Deep Blue

Copyright © Pandora Pine 2017

All Rights Reserved

 

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, events, business establishments or locales is entirely coincidental.

 

First Digital Edition: June 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PROLOGUE
April…

Julian Parsons never thought it was possible for one bad decision to change his entire life, but he’d been wrong.

Staring out of the seventeenth floor conference room of his high priced attorney’s office over downtown Boston was undeniable proof that one stupid decision could stop all of the plates he had spinning, bringing them crashing to the ground. The worst part of it all was that it wasn’t just his life that was affected by his carelessness. Henry’s life was too.

Turning from the window, Julian watched his five-year-old son sitting on the black leather sofa against the far wall. He was quietly playing with his Spiderman toys. Every other five-year-old Julian knew would have been jumping around the room making a lot of noise while Spidey fought his enemies, but not Henry.

He’d often heard the line about certain people having an old soul. Julian had thought that was pure bullshit, until Henry was born. The little boy had been what his and his soon-to-be ex-wife Carolyn’s friends had called an “easy” baby. Henry rarely cried and always seemed to be happy.

His son had this way about him where he seemed to know about things going on around him without needing to be told. Henry’s kindergarten teacher had said he was full of empathy. That was a trait his little guy most certainly did not inherit from him.

Glancing down at his watch, Julian saw it was 11:55am. In exactly five minutes, his lawyer would walk into this room and change his and Henry’s lives forever. It had taken months, but Carolyn’s attorneys had finally agreed to a divorce settlement. He was willing to give Carolyn everything she wanted with the exception of Henry. He may have been a selfish son of a bitch, but he loved his son with his whole heart.

The divorce was, of course, all his fault. It had been Julian who’d taken a lover and had gotten caught. If he were being honest with himself, which he rarely ever was, he’d admit the problem with his marriage and indeed with himself, had much deeper roots than one night with a work colleague.

Julian had been happily straight, or so he thought, all his life until he had gone to a frat party with Marty Simms during their junior year at UMass Boston. They’d spent the night drinking cheap beer and making out with any girl who’d have them.

Stumbling back to their dorm sometime after midnight, Marty had pushed Julian against a tree and kissed him. Remembering that night eighteen or so years ago still made Julian’s dick hard. Marty kissing his lips off that night opened a whole new world to Julian, one he never imagined possible.

There was only one problem with his new found sexual awareness. He was already engaged to marry Carolyn Jenkins, his high school sweetheart.

What he should have done, upon reflection, was to end his engagement so that he could fully explore his bisexuality. Julian hadn’t done that. What he’d done instead was go out on dates with Carolyn and then come back to his dorm and fuck Marty senseless.

That little arrangement should have ended when they all graduated from college, but it didn’t. Julian still got together with Marty for guys’ nights out at least once a month. Actually, they were guys’ nights in, as in Marty’s cock being balls deep in Julian’s ass.

What had brought his happy little arrangement crashing down on him was Rob Barnes, one of the producers on his locally produced food show, Shadow Eats.

The premise of the show was that Julian would dine at different restaurants all over New England and then write up a review on the food, the service and the friendliness of the wait staff. The show’s gimmick was that Julian’s identity as the Shadow was a secret so that the restaurants he visited wouldn’t be able to trot out their best cuts of meat and best service. The tagline of the show was, “Only the Shadow knows.”

Rob was the producer in charge of picking the restaurants for Julian to review. He’d spent months unsuccessfully trying to catch Julian’s attention. After a while, it had gotten so that Julian would try to avoid the producer at all costs.

One night, a few months back, Marty had gotten sick and wasn’t able to keep their long-standing date. Feeling hornier than ever and sick of fighting against his own body’s needs, Julian had finally given in and invited Rob over. Any port in a storm, had been his attitude toward his co-worker.

Much to Julian’s surprise, Rob had been an amazing lover. The other man had known just where to touch him to set his body on fire. He’d been so lost in exploring his new lover that he’d missed a text from Carolyn telling him that her conference in Rhode Island had ended a bit early and she was on her way home.

If he hadn’t missed that text, Carolyn wouldn’t have walked in on Rob fucking Julian into next week on their living room couch.  Carolyn had been so pissed off, and rightfully so, in his mind, that she’d posted the news that she’d walked in on her husband fucking another man, on Facebook.

Since they’d all known each other for years, Marty was Facebook friends with Carolyn. He’d seen Carolyn’s text and had blown up at Julian, telling him in no uncertain terms that their friendship was over.

Not only had he lost his wife that night, he’d also lost his best friend and undercover lover in Marty. Rob had been just as eager to be with him as ever, but Julian had told him there wasn’t ever going to be a repeat of their one night together. A week later, he had submitted his resignation to Shadow Eats.

Julian’s phone buzzing in his pocket brought him back to the present. He slipped it out of his back pocket and saw that it was from Kim Richmond, the executive producer of Shadow Eats.  He’d taken this week off from production of the show to spend some time with Henry in case he lost full custody of his little boy in the divorce.

Knowing that his attorneys should be coming through the conference room door at any minute he answered the phone anyway. “Parsons.”

“Julian, its Kim. I know you’re on vacation, but something’s come up that we need to talk about.”

“I’m at my attorney’s office. Carolyn has finally submitted a settlement, but I’ve got a few minutes to talk. What’s up?”

“Apparently, submitting things seems to be something Carolyn is quite fond of…”

Kim wasn’t making any sense. “What are you talking about?”

“The Boston Herald just went live with an exclusive interview with Carolyn. Julian, she outed you as the Shadow.”

“What?” Hitting the button for the speakerphone, Julian pulled up the Herald’s website on his phone. The headline hit him like a punch to the gut, Shadow Cheats. “Oh my God,” Julian half-whispered into the phone.

“Julian, the show only works when you’re anonymous. I’m sorry, but you’re fired. We’ll box up what’s in your office and ship it to you.” Kim’s voice sounded dead tired.

Julian couldn’t breathe. He was about to lose his shirt in the divorce and now he’d lost his job too? “What about my contract? It’s in effect until September first.”

“We’ve already cut you a check. It’s going out via overnight mail. You should have it in the morning. I’m sorry Julian, but maybe next time you’ll keep your dick in your pants.”

 

 

1

June…

Gregor Allen stood back to survey the damage. He’d stepped out of Sand Dollar Shoal’s large, stainless steel kitchen for ten minutes to make a phone call, leaving his young baking assistant in charge of the whoopee pies. When he’d come back, his spotless kitchen was covered in chocolate batter. As was his assistant.

“Jesus Christ, Jimmy! What the hell happened?” Gregor turned slowly around, unable to believe what he was seeing.

The young man opened his mouth to answer when a dollop of batter fell from his shaggy bangs to land on his batter splattered white coat. “I forgot to lock the mixing bowl in and when I started it up…” Jimmy threw his hands up in the air.

“Hey, Gregor, do you have time to talk about our wedding menu?” Drake DeMelo asked walking into the kitchen with another man.

“Oh my God, was there a chocolate tornado in here?” Presley Forrester, Drake’s fiancé asked.

“Does it fucking look like I have time to talk about a wedding menu?” Gregor fisted his hands on his hips and tried to take a deep breath. It wasn’t going to do him any good to get angry at the kid or at his friends. “Jimmy, go home. I’ve got it from here.”

“I’m so sorry, Gregor.” The kid peeled himself out of his cake batter drenched chef’s coat and tossed it in the hamper on his way out the back door.

Drake jumped into action when the kid was gone. He grabbed a fresh rag and started cleaning up the kitchen. “Don’t you think you might have been a little harsh on the kid? It’s only cake batter.”

Gregor sighed, grabbing a rag to pitch in. “It’s not his fault. It’s mine. I wanted to hire someone young for this job so that he or she wouldn’t question my every decision. Instead of sass, I got inexperience. I can’t afford for the food quality to suffer. We haven’t even been open for a full month yet.”

