Wilde Fire (Forever Wilde 3)

Hudson spoke up from where he sat on a stool in the corner of the second-floor tattoo shop. “Mom and Dad sent me a copy of the letter Hal wrote to them. It was sincere and thoughtful. I’ll send you a copy so you can show John and Beth. They’d be proud of him.”

It was Otto’s turn to chime in. “I’m so damned proud of him owning up to what he did. He even apologized to Tisha for making her lie about seeing me at Mom and Dad’s house that night. It couldn’t have been easy to spell it all out the way he did. Takes balls to confront your mistakes like that.”

West looked over at Hudson. “Speaking of mistakes, did you tell Otto what you did to Darci?”

“Fuck,” Hudson muttered, looking at his feet. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“What’d he do?” Otto asked. “You have to tell us now.”

“It’s too embarrassing. Fucking rookie mistake,” Hudson said with a put-upon sigh.

West turned to us with glee. “You remember how our geek brother invented some kind of special doohickey to improve the beer taps? It regulates the amount of foam in a pour.”

We nodded.

West chuckled. “Well, it happens to be a little metal ring that attaches to the end of the tap. He wanted to present it to Darci on their one-year anniversary of dating as a kind gesture to her and her family since they’re so into beer making.”

Oh god.

“So he put the metal ring in a tiny box...” At this point West giggled too hard to continue. Hudson looked like he wanted to crawl under the stool he sat on.

Nico winked at me. “And then presented it to her in front of her family with a big production.”

“Oh shit,” I whispered.

“No,” Otto gasped. “Hudson, fuck.”

Hudson groaned and covered his face with his hands. “I didn’t even think.”

The big tattoo artist who was helping Nico looked sympathetic. “What did she do?”

“She saw the tiny box and freaked. Her mother screamed and her sister squealed and started videoing it,” Hudson said. “I still didn’t understand what the big deal was until Darci opened it and saw the head constrictor.”

At the term “head constrictor” every man in the room burst into laughter. I thought Hudson Wilde was going to shrink into nothingness. His face was the color of pickled beets.

“Please tell me you nicknamed it the cock ring,” Nico hooted.

“Jesusfuckingchrist,” Hudson said.

None of us could stop laughing even though we all felt sorry for the guy.

“Hudson accidentally proposed to Darci with a cock ring?” Otto snorted, setting me off even more.

“Needless to say, we broke up,” Hudson confessed.

“Crap. Sorry, man,” I said.

He shrugged. “It’s fine. I think I’m broken. I don’t seem to get as much out of relationships as other people do. I think it’s going to be easier to be alone, honestly.”

West walked over and put his hand on Hudson’s shoulder. “You just haven’t found the right woman, Hud. I promise you that. When you find the right person, you’ll finally see the difference.”

“I really liked her. She was nice and pretty. Social, you know? I liked that she had lots of friends and always made plans for us. Otherwise, I’d be sitting at home alone with my nose in a book or tinkering with pieces and parts.”

“Well,” Otto said, “why don’t you let the rest of us be your social life for a while? Walker needs to be introduced to nightlife in the big city anyway.”

“Great, just what I need. A bunch of gay guys dragging me to dance clubs,” Hudson muttered. “Been there, done that, got the rainbow T-shirt to prove it.”

West held up an index finger. “I’d just like to point out that the last time you came to Station 4 with us, you got more dick than any of us did.”

Hudson couldn’t help but chuckle. “I didn’t realize dancing with guys meant getting humped the whole time. That takes some getting used to.”

Otto turned to me with a wink. “That’s the best part.”

“It’s his eyes,” Nico said, gazing at Hudson. “They’re bedroom eyes. That’s why the guys can’t leave him alone.”

Hudson blushed, and West came over to smack Nico in the shoulder. “That’s my brother, asshole. My straight brother.”

“Baby, he’s a Wilde. How straight could he possibly be?”