Wayward Son (6 page)

He wouldn’t, Mikey knew. “So do I need to do anything else?”

“Not a thing,” Mr. Day replied. “We’ll call you as soon as we find something out, get a copy of the lawsuit, but we won’t file a response until after you’ve been served. The clock won’t start ticking until then anyway. No reason to rush and run the risk of missing something.” He glanced at Quinn. “Quinn, did you have any questions? Anything to add?”

Quinn shook his head. “I might as I go through the notes. Is it okay to call?” He directed the question to Mikey, who nodded in response.

“I have classes two nights a week, but I guess you wouldn’t be calling at night anyway,” he said.

Quinn and Mr. Day both smiled at that. “Probably not,” Quinn agreed, “but that’s mostly for your benefit.”

“Lots of burning the midnight oil for law students,” Mr. Day agreed. “And it doesn’t get much better once you’re done.”

Mikey remembered Jimmy’s comment about getting tired of the grind and all the references he’d seen on television and in movies to things like “billable hours.” “Yeah, I guess it’s not really a nine-to-five job.”

“More like six to eleven,” Quinn said. “And that’s a.m. to p.m. Not a job for someone who needs a whole lot of sleep.”

Mikey bit back a laugh at that, remembering how grumpy Jimmy had been the few times he’d been around in the morning. He suspected the need for early morning hours had been the real reason Jimmy lost interest in practicing law.

“Okay, then.” Mr. Day folded his portfolio closed and tucked his pen into his pocket. “We’ll leave it at that for now. Quinn will call if he has questions or if we need to meet again. Mikey, please feel free to call us at any time with any question, and particularly if there are any new developments we might not be aware of. And, of course, call immediately once you are served.”

He pushed to his feet, and Quinn and Mikey followed suit. “Quinn will show you out.” Mr. Day extended his hand again. “Have a good day. And remember, we’re taking care of this. Try not to worry.”

He left the room, and Quinn visibly relaxed. “He’s a little… intense,” he confided, and Mikey let out what could only be described as a giggle.

“Yeah,” he agreed. Relief at the admission made him bold, and he raised an eyebrow at Quinn. “Does he know about you?”

Quinn flushed. “No, but not because I’m hiding it or anything,” he said, his low voice belying his words. “I just don’t think it’s relevant.”

Mikey thought maybe it was, but he didn’t know if Quinn knew Mr. Day had a gay son, much less the story behind that. He certainly wasn’t going to be the one to tell him. “Well, thanks,” he said instead. “I think I can find my way out.”

“I’m sure you can,” Quinn said, stepping to the side and holding the door open. “But we don’t let visitors wander around alone. Too many confidential documents and such.”

Good point. Mikey nodded and let Quinn lead the way down the hall to the lobby doors, which he opened and held for Mikey to pass through.

“Thanks again,” Mikey said, and Quinn gave him a smiling nod in reply before disappearing back behind the door. Mikey passed along a similar gesture in silent thanks to the receptionist.

He was in the elevator headed back downstairs when the tension ran out of him all at once, and his knees nearly buckled. He gripped the rail along the wall and waited for the car to reach the bottom, hoping his legs would hold him up long enough to get to his car. He wanted Cory with a desperation bordering on pain.

He rolled his eyes. “Get ahold of yourself,” he muttered, shaking his head once, hard, as if knocking loose the cobwebs. By the time the doors opened on the first floor, he was able to walk out and through the doorway to the parking lot without feeling like he was going to faint or puke.

But he still wished someone had been there with him.

M
IKEY
BLEW
out a frustrated breath, dropped his pencil, and picked up the soft rubber eraser again. He rubbed away the line that had gone astray, brushed off the dust, and picked up his pencil to try again.

He’d been going through the same process for over an hour now, trying to get the basic lines in place for a drawing to turn in for class. It didn’t need to be anything detailed or fancy—not yet, anyway, considering it was designed to be the framework for his term project. Trouble was, he didn’t have inspiration for the project yet. He’d been working on an idea for a cartoon character, a sort of mash-up of his favorites: Tigger crossed with Marvin the Martian, with a splash of Tinker Bell’s glitteriffic snarkiness tossed in. But he couldn’t get the proportions right.