Back in September, one of Gregor’s best and oldest friends, Griffin Fox had bought Sand Dollar Shoal, a dilapidated thirty-six room hotel, situated on the beach in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Along with Presley and their other friend, master builder, Noble Killington, they’d gone into business together.

Their little band of brothers, as Presley had christened them after taking a high school Shakespeare class, had grown over the last nine months. Noble had met his fiancée mystery writer, Landon Fairchild, when he’d shown up at the hotel in January hoping the hotel could cure his writer’s block.

Presley had met Drake back in May when the retired porn star’s car broke down just outside the hotel in a rain storm. The newly engaged couple was in the process of planning their Fourth of July wedding.

The newest member of their group was Yankee Magazine writer, Napoleon LeClerc, who was spending the summer at the hotel to gather enough information to write a piece for the magazine about Sand Dollar Shoal that would appear in the magazine’s October issue.

“Well, you happen to be in luck.” Drake threw the chocolate covered rag at the hamper and missed by a mile.

Gregor raised a silent eyebrow at his friend. There was nothing he hated more than a dirty kitchen.

Rolling his eyes, Drake picked up the rag and deposited it into the hamper.

“Now ,tell me how I happen to be in luck?” The hotel kitchen ran on a tight schedule. Gregor had two hours between when breakfast service ended and when lunch started to get his baking done for the day. Now with the batch of whoopee pies ruined and the kitchen still needing a good scrubbing, he was behind on his schedule.

Whoopee pies were featured as a dessert item but were also a part of the hotel’s midnight snack package. The kids loved them, but more often than not, it was adults who ordered the sweet treats to be delivered to their rooms with an ice cold glass of milk.

“Unbelievably, I’m free for the next few hours. If you like, I can dig in and give you a hand with the baking.” Not waiting for an answer, Drake went to one of the large sinks and started washing his hands.

When Drake had first arrived at the hotel, Presley had hired him on to do odd jobs and that often included helping Gregor out in the kitchen. Gregor had spent the months before the hotel opened perfecting the recipes he’s wanted to serve to the hotel guests and Drake had been a pretty passable assistant. Over time, his job responsibilities had extended to his becoming an event coordinator and social media guru for Sand Dollar Shoal.

Drake’s newest responsibility was getting the hotel’s destination wedding business off the ground. With his busy schedule, Drake didn’t have free time like this to help in the kitchen every day.

“Thanks, Drake. Get working on the whoopee pie batter and I’ll make the Napoleons I’m serving for dessert at dinner tonight.”

“You’re making that dessert just to piss Griff off, huh?” Pres rolled his eyes.

Gregor burst out laughing, just now realizing that the dessert he was planning on making had the same name as the magazine writer. In the month that Napoleon, Leo to his friends, had been living at the hotel, he’d been called everything from Nappy, to Boney, to the Little Corporal. Leo had just rolled with it and answered to pretty much anything they called him. “For once in my life I’m innocent of that charge.”

Griffin had been Gregor’s prep-school roommate for the four years they’d all spent at Phillip’s Andover. They were closer than brothers and no one knew better how to get under Griff’s skin than Gregor.

Leo had contacted Griff on Facebook asking if he could come spend some time at the hotel to work on his magazine article. Griff had invited him to stay for the summer in one of the staff cabins that were on the property. There seemed to be something brewing between them, but if there was something going on, neither man was talking about it, which, of course, pissed Gregor off to the nth degree.

As he moved around the kitchen gathering the ingredients for the French pastry, he’d remembered why Pres and Drake had come into the kitchen in the first place. “So, talk to me about the wedding menu. What are you two crazy-fast kids looking for in a wedding menu?” Pres and Drake had met in the beginning of May and had gotten engaged Memorial Day weekend.

“That’s what we wanted to talk to you about.” Drake looked up from the mix-master after he locked the bowl in. “Since our wedding is also going to be used to promote the destination wedding side of the hotel we were thinking you’d want to feature the kinds of foods you’d make available for the wedding packages I’ll design.”

“I take it you’re going to have photographers all over the place to shoot this shindig?” The only thing Gregor hated more than incompetent cooks in his kitchen were photographers. Nothing was ever perfect to their trained eyes and it could take hours for them to get just the right shot.

Pres nodded. “There will be separate pages on the website for all of the services we offer. We’ll want your input when we design the menu page.”

As much as Gregor had been on board with all of Drake’s ideas to help grow their fledgling business, he wasn’t so sure he’d be able to squeeze in catering weddings along with all of the other meals.

Regardless of the time crunch, he was going to do everything in his power to make sure Drake and Presley’s wedding was a first class affair. “Give me a few days to come up with some menu ideas. I’ll do something cheap, like an appetizer package, something mid-range and something high end. Does that work for you?”

“Perfect!” Presley clapped his hands and moved over to kiss Drake.

“Jesus Christ you two, not in front of the whoopee pies!”

XX

Sand Dollar Shoal was just as gorgeous in person as it had been online. Julian parked his Honda in the hotel parking lot and turned back to Henry who was strapped into his booster seat reading a comic book. “We’re here, buddy!”

Henry had a dazed look on his face when he looked up at Julian. He pushed his glasses up on his nose before looking out the window. “I like it.” He ducked his head back down and kept reading his comic book.

Julian shook his head and hopped out of the car. Even though he was only five years old and about to start first grade in the fall, Henry was reading at a fourth grade level. Yet another trait his little boy hadn’t inherited from him.

Julian had booked the two week stay at the hotel right before his life had gone to shit. Granted, his own selfish behavior was the reason he’d ended up divorced and friendless. The one consolation he’d gotten in the divorce was getting to spend the entire summer with Henry.

Carolyn was taking an accelerated MBA class at UMass and wanted to focus on her studies. Once the school year started up again in September, he would only get Henry every other weekend and on the occasional holiday.

To be honest, after the shit he pulled during their marriage, he didn’t even deserve that much. Not that he was about to look a gift summer in the mouth.

Yanking their suitcases out of the trunk, Julian tried to see the summer for the gift that it was and not focus on only getting to see Henry four days a month after it ended. Carolyn didn’t have to let Henry come to Cape Cod for these two weeks, she could have left him with her sister back in Boston instead.

Julian had spent so much time working on Shadow Eats that on most nights, Henry was asleep by the time he’d gotten home. He was going to use the summer as a way to make up for lost time with his son.

“All ashore!” Julian opened the door for Henry to hop out. The little boy had already unbuckled his seatbelt.

“We’re on dry land, Daddy,” Henry deadpanned, before carefully packing his comics and toys back into his Spiderman backpack.  He hopped out of the car and looked up at the hotel. “I can hear the ocean. Do you think there will be any pirates here?”

“Only one way to find out, matey!” Julian grabbed the handles to their suitcases and dragged them toward the front door of the hotel. “I thought we could play on the beach later and maybe go in the water.”

Henry little face crumpled into a frown. “I was gonna read my comics.”

Julian sighed. He didn’t want to discourage his son from reading, but he couldn’t spend the next two weeks cooped up inside the hotel with comics, could he? “How about a compromise? We’ll spend part of the time reading and part of the time playing. What do you think of that?”

Henry rolled his eyes dramatically as if playing instead of reading would kill him. “Okay.”

“We don’t have a beach like this at home. Aren’t you looking forward to playing in the water and looking for little creatures?”

Henry stopped dead, his eyes bugging out. “There are creatures in the ocean?”

For as much as Henry read, that book knowledge didn’t extend to the world around him. Maybe there was a book he could get about shells and other animals that lived in this part of the Atlantic Ocean. “Only things like starfish, sand dollars and crabs.” He’d keep the knowledge that great white sharks had been spotted off the coast of Chatham last week to himself.

