“He’s thirty-two.”
“Close enough. Has he got a sub at the moment?” asked Kieran. His eyes locked onto Neil, although he could practically hear Derek grinding his jaw.
Neil finished serving his customer and looked up, locking eyes with Kieran, who smiled at him. Neil returned it and gave him a dirty wink. The guy was really hot, in a handsome, clean-cut kind of way. Kieran liked his men beefier, hairier, and less put-together. No prizes for knowing why that was!
“I’ll be back in a minute,” Derek growled before walking over towards the bar.
The smile on Neil’s face disappeared when he saw Derek moving towards him. Kieran turned away so he didn’t laugh. Project Daddy was back on track!
It was Saturday, and he wasn’t in the shop today, although Grant had asked if he could stop by in the afternoon to meet Carl. He was nervous about meeting his new boss. Despite what Grant and Derek had said about Kieran being the manager now, it didn’t feel like that. He knew if he messed up, which given his track record was a given, then Carl would tell Grant to let him go.
Before that, he was meeting Derek for lunch in Knights Corner, and Hassan was joining them, which could be a disaster, but it needed to be done. Besides, Hassan had basically invited himself to this lunch.
“You must be Derek,” said Hassan, shaking his hand.
They were both eyeing each other. It was like a dom standoff, except Hassan wasn’t a dom, was he? It had been so long since they’d fucked. Hassan had definitely been the one in control, but they were both only eighteen and less sexually experienced than they were now.
“Kieran speaks highly of you,” said Derek, as they took their seats.
“I wish I could say the same about you.”
Oh, fuck!
Derek snorted. “You don’t pull your punches, do you?”
“Not where Kieran’s concerned. He’s my family.”
That made Kieran’s heart melt. Hassan had always been there for him, protecting him, and occasionally being like an overbearing big brother, but he knew it came from a place of love. To hear him say it so openly meant everything to Kieran.
“Why don’t you start by asking all your questions, Hassan? It’s best to get things out in the open.”
Hassan nodded, and they took their seats. This was going to be fun, and yes, even in his head, Kieran was sarcastic.
“Let’s order some drinks first,” said Derek, opening the app on his phone.
Kieran was sitting next to Hassan, and they were in a booth, so Derek was on his own on his side. Kieran wasn’t sure how he felt about that, but at least this way he could poke Hassan if he went too far with his interrogation, because that’s what it was going to be. They gave Derek their drink orders, and once he put his phone away, Hassan didn’t waste any time.
“Why didn’t you try to find him when you knew what she’d done?”
“I didn’t think he’d want to hear from me.”
“Bullshit. You thought he might blame you, so you kept away.”
“I already blamed myself, so that wasn’t my reasoning.”
“What was it, then?”
“I didn’t want to cause him any more pain.”
Kieran teared up. The sincerity on Derek’s face was almost too much. Even Hassan’s shoulders came down from his ears a bit, but Kieran knew his bestie wasn’t done yet. Before he could ask anything else, they were all startled by a loud crash.They looked, and Kieran saw a young guy, probably the server, who had dropped all their drinks on the floor and was looking at them in shock. He looked familiar, but Kieran couldn’t place him. Langdon came rushing over, because of course he did. That guy was everywhere.
“Is everything okay?” asked Langdon.
“Hassan, is that you?” asked the young man.
Kieran looked at his friend, who was crying. That was a rare sight. Hassan had the biggest heart, but he wasn’t a crier.
“Omar?” croaked Hassan.
