Chapter 11

Brian awoke with a start. He felt something heavy on his chest. It was Justin who was draped all over him. Brian smiled and kissed the top of the blond head. They had had a night full of passion and wonderment and … love.

Brian sighed. Sometimes lately his heart was so full that he could hardly breathe. He never expected to find anything like what he had found with Justin. When he had two usable legs, he never thought he wanted this. Then when he was confined to his wheelchair, he thought any hope of such a thing was ridiculous. He expected to spend the rest of his life alone. And then along came Justin Taylor and threw his whole world upside down.

“Justin,” Brian whispered.

“Mm.”

“Justin, I need to get up.”

“Mm.”

“I’m sorry, Justin, but you need to roll over.”

“’Kay,” Justin replied, but didn’t move.

“Justin.”

“Okay, okay,” Justin griped as his two blue eyes opened and looked up at Brian. “After what I did for you last night, you’d think the least you could do would be to let me sleep late.”

“It’s already eight.”

“Eight?’ Justin asked raising his head to look into Brian’s eyes. “But you usually get up at six.”

“I thought the least I could do was to let my grumpy, but wonderful, lover have a couple of hours of extra sleep.”

Justin studied the smirk on Brian’s face. “I love you so much,” he whispered.

“I think you proved that last night.”

“And so did you.”

“Yeah,” Brian grinned. “Now get up so I can get to work by nine,” Brian said giving Justin’s butt a smack.

“But what about your exercises?”

“I got lots of exercise last night,” Brian replied as he swung himself into his chair.

“No, seriously,” Justin said. “You need your routine.”

“I’ll do them when I come home tonight.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

Brian disappeared into the bathroom. Justin rolled over onto his back. He stared up at the ceiling, a smile curling the corners of his mouth as he thought about himself and Brian. They were so good together. Then the smile faded. He would make sure that he didn’t let them fall back into the habit of letting Brian forget about his regimen of diet and exercise. That had brought them trouble in the past. Justin wasn’t going to have that happen again. He made a mental note to check that Brian did his exercises after work.

The phone rang and Justin reached across to the nightstand to answer it. He heard the water running and knew that Brian was in the shower.

“Hello,” he said.

“Justin, is that you?” his mother’s voice came back at him.

“Hi, Mom.”

“You’re at Brian’s kind of early.”

“Or late … if you want to think of it that way.”

“Oh.”

“What can I do for you, Mom?” Justin asked, knowing he had discombobulated his mother.

“I got the report back from the home inspection service. It passes muster. There’s only a few minor things that need to be dealt with.”

“That’s great. So, should we put in an offer?” Justin asked hopefully.

“I’d like to talk to you about that. Could you and Brian come to see me after Brian finishes work today?”

“I have a better idea,” Justin replied. “Why don’t you come over for dinner tonight?”

“To your place?”

“To Brian’s loft.”

“Oh.”

“Mom, I’m moving into a house with Brian … soon, I hope. It’s not like we don’t sleep together.”

“Yes, yes, of course.”

“It’s easier for Brian to get around in his own place than in mine.”

“Okay, I’ll be there. What time?”

“Seven?”

“Sounds good.”

Justin hung up the phone as Brian came out of the bathroom. “Who was that?”

“Mom. I invited her for dinner.”

“You did, did you?”

“Yeah, I hope that’s all right,” Justin said with a frown.

“Is there any particular reason for this dinner party?”

“I’m sorry if I ticked you off by not asking for your permission first,” Justin said throwing back the covers and picking up his clothes.

“Justin.”

“I’ll get out of your way.”

“Justin, shut the fuck up and listen to me. It’s fine that your mother’s coming to dinner. I just wanted to know why.”

“Okay, I’m sorry,” Justin said. “You sounded kind of pissed that I had asked her. She got the inspection results on the house and wanted to talk to us about a possible offer.”

“Then why the fuck couldn’t you just say so?”

“Because I’m insecure and you sounded mad and I didn’t like your tone and I’m grumpy in the morning.”

Brian laughed out loud. “That is the most honest thing I have ever heard you say. You nailed the reasons perfectly.”

“I’m always honest,” Justin retorted, taking offense to Brian’s words once again.

