Home of His Own by T. Chase (classic fiction .TXT) 📗

from spilling out of Yancey’s mouth. “Let Juan do his own talking. We’ll get to you soon enough.”

Brody frowned, wondering what Tony knew. He settled back with his coffee mug, ready to watch the show.

“How long, Juan?” Tony asked again.

Juan stared down at the carpet. “Since before Thanksgiving.”

“How did you find out?” Tony sat on the coffee table in front of the boys.

“It was the weekend of my birthday. My friends and I went to one of the clubs downtown. I saw Luis there. He was trying to pick a guy up.” Juan’s voice tapered off.

“Did you know the guy?”

Brody had a feeling the guy was in the room with them.

“Luis was trying to pick me up.” Yancey set his mug on the coffee table and glared at Tony. “I did stuff with him once, but that was before I knew he was Juan’s uncle. The minute I found out, I refused to have anything else to do with the bastard.”

Tony nodded. “I saw the look you exchanged when I told you Angelina was here to talk about Luis. He never forced you or hurt you in any way, did he, Yancey?”

Yancey shook his head. “No. He’d try to hassle me, but someone would come and rescue me.” His blue eyes narrowed and he looked at Juan. “That wouldn’t have been your doing, would it?”

Juan blushed. “Yeah, they were friends of mine. I’d asked them to keep an eye out and make sure mi tio didn’t bother you.”

Yancey sighed and took Juan’s hand in his. “Thanks, but I could have dealt with it on my own.”

“Your sister knows your brother-in-law cheats on her with men. She drove all the way up here from Texas to ask you if you knew?” Randy looked surprised.

“Yes. It was the shock of seeing him with another guy. She confronted him and he said something about the fag spilling his guts. It’s a toss-up which one of us he meant.”

Tony stood and moved behind Brody, rubbing his hand over Brody’s shoulder.

“He never saw me at the clubs,” Juan said. “I managed to stay out of his sight.”

“So it was either Yancey or me.” Tony tapped Brody’s hand, bringing his attention to the dark haired man. “Remember the conversation we had a couple days ago about our first loves?”

Brody frowned and nodded. They had been talking about Yancey and Juan. “Yes.”

“I told you my first love was the worst experience of my life and it scarred me.”

Tony reached over, grabbed the fork out of his hand and took a bite of his pie.

“Then you distracted me.” Brody managed not to blush when he remembered how he’d been distracted.

“Luis was my first love.”

“No shit?” Juan’s jaw dropped open.

Brody carefully set his plate down and tugged his cowboy into his lap. He hugged Tony tight, whispering, “I thought he was an asshole before this. Now I know he is along with being stupid. A smart man would’ve never let you go. Lucky for you, my momma always said I was the smartest son she had.”

A shudder wracked Tony’s stocky body. Brody knew it’d been hard for him to tell them about Luis.

“It’s in the past, love. You’ve got a new family here and we won’t ever turn our backs on you.”

He kissed Tony hard and deep, claiming him. His cock hardened and began to ache.

He wanted to do something to mark Tony as his.

“Does anyone else have any other earth-shattering secrets?” Les’ amused voice broke through the fog of need threatening to overcome Brody’s control.

Everyone shook their head.

“Then I suggest we go to bed. We can deal with everything in the morning.”

Les lifted Randy to his feet and stood, joining him. Both men smiled at Tony who stayed snuggled in Brody’s arms.

“Brody’s right, Tony. No matter what, you’re a member of this family and nothing will ever change that. We’ve all known what it’s like not to be wanted.” Randy leaned over and brushed a kiss over Tony’s cheek and gave Brody one as well.

Les nodded, squeezing their shoulders with a strong grip. Juan and Yancey said good night.

Brody stood, holding Tony in his arms and for the first time, Tony didn’t struggle to be set down. Revealing secrets had taken energy and Tony seemed to be willing to trust Brody to take care of him.

“Come on, love. Let’s go to bed.” He grinned at Tony. “I want to show you just how much you mean to me.”

Chapter Seventeen

The next morning, Brody was sitting in the kitchen when Angelina came in.

“Coffee?”

He held up his mug and pointed to the pot resting on the counter near where he sat.

She nodded, giving him a tentative smile. He reached up, grabbed another mug and filling it. He set it down on the table across from him.

“Have a seat. Would you like cream or sugar?” His words were stiff.

He was uncomfortable and unsure how to act around Tony’s sister. An image of Tony’s family as monsters had been created in his mind, mostly from Tony’s avoidance of discussing them.

“Black is fine. Have I missed breakfast?” She fidgeted with her mug.

“Of course not,” Margie said, bustling in from the laundry room. “How about eggs and toast? Would you like some, Brody?”

“No, Margie. I’m fine.”

Tony had told him how hard it had been to break Margie of the habit of calling everyone Mister. She saw it as a sign of respect. Now the only one she still used the honorific with was Les.

“Please, I don’t want to make more work for you,” Angelina protested.

“It’s no work at all, Ms. Romanos. Those two youngsters will be coming back in, hungry again, so I can dish you out some of what I make them.” Margie pulled out pots and skillets.

“Where’s Tony?” Angelina asked Brody.

He looked up from the newspaper he’d been trying to read. “He was gone when I got up. I figured he was down at the bucking chutes working some of the rough stock Dusty and Burt are bringing along.”

“Rough stock?”

Margie laughed.