He sighed and bent his head to try again. When his phone rang a few seconds later, though, he jumped at the chance to take a break. He grabbed for it and smiled at the COCO LAMÉ on the screen.

“Hi, Cory,” he answered.

“Hey there, honey!” Cory sounded even more upbeat than his usual chipper self. “I’ve been holding Jimmy off from calling you for a bit. I finally decided I’d do the honors so he didn’t dive right in to a cross-examination. We were wondering how your meeting with Mr. Day went.”

Mikey leaned back in his chair and tilted his head toward the ceiling. “It was… fine, I guess. He asked questions, and he and Quinn took a lot of notes.”

“Quinn?”

“His intern. Law student. He’s doing some research or something.” Mikey didn’t know much about how things like that went. Legal dramas on television probably weren’t the most accurate representations.

Cory murmured something away from the phone, then said, “Sweetie, I’m gonna put you on speaker so I don’t have to relay everything back to Mr. Impatient here.” A moment later Jimmy’s voice came from the phone.

“Did he say whether he’d gotten a copy of the paperwork?”

Mikey shook his head. “He hasn’t yet. He said the same thing you said about getting served, though. Except he wants me to call him first instead of you, of course.”

“Of course,” Jimmy agreed. “But then call me after. I’m happy to be your unofficial guide through the legal system. It’s a fucking jungle in there, that’s for sure, but I come well stocked with machetes.”

Mikey had a mental image of Jimmy dressed like Rambo, slashing his way through piles of legal proceedings, and his brain warred between hysterical laughter and burgeoning arousal. He pushed both aside as Cory started talking again.

“So anyway, we decided—”

“He decided,” Jimmy cut in.

“Oh, whatever, you love me.” A loud smack of a kiss came through the phone. “We decided since Jimmy’s in town we’d do that little pool party-slash-cookout tonight. Just a few friends, not a big to-do or anything. We’re hoping you and Riley and Evan can make it.”

God, that sounded great. “Sure,” Mikey said. “I mean, I don’t know about Riley and Evan, but I don’t remember them saying anything about being busy tonight. Riley’s gone downtown to meet Evan for lunch, but I can text them to ask.”

“Great!” Cory sounded genuinely excited. “Don’t you worry about bringing a thing, unless Evan wants some of that piss he calls beer.”

“Hey, don’t knock the Corona,” Jimmy protested. “It’s a classic.”

“Classically boring,” Cory shot back. “As I was saying before I was so
rudely
interrupted, just bring your selves and your swimmies. ’Round six would be perfect. We’ll have dinner covered.”

Mikey had been holding back an attack of the giggles at their banter, so it took him a few moments to collect himself enough to answer. “I’ll be there,” he said. “And I’ll tell Riley and Evan.”

“Great! See you then, honey.” Another kissy smack came through the phone, this one directed at him, and the call cut off. Mikey realized he was smiling as he switched over to send Riley a text. He might not be at all certain about what was going on between him and Cory and Jimmy, but one thing was for sure: they knew how to make him laugh.

“C
ANNONBALL
!”

Jimmy’s yell was the only warning Mikey got before the huge splash that erupted just feet away. A wave of water washed over Mikey from behind, leaving his hair dripping into his eyes. He skimmed the water away with both hands and turned to glare at Jimmy, who’d surfaced and bobbed at the edge of the pool next to him, grinning.

“Thanks for the shower.” Mikey swung his arm across the surface of the pool, sending a smaller wave toward Jimmy that didn’t make much impact but made Mikey feel like he’d at least tried to reciprocate.

Jimmy moved in closer and wrapped an arm around Mikey’s waist. “You just looked so hot I thought maybe you needed a little coolin’ off.”

Suddenly Mikey did feel overheated, but it had nothing to do with the air temperature.