“Go the fuck home before we get into a real fight,” Brian chuckled.

“Yes sir, going, sir,” Justin replied pulling on enough clothes to get him down the stairs. “I’ll be waiting for you when you come home,” he whispered as he kissed Brian gently. “After you do your exercises.”

“Go home.”

“I’m going, and when we get our house, I won’t have to leave you anymore.”

Brian smiled as he watched Justin’s delicious butt disappear out the loft door.

 

*****
 

Another day at Ryder passed rather peacefully for Brian. He tied up all the loose ends of the Jacobsen Bike account. It felt really good to know that he had beaten Kip Thomas at his own game. He had even had a meeting with Kip to redirect some of his ideas into more appropriate commercials for the everyday bikes that Jacobsen made.

And to his credit, Kip was neither snarky nor mean to Brian. He seemed wary, if an adjective was needed to describe the younger ad exec. He had been put in his place by Brian Kinney. However, that didn’t mean that Kip liked or accepted what had happened. Brian knew he needed to watch his back where Kip was concerned. And Cynthia would help him do that. But at the moment Kip was on his best behavior, and that suited Brian just fine.

Brian and Cynthia did a little more work on Acme Tools’ website and then she sent it to the company. They also lined up some publications where the Acme ads would appear. The cost projections were sent over to Harrington.

When all of this was finished, Brian leaned back in his wheelchair, and stretched his neck. “That was a good day’s work,” he told Cynthia. “Even if I hate this end of the business, we got a lot tied up and organized. Maybe tomorrow we can work on something more interesting.”

Cynthia smiled. “You love the hunt and the brain games, but not the finances,” she observed.

“I love the finances. Money makes the world go round,” Brian contradicted.

“You know what I mean. You don’t like all the mundane paperwork and cost estimates and all that stuff.”

“But you do,” Brian smirked. “That’s why I keep you around.”

“Thanks, and I do like getting all the numbers and papers lined up and worked out, but I hope that isn’t all you keep me around for.”

Brian grinned. “I couldn’t have done the Jacobsen account without you. You know how blocked I was. We work well together. Your suggestion about having Gavin come in to look at the bike led to everything else. We wouldn’t have got that account without your input.”

“Thank you, Boss. That’s one of the nicest things you’ve ever said to me.”

“And your bonus won’t be bad either,” Brian chuckled.

“It will be greatly appreciated,” Cynthia said sincerely. “Ryder seemed very pleased.”

Brian smiled as he thought back to Marty Ryder’s visit to his office earlier in the day. The man had been full of gratitude for Brian bringing in two accounts within only a week of his returning to the office. It made Brian wonder just how badly things had been going at Ryder. “He ought to be grateful. That was a helluva lot of money I just added to his pockets.”

“This may sound silly,” Cynthia began.

Brian could see that she was nervous about what she was going to say. Fuck, she wasn’t going to quit, was she? “You never sound silly to me. What is it?” Brian asked with a frown.

“Um … have you ever thought about running your own company?”

“My own … company?” Brian asked in surprise. “Where the fuck did that come from?”

“The Ryder Agency is a bit of a mess at the moment,” Cynthia admitted.

“What do you mean?”

“We’ve lost more than a couple of accounts over the last months. I didn’t want to worry you with how bad things really were. Those two accounts you just brought in will keep us afloat for a while.”

“It’s that bad?”

“Probably worse.”

“How the fuck could Marty let things get to this stage?”

“A few months ago, Marty was hinting about retiring. Things started to slide, and now I don’t think he can find anyone interested in taking over a failing company.”

“Failing! Fuck! I don’t fail,” Brian declared.

“That’s why I wondered if you might be interested in taking over. I think Marty would be happy to get out, if you made it worth his while.”

“I … I just started back to work. I don’t know about running the whole company.”

“I know you could do it, and I’d be happy to help,” Cynthia grinned.

“Would you now? Perhaps with a new title?”

“That would be nice.”

“Scheming little vixen,” Brian laughed.

“Why, Mr. Kinney, that’s one of the nicest things you’ve ever said to me.”

“I thought my compliment on the Jacobsen account was the nicest,” Brian reminded her.

