Beauty And The Bookworm (12 page)

“Mason.”

“What?” I asked, trying to go back to sleep.

“Mason!”

I opened my eyes to see Shane standing over me with the phone to his ear.

“
Tell her we’re on our way.”

We were in the maternity waiting room for 6 months, 8 days, and 23 hours. Okay, I’m kidding, of course, but pushing out babies takes a
really long time. I’d tried to be in the delivery room with Twyla, but, in the end, she’d asked Gran to go in with her. I guess an old lesbian is better than a young gay when it comes to deliveries.

Gran came out to the waiting room looking like she’d just won a new Harley. “Come on back, boys. Wait ‘til you get a load of this kid.”

“Healthy?” I asked.

“Tough as nails,” Gran said, narrowing her eyes at me for suggesting otherwise.

Twyla was sitting in the hospital bed with the baby noisily sucking down its first meal. I felt overwhelmed and embarrassed to realize I was crying. “I’m so proud of you, Twyla.”

Twyla looked up at me, so tired and fragile looking that I cried even harder
. “You ready to hold her, Mason?”

Gran interrupted with words of poetic beauty. “Don’t take that kid off the tit until she’s ready, Twyla. She can get groped by Mason anytime.”

I wiped my eyes and glared at Gran, then turned to smile at Twyla. “So it’s
her
?”

“Yep.”

“Have you come up with a name?”

Twyla smiled over at Shane. “Yeah, Shane helped me pick it out. Say hello to Tallulah.”

I shook my head and said hello to baby Tallulah.

Shane and I became expert uncles over the next few months. We changed more diapers and heated more bottles than either of us ever expected to and it brought us even closer than we’d been before. It also brought us both to the realization that we never, ever, under any circumstances wanted the curse of children to be visited on us. Let’s be clear, folks, I loved Tallulah, but kids suck.

Shawn proved himself to Shane eventually. He held down his job and walked the very strict line of his parole. He came over for dinner often and it was good to see the two of them just being easy with each other, just being brothers.

I grew to love Shawn myself. He was different from Shane, but not as different as the two of them believed. They were both kind and generous to a fault and they both had a little sadness in them that made me love them even more.

Just like in the pages of a romance book, which, let’s face it, this is
, Shawn eventually met Twyla and Tallulah. He crept around at the edges of their lives for a while, and then, suddenly, he was in the middle of things. Shane was uncomfortable about Twyla and Shawn dating, but he finally gave in and was happy for them.

Gran moved in thoroughly moist Millie and the two made a happy couple. I was always happy when they came roaring up on their matching Harleys to visit us. In the end, things were good for all of us.

We hosted everyone for Tallulah’s first birthday. The girl got
a lot of presents she had no interest in. Kids that age should just be given wrapping paper, that’s all they care about. I gave her books, Gran gave her an electric toy Harley, and Shane gave her several crates of organic baby food containing loads and loads of kale.

When everyone had gone, we surveyed our destroyed living room.
I grabbed a garbage bag and began filling it. Shane came up behind me, putting his arms around my waist. “Let’s leave all this for tomorrow. I want to take you to bed.”

I turned around to hug him
. “You’re just offering me sex to get out of cleaning.”

“Come on, you know fucking is better than cleaning.”

He had a point. I reached down to rub his cock through the fabric of his jeans. He was already raring to go. “What’s it going to be? Am I reading a book tonight?”

“Only if you can read with your legs in the air.”

We got to the bedroom and got naked
. I sat on the edge of the bed with Shane standing in front of me. I grabbed his cock and took it in my mouth. He groaned that deep throaty groan that drove me insane.

I sucked him until he couldn’t take anymore and he pushed me back onto the bed, climbing in after me and laughing.

“I’m gonna fuck you through the headboard, Mason,” he whispered.

I had to laugh. “You’re a poet. I’m going to ask Gran about embroidering that on a pillow.”

He shimmied down and took my cock in his hand, giving it a few pumps and smiling up at me. “You’re the one who does all the reading. Say something worth putting on a pillow.”

“I’ve got the perfect thing,” I said.

“What is it?”

“I love you.”

The End

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