“Do they eat people?” Henry still looked wary.

Julian shook his head. “No way, buddy. Come on, let’s go check in.” 

**

The afternoon on the beach with Henry had been such a success that the little boy had fallen fast asleep the minute Julian had brought him back up to the room.

They’d walked up and down the beach looking for shells and sand dollars. Henry had found a few pieces of sea glass and live starfish which he’d refused to touch. Julian had even managed to coax his son into the ocean, but Henry would only go in as far as his ankles.

Henry had slept so long that they'd missed dinner in the dining room. Thankfully, they'd been able to order sandwiches, turkey and avocado for Julian and peanut butter and jelly for Henry, which had also come with a homemade whoopee pie. 

"Why is it called a whoopee pie, Daddy?" Henry's face was smeared with the chocolate cake. 

Henry's voice startled Julian's attention from his phone. He didn't want to be one of those self-absorbed asshole fathers who was lost in his phone at the dinner table, but in his defense, he was looking for a new job and Henry had spent the entire meal reading his comics. Julian had figured what was good for the gosling was good for the gander. "I'm not sure, but that's a good question."

A man wearing a chef's coat and a red do-rag turned around at the table next to theirs.  "They're called whoopee pies because when you eat them, they make you want to shout WHOOOPEEE!" 

"WHOOOPEEE!" Henry echoed, hopping out of his seat.  "Are you a pirate?"

The man smiled. "Do I look like a pirate?"

Henry nodded his head. "You look like Cap'n Sparrow with your red head thingy, but he has more hair than you. Are you bald? Cap’n Jack’s ship is the Black Pearl.  Did you know that?"

"Henry, let's let the nice man eat in peace." Julian couldn't help noticing how handsome the chef was with his deep blue eyes and broad shoulders.

Henry turned around with a frown on his little face. "I'm making friends, Daddy."

Julian and the chef both started to laugh.

"My name's Henry. What's your name?" Henry pulled himself up to sit in the empty seat next to the stranger.

"Gregor Allen." He winked at Julian over Henry's head. 

"You should come sit with us, Gregor Allen, so you don't have to sit alone. No one should eat alone." Henry shook his head. The look on his face was serious.

"Did you learn that at school, Henry?" The man seemed amused with talking to the little boy.

"Yup. I'm gonna be in first grade in the fall." He held up one finger.

"Well, if your father doesn't mind, I'd love to join you."

Julian most definitely didn't mind. "Julian Parsons." He held out his hand. 

"Gregor Allen." He gathered up his plate and the legal pad he'd been working with and joined Henry and his dad. 

"Why are you wearing a coat? Are you cold?" Henry folded his arms on the table in front of him giving Gregor his full attention.

Gregor laughed. "This is my chef's coat. I'm the hotel's executive chef."

Henry narrowed his green eyes. "Did you make my PBJ?" 

"No, but I made the whoopee pies." Gregor grinned at the little boy.

"Oh good because the sandwich wasn't very good." Henry shook his head sadly.

"Henry!" Julian wished a giant whole would open up in the floor so he could jump into it. Henry’s manners were usually better than this.

"It's okay, Julian. Why wasn't the sandwich very good, Henry?" He picked up his pen and flipped to a fresh sheet of paper on his pad.

"There was too much jelly. See how it ended up all over my plate? That made my sandwich fall apart and my hands got all sticky and I couldn’t read my comics.” Not only was there strawberry jelly all over Henry’s plate, it was all over the table.

"By the look of it, the jelly ended up all over you too!" Gregor pointed to Henry's shirt.

A look of horror bloomed over Henry's face when he saw his shirt was covered in jelly. "This is my favorite shirt! We gotta do laundry, Daddy! There's grape jelly all over Spidey's face!" Henry looked like he was on the verge of a meltdown.

"That will have to wait until we get home, buddy." Julian knew the minute the words were out of his mouth that he'd said the wrong thing.

"But, it's Spidey! I can’t live without my Spidey shirt." Henry's eyes filled with tears. 

"I'll tell you what, Henry. If you leave your shirt with me, I'll wash it with the kitchen laundry tonight." Gregor winked at Julian again.

Julian wanted to jump over the table and kiss Gregor's full lips for finding a way to save the day.

Well, not just for saving the day. He'd noticed the chef wasn't wearing a wedding ring. That didn't necessarily mean anything with the man working in the kitchen. He could have taken his ring off so it didn't get dirty while he cooked.  The old Julian wouldn't have thought about a thing like that, but the new version of himself did.

There was no way in hell he’d be responsible for breaking up another man’s marriage.

Henry hauled the Spiderman shirt over his head, leaving him in a clean white tee-shirt. He almost handed it to Gregor, but pulled it back at the last second. "Do you have a stain stick?"

Gregor bit his bottom lip and nodded. 

"Do you have the fabric softener with the teddy bear on it?" Henry's mood was getting lighter by the minute.

"I sure do." Gregor smiled at the little boy.

Henry handed his shirt over to Gregor. "I trust you."

Gregor did laugh then. "I won't let you down, Henry." He turned to Julian. "What room are you staying in?"

Julian felt his cock jerk hard in his pants. He wanted to grab Gregor and drag him upstairs like a caveman and have his wicked way with the chef, but that was something old Julian would have done. His dick was staying in his pants. "We're in the Captain Kidd room."

Gregor's eyes opened wide. "You're in a great room, Henry! My friend Drake named all of the rooms in the hotel and that's his favorite pirate room. Did you find the buried treasure yet?"

"There's buried treasure in my room?" Henry groaned and slid bonelessly out of his seat. 

Julian started to laugh at his son's antics. Henry had always been a character, but his personality was in full bloom talking to Gregor.

"Look under the bed," Gregor whispered. 

Henry popped back up and climbed into Gregor's lap. "Will you come up to our room and help me hunt for the treasure?" 

Sweet Jesus... Julian could feel himself breaking out in a cold sweat. Who needed a wingman when he had Henry? "I think Gregor has work to do, buddy."

A quick look of disappointment flashed over Gregor's face. If Julian hadn't been staring at him, he would have missed it. Did the chef actually want to come up to their room?

"Your Dad's right. I do have a lot of work to do." Gregor thumped a hand on the yellow legal pad.

"What kind of work?" Henry grabbed his pad and flipped it to the previous page. "Fil-et mig-non," Henry pronounced phonetically. "New potatoes, green beans." Henry turned around to face Gregor. "What’s Fil-et mig-non? Is this for supper tomorrow?"

“Filet mignon is a small but expensive piece of steak.” Gregor gave Henry an impressed look. "My friends Drake and Presley are getting married at the hotel next month and they want me to come up with the perfect menu for their big day."

"Are Drake and Presley both boys?" Henry sounded curious.

Gregor raised an eyebrow at Julian who simply nodded. "Yeah, they're both boys."

"Hmm," Henry said, with a giant smile lighting his face. "My Daddy likes boys too."

Gregor's eyes darkened and he licked out over his full lips. 

"Time to go treasure hunting, Henry." Julian stood up fast and started packing Henry's comic books and Spiderman toys. If they stuck around much longer Julian had a feeling Henry was going to start telling the story about how he lost his job and then his shirt in the divorce.  The last thing he wanted Gregor to know was what a loser he was.

Gregor set Henry down and stood up as well. He set one of his large hands over Julian's, stilling the other man's movements over Henry’s comic books. He leaned in close and whispered, "I like boys too."

 

2

Gregor yawned and went back to whisking the pancake batter. He'd had a rough night's sleep. If he was being honest with himself, most nights were rough nights. Even after being out of the Navy for the last two years, he still suffered from PTSD.

Loud, unexpected sounds had him flinching, which was an improvement over diving for cover. He also still suffered from nightmares so realistic, he’d swear he could smell cordite when he woke up.

