Page 25 of Red, White, and BearCat Blue

“Why?” Mars said as Amber returned with our drinks and set them down. After she’d left, he leaned across the table. “You were saying?”

Oh, God. I waved between the two of them. “I mean look at you two. You’re like every gay man’s wet dream. Big, gorgeous, body builders…I bet you bring them to their knees in the bars.” …aaand…somebody please kill me. I had diarrhea of the mouth.

I was shocked when what I’d said seemed to excite Mars, as his eyes flared with heat again. Son-of-a-bitch this guy was potent. One look, and I was close to creaming my jeans.

Mars cleared his throat again. “So, what were ya saying about twenty-six?”

I had no idea what the hell he was rambling about. “What are you talking about?”

“Ya said you discovered ya wanted to only date men when ya turned twenty-six. Why twenty-six? Did something ‘appen?”

I shook my head. “Oh…no. It just happened for me then. Besides, that’s around the same time it happened to another guy I know. But, come to think of it, he went to Catholic school. He was taught by the Jesuits.”

“What’s that got to do with anything?” Mickey asked. He honestly looked confused. “I went to Catholic school too.”

I shrugged. “Were you taught by Jesuits?”

He shook his head. “No…nuns.”

“Well, that’s probably why then.”

“Why what?” Mars asked. The smile playing around his lips was super sexy.

I shrugged. “I don’t know…nuns are probably different than Jesuits.” For a couple of smart guys, they were being obtuse.

Mickey and Mars exchanged grins. “This is the weirdest conversation,” Mars said.

“Right?” Mickey said. He turned back to me. “What do Jesuit teachers have to do with figuring out you’re not really bi and instead gay when you’re twenty-six?”

I leaned across the table, lowering my voice. “You guys are really stuck on the whole Jesuits thing, aren’t you?”

Mars actually threw his head back and let out a belly laugh that made me grin like an idiot. He had a really nice laugh that sent ripples through me. “You’re the one who started it.”

I sat back and looked around for Amber, really wanting this strange conversation to be over. “You’re both weird,” I mumbled.

They were still laughing when she came over to take our orders.

After finishing a shrimp, chicken, and beef fajita which was the same thing Mars ordered, I made sure he and Mickey tried the flan. This place made the absolute best flan in Vegas…next to my mom’s, of course. After she’d gotten sick and had stopped cooking, I’d tried to find her recipe cards to recreate her recipes, thinking it would make her happy. I’d practically torn apart the kitchen looking for them but hadn’t been successful. I had no idea where they’d gone.

She’d probably thrown them out. The worse her memory got, the more she did stuff that didn’t make sense. I’d bought one of those label makers and started labeling everything in the house to make it easy for her, but even that, had eventually stopped working when she’d gotten really bad. I’d started doing all the chores around the house that she could no longer do including giving her baths and eventually had to buy adult diapers. That was about the time I realized she was too much for me to handle alone. Every time I left the house, I’d been afraid she’d wander away or burn the place down if she tried cooking. I really missed her cooking and her silly attempts at baking. When we were kids, she’d used me and Jessie as guinea pigs, trying out new recipes and having us grade them.

“What’d you think of it?” I asked, dragging myself out of my melancholy when I felt my eyes getting hot. Crying in front of Mars and Mickey would have been super humiliating.

“What?” Mars asked.

I pointed to the flan with my fork. “The flan. It’s great, right?”

Mars sat back wearing a wide grin as he patted his belly. “All of it was really great, best Mexican food I’ve ‘ad since leaving Texas.”

“That’s where you lived before here?”

They nodded. “Our Tac Team moved out ‘ere about a year ago,” Mars said.

I frowned. “What’s a Tac Team?”

“It’s like a SWAT team but for the FBI,” Mickey replied.

I felt a shiver go through me as I pictured guys dropping from helicopters holding really big rifles. “Wow, that’s so hot. So, you guys are like those cool action dudes?” When they didn’t reply, I said, “You know…like those guys on the TV show? You jump out of planes and rappel off buildings and stuff?”