Rhymes With Orange Read online

  But Coop also knew Hunter and how hard that was. How deeply entrenched Hunter’s “don’t disappoint” ethos was branded on his soul. Combined with being in the closet, and his anxiety, and everything else, it was a recipe for disaster.

  Coop nuked himself a breakfast sandwich to eat during his drive and arrived at Todd and Hunter’s duplex twenty minutes early. Todd already had the door open for him as Coop walked up.

  From the look on Todd’s face, he knew it was bad.

  “How is he?” Coop whispered, well aware the cousin next door could be listening or watching from her front window.

  Todd hooked a thumb at the hall. “He’s puking his guts up in our bathroom.”

  Coop let out a sigh and walked back to the master bathroom as Todd closed and locked the front door behind him. He found Hunter kneeling, eyes closed, practically hugging the toilet.

  Coop knelt next to him and draped an arm around his shoulders. “How you doing, buddy?”

  “Why can’t I get through this?” Hunter whispered. “Why can’t I just tell them to go fuck themselves?” Tears squeezed out from under his eyelids and ran down his cheeks.

  “It’s all right. But I need you to take some deep breaths for me, okay? We need to get you calmed down before we go.”

  “I’m sorry I’m dragging you into this, Master.”

  Oh, wow.

  He knew Hunter was in bad shape if he wasn’t even worried about using the title there at his own place.

  Coop rested his chin on top of Hunter’s head. “You’re my friend first. Don’t ever forget that. We wouldn’t be doing what we do if we weren’t friends. Plus you’ll have Todd and me there with you today. Remember what we talked about. Let the comments wash off you. Smile and go to your happy place. Look to me if you need to. Don’t let them upset you. If things get bad, I’ll fake a migraine or hurting my back or something. You’re my ride, so you have to take me home, right?”

  “Right.” He spit, then dry heaved again.

  Coop felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Todd, handing him a cup of water. He passed it to Hunter, who rinsed and spit into the toilet.

  Hunter leaned on him, nuzzling tightly against him. “Thank you, Master. I’m sorry.”

  “Stop apologizing.” He raked his fingers back and forth over Hunter’s scalp the way he did when they played, another “good boy” gesture the man enjoyed. Soothing. “Breathe.”

  Hunter took a hitching breath, let it out, then another.

  “Look at me.”

  Hunter finally did. His eyes appeared red, eyelids puffy. He’d been up for a while, Coop would guess. Maybe even all night.

  “How many Xanax have you had this morning?”

  “None yet, Master.”

  “You can take one now, but you need food in your stomach. Okay? Put two in your portable pill case, and give it to me. I’ll hold it for you today.”

  “What if they—”

  “Stop.” He cradled Hunter’s face in his hands. “What’s our rule about what-ifs?”

  “I don’t second-guess Master,” he immediately replied.

  Coop kept his voice low. “You’re going to be my good boy today,” he said. “You’re going to be fine. Todd and I will be there. Nobody is going to hurt you today.”

  It would take every ounce of self-control Coop had not to blast Hunter’s asshole family. He knew he couldn’t do that, because it would unleash a fiery rain of hell down on Hunter’s head. And if helping his brother move was making Hunter this upset, Coop going nuclear on Hunter’s family might push his friend over the edge.

  His job today was to keep an eye on Hunter, do his best to be a buffer between his boy and Hunter’s asshole family, and call it a day if things got too bad.

  Best-case scenario, they’d spend a few hours with them, Hunter would have to dodge a few snarky remarks from his siblings and parents, and then they could get the hell out of there.

  * * * *

  Todd swallowed back his hate, his bile, his anger.

  Not at Coop.

  No, that man, if he would let Todd, would get the best blowjob of his life from Todd for how he was helping Hunter cope with today.

  Todd had to control his hatred of Hunter’s family and the hell his lover had been through for his whole life. He was a very sensitive soul raised in a family of clueless, insensitive, controlling assholes.

