Page 82 of Just A Little Magic

“I didn’t have time for breakfast or lunch today, so I’m about to eat this tablecloth,” Reed groused as he looked over the menu.

“I get why you might not be able to take lunch, but why not breakfast?” Gabe asked.

“Well,” Reed answered with a wicked grin, “Jakob woke up in a mood, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to turn him down.”

“There are much worse reasons to miss breakfast.”

“Damn straight, but the donut I grabbed at the coffee cart and the snacks from the vending machine don’t do much for the rest of the day,” Reed groused.

Lucky for him, the waiter set a bread basket in the middle of the table. Reed fell on it like the starving man he was.

“Enzo, you might as well bring another basket because I don’t think this guy”—I pointed at Reed—“is going to share with us.”

“I will stab you before I share my bread with you,” Reed deadpanned. “But it’s fine because my stitches are so pretty.”

“Can stitches be pretty?”Gabe pondered.

“If you’d ever seen ugly ones, you wouldn’t ask that question,” Reed answered around a mouthful of bread. “But since you’re getting another basket, you’ll survive. What’s good?”

“Everything is good, so how about I tell the chef to prepare three courses of whatever he wants? I guarantee it’ll be amazing.”

“Fine with me,” echoed around the table, and we all put our menus aside.

Gabe and Reed focused their attention on me and stared expectantly. I fiddled with my silverware. Now that the moment was here, I wasn’t sure how to start the discussion. I needed their help, and more importantly, their boys’ help, to show Owen how much I wanted him in my life.

“Barrett, is everything okay? I’m always happy to have dinner with you guys, but I’m not sure what’s going on,” Gabe said with a hint of concern. “Is everything all right with Owen?”

“Yeah, dinner is great, but I was worried when you said no boys,” Reed added.

“Yeah, no, I understand, and everything is good. But I need to show Owen how much I want him to be a permanent part of my life. I want to create a life with him. It has to be so clear that he can’t rationalize it away.”

“Have you tried telling him?” Gabe asked with a raised brow. “Is there something that stops you from just saying it? It’s hard to go wrong with communication and shit.”

“Owen is crazy talented but thinks he’s too much.” I appreciated their scoffs and continued, “It doesn’t make much sense to me either. He’s not nearly as hard to care for as he imagines.”

“All right, so what do you want to do?” Reed asked. “You know we’ll do anything we can to help.”

“I need Owen out of my house, but I don’t want him to return to his. If he goes home, it will be harder to get him toreturn to mine. The lodge is officially purchased so I thought the boys could go into the mountains with him for the weekend. Tell them it’s so they can experience a weekend as tourists so we can figure out what might work at the lodge.”

“Uh, look, I don’t want to ruin the plans here, but there is no way that is going to occupy them for a weekend. There aren’t any actual amenities for them to test,” Gabe said skeptically.

“I know, and here’s where the boys are going to save my ass. They aren’t actually going to stay at the lodge. They will stay at the local competition to see what parts of their operation they liked best for the perfect mountain getaway.”

“So you want the boys to go away for the weekend to spend it at a resort and test amenities?” Reed’s clarified with a laugh. “Jakob may never come home.”

“I have no doubt Rory will be able to force himself to go.”

“Hopefully, Anders will be able to join in too. Since I’m the one footing the bill, his asshole boyfriend won’t be able to bitch about that.”

“I know I should insist on paying for Rory and Anders, but fuck that.” Gabe rubbed his fingers together and added, “I’m gonna let you spend whatever you want.”

“Very generous of you, asshole.”

“Ha! I’m not arguing either. Consider it our extra gift to you. I don’t know how I’ll get Jakob home.”

“Just tell him you’re going to clean his office.”

“Oh shit. He’ll go come and chop off my balls or something.TheWrath of Jakobisn’t a show I want to see again. Once was enough, and I didn’t even get a T-shirt. Reconstructing the rat’s nest was a nightmare all its own. How the hell he really knew what was in each pile is beyond me.”

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