Erin rolled her eyes and Karrie stifled a laugh. Nick was annoyed as hell. “Thanks, Mom, but you don’t need to defend me to my own sisters. I appreciate the concern, though.” He walked over and gave her a kiss on the cheek before sitting down next to his brothers-in-law.

They chatted for a minute and then Nick went upstairs to play with the kids. He loved his nieces and nephews. He’d always thought he and Jill would eventually have kids. It wasn’t something he dreamed about or anything, it was just what you did in his family. You got married and had a family. He was the only one who’d gotten divorced, or didn’t have kids.

It wasn’t long before Erin called up the stairs that dinner was ready. He watched as his sisters made sure the kids had their plates. Michelle’s husband, Ken, waited at the table while Michelle made his plate. Karrie and Erin’s husbands didn’t, but he noticed they didn’t offer to help their wives with the kids, either. In a lot of ways, he knew the girls didn’t mind. It was how they’d all been raised. But it rubbed Nick wrong at the same time. Why did they have to serve everyone?

That had never been Jill, and he was okay with that. His mother, on the other hand, hated it. She felt Jill wasn’t doing her womanly duty, whatever the fuck that was.

“Sit down, dear. I’ll make your plate for you.” His mom patted his shoulder.

“It’s okay. I’m a big boy. I can handle it.” She flinched as though his words hurt. He knew she just saw this as taking care of whom she loved, but Nick didn’t need anyone to serve him. “Why don’t you sit down and I’ll make yours?”

She waved her hand at him. “You don’t want to make your mama’s plate, and you shouldn’t have to.”

“If I were you, I’d take advantage of that!” Karrie smiled, but his mom just followed him to the food, where they made their plates.

“My son is a good man. He deserves a woman who sees him as such.” She smiled proudly and Nick’s stomach seized up.

It’s not a woman I want right now, Mom. It’s a man...

“You spoil him too much, Mom. It wasn’t Jill’s job to take care of him. It was only her job to be a good wife.” Karrie nodded, proud of herself.

“I’m with you on that one,” Erin added.

His mom frowned. “All I want is for him to know how he should be treated. He’s my only boy, and I just want what’s best for him.”

Nick knew his mom would never think of Bryce as what was best for him.

***

It was close to ten Monday night when there was a knock at Bryce’s door. Without looking, he knew exactly who it was. He shoved off the couch and went for the door. “It took you long enough,” he said when he saw Nick standing there.

“What the hell do you mean? It’s been forty-eight hours.” Nick stepped inside and closed the door. He looked slightly frazzled, his mouth in a frown. But he was here, he was fucking here, and Bryce knew exactly why. “I need to know what you’re thinking. What this means and what you want. I mean, what’s the plan?” Nick asked as he paced back and forth across Bryce’s living room. Bryce felt a smile tug at his lips. He liked this frazzled side of the man.

“Honestly? I don’t have a plan. I’m not really a thinking-things-through kind of guy.  Unless it’s just thinking about the fact that I want you. That’s all I know. I don’t know what that means, either. As far as I’ve gone in the planning stage is paying more attention to the men in straight porn on Saturday night, and Googling ‘men kissing’ Sunday night.”

Nick froze at that, before slowly turning to face Bryce. “You looked up men kissing?”

“Yep.”

“How was it?”

“Sexy as fuck. Wanna look it up with me? Or do it with me?”

It was then that the frown sort of fell off Nick’s face. He stood about ten feet away from Bryce, staring at him. “I was up thinking all night Saturday, didn’t sleep for shit. Sunday, I went to work early, tried to forget it, but that didn’t work. Today, I thought about you all fucking day while I tried to avoid you...then I went to dinner with my family. It’ll be a fucking disaster if they find out. It’ll break my mom’s heart, but that doesn’t change what I want. Maybe that makes me an asshole. Maybe it’s too early to even worry about family or anything like that. All I know was the longer I was with them, the more I wished I was with you. The why of it didn’t matter anymore.” Nick’s shoulders rose and then dropped. “So here I am.”