  To be fair, under other circumstances, and with someone of a different temperament, maybe they’d be fine people. But Hunter wasn’t built to let shit roll off his back like that. He took every barb personally, and to heart, and it had eaten away at the very core of his soul. Like if the rest of his family had scaly, impervious dragon hides, Hunter’s had grown in backward, so instead of things not sticking to him, every little nuance got wedged in deep against his skin.

  Coop understood that. Coop knew that to smooth things over and soothe Hunter, one had to approach him from a different direction.

  Thank god for Coop.

  When Tony had introduced Todd to Coop, Todd had his doubts, at first. A straight guy topping a gay guy?

  But it had been the best thing to ever happen to Hunter in terms of helping him manage his anxiety. He’d made leaps and bounds of improvement over the past four years.

  Todd never felt jealous over what Hunter and Coop had together. Todd knew he wasn’t a sadist, and he didn’t have the demeanor to be a Master the way Coop was with Hunter.

  Todd watched as Coop kissed the top of Hunter’s head, helped him to his feet, and helped him get cleaned up. Todd had learned early on it was best to just stand back and wait for Coop to wave him in, if necessary. Hunter responded better to Coop when he didn’t saddle himself with worry about how Todd was doing or feeling or handling watching them.

  Once Coop had gotten Hunter moving with an order to get dressed and make himself something to eat before he took his medicine, Todd hung back, giving Coop a tip of his head to indicate he wanted to talk.

  Only after Hunter was out in the kitchen did Todd speak, keeping his voice low.

  “Thanks for this today.” He stuck his hand out.

  Coop looked at it and then pulled Todd in for a hug. “How long has he been this bad?” he whispered in Todd’s ear.

  “Today’s the worst. He’s been getting bad for a couple of days, though. I told him to text you, but you know how he is. He’s worried about bugging you.”

  Coop patted him on the back and nodded before breaking their hug and stepping away to head for the kitchen.

  Why can’t he be bi? Todd let out a wistful sigh before following the two men out to the kitchen.

  * * * *

  They took Todd’s car, with the ready excuse that it had more leg room in back than Hunter’s.

  They weren’t about to tell anyone that Coop had an SUV.

  Hunter rode in the back while Coop rode shotgun. The Xanax had helped calm the man down, and Coop had the extra pills in his pocket. If he thought Hunter was close to a panic attack, he’d make him take one and dissolve it under his tongue, the way the doctor had told Hunter he could.

  Hopefully they could avoid that.

  “What I don’t understand,” Todd softly grumbled, “is why if Terry is doing so well, he can’t hire a freaking moving company to do this.”

  Coop agreed with him but he wasn’t going to add to Hunter’s stress over it by kvetching. They’d help load the truck, follow them to the new house, and unload. Coop had met one of Hunter’s sisters and one of his brothers before, but it sounded like the whole family would be out in full force today.

  When they pulled up in front of the house in north Sarasota, there were already half a dozen cars parked along the street in addition to the moving truck. The neighborhood, north of Fruitville Road, wasn’t the most expensive in the area, but it was a far cry from the projects. Manicured lawns, mature trees, and carefully detailed mid- to high-priced cars parked in driveways told a story of quiet tropical lifestyles lived in financial ease.

  Tod
d and Coop hung back and followed Hunter up the walk and inside, where the flurry of activity was centered. An older woman Coop knew was Hunter’s mom from pictures he’d seen was directing a harried-looking younger woman Todd identified as Terry’s wife, Margie.

  “Mom, I’ve got this,” Margie said. “I told you I already had a plan.”

  “And I told you, I’ve done this before. You can’t pack the truck like that. Hunter, there you are. Go upstairs and help your brother and dad get their bedroom furniture.”

  “Okay.” He bolted for the stairs.

  Coop glanced at Todd and knew the man’s thinking likely mirrored his own, that this was a rocky start to the day.

  * * * *

  If Hunter had to choose between facing his father or disobeying his mother, he’d pick throwing himself into a pit of rabid, horny raccoons.

  Unfortunately, there were no pits, and no raccoons, horny or otherwise.

  So he decided not to argue or even hesitate. He headed upstairs, where he found his dad and Terry in the master bedroom and in the process of trying to break down the bed.