Thankfully there were no nightmares last night. Instead, his night consisted of a series of cat naps. Every time he startled himself awake, he could see Julian's bright smile and green eyes. 

The one good thing was that at least it was thoughts of Julian waking him up and not the nightmares he usually had. Gregor shook his head. Now wasn't the time to get lost in remembering things that were better left in the past. 

“Gregor?” a tiny voice shouted from the other side of the kitchen doors.

Gregor snorted, knowing exactly whose little voice was calling his name. He walked to the swinging doors and pushed one open. Henry was standing there in his freshly washed and stain-free Spiderman tee-shirt. “Hi there!”

Henry flew at him, wrapping his arms around Gregor’s knees. “Thank you!” He looked up at Gregor. “You saved Spidey!”

After Henry and his drop-dead-gorgeous father had gone up to their room, Gregor had washed Henry’s shirt, making sure all of the jelly stains had come out. When the shirt was dry, he’d folded it neatly and put it in a tote bag with the Sand Dollar Shoal logo and hung it on the doorknob of the Captain Kidd room. He’d slid a note to Henry under the door telling him about the bag. He’d signed it Captain Gregor.

Kneeling down, Gregor smiled at the little boy. “Where’s your Daddy?” He looked around the dining room but didn’t see any sign of Julian. Maybe he shouldn’t have slid a note under the door after all. He knew Henry would be able to read it.

“Daddy’s still sleeping. He snores.” Henry frowned.  “He woke me up all night long. I thought there was a bear in the room, but it was just Daddy.”

“Do you have the room key?” This kept getting worse. When Julian woke up, he was going to freak out when he discovered his son was gone. The last thing he wanted was for Julian to be upset.

Henry shook his head, sending his sandy blond hair flying.

“So you’re locked out of your room and your Dad’s asleep.” Great, way to make an impression. There wasn’t much Gregor could do about it now. He had two choices, bring Henry up back up to Julian and wake him or he could keep Henry with him.  “Do you want to learn to make pancakes?”

“Yeah! I never cooked before.” Henry’s eyes glowed with excitement.

“Well there’s no time like the present. Just let me send a quick text message.” Gregor dug his phone out of his pocket and sent a quick text message to Presley, who was manning the front desk this morning. He asked Pres to send a message up to Julian’s room letting him know that Henry was safe with him. HY on 

Gregor led Henry into the kitchen. Since he’d let Jimmy go, he’d be handling all of the breakfast orders by himself. Thankfully, it was barely 6:00am and most vacationers usually slept late on Saturday mornings. “Step one is that you need to wash your hands.”

“To kill all the germs, right, Gregor?” Henry looked at him with adoration shining in his green eyes.

“You bet, buddy.” Grabbing a step-stool, Gregor set it in front of the sink so Henry could reach the faucet.

“Short stack with bacon, boss.” A blonde waitress poked her head into the kitchen.

“Hi Kimmie!” Henry waved from the sink, sending drops of water flying all over the place. “Kimmie was our waitress at dinner last night. She did a great job bringing me my sandwich.”

“Hey there, Henry. Did you get a new job?” Kimmie smiled brightly.

“Yup! I’m gonna make the pancakes.” Henry’s voice was full of pride.

“Good for you.” Kimmie waved and headed back into the dining room with a fresh pot of coffee.

“You’re really good at making new friends, huh?” Gregor had been impressed last night with the fearlessness of the little boy when Henry had invited him to eat at their table, especially since Henry had thought he was a pirate.

Henry shook his head no. “I’m good at making friends with people, but not with kids.”

Gregor didn’t understand what he meant. “You mean you’re good at making friends with adults?”

Henry held up his hands. “All clean! What’s next?”

Since Henry had changed the subject, Gregor wasn’t going to bring it back up again. He was a bright and happy little boy. Gregor was certain he must have made a ton of friends in kindergarten. “Hop down off the stool and I’ll move it over to the cook top.”

Henry did as Gregor asked. When the stool was in place. Henry climbed back up on it and looked around like he was surveying the entire kitchen from this new angle.

“The cook top is very hot. Can you feel the heat from where you’re standing?” Now that Henry was standing on the stool next to the hot grill, he wasn’t so sure this was the best idea he’d ever had in his life.

“Yes,” Henry said, seriously.

“There’s no fooling around near the hot stove, okay?” Christ, the more he thought about it, the worse this idea was sounding in his mind.

“I don’t fool around, Gregor.” Henry’s light blond eyebrows knit together in a frown. The look on the little boy’s face would have been comical if he didn’t look so serious.

If it had been any other kid, Gregor wouldn’t have believed him. Henry seemed mature for only being five years old. He grabbed the pink plastic drink pitcher he used for pouring out the batter and filled it up with the fresh batter he’d been making before Henry had shouted his name.

“Okay, first thing you need to know is how many pancakes are in a short stack.”

Henry pushed his glasses up on his nose. “Two and there are four in a large stack.”

Gregor burst out laughing. “You read the menu?”

“Yup. I read everything.”

It amazed Gregor that such a young child was so far advanced with his reading skills and his vocabulary, but he couldn’t help wondering if maybe that served to isolate him from kids his own age. “I’m gonna help you hold the pitcher on the first couple of pancakes, okay?”

Henry nodded, turning back to the cook top. “I’m ready to give it a try.”

Gregor handed him the pitcher and then stood behind Henry to help guide him. He wrapped his left arm around the little boy’s middle and then held the lower end of the pitcher’s handle. “When we pour pancakes, we count to three. One…Two…Three.”

“I did it Gregor!” Henry sounded thrilled with himself. “Now the second one?”

“Great job buddy!” The bright smile on Henry’s face was worth any wrath he’d face from Julian.

XX

The first thought on Julian’s mind as he started waking up was Gregor. All these hours later, he could still feel Gregor’s heavy hand resting on top of his own. He shivered remembering the way Gregor’s breath tickled against the shell of his ear when he’d leaned in to whisper he was into guys too.

He snaked his hand down his bare stomach and into his black boxer briefs to give his cock a few slow strokes. Maybe he and Henry would run into the chef at some point during the day. Henry! Yanking his hand out of his underwear, Julian sat bolt upright in bed. His eyes quickly scanned the room looking for his son. Henry’s bed was empty and the bathroom door was open.

Glancing over at the clock, Julian saw that it was past ten. He bolted out of bed and ran into the bathroom, which was empty.

Jesus Christ, it was day two of their vacation and he’d lost Henry. Julian took a deep breath and looked around the room more closely. He saw Henry’s Spiderman backpack sitting on the still-made side of his double bed. Henry never went anywhere without his backpack.

With a sinking feeling in his stomach, Julian bolted out of the room. He ran down the two flights of stairs and up to the front desk, where a tall, dark haired man was standing. “Henry?”

The man grinned. “No, I’m Drake DeMelo. How can I help you this morning, sir?” Drake’s eyes moved down the man’s naked chest before popping back up to meet his eyes.

“I’m looking for my son, Henry. He’s five years old. He’s blond with green eyes, always wears Spiderman tee-shirts and has glasses.” Julian could feel tears starting at the back of his eyes.

“I haven’t seen any kids matching that description, but I’ve only been at the desk for about ten minutes. I’m sure he didn’t get far. Why don’t you go check in the dining room and I’ll gather up our staff to start a search for him.”

Julian nodded. His mind was spinning with all kinds of crazy scenarios from kidnapping to Henry going out to the beach to look for more treasures like they’d collected yesterday. He tried to walk slowly into the dining room where several families were enjoying a late breakfast. He didn’t see Henry among the diners.

Gregor… Henry had made fast friends with the chef last night. Maybe he’d gotten hungry and came down to get something to eat. Julian strode to the kitchen doors and pushed through one of them. What he saw scared the shit out of him and sent relief coursing through his body at the same time.

