Mannies Incorporated by Michael, Sean (phonics books .TXT) 📗

"I think she wants to be here for it."

"Ah. Right." He thought about it for a bit. "I'm not sure that's fair to Christian."

"I'm not either, but she's the boss."

"I'll talk to her about it."

"Good luck with that." Slayde nodded, though, and Drake thought the man looked pleased.

"What're we having for supper?" He cared more about grown up supper than kiddy supper.

"The kids want chicken fingers."

"You make those yourself, too?" The question just shot out of him before he even realized it.

"Has there been anything I didn't?"

"Nope. Well. The hotdogs." Homemade chicken fingers sounded pretty decent actually. Better than rice pasta macaroni, anyway.

"Okay, then. Mashed potatoes, chicken fingers, apple sauce."

"Wow, that sounds good." It really did. Like something he'd order out.

Slayde chuckled. "Thanks."

"Sorry, but some of the things the kids like…" He shrugged.

"If I remember correctly, you have a McDonald's addiction." Slayde snorted. "Very bad for you."

"Yeah, but McDonald's tastes good."

"McDonald's is atrocious."

He was scandalized. "You've never been a cop."

"No. No, I am not weapon material. At all."

He chuckled. No, Slayde wasn't; he had a…softer side. "How did you and Mindy meet, man?" Suddenly he had to know.

"Through Jerry."

Now that was surprising. Jerry wasn't…at all like Slayde.

"Seriously? How'd you two know each other?"

"We were frat brothers."

You could have knocked Drake over with a feather. "You were in a fraternity?"

"I was." Slayde chuckled, looked at him with an upraised eyebrow. "Delta Chi, all the way. He was my roommate for two years."

"Huh." Imagine that. It wasn't what he'd expected to hear. At all.

"Yes, Officer. They let homosexual and heterosexual man room together. I swear, I never molested him, not even once."

He rolled his eyes. "Don't get all riled up. I didn't say a word."

He wouldn't mind Slayde molesting him, though. Jesus. He had to stop that. He needed to go out and get laid, although frankly, it was going to be even harder here than it had been at home. He supposed it had been a long time, though. A very long time. That had to be why he was getting so worked up over Slayde.

Because Slayde was a queen and skinny and he cooked and did weird crafts with the kids. Not. His. Type.

But shit, just looking at the guy and talking about men sleeping together was getting Drake hard. He managed not to growl and headed for the bathroom. He shut the door, leaned back against it and closed his eyes. This was insane. Totally.

His hands drifted down his body, pressing against his nipples through his T-shirt, then moving on down to cup his fucking prick. He could imagine Slayde's mouth, though, wrapped around his cock, wet and hot and eager. He bit his bottom lip to keep from groaning, running his hands back up his body, then down again, debating if he had time to finish this up, get his stupid prick down.

This was crazy. Stupid. He couldn't just tug off in the bathroom like a desperate teenager. He leaned over the sink and splashed his face with cold water. Then he splashed some more. He had to get over himself. He had to figure this…

"Uncle Slayde! Uncle Slayde! Maggie ate a bug!"

He started to chuckle. Oh, God. This he had to see. He thumped his cock, telling it to behave, and headed out to see what the heck was up. He went back to the kitchen.

"Uncle Slayde!" Christian was screaming, eyes wide. "Maggie ate a BUG!"

"What? Where is she?"

"The backyard, I hope." If she was eating bugs, right?

Slayde shot him a look and out they went. "What kind of bug?"

Maggie was standing, staring, eyes wide and Slayde scooped her up.

"Was it a good bug?" Drake asked. They needed to get her talking, right? And not panic. Though his first reaction, really, was to laugh.

She shook her head, big eyes filling with tears.

"Open your mouth, Maggie. Let me see."

"Did it hurt you, honey?" He went over to help Slayde deal with her. Maybe he could force her mouth open if they needed to do that. He'd thought it was just funny, but Slayde was acting like it could be a problem.

She looked at him, frowned mightily, then started to scream. "MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY!"

"Oh, fuck. Slayde? Do we need to get her to the hospital?" Driving fast he could do and it looked like maybe Slayde was right to be taking this as seriously as he was.

Slayde looked at her mouth, then stuck his finger in there, wincing as she bit him. "Nope. No swelling. Christian just freaked her out."

"MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY!"

Slayde sighed. "After dinner."

"Okay." Drake took a breath of relief, glad he hadn't been about to start laughing about something really bad. "So you're fine. You want to know what Mommy and I used to do when something like this happened?"

She almost stopped screaming. Almost.

"Of course you know it was Mommy who ate the bug."

She stopped, frowned. "Mommy?"

"Uh-huh. In fact she ate bugs more than once." He looked up at Slayde and grinned. "I might have dared her to do it on occasion."

"Oh, that's a mean brother. Did Christian make you eat the bug?"

Maggie shook her head. "It flied in."

Drake chuckled. "You gotta make sure your Momma knows I didn't dare you to do it -- I don't want to get into trouble."

"Is it wiggling in your tummy, Maggie?" Christian asked.

Slayde gave Christian a look. "Seriously?"

Drake bit back his laughter. "You never had a big brother, did you, Slayde?"

"No. Just older sisters."

"It's kind of a tradition that you tease your little sister like crazy. Of course, if anyone else does it, you'll beat them to mush."

Slayde rolled his eyes and turned back to Maggie. "Are you okay now?"

"Is the buggy going to fly out?"

"Nope."

"I think it's pretty cool. That you ate a bug. Makes you pretty brave." He'd thought Mindy was a stud for eating them, too. Of course he'd been six at the time. Then eight. Then fifteen. He couldn't believe he'd gotten her to do it that last time, too.

Maggie looked