Jimmy laughed. “Honey, your face just turned so red I woulda thought you were sunburned.” He nuzzled his nose against Mikey’s temple. “You that embarrassed to think someone might think you’re hot? Or that turned on by it?”

Mikey’s eyes fell shut. “Both,” he admitted in a shaky voice, and Jimmy nuzzled him again.

“Well, you might as well get used to it.” Jimmy ran his free hand up Mikey’s leg underwater, brushing just the very tips of his fingers across Mikey’s swiftly hardening cock. “’Cause Cory and me, we both think you’re all kinds of hot, and we’re gonna keep making sure you know it.” He pressed against Mikey’s dick more firmly. “And not just by telling you so. I’ve always thought actions spoke louder than words.”

“Jesus,” Mikey breathed. “Are you trying to make me mess up your pool?”

Jimmy laughed and gave Mikey’s now-stiff cock one last pat before moving his hand away. “Nah, pool sex is too much trouble for the amount of return. Now hot tub sex, that’s another story. Hey, Cory!” he yelled, and Cory turned from the table where he was putting out a stack of paper plates. “You still wantin’ to put in a hot tub out here?”

Even from a distance, Mikey saw Cory roll his eyes. “Every time I start talkin’ about it, you tell me to just come out and visit you when I want a soak.”

“Oh yeah.” Jimmy shot Mikey a grin. “We have two pools and two hot tubs out at the resort. Have to clean the hot tubs out once a week from all the playin’ around people do. I should just tell Cory to go ahead and get one here so we can do what we want and not have to deal with other people’s spunk cloggin’ up the filters.”

“Ew!” It was all Mikey could think of to say, but it made Jimmy laugh, so he figured it was good enough.

“Hey, you know what we ought to do.” Jimmy slid back in close, but he kept his hands safely above the water line. “You and Cory should come out to the resort for a few days. I know you’ve got school and all, but we can work it out for when you’re between classes. Maybe even over a weekend, if we’re not totally booked out. What do you say?”

Mikey knew what Jimmy was doing, that it was just another way to distract him from the lawsuit and his lack of employment. He kind of loved Jimmy for it. “If we can find the time,” he said. “I’d love to see it. Sounds like a great place.”

Jimmy smiled and leaned against the pool wall. “It’s my
favorite thing in the world,” he admitted. “Not just the place,
although it’s pretty damn awesome, but that it’s mine, you know? I did the work, I got up the money, and I keep it going.”

Mikey mirrored Jimmy’s position, elbow on the side of the pool. “How does all that work with you and Cory, anyway?” he asked. “I mean, with you living out there, running the show, and him back here in town?”

Jimmy’s smile slipped a little. “It’s usually fine. We’re both really… independent, I guess. Sometimes I think if we lived together full-time, we’d break up in a month.” He chuckled. “Or kill each other. Living apart gives us a buffer so we don’t rub each other wrong, I think.”

Mikey nodded. “I can see that. You’re both so… out there. Strong personalities.”

“And no matter how much we love each other—and we do, don’t get me wrong there—sometimes it’s hard for us to fit into the same space. It’s part of why we like bringing in a third sometimes. It turns the figurative buffer into something literal.” He reached out and ran his free hand down Mikey’s arm. “Not that either of us thinks of you as just a buffer. We like you because you’re you. Everything else is just a bonus.”

Something inside Mikey unclenched at that. He’d wondered why two men, older and clearly committed to each other, would be interested in a kid like him for anything more than just some fun on the side. But what Jimmy said made sense. Having a third, and especially one so much different from either of them, gave them something to focus on other than each other. Cory and Jimmy were bigger than life in so many ways that it made sense for them to need more out of their relationships than the average person.

Mikey wasn’t sure he was the right guy to complete that
puzzle, but he was willing to give it a try.

Voices at the side of the house heralded the arrival of more guests, and Mikey looked over to see it was Riley and Evan. Riley had replied to Mikey’s text with the party invitation enthusiastically, though he’d said they might be closer to six thirty arriving. Riley carried a foil-covered pan and Evan a six-pack of Corona, and when Cory saw, he fussed at them for it.