He tried to look happy as Bryce came to the door. Bryce didn’t comment, though. He just took Oliver’s hand in one of his and Troy’s in the other. “All set.”
“Perfect.” Oliver tried not to grip Bryce too hard, but he could almost feel him slipping away.
Chapter 13
Bryce
“Do you want to talk about it?” Wyatt came up quietly beside Bryce, watching the chaos as people tried to clean up after the barbecue.
“I don’t know.” Bryce had appreciated that everyone hadn’t bombarded him. Wyatt and Carter had possessed enough common sense to hold Garrett and Grant back, so he’d been pleased not to get the third degree. “Maybe.”
“Contrary to popular rumors,” Wyatt said as he gave him a little grin, “I can keep a secret.”
“I heard you were a chatty little birdie with Grant and Carter.” Bryce cracked a smile, the first one in hours.
“I was not that bad.” Wyatt sighed dramatically. “Carter needed a kick in the pants, so I gave Grant some hints to help him manage the crazy minefield around Carter’s heart.”
Wyatt grinned, very pleased with himself. “And it worked. Look at those two.”
Grant was following Carter around, leaning close and whispering things that clearly made Carter nuts as they were trying to pack up the food. They were so different that he knew most people wouldn’t have paired them together, but they worked and looked very much in love. Even if Carter seemed to be trying not to deck Grant.
They watched as Carter turned around, one hand on a popped-out hip, and waggled his finger at Grant. They only caught the word cookies, but Grant gave Carter a puppy dog look and shook his head. “He had to get out the big guns.”
“Threatening to tell where the cookies are hidden is big around here.” Wyatt giggled, enjoying the crazy.
“Grant’s been making him nuts for the last hour. I think he’s talking to him about the club.” Bryce had caught them several times making out in quiet corners of the yard, while Grant whispered about the things Carter would see. “Do you think he’ll be ready to go in two weeks?”
“Who, Carter?” Wyatt glanced at Bryce. “Yes, he’s just nervous. It’s really different from anything he’s done before, and I think he’s just building it up in his head.”
“I hope he enjoys himself.”
“He just needs a push.” Wyatt sounded very sure, so Bryce tried not to worry. He could remember the first time he’d gone to a club, but he’d had support and a lot of friends in the lifestyle by that point.
“I told Troy and Oliver not to come today.” He hadn’t meant to throw the words out there, but they came out anyway.
“Because of your mother?”
“Yes, partly. How did you know?”
“She doesn’t seem like the subtle type. I can’t see her hiding it from everyone. And then there’s the little bit about her knowing where to find you guys. I know you usually have a barbecue, but she couldn’t have been that sure about everyone being here unless she’d talked to one of you.”
“The guys are going to figure it out soon.” Brent didn’t feel like figuring out what they were going to do to him.
“Oh, yeah, I’d hide the cookies if I were you.”
“The last time she put me in the middle, they pretended to understand and took me out for drinks. They got me stinking drunk, then dropped me off at home after they’d short-sheeted my bed and moved all the furniture around. Between my struggle to figure out the bed and trying not to freak out when I realized the lamp was on the ceiling, I thought I was going crazy. I had nightmares for days about accidentally walking into other people’s houses and being abducted by aliens.”
“How did you get them back?” Wyatt’s eyes were lit up.
Bryce knew his grin was wicked, but it pushed back the worry. “I had a friend from college who owns a dog food company. He arranged for pallets of dog food to be delivered to Brent’s house because he was the mastermind. They showed up randomly for months, just waiting in his driveway. One time, I even managed to get it in his living room. He just about killed me, but he couldn’t prove I did it.”
Wyatt giggled and said, “You guys are insane.”
“Probably.” Bryce just shrugged. “It also takes a special brand of interesting to join the family, though.” He gave Wyatt an I-know-what-you’re-hiding look.
Wyatt blushed. “This is not going to help convince you that I can keep a secret. But yes, we were going to talk to everyone about setting the date for our collaring ceremony. We’d planned on calling your mother tomorrow to tell her, but now we’ll figure out something different.”
“You could invite everyone over to a welcome home dinner for Mom?” Bryce glanced over at Wyatt to see his reaction.