Henry was standing on a stool in front of a hot cook top with Gregor’s left arm wrapped around him from behind.

“Be brave Henry. You gotta be brave.” Gregor encouraged.

“I did it!” Henry shouted triumphantly. “I flipped the pancake.”

“You did an amazing job, buddy. Do you want to try it again with the next one?”

“Yup. Here goes! Slide the spatula under the pancake. Be brave and flip! I did it again.”

Julian took a second to catch his breath. His body was still buzzing with adrenaline. He braced his arms on the closest stainless-steel counter and took a deep breath. “Henry!” His voice had come out harsher than he’d wanted.

“Hi Daddy! I’m making pancakes with Gregor.

“I see that.” He didn’t think he’d recover from the shock. His eyes moved to Gregor who was staring at his bare chest with a gleam in his eyes. The man looked like he wanted to eat Julian for breakfast.

“You didn’t get my note?” Gregor lifted Henry off the stool and set him down.

“Note?” Julian hadn’t seen a note in the room, but he really hadn’t been looking for one either.

“I returned Henry’s shirt last night after it was clean. It was in a tote bag with the hotel’s logo on it. I wrote Henry a note and slipped it under the door, which I realize now was a bad move. He showed up outside the kitchen around 6:00am shouting for me.”

Henry looked up at Gregor and leaned against his side. “Gregor got all the jelly stains out of my Spidey shirt!”

Gregor grinned down at the little boy. “He didn’t have the key to your room and instead of waking you up at such an early hour, I kept Henry down here with me and asked Presley Forrester, our day manager, to send a note up to your room letting you know Henry was safe.”

Presley burst into the kitchen. “Gregor! We have a missing child. Have you seen a five-year-old boy with glasses and a Spiderman shirt?”

Gregor shook his head as Drake and Griff ran into the kitchen. He pointed down before lifting Henry up to show them. “He’s right here, guys.”

“Thank Jesus,” Drake muttered under his breath.

“Pres, I sent you a text to get a note up to Julian’s room…” Gregor trailed off, looking embarrassed.

Julian blew out a harsh breath. He turned around to face the other men. “Thank you so much for all of your help.”

“Julian, these are my friends, Presley, Drake and Griffin.” Gregor pointed to each man as he introduced them.

He reached out to shake their hands in turn. Julian couldn’t help noticing each of the men were checking him out. He looked down at himself and realized he was only wearing a pair of boxer shorts. No wonder the men were looking at him like they were hungry lions. “Julian Parsons and that’s my son Henry.”

“Hi, Drake! You showed us to our room yesterday!”

“I sure did, little man.” Drake wore a look of relief on his face. “I’ll let Noble, Landon and Leo know we found him. They were out searching the beach.”

“I can’t thank you all enough for helping to find Henry.” Julian blew out a harsh breath. He could still feel his hands trembling from the left over adrenaline.

Griff grinned. “You might want to go upstairs and get dressed. Gregor doesn’t like people in his kitchen who aren’t properly dressed and wearing shoes. Lord knows why, looking the way you do.” Griff’s eyes slid down Julian’s sculpted chest before he turned to leave the kitchen.

“Don’t forget today is the sandcastle building contest,” Presley said. “It starts at 2:00pm and the judging is at 3:00pm. Are you gonna be able to judge it, Gregor?”

“Sandcastle contest?” Henry’s green eyes glowed. “Can we build a sandcastle, Daddy?”

“You bet, buddy.” Julian took a deep breath. His heart rate had returned to normal but his body was still buzzing with adrenaline.

“I’ll be there, Pres. Thanks again for your help.” Gregor grinned at his friend.

“You got it. Bye, Henry!”

“Bye, Pres!” Henry waved.

“Why don’t you go grab a shower and get dressed? I’ll keep Henry down here and I’ll make you breakfast when you get back.”

Julian nodded. Now that the crisis was over, he felt like a wet dish rag, not to mention the fact he was standing half-naked and barefoot in Gregor’s kitchen.

Gregor stepped up to Julian, setting a hand on his shoulder and giving it a light squeeze. “I’m sorry we scared you this morning.”

Gregor’s hand was hot on and heavy on his naked skin. Julian could feel the heat of his simple touch racing through his body, straight to his cock. If Julian didn’t get out of the kitchen soon, Gregor was going to be able to see the effect he was having on Julian. “It’s okay. I’ll have a talk with Henry later.”

“I’m guessing you needed the extra sleep.” Gregor’s blue eyes were kind.

Biting his lip to keep from moaning out loud, Julian nodded. “Yeah, things have been, ah, crazy lately.”

“I don’t mind if Henry comes down to the kitchen in the morning. He’s a great kid and he was an awesome assistant.”

“I’ll talk with him and we’ll see where things go from there.” Julian could feel his cock thickening and he knew he needed to leave now. “I’m gonna take you up on your offer to keep him while I run upstairs and grab a shower. I don’t want to break your kitchen rules by being down here half-naked and barefoot.”

Gregor grinned, licking out over his bottom lip. “Rules are made to be broken, Jules. You can be naked in my kitchen anytime.” Gregor waggled his eyebrows and stepped back. “Ready to make some more pancakes, Henry?”

Julian stood there stunned for a second. He couldn’t believe how bold Gregor was being with his advances. Old Julian would have taken him up on his lascivious offer then and there, but new Julian wasn’t going to be that easy.

Grabbing an apron from a nearby peg, Julian wrapped it around his waist, hoping it would hide his growing erection, which he was going to need to do something about as soon as he was behind the locked door of the Captain Kidd room.  His cock twitched in agreement.

 

 

3

Julian was sitting at one of the dining tables on the back deck of the hotel, staring off into the ocean. Henry was in the chair next to him lost in one of his Spiderman comics.

After what happened in the kitchen this morning with Gregor, he’d hardly been able to focus on anything. Henry had been really excited about participating in the sandcastle contest, so Julian had been trying to work on sketches of different ideas.

His mind kept on turning back to this morning with Gregor. Not only had he run through the hotel in his underwear, but Presley had to walk him up the stairs with the spare key to his room. He hadn’t thought to grab the room key when he’d run out of the room to find Henry.

Julian was making a hell of an impression on Gregor’s friends. It shouldn’t bother him since he and Henry would only be here for two weeks, but for whatever reason, it did.

His cock had been in his hand the second he was finally back in his room. Julian hadn’t even made it into the bathroom. He’d rested back against the closed door and fisted his cock until he was shooting his load all over his stomach.  Round two happened in the shower with Julian moaning Gregor’s name.

Just thinking about Gregor now was enough to wake his slumbering dick. Jesus Christ… Julian cleared his throat and sat up straight in his chair.

“Hey, guys! Mind if I join you?” Gregor was carrying a platter with sandwiches and three bags of chips.

“You didn’t have to bring lunch.” Julian stood up to greet Gregor, but didn’t seem to know quite what to do. Did he shake his hand? Or slap him on the back? Thankfully, Gregor solved that problem for him by knocking one of his large hands against Julian’s shoulder.

“What’s up with Henry?” Gregor pointed at the little boy who was still reading his comics.

“He’s always that focused when he’s reading. We could have an earthquake and Henry would read right through it.”

“Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” Gregor crouched down next to Henry’s seat and nudged his shoulder. “Hey, buddy.”

“Gregor!” Henry set down his book and lifted his arms in the air.

Looking a little confused, Gregor scooped him up and gave him a hug. “I brought you a PBJ.”

Henry’s little face scrunched up with a frown. “Did you make it?”

“I sure did and I promise you the ratio of peanut butter to grape jelly is perfect.”

“We’ll see about that.”

