Slow Burn (MM) (26 page)

“Yeah. Hurry up. There’s someone here I want you to meet.”

Zack slowed down his chewing.

“Oh yeah? The someone you’ve skated around telling me about?”

“It is.”

“Well
damn
. I’m on my way, then.”

Brody ended the call and set his phone down, noting that his hands didn’t shake.

“Was that…? Is he…?” Zack’s eyebrows crept up into his hair.

“You’re going to meet Lamont.”

“Shit. Is there lettuce in my teeth?” He swiped at his face with the napkin and grinned as big as humanly possible.

Brody laughed but checked for him. “No. You look great.”

“I didn’t know I’d meet him today.”

“Neither did I, but…today’s as good as any, I guess.”

Zack reached over and felt his forehead.

“Would you stop?” Brody grabbed his hand and laughed. He didn’t let go right away. Instead he held it, brushing his thumb back and forth over Zack’s knuckles. “I just… I need to do this. I
want
to do this, and the longer I put it off—it’s going to gnaw at me. Plus, I think maybe I need you here to do this. If that makes any sense.”

Zack studied him for a second and then smiled. “It does. Aren’t you nervous? I’m nervous. Why am I nervous? Now I’m sweating.”

“I am too, but it is eighty degrees out here. Stop fidgeting, you’ll make it worse.” He let go of Zack’s hand and straightened his shirt.

Their chicken parmesan arrived. Then so did Lamont. He stopped at the top of the stairs and looked at Brody. He looked at Zack. Then he looked back and forth between the two of them. Brody could feel all his nerves, all his anxiety ball into a hard knot in the center of his stomach.

“Well. Hey,” Lamont finally said, taking the seat on the other side of Brody.

“Hey.” Brody lifted his chin, feeling a lot like he was about to testify in front of a jury. “Lamont, this is Zack. He was my physical therapist after the knee surgery. Zack, this is Lamont.”

Lamont was the first to stick out his hand, and Zack shook it.

“Your PT, huh?” Lamont asked.

“Yeah.”

His partner nodded, staring down at the table before taking a sip of the tea they’d ordered him.

Brody could tell by Lamont’s expression that he didn’t have to explain any further. He’d said enough after getting choked nearly to death to make it pretty clear. But he had to say it anyway, if for no one else but himself.

“Zack is my…boyfriend.”

That earned a small smile fighting to break free from Zack. The man radiated his feelings like a broadcast. At the moment it was like the after blast of a glee bomb.

“I kind of figured that much out.” Lamont nodded. “Well…damn.”

Brody waited, realized he was holding his breath, and made himself breathe.

Lamont finally looked up, looked at Zack and back to Brody. “I can’t believe Felicia was right.” He shook his head. “Dammit. I will never hear the end of this.”

“Wh-what?”

Lamont rubbed his bare head. “Felicia. She’s been saying for years, ‘Honey, I’m telling you, that boy is gay.’ I told her she was crazy, but she’s always right.” He held his hand out wide. “I just… I can’t believe I didn’t know.”

“What?” Brody felt a little like a parrot, but this was not at all how he’d seen this going down.

“I can’t believe I never knew. Or that you never
told
me. I mean, we’ve known each other how long? Almost ten years now. Been partners for how many of those years? I know you better than I know myself. Or I thought I did. Damn.” He shook his head and actually looked hurt by it.

Brody shook his head. This wasn’t really about Lamont.

“I didn’t tell you…because I wasn’t ready. And this isn’t something that I want being everyone’s business. It not something you can just—”

“Stop.” Lamont put one big elbow on the table, rattling the flatware. “I’m doing this all wrong. Handling it poor as hell, and if I screw up, she’ll chew my ass out later along with singing she told me so. Just…just give me a second. Okay?”

Brody closed his mouth and looked to Zack. Zack gave him a quick, reassuring nod.

After a beat of silence, Brody finally confessed. “I was scared to ever say anything to you. I didn’t know how you’d react. Hell, I couldn’t even admit it to myself until last month. It’s my…experience that we aren’t in the most gay-friendly work environment.”

Lamont huffed a laugh before taking a deep breath and letting it out. “I just… I’m guessing this isn’t new news, right? Not really?”

Brody nodded.

“Then I wish you would’ve felt okay to talk to me. Years ago. That’s all.”

Brody felt the knot start to loosen just a tad.

“Man, you know I…” Lamont glanced over at Zack and to Brody, his eyes shining. “You’re like fucking
family
to me, okay? You’ve saved my ass so many times, and I’ve done the same for you. I don’t care about what you do in your personal life or who you’re with. I mean, not that I don’t care as in ‘I don’t give a shit about them,’ but I don’t
care
care. Ah, you know what I mean.”

“Yeah,” Brody managed.

“I didn’t have a clue. Even when Felicia said, well, she always has been smarter than me. So there you go.” Lamont laughed, and the knot loosened a little more. He rubbed his hands over his head again and took another drink. “I’m not saying this won’t…” He motioned back and forth between Brody and Zack. “Won’t take me some… I’ll have to, like, wrap my head around this, but damn, man. You’re a brother to me. Always will be. This won’t change that. Matter of fact, I owe you lunches now, you sorry ass. For maxing out your qualifying tests, right?”

Brody nodded. “Yeah. Thanks mostly to Zack.”

Lamont smiled. “Then this one’s on me.”

“As I remember it, there are quite a few lunches on you.”

His partner laughed. “You got me, man. Lunch
es.
Plural. It’s all good.”

Brody looked at his oldest friend and partner, laughing his usual booming laugh. Zack smiled in his relaxed way that reassured Brody things would be just fine. The knot in his stomach unfurled as he realized the two most important people in his life, the two he really cared about, also cared for him. Regardless of flaws, his belligerent stubbornness, and often downright bad attitude; even if he was and would always be far from perfect, he was accepted. Accepted and loved for who he really was.

“Yeah.” Brody nodded. “It’s all good.”

And for the first time in his life, he really believed it.

Sam B. Morgan

Sam B. Morgan writes hot, contemporary M/M romance with gritty, complicated men. With a love of travel, settings like Los Angeles and Boston, and coastal cities like Charleston, South Carolina and San Francisco, California serve not only as backdrops, but supporting characters in his books. Sam enjoys fast cars and slow Sunday mornings. He lives in west Texas, with his longtime partner and their two dogs.

Learn more about Sam at
http://sambmorgan.com/
.