The Silver Fox (Red's Tavern 3)

“Tell me how you really feel, Rock,” he said.

“Like I want to be back at the Golden Goose.”

“Oh, come on, it can’t be that bad to be back here.”

“Maybe not so bad when these girls are here to give all this love,” I said, crouching down and giving Anna and Elsa attention.

It was one bright spot in my afternoon. As Perry and I had said our goodbyes to the family earlier, things had only gotten worse. Merrilyn had squeezed me tight, just like she did her own son.

“You’re part of the family now, Rock,” she’d told me as she hugged me goodbye.

A total kick in the gut. This morning I’d been so fixated on Perry that I hadn’t even realized I’d be missing other members of his family so much, too.

“So how did it feel to be gay for a week?” Red asked as we walked over to his dining room, where he had a home bar. It was a cozy little corner of the room where everything was made of wood, like a mini-me Red’s Tavern. I parked myself on one of the stools.

“It felt good,” I said, completely honestly.

“Really?” Red asked, cocking his head to one side. He went behind the bar and started crafting me some sort of whiskey cocktail.

“Really,” I said. “I tried to ask Perry if he wanted to do it for even longer, actually.”

“You’re kidding,” Red said.

“Nope. His family even liked me. I hit it off with them, too.”

“I’ve never heard you say that before,” Red said with a grin. “Remember Nicole’s family?”

I cringed at the memory. “She was only my girlfriend for three weeks.”

“And yet she took you back for Thanksgiving.”

“I think her mom said in front of me that it was a ‘liability’ to date a firefighter. I knew that relationship was over the moment Nicole agreed with that.”

Red slid the cocktail across the bar to me.

I took a big sip. “This is delicious. Ginger? Lemon?”

“Ginger, lemon, some bitters, and a hint of rosemary. And plenty of whiskey, of course,” Red said as he set to work making one for himself.

“It was way too easy to click with Perry’s family,” I said. “His mom is a treasure. His brother Cameron is very cool. I could see being friends with him. He has adorable nieces and a nephew.”

“And I’m sure you secretly scored phone numbers of plenty of eligible women while you were there,” Red said.

I shook my head. “Wasn’t really thinking about that.”

“Yeah right,” he said. “You’re always thinking about that.”

“I had other things on my mind.”

Red leaned on the bar, sipping his drink.

“I like Perry,” I said mindlessly, staring into space.

“I never thought the two of you would hit it off,” Red said. “But it would be cool if you stayed in touch. Perry is usually so lonely. He needs a good friend.”

“I don’t understand why he’s so lonely,” I said. “He’s hot as hell. He’s so fucking sweet. Why don’t guys knock down his door?”

“I think a lot of guys have tried, but Perry’s picky,” Red said. “At least that’s the impression I’ve always gotten. It feels like he always finds some small thing that’s wrong with them, and then it’s over. That’s if you can even get him to talk about his dating life. It ain’t easy.”

“He can be introverted. But I think it’s simple to get him to open up.”

“Maybe to you,” Red said. “You seem to have a knack for it.”

“I mean, he did let me suck his cock,” I said with a shrug.

It was as if a glass had shattered in the room. Red froze in place, staring at me like I was an alien.

“What?”

Suddenly Red burst out laughing. It was a rare treat getting my brother to laugh so hard, and it made me smile, too.

“Rock,” he said. “You had me going there, for a sec.”

“What do you mean, had you going?”

“You. Sucking dick,” Red said. “It’s just funny.”

“Why is that so funny?” I asked, suddenly a little defensive.

“Because it would never happen,” he said.

I lifted an eyebrow.

“Oh, stop,” he said.

“I sucked his cock, Red,” I told him again.

Red’s expression changed slowly, and I just sat sipping my drink as he realized I was completely serious.

“It was interesting, actually,” I said. “I would have expected it to be weirder, or to feel more foreign to me. But once I got going, it honestly felt pretty natural. The anatomy was different than anything I’d worked with before, but the idea of just wanting to get another person off? It was all familiar territory.”

“Holy shit,” was all Red said.

“If you’re going to tell me it’s TMI, I’ll just stop you while you’re ahead,” I said. “You know I don’t believe in TMI.”

“It is TMI, because you’re my brother, and he’s my chef,” Red said, still staring at me with wonder in his eyes. “But I think I’m too surprised to care right now.”