Gregor snorted and set Henry back down in his seat. He gathered up the little boy’s books and set them aside before placing his sandwich in front of him. He did the same with plates for Julian and himself. “So, what are you two up to?”

Julian nudged his sketch pad toward Gregor. “I’ve been trying to design a sandcastle for Henry and me to build this afternoon.”

“This sandwich is perfect, Gregor. I knew it would be since you’re the greatest cook in the world.” Henry’s eyes were filled with adoration.

Gregor stood up and took a bow. “Well thank you, kind sir.”

Henry giggled and took another bite of his lunch. “Will you build the sandcastle with me and Daddy?”

Gregor turned to Julian as if he were waiting for Julian’s approval before answering Henry.

“I’d love for you to join us, if you’re free.” Julian could feel a blush rising up his neck.

“It just so happens I am free.”

“Yay! I know we’re gonna win the contest with Gregor helping.” Henry’s eyes shone with his belief.

“It just so happens you’re free? You run the kitchen of a large hotel. How is that possible?” Julian raised a questioning eyebrow.

“I may have worked a bit faster so I could be on the beach during the contest,” Gregor said softly. He bumped his knee against Julian’s under the table.

“Well, hey there!” Presley was all smiles as he approached their table. Drake was a step behind him.

“Julian, you remember Presley and Drake from this morning?” Gregor wore a teasing smile.

“We sure remember him.” Pres snorted and elbowed Drake.

“Hey! You’re the grooms!” Henry sat up straighter in his seat.

Pres and Drake exchanged a sappy look. “We are!” Pres agreed. “How did you know that?”

“Gregor’s making you fil-et mig-nons.” Henry flashed another adoring smile at Gregor.

Drake started to laugh. He pulled out the empty chair next to Henry and sat down while Pres grabbed a chair from a nearby table. “He is?”

“Don’t the two of you have some work you should be doing?” Gregor shot each of his friends a grumpy look.

“I don’t.” Pres grinned at Drake. “Do you?”

“Nope! So we thought we’d come out and join you and your new friends.” Drake waggled his eyebrows.

“A-s-s-h-o-l-e-s!”  Gregor crossed his arms over his chest and sighed.

Henry’s eyes went wide. “Daddy! Gregor spelled a naughty word!”

“How the hell, heck, does he know how to spell that word?” Gregor looked back and forth between Henry and Julian.

Julian rolled his eyes. He’d gotten into some deep shit with Carolyn over that one. How the hell was he supposed to know some comic book heroes swore like a sailors? “A friend of mine at work knew Henry liked comics so he gave me a box full of them for him. Henry ended up reading some Deadpool. I’d never heard of him and didn’t realize…”

“He’s the merc with a mouth!” Henry said proudly.

Drake and Pres burst out laughing. “He certainly is that,” Drake agreed.

“What’s this?” Pres pointed to the pad of paper Julian had been using to sketch out castle ideas.

“Henry and I were trying to plan out what we wanted our sandcastle to look like.” Julian pushed the pad over for Presley to see.

It was pretty obvious how close Gregor was with Drake and Pres. He’d bet a million dollars Gregor never fucked them. The new Julian was absolutely not going to fuck his friends. He couldn’t help thinking how nice it would be to get to know these men and be a part of their group.

“I wanted to make a pirate ship like the Blessed William. That was one of Captain Kidd’s ships. Did you know that, Drake?” Henry studied his new friend closely.

“I sure did, Henry. I was the one who named all of the rooms in the hotel.”

“That was you? Gregor told us about that last night. Did you do lots of research?” Henry’s attention focused on Drake.

“I did. Captain Kidd was a really neat man to study.”

“He was a privateer, not a pirate, but a judge had him hanged anyway.” Henry hopped up on his chair and demonstrated, holding up his hand like it was a rope.

“Did your Daddy read the story about the captain to you?” Pres looked at Julian with a shocked look on his face.

“Nope! I read it all when Daddy was in the shower last night!” Henry said proudly.

“Here, let me see that.” Gregor took the pad and started sketching out a design.

Henry got up on his knees and leaned over Gregor, resting his head on his shoulder. “It’s a pirate ship!”

“Do you like it?”

Henry nodded, but kept his head on Gregor’s shoulder.

“How about if we add one more thing?” Gregor sketched out a whale. “There! How about that?”

“I love it! Will you help me and Daddy make it?”

Julian pulled the pad back toward him. The design was gorgeous. Gregor had drawn a ship with double masts and an angry looking whale. “I love it too, but how do we build it in 3-D?”  That was the exact reason Julian had been trying to dissuade Henry from the idea of making a pirate ship.

“We won’t.” Gregor grinned. “We’ll make it in 2-D, lying flat on the beach.”

“That’s a cool idea!” Presley slapped a hand on Gregor’s shoulder. “You’ve always been a clever bastard.”

“Daddy! Pres said a bad word!” Henry looked offended.

“I’m sorry, Henry.” Pres looked anything but sorry. He was nibbling his bottom lip, presumably to keep from laughing. “I guess we’re just not used to having kids around.”

“That’s okay, but get used to it fast, okay? I’m gonna be here for two whole weeks!” Henry held up his fingers.

“Cross our hearts!” Drake made an “X” over his heart and then did the same for Pres. “We’ve got to go and get ready to start the sandcastle contest. Good luck guys.”

“Bye grooms!” Henry waved as Pres and Drake left the table.

“He’s a really open-minded kid.”

“Well, with my situation, he kind of has to be.” Shit! Julian should have just nodded and agreed with Gregor. His vague answer opened himself up to a lot of questions. None of which he wanted to answer. Julian knew Gregor was into him and he didn’t want to ruin that feeling by telling the man he was a jobless cheater with no prospects and no place to live.

XX

The more little tidbits about himself that Julian dropped were only making Gregor more curious about the man. It was obvious by his actions and Henry’s confession that Julian was into men, but he’d been leaning more toward Julian being bisexual, what with the fact that Henry was his mini-me.

Instead of asking the questions tumbling around in his brain, Gregor decided he’d try a different tact. “Why don’t we go find the best spot to build our pirate ship?”

“Sounds good, but I gotta clean up first.” Henry smiled before getting to work.

Gregor watched with an amused smile on his face as Henry put his empty sandwich plate back on the tray and then picked up his comics and Spiderman toys and put them into his backpack. Henry definitely acted older than his five years. “Look at him. What little kid likes to clean up? You’ve done an amazing job with Henry.”

Julian shook his head with a sad little smile playing on his face. “It’s my ex-wife’s doing. She was the one home with him. I worked so much and I…” Julian trailed off.

Well that answered a few questions. Julian was definitely bi and had been through a divorce. His new friend had quite a few things he was keeping to himself. Maybe if Gregor shared a bit about his life, Julian might start to open up more too. “I was a Navy SEAL before I went to culinary school.”

A look of shock spread across Julian’s face. “You’re such a big guy. I guess that makes sense.” A light blush stained his cheeks. “I mean you usually don’t see too many chefs built like they could bench press a school bus.”

Gregor laughed and stood up to unbutton his chef’s jacket. “Don’t want to get this all full of sand.” He hauled the coat off slowly, almost teasing the sleeves down his arms. He was wearing a white wife-beater underneath that he knew would show off his arms and flat stomach.

“Sweet Jesus,” Julian whispered under his breath. He cleared his throat and reached for the hem of his grey tee-shirt.

Gregor bit his bottom lip as Julian tugged his shirt over his head. Jesus, the dirty things he’d do with that body. Julian had rock hard abs and a light dusting of fur over his stomach.

He shook his head and stood up. “Ready, Henry?” Gregor held his hand out to the little boy. The best thing to do now was to put some space between the two of them otherwise Gregor knew he’d give in to the temptation to touch or lick Julian’s creamy skin.

