“And we’ll also be fucking again. You said if I’m good, and that was better than good.”

Yeah, it was. “Greedy, aren’t you?” Mason reached over and rubbed his spunk into Gavin’s chest, loving the feel of the coarse hair there. “Tell me more about your job and how all that shit went down.”

Before Mason had all the words out, Gavin already began shaking his head. “Not right now. It’ll put me in a bad mood, and I don’t want to be in one right now.”

He liked that about Gavin—he was a man who told the truth. He didn’t blow off the question or divert. He said exactly why he didn’t want to answer it at this time. “Fair enough.”

“What about you? Would your parents really have been so upset if you opened a bar earlier?”

Mason let his head roll to the side so he could look at Gavin. What a sight they probably made—two naked men, sprawled out on a couch, discussing life. “Yes and no. It’s all about expectation. I know you understand that part of it. They loved me with all they had. They wanted the best for me. They wanted to pass down their lifetime of hard work to me. I’m an only child. As far as I knew, my parents tried for years to have a baby and they finally had me. They tried for years after I was born and never had any more. Of course now I see that’s because I was never really theirs—”

“Yeah, you are,” Gavin interrupted.

Mason let his eyes fall closed, frustrated. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have said that. They’ve always been my parents.” They would do anything for Mason. That’s why walking away from their dream for him had always been so hard, despite his need to build something on his own. He’d thought he could handle working on Creekside and then either selling it or hiring someone to run it for him, but that wasn’t the truth. Now, he couldn’t imagine walking away. Even for them. He loved them, so it felt like a betrayal not to want Alexander’s.

Because they were his parents. He was back at that. He was lucky to have the family he did.

He flinched when he felt Gavin’s thumb on his forehead. “You’re deep in thought. Your forehead is wrinkled.”

“Maybe if you straighten them out for me, the thoughts won’t be there anymore.” He wanted them gone. Thought maybe Gavin might have it in him to wipe Mason’s worry away—or at least to make him forget about it for a while.

“Do you feel that way? Like you’re not theirs? That’s bullshit, you know.”

Mason opened his eyes. “I appreciate the effort, but this is way too heavy a conversation when I’m still rung out from blowing my load.”

“You started it,” Gavin countered.

He did, but, “Now, I’m ending it.”

Gavin sighed. “Fair enough.” He returned Mason’s words from a few minutes before. “I should go. I have to be up early. I’m going out to see my parents for a couple hours before work tomorrow night.” Gavin stood, grabbed his underwear and pulled them on while Mason enjoyed the view.

“You have a nice ass.”

“But you don’t like to fuck?”

“I love ass. I just want a dick in mine. I’ll eat yours sometime, though.”

“If you’re good.” Gavin grabbed his pants next.

Mason chuckled. “Touché.”

Once Gavin was dressed, Mason took the time to do the same thing. Gavin helped him finish up the last few things he needed to do to close the bar down and then they both headed to the cars, which were parked by one another.

Mason held Gavin’s face and covered Gavin’s mouth with his own. He nipped Gavin’s lip with his teeth and explored Gavin’s mouth with his tongue. When his cock started to go hard again, he pulled back. “I love kissing. Kissing and fucking. I could do them all day long. It sounds like the perfect day—doing nothing but sleeping, kissing and fucking. I’ve always kept too busy for that, though.”

“Yeah, me, too.”

Mason watched as Gavin got into his car before getting into his own. They left at the same time, two sets of lights until at one point, he went left and Gavin went right. The whole time he couldn’t stop thinking about Gavin’s question. Did he feel like he didn’t belong in his family anymore?

The truth was, he didn’t know.

***

“Who are you again?” Gavin’s dad looked over at his mom, lost. His hair was all grey, though it had been mostly grey for a while now. He looked more fragile than he used to. His father sat in a twin bed with plain, white sheets. The room wasn’t decorated much, and what was there didn’t all belong to him. Some things, yes. To keep things familiar, he assumed, but the shelves and tables and bed… None of it was his father’s.