And he’d given up too fast. Especially for their family. “You need a vacation or to get laid. Pick one but do something besides work.”
“I’m fine.”
No one who ever said those words was actually fine. Even Garrett knew that. “Sure. Maybe we should give Mom a call and see if she’s having fun. She might be ready to come—”
“I will schedule some time off! You call her and I’ll tell her about Wyatt. I might even mention I hear wedding bells and a collaring ceremony.”
That was just mean.
It didn’t mean he was wrong though. Besides, Garrett had that covered. “I already told her, genius.” He knew a secret like that was perfect blackmail material so he’d tackled that conversation right away.
And luckily, she was only half-way through with her current trip. There was no way to cancel and come home early without inconveniencing too many people. He’d promised to send pictures and had to agree to give her Wyatt’s email address. He still hadn’t told Wyatt about that part yet. He figured he needed to get his sub in the right frame of mind before he sprung that on him.
His sweet sub was alittlenervous right now.
Brent made a frustrated huff as the wind came out of his sails. “I’ll look at the calendar on Monday and schedule some time off.”
Ha! Victory.
“We’ll see you in a little while.” A little smirk in his voice, Garrett really did have to go. He was due to pick up Wyatt and his friend in a few minutes.
For the past two days, their evening phone calls had been filled with more worries and less flirting. Garrett didn’t mind more real conversations with his boy. However, he was starting to get concerned about how nervous Wyatt was. Inviting Carter seemed to have helped somewhat.
Maybe.
According to Wyatt, Carter was concerned about what to wear and how to act around the rest of the family. It was distracting Wyatt from his own fears, but now Garrett had two worried subs on his hands. Which was one more than he was prepared to deal with.
He’d said repeatedly Carter should wear whatever he was comfortable with, but neither sub had absorbed it. Finally, when they were talking last night, Garrett had tried to take a different approach.
He’d interrupted the stream of worries with a question. “What do you think he should wear? If you guys were just doing something fun and there was nothing to worry over, what’s your favorite thing?”
Garrett was already well aware that Carter was more flexible in how he dressed. The rest of the family wasn’t going to care, but there had been no way to make the subs believe it. Wyatt had paused for a minute and then spoke hesitantly. “Let me show you. I have a picture on my phone. This is my favorite outfit. I think he looks great in it.”
The picture had been some kind of a simple sundress. Wyatt had been right. Even Garrett, whose fashion sense was limited to suits, could see that Carter had felt fabulous in the dress and it suited his frame. To Garrett, that made the decision simple. “Okay. Tell him to wear that then.”
Wyatt had been uneasy, but Garrett had tried to soothe his nerves. “Would I tell you to do anything that would make things harder on you?”
His sexy sub had found that terribly funny, but it seemed to stop the worries.
“You told everybody to be nice to Carter and not mention the clothing, right? I want Wyatt’s friend to be comfortable.” He might be starting to obsess like Wyatt but he wanted this to go smoothly.
“Yes. Message sent and received. We want to make a good impression on Wyatt. We can behave. We just choose not to when it’s only us. Company manners this time.”
“Or I’ll tell Mom.”
“Still fighting dirty, I see.”
“Yup.”
“I’ll pass the message on.”
“Thanks. All right, I have to go, time to go pick up Wyatt.”
“See you. Don’t forget dessert!”
Garrett hung up on him. The donuts hadn’t been that bad. That bakery was good and considering he’d gone in there at the last minute, he’d been glad they had anything he could bring. Grabbing his keys and phone, Garrett headed for the door. Fingers crossed Wyatt was calm and ready to have a fun afternoon hanging out with everyone.
****