  “Uh, hey.”

  His dad glanced in his direction from where he was kneeling on the floor, near the head of the bed frame, and unscrewing it. “Finally. Did your friends come?”

  “Yeah. They’re downstairs.”

  “Fantastic,” his dad snarked. “Your mother will probably have them wasting time organizing the dishes by color before they’re loaded. That woman can waste more time, I swear she can.”

  Terry joined in. “If Margie doesn’t divorce me by the end of the day, it’ll be a miracle. I tried to tell Mom I’d just hire a moving company, and she freaked out. Next thing I know, she’d put out orders to everyone to be here today.”

  “That’s your mother,” his dad said.

  “What can I do?” Hunter asked before they got fired up on a fast-moving mom-hating rant-fest. “She sent me up here.”

  “Start hauling stuff downstairs,” his dad told him. “Like lamps and stuff. Set them off to the side. And the boxed stuff. Then start pulling out the dresser drawers and moving them downstairs. Keep the damn things in order, for crying out loud. It’ll make moving the dressers easier. We’ll put them back in once they’re on the truck and reverse it when we get there.”

  With something to do that didn’t involve talking to his father or Terry, Hunter set to work, glad to be out of any potential line of fire.

  Thank god for Coop and the Xanax. Without either one, he was sure he’d never make it through this day.

  Why can’t I tell them all to go to hell?

  Oh, yeah. I’m sort of held hostage by them with money.

  That was something he couldn’t stop loathing himself for, either.

  Chapter Fifteen

  An hour into loading the truck at Terry and Margie’s old house, Todd still wasn’t sure how this day would play out. He’d barely been able to have two seconds alone with Hunter to check on him. Instead, Todd was pretending to have to ask Hunter questions since he wasn’t familiar with the house.

  Maybe I should have called Tilly as backup.

  Even he wouldn’t cross that woman when it came to her sticking up for her friends, but he was afraid her take-no-prisoners approach to defending those she felt responsible for might only add to Hunter’s stress in this case.

  Todd was in the kitchen with Margie, helping her wrap and pack dishes, when the first warning sign popped up.

  “So, is Hunter dating anyone right now?” She gave him a sidelong glance he didn’t need psychic powers to interpret. “He hasn’t brought anyone to dinner or mentioned any girls in a while.”

  “You know how he is,” Todd said. “I keep setting him up with women and he finds a reason to push them away. I’m taking a break from playing matchmaker for a while or I won’t have any single female friends left.”

  She arched an eyebrow. “Really.” It wasn’t a question.

  “Yeah.” He forced a laugh. “I mean, you know, a guy can only do so much for a friend.”

  “Friend. Got it.”

  He hoped his face didn’t turn red.

  About that time, Coop returned to the kitchen after carrying a couple of boxes out to the truck. Todd was hoping to change the subject when Margie turned her focus on him.

  “So, I’ve heard Hunter mention you before, but he’s never mentioned if you have a girlfriend or not.”

  Todd would have thought this was funny if it wasn’t Hunter’s peace of mind at stake.

  Coop looked so cool, he could have sent the Titanic to the bottom of the Atlantic. “No current girlfriend,” Coop said, his gaze locking on Todd’s.

  * * * *

  Coop knew Todd hadn’t heard the discussion he’d just accidentally eavesdropped on out in the front yard. Hunter’s father and brothers, Kent and Dell, along with younger sister Sascha, had been engaged in what sounded like familiar speculation, based on the context.

  Hunter was currently upstairs packing one of the guest bedrooms, and the four of them had been talking in the garage, out of line of sight from where Coop stood.

  “I’m telling you,” Kent insisted, “I think Hunter’s gay.”

  “Yeah,” Dell agreed. “He and Todd have lived together how long now?”

  “Don’t be stupid,” their father said. “Hunter’s had girlfriends.”

  “Girlfriends we only meet once or twice before they go away,” Sascha said. “And he never talks about them. It’s always ‘Todd, this,’ and ‘Coop, that,’” she added.

  Crap.

