your own couch?”

Rico shrugged, feeling miserable. “I don’t know. I mean, except for with you, it’s the only place in the world I feel safe.”

Derek blinked slowly. “Nice save,” he said after a moment.

Rico smiled hopefully and nuzzled his ear. “Nice enough to get me some non-porn-flavored action?”

Derek squinted at the screen. “I am not sure if that’s good or not.”

Rico
hmm
ed in his ear again, letting his tongue flicker out and tease the whorls. Derek shivered as he selected seats and prepared to buy the tickets.

“Think of it like movie popcorn without the butter,” Rico purred. “Same great flavor, none of the slimy, fatty aftertaste.”

Derek actually turned and looked at him. “I may need porn now just to get it up after that.”

Rico winced. “Uhm, okay. Well, if you come to bed and undress voluntarily, I may, perhaps, find a way to fix that.”

Derek shook his head. “You may have to coax me out of my clothes,” he said seriously. “And I can’t even look at the lube.”

Rico giggled. “You afraid I’m going to butter your buns and pop your corn?”

“Out!” Derek commanded, a smile twitching at his lips. “Out, I say! Go make thee naked, heathen, and try to find some way to assuage my wounded sensibilities!” He waved Rico imperiously toward the bedroom while he pulled out his credit card to pay for the tickets and the reservations.

Rico paused. “Hey, wait. Do you want my card? I can totally spring—”

Derek continued to gesture without breaking character. “Did I say go?” he thundered. “I think I said something about naked and stroking your cock in one hand while violating yourself with the other—”

“I could always use the new sex toy in the drawer,” Rico suggested hopefully.

Derek pretended to consider this, but given that Rico had found the thing, fresh and sealed in the box, in the lube drawer after one of his rare nights in his own apartment, he was pretty sure Derek was
dying
to see him use that thing.

“It may soothe my annoyance,” he said sagely. “Yes, indeed. I think I should find you in miduse of that instrument when I come in.” He looked away from the computer and allowed his full wicked grin to take over his features. “Please?” he added with a little nibble of his lower lip.

Rico bowed completely at the waist. “Anything to please you, my liege,” he said throatily, so very grateful. Derek had been hurt, but he’d dropped the subject. And Rico had a little more time to revel in this relationship like Clopper reveled in a field full of daisies, before reality called him home.

Derek harrumphed royally as his fingers flew over the keyboard, and Rico turned and trotted down the hallway to get ready.

The naked was no problem.

Outside was another scorching summer day, but Derek had turned on the misters and the fans the moment they arrived, giving the AC a much-needed boost. In the back bedroom, with a fan on the ceiling and one on the floor, the air was cool enough to tantalize, cool enough to titillate, so stripping the bedding and lying naked in the center of the big bed was an erotic pleasure and not a discomfort.

But it wasn’t until he
was
lying naked on his side in the middle of the bed, the long, heavily veined purple sex toy and lube on a towel in front of him, that he realized he had more than the joy of being naked going on here.