Ten minutes later, they were settled on the beach and Gregor was tracing out the shape of the ship, while Julian outlined the whale. “Henry! Why don’t you go looking for treasures to decorate the ship?” Gregor held out a bright blue bucket. One of Drake’s ideas had been to buy a bunch of sandcastle toys from the local dollar store to add to the guest rooms.

“You mean like shells and sand dollars?”

“Those would be great decorations. What about seaweed?” Gregor had spotted some green seaweed down the beach and thought he could use it in the design of the ship.

“I don’t know. It looks kind of slimy.” Henry shuddered.

“Okay, just grab shells then.”

Henry wrapped his arms around Gregor and did the same with his father before he picked up the bucket.

“Stay where we can see you, okay?” Julian smacked a kiss to the side of his head.

“Bleck! Kissing!” Henry rubbed the side of his head and walked off with his bucket.

“He is fricken hilarious.” Gregor sat back on his heels and watched Henry bend over to pick up something that had caught his interest.

“He’s the best kid. I just can’t believe how smart he is.” Julian shook his head. “It’s more than being smart though, it’s how in tune he is to people.”

“I noticed that too.” Gregor studied the other man. For as handsome as Julian was, he always had a bit of sadness lurking in his eyes. “You gotta give yourself more credit than you do when it comes to Henry. He’s a happy kid and obviously adores you.”

Julian shrugged. “He deserves a better father than me. One who doesn’t cheat and can support his family.” Julian’s eyes bugged out and he fell back onto his ass in the sand.

Gregor narrowed his eyes. Julian obviously hadn’t meant to say all of that. “Why don’t you tell me what’s going on. Maybe I can help?”

Julian shrugged his shoulders. “Long version or short version?”

“Short. Henry’s filling that bucket pretty quickly.” What Gregor needed to do now was shut the hell up and be a good friend.

“Ever heard of a show called Shadow Eats? It’s a local show to New England.”

Of course Gregor had heard of the show. He watched it whenever he got a chance. He was actually thinking about submitting Sand Dollar Shoal to the show once he had the menu perfected. “Yeah, I’ve seen it a bunch of times. I’d love it if the Shadow came here.”

Julian let out a heavy sigh. “I used to be the Shadow.”

“Seriously! That’s so cool.” Gregor shut his mouth with a snap when he realized Julian said he “used to be” the Shadow. “Wait, used to be? What happened?”

“I had a one-night stand with one of the producers on the show. Carolyn was at a business conference that got out early and she caught us together. She filed for divorce and then on the day we were finalizing the paperwork, she did an interview with the Boston Herald outing me as the Shadow. I lost my job since I lost my anonymity.”

“Sweet holy fuck.” Gregor couldn’t believe what Julian had just told him. The story sounded like some plotline out of a novel. “Jesus, man. I’m so sorry things went down like that. At least you got to keep custody of Henry, right?”

“Sort of. Carolyn’s taking an accelerated MBA program over the summer, so she’s given him to me until school starts in September. After that I’ll only see him every other weekend.” Julian took a shaky breath. “I’m hoping to use the summer as a way of making up for lost time with Henry. When I was working, I hardly ever saw him. At the same time though, I need to find another job and some kind of apartment. I don’t even know where I want to live.”

Gregor couldn’t believe the story Julian had told him. He seemed like a man who had his life together and in reality it seemed like he was barely hanging on. “Remember how you scoffed when I told you I might be able to help if you told me your story?”

Julian snorted. “Yeah, I remember.”

“What would you say if I told you the hotel was looking for a blogger? You know, someone who’d write stories about the place, the guests and maybe interview the staff?” Having Julian at Sand Dollar Shoal permanently would give them a chance to get to know each other better.

“I’d say you’re full of shit and just looking for a way to get into my pants.” Julian waggled his eyebrows.

Gregor burst out laughing. He couldn’t ever remember having so much fun with another man with his clothes on. “I’m serious. Drake has been working on the social media side of the hotel business, but with his wedding coming up on the Fourth of July and him working on getting the destination wedding packages in place, he needs a hand.”

Julian sobered up instantly. “You’re serious?”

Gregor nodded. “You obviously know how to write, since you were the one reviewing the restaurants on the show. Plus, you’re a local talent and that might help to attract attention to the blog and other social media accounts that we use. You could call it Shadow Blogs, or something corny like that.”

“You can’t just hire me, can you?” Julian wore a look on his face like this whole thing was too good to be true.

“No. I’d need to talk to Presley, Griffin and Noble, who you haven’t met yet. The four of us are the co-owners of the hotel. Although Landon and Drake being engaged to Noble and Presley, I’m sure they’ll get a vote on this too.” Gregor leaned forward, almost close enough to kiss Julian, which he wanted more than his next breath. “You interested?”

Julian nibbled his bottom lip. “In you or the job?”

“Either. Both.” Gregor moved a tiny bit closer. He could feel Julian’s fast panting breaths on his face.

“Daddy! I’m back with all the treasures!” Henry plopped down on the sand between them.

Gregor burst out laughing. Five more seconds and he would have been kissing Julian on the public beach. When he and the others had set up rules about the hotel, no one said anything about not being able to date the guests, but even still, Gregor didn’t think he should be kissing anyone, especially Julian while he was on the clock and not in front of Henry.

Regardless of the way his dick responded to Julian, Gregor knew talent when he saw it. The first free second he had, he was going to talk to Griff and the guys about hiring Julian.

 

 

4

It had been easy enough for Gregor to invite all the guys for a late dinner in the hotel dining room. After Henry’s interruption, he and Julian had gotten started on building the sandcastle, but not before Julian had told him he was interested in the job.

Gregor couldn’t help being disappointed that Julian didn’t say anything about being interested in him too. It seemed like Julian was trying to start his life over again after making some serious mistakes in his past. Maybe he was being cautious about Gregor because they could end up working together.

“There’s our champion sandcastle builder!” Noble pulled Gregor out of his seat and gave him a big hug. “Where’s your trophy?”

Gregor snorted. “I gave it to Henry. His idea of decorating the whale with sea shells was what won the contest.”

“I wasn’t talking about the actual trophy, dumbass. I was talking about Julian!” Noble waggled his eyebrows at Landon. “Rumor has it he’s gorgeous.”

“You’re all class Noble.” Gregor walked into the kitchen and grabbed the dinner salads he’d put together for everyone. Noble wasn’t wrong though, Julian was gorgeous. His sandy blond hair looked like it was soft as silk and his green eyes reminded Gregor of the ocean when a storm was churning it up.

“You’re off the clock, man. You don’t have to serve us!” Griff grabbed a bowl for himself and one for Leo.

Gregor shrugged and finished setting out the bowls. “Actually, Julian is the reason I got you all together tonight.”

Pres started to laugh and slapped the palm of his hand down on the table. “I knew it! The grumpy bastard has been all sunshine and rainbows since Julian and Henry came to stay at the hotel.”

Rolling his eyes, Gregor took his place at the table. “It has to do with the blogger and social media expert Drake suggested we hire now that he’s going to be busy with destination weddings.”

Drake knocked on the table. “From your lips to God’s ears, man. We’ve gotten a few inquiries about couples wanting to get married here, but they’re leery about booking since we haven’t done it before. We also don’t have an officiant on staff which worries the gay couples I’ve spoken with.”

“Can’t you get certified online to do that?”Griff looked around the table at his friends who were all shrugging. “Pres, get on that first thing in the morning. Find out how one or all of us could get certified to perform weddings.”

Pres offered a mock salute and forked up a bite of salad.

Griff turned back to Gregor. “Sorry to get off track. Why do you think Julian would be a good fit for that position?”

“Aside from the way he looks in a pair of boxer briefs!” Drake elbowed Presley.

“Mercy! That man has abs of steel.” Pres fanned himself with his hands.

