Page 38 of Peach Tree Family

"Is there an end to this list?" Theo asked him.

"Ahh yeah. I mean some of these bands were like the same dudes just reshuffled around. You know how it is." Dustin nudged his shoulder, and it reminded him of doing that when he was cooking with Seth. Of course when it was Dustin, it was completely different.

"No," Theo said to Dustin though he actually had friends who were in bands.

"Like I used to be in this band The Sweaty Spoon. Then they went all heavy and changed the name to Mutagen Puss. No Y, just puss. A lot of people make that mistake."

"These band names are starting to make me nauseous," Theo said then noticed that Mr. Copeland had stopped by reception and was now fixing Dustin with an icy glare.

"Dustin, what did I say about pushing your extracurricular activities during business hours?" Mr. Copeland said.

"But it's just Theo," Dustin said.

"Mr. Atkins is on front desk duty. Don't distract him or disgust him," Mr. Copeland told Dustin.

"Yes, Mr. C."

Mr. Copeland didn't like that. "Mr. C? And the rest?"

It took Dustin a minute before he figured out that he meant the rest of his name. "Mr. Copeland?" Then he added, "Sir."

"There you go," Mr. Copeland said.

As soon as he stepped away, Theo heard someone call out, "Baby on board."

"What was that?" he wondered.

"Just word going around that Lucy is here. That's Andy's kid," Dustin said.

That reminded Theo that everyone there called the owner by his first name, so Theo should too. "That's a big deal with Andy's kid?"

"This whole place is like a Lucy fan club. The only thing bigger is when Helen brings in her homemade doughnuts. Then we have a stampede. I've been trampled to death a few times," Dustin claimed as Theo gave him the side-eye.

He was going to go back to looking over the data when he saw Andy come in carrying a baby and Mr. Copeland went over to greet them and to take the baby from him.

"Let's go meet Mr. Atkins. He's our newest employee and he's very diligent," Copeland said. "He's diving pretty deep into your daddy's charts and graphs even though I told him he didn't have to."

"Why would you tell him that?" Andy asked him.

"For his sanity," Mr. Copeland said over his shoulder and gave his fiancé a smirk.

He then brought the baby over and introduced her to Theo. The baby was cute, but the whole time, Theo was thinking of Ace as a baby, their dad holding his tiny hand, kissing each one of his chubby, little fingers.

Once when he was holding Ace and gazing at him, their dad told Theo, "When I look into his eyes, it's like I can see everything, all the answers to all the questions in the universe."

Theo had leaned over to see for himself. All he saw was Ace drooling and staring, but it was still nice.

As he was thinking about Ace, Theo couldn't help worrying about how he was going to make sure their aunt didn't get him back. She did kick them out, so it's not like she cared. His best bet was that she would simply give up on Ace.

Their bosses moved off with the baby and Theo got a text from Seth letting him know he picked up an extra half shift. For no good reason, seeing the text made him smile.

"Girlfriend text," Dustin said knowingly while pointing at Theo's face.

"Wrong."

Dustin wouldn't accept that. "You can't fool me. No one smiles like that because they got a text from grandma. It's a girly girl."

"I'm gay," Theo informed him.

He realized his mistake only when Dustin said, "Boyfriend. Same difference."

"No. Just a friend... or something." Theo didn't know if they were friends. Were they?

"Got it. Friend with benefits. But I was still in the ballpark," Dustin insisted.

Theo was about to deny that by saying Seth was just a guy he was living with, but he decided to stop before he dug himself in any deeper. Maybe he could ask Dustin to tell him more about his band experience. But now Theo was picturing Seth the way he saw him asleep that morning, and realizing that he never jerked off while thinking about anyone else any more.

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