  He was going to owe both Todd and Dani apologies by the end of the day. Todd, he suspected, would be okay with it, understanding why.

  Dani might be a little pissy about it, understandably so, but hopefully he could count on his girl to do the right thing, or else he’d horribly misjudged her.

  He hurried back into the house and to the kitchen, where Todd wasn’t alone. Pulling him aside to talk would be even more suspicious, so he started pitching in there to wait for an opportunity to talk.

  He got that opportunity when Margie was called out to the living room by Hunter’s mom.

  Coop walked over to him. “We need to talk,” he quickly whispered to Todd.

  “Is Hunter okay?”

  “We’re going to have to—” The door to the utility room opened.

  Coop grabbed Todd and kissed him, pretending to be surprised only once he knew everyone passing through from the garage to the kitchen had gotten an eyeful.

  Coop stepped back, hoping he wore a guilty look and doing his best not to laugh at the shocked expression on Todd’s face. “Sorry,” Coop said to them. “Just sneaking a kiss with my boyfriend.”

  But it was worth it to see the triumphant smile on Hunter’s father’s face as he turned to his three children. “See? Told you.”

  Todd still stood there, wide-eyed and staring at Coop. “Sorry, babe,” Coop said to Todd. “I know you told me hands-off today. Guess I blew our cover.”

  Margie walked in. “What’s going on?”

  “Oh, I’m about to let the ‘see I told you sos’ fly with my other children,” Hunter’s dad said.

  “Huh?”

  Sascha crossed her arms over her chest. “Stop it, Dad. I get it. I was wrong.”

  Coop slid an arm around Todd’s waist as Hunter’s dad pointed at them. “Hunter didn’t tell us you two were gay.”

  “Well,” Coop said, “he was trying to protect our privacy.” Coop smiled at Todd. “And Hunter’s the reason we met in the first place.”

  It seemed to have the desired effect. Hunter’s father waggled a finger at his children. “You three should be ashamed of yourselves, thinking like that about your poor brother. Just because he’s not like the rest of you doesn’t mean he’s gay. Sheesh.” He left the kitchen, shaking his head in disgust.

  Coop didn’t bother stopping the man to tell him he was being hypocritical. He’d take the win and savor it later.

  The other three sibling
s also retreated, leaving Margie standing there in confusion. “Uh, what’s going on?”

  Todd looked like he was still in shock.

  “He caught me sneaking a kiss with Todd. Sorry.”

  “Huh?”

  He pulled Todd a little closer. “We’re dating. Hunter…” He pretended to be making sure the coast was clear and dropped his voice. “Hunter warned me that his dad is sort of old-fashioned and not to do any PDAs. I got careless. Sorry.”

  Now she’d finally caught up with and boarded the completely erroneous train of thought Coop wanted her to ride. “Oh! Oh. Heh. Yeah, he’s kind of a dick about that. Sorry.”

  She quickly glanced around and dropped her voice. “Crap, hope he didn’t hear me say that. I personally don’t care. I know Sascha’s been convinced for years that Hunter’s gay. You probably just burst her bubble. No offense, to tell you the truth, I was beginning to think so, too.”

  “Ah.” Todd was still silently standing there next to him. Coop took it up a notch and let go of Todd to step in close to Margie. “If I tell you something, please don’t tell Hunter I told you.”

  “What?”

  “Hunter is sort of dating a friend of mine right now. She really likes him, but you know Hunter. He pushes people away if he gets spooked. We’re trying not to jinx this because we both really think they’d be good together. That’s why we’re keeping it a secret.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. Dani’s a sweetheart.”

  “Dani?”

  “Short for Danielle.”

  Her eyes widened again. “Oh! I’ve heard him mention spending time with a Danny before, but I thought it was another guy.”

  Todd had finally regained the power of speech and let out what Coop knew was a forced laugh. “No, she’s definitely not a guy.”

  “I wish you could get Hunter to bring her to dinner at the new house tonight. Just burgers on the grill. It’d really shut up the others if you could.”

  “I can call her. But it might piss off Hunter if we just spring it on him. You know how temperamental he can sometimes be.”