Page 8 of Shotgun Daddy
Faustino had always found Reece to be cute. He was sassy too, at least if the reports that came back from Michael and Matteo were accurate. Despite all this, Faustino had always kept his distance from the boy. After Justin, Faustino’s position had been that single life was better – and as the years went by, he saw little reason to change this.
However there had been a sudden shift in Faustino’s mindset over the last few weeks, maybe even couple of months. All of a sudden, Faustino was beginning to face up to life as a lone wolf. Sure, it meant that he had nothing tying him down and he knew that every time he went into a dangerous situation he didn’t need to worry about potentially leaving a boy behind if things went wrong.
But there had been something nagging away at Faustino too. Maybe it was the fact that both Michael and Matteo had found their Forever Boys, but Faustino could see how much satisfaction they took from their new lives and it gave him an inkling deep down that it might –might– be time to allow himself to see things differently when it came to opening his heart to love.
“Fuck it,” Faustino muttered, deciding that he was going to make the effort and say hello to the boys…
“Faustino!” Benjamin said, smiling and standing up from his seat, along with Kyan. “My Daddy is nearby. Are you hear to meet him?”
“Correct,” Faustino replied. “I have been summoned.”
“Well, anyway, me and Kyan were just leaving,” Benjamin said, making his intentions a little too obvious. “But Reece’s still got some time left on his break. Take a seat!”
“Reece?” Faustino asked, not wanting to impose himself on the boy. Faustino was a natural born Daddy Dom, but consent was always important to him.
“Sure,” Reece replied, a hint of a smile on his face meaning a slight crack in his cool demeanor. “I don’t have long left on my break, but you can sit.”
“I’m honored,” Faustino laughed as he waved goodbye to Benjamin and Kyan. “So. What’s new?”
Reece arched his eyebrow as if he weas judging Faustino’s line of questioning. But his stance soon softened as he broke out into a smile.
“What’s new is that the acting game is a total joke,” Reece said. “And not a funny joke either, you know?”
“Damm, tough times all round,” Faustino said, sitting down next to Reece. “Tell me about it. I always thought that getting to the top would make things easier. But… nope. Anyway, what am I doing? This isn’t about me, it’s about you. Tell me about what’s happened to make you go cold on the acting game. Last I heard, you were doing well.”
Reece began to explain about how he had built his career back up to get some fresh momentum since returning to New York. Faustino could see that the boy had passion, and guts too. He might have been a Little, but it was clear from the way that Reece was talking that he took his career seriously and really had ambitions to test himself at the highest level he could. It was refreshing to hear as far as Faustino was concerned.
However, all the while Reece was talking, Faustino could feel his cell phone buzzing in his pocket. Without looking, Faustino just knew that it was Matteo and Michael, asking where he was.
“I could listen to you talk all day,” Faustino said, smiling as Reece began to explain a recent part that he had studied for and really felt like he would have been perfect to play.
“And I could talk about acting all day too!” Reece giggled, the pair of them all of a sudden holding their eye contact in a way that hadn’t happened before. “But…”
“Let me guess, there’s some espressos that need making,” Faustino said, sad that his conversation with Reece was going to be brought to a premature end.
“Yup,” Reece replied, standing up from his chair and flashing Faustino a sweet but sexy smile. “Maybe another time?”
“Let me think about it,” Faustino teased, delighting in the sight of Reece stomping his foot. “Watch that, Mister…”
Reece blushed and then turned away to get back to work. Faustino would have happily stayed and watched Reece do his thing, but he knew that it was time to face the music on Sindo’s Bar’s rooftop terrace. And as long as the plan wasn’t to throw him off the edge, Faustino felt sufficiently boosted by his hangout with Reece to feel like he could handle just about anything…
“Are you kidding me?” Faustino snarled, unable to comprehend what Michael had just told him. “You started a negotiation withanother family without me? Please tell me that I’m not hearing this right. Tell me I’m missing something.”
Faustino was furious.
The three of them were meant to be in a joint leadership. Sure they all had their own responsibilities, that was always the agreement. But what was key to it working was that when it came to the big stuff, they would always be thinking and discussing matter in unison.
“Faustino, calm the hell down,” Matteo said, his black suit and red tie looking immaculate as he sipped on his whisky. “We wanted to discuss this with you, but it happened last week. You were off radar. Who knows where or what you were doing. Anyway. We needed to move fast. And the result is that we’ve been able to buy an apartment block that used to be owned by the Vicci family. Okay?”
Faustino put his hands on his hips. The reality was that this may or may not have been a good deal, but to have been excluded from it was making Faustino come dangerously close to losing his cool.
“I don’t give a shit if I was uncontactable,’ Faustino snarled. “You could have waited.”
“That’s not the point,” Michael said, stepping into the discussion. “Why should we have to wait? We needed to move and move quickly. You should always be contactable, brother. We can’t have a situation where one of us may or may not be able to react quickly enough. So…”
“So…what?” Faustino asked, reaching for his whisky glass and taking a sip in the hopes that it might calm him down and bring his adrenalin down a few notches.
“So we’ve decided that for the time being, we don’t need your input on decisions like this,” Matteo said, standing next to Michael. “This can change in the future. This isn’t the end of our partnership by a long fucking way. But you have to be able to step up and work with us and be there when we need you. And, no, this isn’t a discussion at this point. Got it?”
