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“Why are you hanging upside down off the couch? You look like a damn bat.”
“I’m thinking.”
“With all the blood rushing to your head?”
“I figured it was better to do it this way than when it rushed to my cock.”
“Fuck’s sake,” my brother muttered and took a seat on the floor in front of me. At least his feet weren’t near my eyeballs any longer. “Reed and Cas are going to be here any minute. You can either hash this out with me, or get a collective group response when they see you like this.”
“I might need their input.”
“Suit yourself.”
We stayed where we were. Slay tapping on his phone while I slowly got a headache from lying like this. I refused to move until I figured it out though. Had any answers come to me yet? Not in the least.
How had my dumb ass gone and caught a crush on not one, but two men? Seriously, what the fuck?
I was not a relationship man. Ever. I was a fuck and flee man.
Tristan was not though. He was the kind of man I would worship because he deserved it. But me worshipping for longer than a night? I didn’t even pray to any god for that long. I also wasn’t the least bit religious, but that was beside the point.
Romeo was the first man who caught my attention since I developed my crush on Tristan. Now, Romeo was there alongside Tristan, taking up space in my head. What was I going to do with two men? I didn’t know how to commit to one.
I groaned. Loudly.
“Stop attention seeking,” Slater said. “I offered to talk whatever this is out with you, and you declined. You want Reed and Cas to be your sounding board.” Great, I upset my brother.
“I meant nothing bad by it. In this instance, they might have more insight on my issue than you do.”
“You’re not craving my dick, are you? Because while Reed and Cas are cool with the stepbrothers thing, you and me are a line I won’t cross.”
“The fuck?” I yelled, scrunching up my nose. “At no time have I given one second of thought about your cock and me getting personal.”
“Then what do you need their advice on that I can’t give you?”
The sound of a muscle car getting closer was music to my ears. If I had to continue this conversation with Slater, I was going to lose my cool and fast. He said I was attention seeking when the reality was, my brother liked to be needed. When he felt like he was being replaced or overlooked, he got upset. Hurting my brother was the last thing I wanted, especially after what he went through with Reed and Casper. That was a shitshow I didn’t want a repeat of.
My brother had loved Reed Ashford for years. Not once did he confess his feelings to the object of his affection. Instead, he kept them to himself and occasionally talked to me about them.
The timing was never right.
Reed was too busy.
What if he rejected him?
There was always a reason my brother didn’t open his mouth. In the end, I was glad he didn’t because Reed hadn’t looked at anyone other than his stepbrother for years. At least until Elic came along. Slater and Reed wouldn’t have worked. Not when Reed was so hung up on Casper. Reed, Casper, and Elic were meant to find their ways to each other. The problem remaining was Slater trying to get over his crush while also keeping his anxiety to a controllable level, which wasn’t easy.
Slater needed to stay busy. He had to run errands, obsessively clean, write songs, and be useful. He had to stay moving. When Slater sat too long, his anxiety got worse, and depression snuck in.
He was good now. Slater was coming back to a place where he was happy most of the time. Him doubting himself had to stop.
“What are you doing tonight?” I asked instead of answering his question. He’d find out the source of my turmoil when Reed and Casper came inside.
We were at my brother’s house, getting ready to work on the new music Slater and Reed had written. They wanted to go over it with Casper and me so we could give our thoughts on it.
“Nothing.” Slater shrugged.
“How about we put the screen out by my pool and have a movie night?”