“Must be my lucky day … all these compliments,” Cynthia grinned.

“Get back to work. I’m leaving soon. I have a dinner engagement with my future mother-in-law.”

“Ooh, sounds serious.”

“Jennifer’s in real estate. She’s been looking for places for Justin and me. I think we’ve found the one we want.”

“Oh, I like the sound of that.”

“So does Justin.”

“And you?”

“I’m good.”

“I know. I see it on your face every day,” Cynthia told him.

“Am I that obvious?”

She nodded and headed for the door of his office. “Anyway, think about what I told you about the circumstances here. This is a perfect time if you want your own company.”

Brian watched her go out the door. He wasn’t sure what he felt about all the things she had just told him. But it certainly gave him something to think about.

 

*****
 

“Honey, I’m home,” Brian called as he pulled back the loft door.

Justin was behind the counter making salad. “About time, darling. My mother will be here soon.”

“Smells like you’ve been cooking up a storm.”

“I’ve been doing my best.” Justin stopped chopping and leaned over to kiss Brian as the wheelchair came to a stop by the counter.

“Do you need any help?”

“Got it under control, so go get changed before Mom gets here.”

“Thanks,” Brian said.

“Thanks for what?”

“For being who you are and doing what you do.”

Justin frowned. “What does that mean?”

“I want to talk to you about something later.”

“You’re not changing your mind about the house are you?”

Brian could see the worry on Justin’s face. “I want that house. Stop worrying,” he admonished. He turned and headed up to the bedroom.

Brian’s words did not remove the look of worry from Justin’s face.

 

*****
 

“Dinner was delicious, sweetheart,” Jennifer said to her son.

“Thanks, Mom.”

“Would you care for some more wine?” Brian asked holding the bottle above Jennifer’s glass.

“Well, maybe just a touch,” Jennifer giggled. “I still have to drive home.”

“Then only a bit, Brian. I want Mom alert and thinking straight tomorrow when we make an offer on the house,” Justin stated.

Brian poured Jennifer a little more wine then dumped the rest of it into Justin’s glass. “You’re not driving,” he smirked.

Justin grinned at him. “Do you think we can get the house for what we’re offering?” he asked turning to his mother.

“Not likely. We’ll have to go up some, but I shouldn’t think more than ten thousand.”

“How come it’s so low?” Brian asked with a frown.

“The house has been up for sale twice before. Each time they’ve dropped the price. They were asking way more than it was worth. The Hilliers want to move to North Carolina where they have relatives. They’re going to work in a family business. The husband has been commuting on weekends for months. They’ll be glad to get rid of the house.”

“How do you know all that?” Brian asked.

“I do my homework.”

“I think I’m glad you’re working on our side.” Jennifer smiled at Brian. She liked to hear him say things like that. “When can we put our lofts on the market?”

“I’ll do it tomorrow. The Hilliers may snap up your offer and they could be ready to leave in a week or two. We need to sell your places quickly.”

“Will that be hard?”

“I don’t think so. This area of the city is very desirable to gays. Lofts are the in thing,” Jennifer explained.

“Then we’ll place ourselves in your hands and see what happens,” Brian said. “Right, Justin?”

Justin nodded his head in agreement.

 

*****
 

When Jennifer was long gone, the men lay in Brian’s bed thinking over what had happened at dinner.

“We could be homeowners in a few days,” Justin said happily.

“Yeah.”

“Aren’t you excited?”

“I’ve been a homeowner for a long time.”

“So have I, but not as long as you. However, this will be our home together.”

“That does make a difference,” Brian admitted with a little smile.

“It better, buddy boy!” Justin laughed giving Brian a little punch on the arm.

“It makes all the difference.” Brian turned to look into Justin’s eyes.

“What’s going on, Brian? You should be as excited as I am … or don’t you really want to move into this house?”

“You think too much. My mood has nothing to do with the house,” Brian said gently. He wasn’t sure how to broach this with Justin.

“Then what is it? Is this what you said we needed to talk about when you came home?” Brian nodded. “Tell me.”

“Okay,” Brian sighed. “I’m thinking of buying out Marty Ryder.”

The silence in the loft was deafening.

 

Return to Close to Home III