Page 6 of Family Vacay

I gaped at him. “Jax baby, whose side are you even on right now?” I asked, faking a pout. But he was right. Ihadforgotten to pack socks. But hey, I packed extra underwear, so that was a plus, right?

Eros snorted and flicked a piece of bread at me from his croissant. I huffed and picked it off from where it’d landed on my shirt, tossing it to one of the birds. Eros rolled his eyes at me as one of the pigeons picked it up and flew away with it. “It’s bad to feed bread to the birds.”

I rolled my eyes and held my hands up in a surrendering gesture. “My bad. Won’t do it again. What is this—pick on Zep day?”

“Every day is pick on Zep day,” Logan drawled as he slouched in his chair. Reaching over, he began twirling a piece of Spencer’s hair around his finger. Spencer leaned his head on his shoulder, and Logan immediately softened, leaning down to press a kiss to the top of Spencer’s head.

Spencer didn’t come around all that often because of work, so I didn’t see him very much, but it was clear to all of us sitting at that table that Spencer was overworked and overly tired. Logan and Ezra were right. Something had to change, or my husband might drive himself into an early grave worrying about his only biological child.

I chanced a glance at Jaxon, finding him staring at Spencer with a frown on his face, his brows furrowed low over his eyes. Eros, catching it as well, grabbed Jaxon’s hand in his, giving it a gentle squeeze. Our man blinked and looked at him as if coming out of a trance before he blew out a soft breath and nodded once, letting Eros know he knew to let it go for now.

“Hi! I’m Brittany, and I’ll be your server this morning,” our chipper, brunette waitress said as she practically hopped up to our table. She’d been chipper as fuck ever since we sat down at the table, waiting on the other three of our party to make it. “The other three have already ordered, so is there anything I can get you guys?”

Ezra leaned forward with the menu, setting it on the table. “Can we get three cups of coffee, extra sugar packets, and then can we also get a platter of scrambled eggs—six is a good number—toast—eight slices of white—and bacon—about nine strips?”

“Um, sure,” she said, quickly writing it into her handy dandy little notepad, seeming a little alarmed at how much he’d ordered. “Anything for the other two?”

“We’ll be sharing,” Logan told her. “So, no, that’ll be all.”

She nodded and hurried away after telling them she’d be back with their coffee in just a bit. Jaxon lifted Eros hand and twisted Eros’s ring around on his finger absentmindedly. It was a self-soothing thing he did when we were with him. We loved that he sought us out when he needed comfort. And we loved even more that he felt comfortable enough to just take what he needed from us.

“Is he good with that?” Jaxon asked, looking at Spencer, who still hadn’t lifted his head. Logan was now running his fingers through Spencer’s hair, no doubt lulling the kid to sleep.

“He’s fine with it,” Ezra spoke up, grabbing Spencer’s hand in his and lacing their fingers together. “When we began planning the vacation, he asked us to not make him have to make decisions unless it was absolutely necessary.”

“I just want to shut off for a while,” Spencer said, lifting his head from Logan’s shoulder. Logan grunted in dismay but let him go. “Work has been even more hectic than usual. So, this will help me decompress.” He smiled at Jaxon. “I’m fine, Dad. I promise. They wouldn’t do something like this without my express permission first.”

Jax sighed. “I’m worried, kid.”

Spencer’s smile faltered for just a moment, but then he forced it back into place. My stomach twisted at how easy he made that seem. I glanced at Eros, wondering if he caught on to it as well. “Everything’s fine, Dad. I promise. No need to worry. I just want to eat breakfast and then go soak in the sun and dehydrate myself in salt water for a few hours.”

Jaxon snorted and smiled at Spencer, but with one look at my man, I knew for certain he could see right through his son. Jaxon had always been excellent at sensing bullshit. But as we all agreed, we would let Spencer have this first week of bliss and not mention work. But after the first week, once he was good and rested up, we would sit down as a family and talk about Spencer’s future.

He might be an adult, but he had a family that cared about him and loved him. Even me, who seemed careless and heartless ninety-nine percent of the time, had a soft spot for him.

None of us wanted to see him drive himself into a hole like he currently was.

“We need to find a store selling floats,” Eros announced. He winked at me. “Jaxon and I can sit in them while you keep us from floating out to sea.”

I snorted and flicked water droplets at him from my glass of ice water I had no plans of touching. “You can keep yourself from floating out to sea.”

“Oooh, can we get floats?” Spencer asked with childlike amazement, turning his head to look between his husbands. “Oh, my God, I could just lay back and roast like a little rotisserie chicken.”

Logan snorted, laughing at Spencer. Ezra nodded, a grin on his lips. “Yeah, baby. We’ll get you a float. And unlike your stepdad, we won’t let you float out to sea.”

“I think we got the shit end of the stick with this one,” Eros told Jaxon, jabbing his thumb in my direction. I gaped at him, pretending to be offended. “We should find a new husband while we’re on vacation.”

“Hey,” I growled, suddenly not feeling playful. I leaned in and gripping Eros’s chin, turning his head to face me. His pupils blew wide. “You’re mine.Bothof you are mine. If you even look in another man’s direction, I’m going to?—”

My words were cut off when chipper little Brittany popped back up with the guys’ coffee, setting them on the table. I let Eros go, but one look at his lap told me the effect I’d had on him.

Immediately, Ezra and Logan set to work on getting Spencer’s coffee prepared. “Your breakfast is coming in a couple of minutes,” she told them. “Can I get you three anything else?”

“No, we’re great. Thanks,” Ezra said when Logan only grunted.

“You have a voice,” I told Logan, unable to just keep my mouth shut around him. But he gave as good as he got, which made bantering with him fun as hell. “You could use it instead of grunting like an animal.”

He shot me a deadpan look. “If I was an animal, I’d have used you for food already, Zeppelin.”

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