“Cody. I want him to live a long, healthy life. If you find his face too hard to resist—”
“I’ll feed him healthy treats instead.” Cody wrapped his arms around Charlie. “Don’t take my Charlie boy away. I promise I’ll be good.”
Chuckling softly, Santino didn’t respond to Cody. “Did I hear on the gossip highway that Miles Owen has come out as bi?” Miles was TJ’s deputy and had worked at Robinson’s sheriff's office for years.
TJ sat back in his chair and looked at the house, his brow furrowed. “I don’t like to comment, but as it’s already doing the rounds… yeah, he has. Came to me for some advice about it. He wasn’t struggling with it. It was more like he was shocked to realize he was attracted to men. He asked me how I dealt with it. I wasn’t young when it finally clicked with me. I was married with kids. Miles is single but went to the city and met someone. It was only one night and not much happened beyond kissing, but it was enough for him to have questions.”
“It’s good he had you to talk to. I remember when I realized I was attracted to men. I’m the first one to come out as gay in my family, though I doubt I am the first gay man.” Santino smiled. “I’m lucky. I guess that my family doesn’t care, as long as I have kids. My mamma sent me information about adoption.”
“She’s eager. My parents are happy with the boys and now they include Toni and Carter’s kids as well.”
“It takes a village to raise a child,” Santino murmured, a soft smile on his face. “You guys have that village.”
TJ nodded. “We do, and I know how lucky we are. When Toni and I divorced, we agreed the boys came first, no matter what happened between us. I’m lucky Toni is still one of my closest friends, and Carter is a good friend, too.”
“We talk every day,” Cody added. “And I get to play with Arthur and Lincoln on their consoles, which reminds me I need to kill Lincoln when we go over tomorrow.” Cody touched his eye, which had fully healed from its encounter with Lincoln’s controller.
“At least your black eye has healed.” Orsen pushed his plate away and sighed. “You need to wear a helmet.”
Cody snorted, then burst out laughing. “I should go over in the riot gear that they have at the station. That would get the gossips going. Helmet, and protective padding. Oh and the riot shield.” Cody twisted in his seat and faced TJ. “Has Robinson ever had a riot or needed the riot gear?”
“Nope, never, and it costs a lot of money. Sits in a room gathering dust. At least Santino has sorted all the finances out. I can put in a request for an additional officer. Shouldn’t have taken over a year to get to this stage.”
“It wouldn’t have taken this long if the council responded in a timely fashion.” Scratching Charlie behind the ears, Santino added, “You have no idea how many emails I had to send to get them to respond to basic questions.”
“I deal with them on an almost daily basis, so I share your pain,” TJ muttered. “We should fire them all and begin again.”
“Now that would give the gossips something to talk about.”
Cody stretched and Santino paused to admire Cody’s body. He wasn’t attracted to Cody the way he was Orsen, but he couldadmire a man who worked hard on his physique. “How often do you work out?”
“I should be asking you that. I work out daily, and I’ve recently included yoga and animal flow as well. I need to keep my body and skin flexible.”
“I was about to ask if you had included a flexibility routine. I’ve seen your back and scar tissue can be rigid, so you would need to include stretching and mobility in your exercise regimen. Do you have a weekly or monthly massage? That will help to keep skin supple.”
Cody’s mouth opened, then shut. “I forget you can be direct and no, I hadn’t considered massage, but I will now.”
“Hmm, might be a good idea.” TJ ran his hand over Cody’s back and smiled at him. “We can look into it.” Cody returned TJ’s smile, then leaned over and kissed him.
Charlie barked, and Santino shushed him. “No food for you.”
Orsen leaned into Santino and sighed. “The food was really nice. Thank you.”
“We like having you guys over, and Toni and Carter have invited you both to their party next weekend. They said to bring your own drinks. They don’t mind feeding us all, but we need to bring the beer.” TJ kissed Cody’s cheek and sighed. “I’m tired. It’s been a long week.”
“It’s been a long year. Longer, actually. At least you’ll get that officer now.” Cody rested his head on TJ’s shoulder.
“That would be nice, then I think we should go away. Maybe we could visit Mama and Jed. We haven’t been recently.”
“They know how busy you’ve been, and I have college, but a weekend would be nice. We could take the kids. All of them.”
TJ arched an eyebrow at Cody. “You think they would be happy with all the kids?”
“Maybe not Christian. He is still young, but the other four should be okay. Mama loves kids. We can take Toni’s car. We should all be able to fit in that.”
“I’ll let you sort it out.”
Santino stood and began picking up the plates. “Let me and Orsen clear this away, then we’ll leave you two alone.”