Gregor threw his hands up. “Hey! Aren’t you fuckers engaged to each other?”

“We’re engaged,” Presley started.

“Not dead,” Drake finished.

“I’m pained to hear that I missed the show!” Leo grinned at Griff.

“It wasn’t much of a show,” Griff mumbled, looking embarrassed.

“Anyway,” Gregor squeezed the bridge of his nose, hoping to keep his budding headache at bay. He loved his friends like brothers, but sometimes he just wanted to knock their heads together like in a Three Stooges skit. “Do any of you know that local show called Shadow Eats?”

“Only the Shadow knows!” Noble crowed. “We love that show. Landon and I tried out some of the restaurants featured over the winter before Gregor showed up to feed us gourmet meals.”

Gregor took a deep breath. This wasn’t going to be the easiest story to sell to his friends. “Julian is the Shadow. Or at least he used to be.”

“What?” Noble shot him a stunned look.

“What do you mean he used to be?” Griff looked concerned.

“Julian’s wife caught him cheating one night with a member of the production staff of the show.” Gregor rubbed a hand against his bald head.

“Julian’s straight? No fucking way!” Drake was shaking his head.

“I’m with Drake,” Pres agreed. “I saw the way he was looking at you when we were sitting together at lunch and that boy wanted a piece of you. No doubt about it.”

“Are you assholes gonna let me tell the story or what?” Gregor looked around table.

“By all means, please continue, Gregor.” Leo straightened his ever-present bow tie and leaned in closer.

“The coworker he was fucking was a man. Julian is bi.” Gregor rolled his eyes. “His wife filed for divorce and then on the day it was being finalized, she gave an interview to the Boston Herald outing Julian as the Shadow. Since he lost his anonymity, he lost his job.”

“If you’ll pardon my French, his ex-wife is stone cold.” Leo shook his head. “Divorcing him I get, but ruining his career? That’s unconscionable.”

Gregor agreed wholeheartedly, only he would say Julian’s ex was a stone cold bitch. “He was the one writing the restaurant reviews, so he obviously has the writing chops to blog about the hotel. His experience with food columns would also come in handy for the destination wedding side of the business and attracting non-hotel guests to eat here. I’d like to attract customers to the dining room with hopes that they would fall in love with the hotel and want to book rooms down the line.”

“Not to get off the point, again, but I think we’d have better success with that if we gave the dining room a name.” Griff tapped his index finger against the side of his head.

“I would call it Widow’s Walk.” Leo smiled at Griff.  “It’s one of the most prominent features of the structure, aside from the lighthouse tower.”

“I like it.” Griff knocked his shoulder against Leo’s.

“Would the two of you just get it on already?” Gregor sighed. He’d spent the last few weeks watching Leo and Griff dance around each other. If he had a man interested in him the way Leo was obviously interested in Griff, he wouldn’t be beating around the bush.

Griff raised an eyebrow at Gregor. “So, your Julian has writing skills, what else makes him hirable aside from that ass?” Griff’s lips quirked into a quick smile.

“He has an English degree from UMass Boston and he was the person behind the Shadow’s social media accounts.” Gregor sighed. “He lost his shirt in the divorce and after the summer is over, he’s only going to get to see Henry four days a month. At least if he worked here, he’d have all of us around him and he’d have a place to live.”

“You’re thinking of putting him in the last of the staff cottages?” Noble, for once, sounded sincere.

Gregor nodded. “Yes, he’s gorgeous and I’d jump his bones in a heartbeat, but for the first time in my life, that’s not what’s important to me. The guy seriously fucked up his life and he’s working hard to get his shit together and become a better man and a better father in the process.”

“I sure as shit know what it’s like to fuck up my life,” Drake gave Presley a shy smile. “I vote yes. If the rest of you aren’t sure, I’d suggest giving him some topics to write about and we can judge his work that way, before it goes live on the blog. At least in the beginning.”

If anyone knew about making mistakes in his past, it was Drake. Before he’d come to Sand Dollar Shoal he’d worked in the adult film industry. Gregor had a feeling Drake would be on Julian’s side. “I like that suggestion, Drake, and then if we agree that we like his pieces, they can go up on the blog. Griff, what do you think?” He knew that of everyone, Griff would be the toughest sell.

“I want to hire him just because of the effect he’s having on you, Gregor. I’ve known you for almost fifteen years and that’s the first time in all those years you’ve ever put someone else before your overactive libido.” Griff burst out laughing.

“Yeah, well maybe Julian wanting to be a better man makes me want to do the same.” Gregor didn’t want to delve too deeply into why that was the case.

“If I were given a vote, it would be in the affirmative.” Leo sat straighter in his seat.

“Jesus Christ, Leo! We’ve told you a hundred times that you’re a member of the family. You get a vote and it’s duly noted.” Pres rolled his eyes. “I vote yes too.”

Gregor turned to Noble. “What about you and Landon? I know you haven’t met Julian or Henry yet, but…”

Noble exchanged a wordless look with Landon. “We both vote yes too. It obviously means a lot to you to help Julian out and besides I can’t wait to watch the fireworks that are gonna explode between the two of you.”

“So it’s unanimous, thank Christ.” Gregor breathed a sigh of relief. Now instead of only having the next twelve days to get to know each other, they’d have the whole summer together.

XX

Julian was lying on his queen-sized bed looking for jobs on his tablet while Henry was tucked in next to him reading a comic book. Today had been the best day he’d had in what felt like years.

He and Gregor had worked together perfectly during the sand castle competition. Julian had been shocked when they’d been named the winners of the contest. Henry had jumped up and down between them shouting, “We did it,” over and over. He loved seeing that kind of confidence in his son.

Gregor had to go back to work after the prizes were awarded, but he’d promised to speak with his friends about the blogging job. He loved the idea of being able to work for the hotel. Getting to know Gregor would be one of the biggest perks, but he’d also been impressed with the friendship Gregor and the other guys had built. More than anything, he wanted to be a part of their group, especially with Henry’s custody situation.

It was going to suck only getting to see his son every other weekend, but it might just be easier to bear if he were surrounded by a good group of friends.

Julian was about to apply for a reporting job at the Cape Cod Times when his phone dinged with an incoming text message. It was from Gregor. [Join us for late dessert in the dining room? I’ve got a surprise for you and H.] Julian snorted.

“Hey pal, you in the mood for some dessert?”

Henry shook his head no, his eyes not leaving the comic he was reading.

Julian shrugged. “Okay, I’ll just tell Gregor we’re not interested.”

Henry sat bolt-upright. “Gregor invited us?”

“Yup, but I can just tell him we’re in bed for the night.”

Henry scowled at his father and hopped off the bed. “Come on, let’s go!” He ran to the door and got his shoes on. “I hope dessert is Gregor’s whoopee pies. I love those things. Maybe he can teach me how to make them tomorrow.”

Julian smiled at his son. “You can ask him, but he’s so busy with the hotel, he might not have time, okay?”

“He’ll make time for me.” Henry sounded so sure of himself.

Julian opened the room door and Henry bolted out around him. Stopping to grab the room key, he shut the door behind him. It was way too soon for Gregor to have any news about the possible job, so Julian was just going to play it cool and have fun.

When he got to the dining room, Henry was introducing himself to the men sitting at the table that he didn’t know.

“Why do you wear bowties, Leo?” Henry asked, climbing up onto the stranger’s lap. He ran his fingers over the silky material of the tie.

“I think bowties are a nifty accessory. They help me to express my personality.” Leo smiled at the boy, running a hand through his blond hair.

“I think they’re nifty too. Daddy? Can I have a bowtie like Leo’s?” Henry was all smiles. “I want to express my personality too.”

Julian headed over to Leo. “Julian Parsons.” He held out his hand. “They don’t make Spiderman themed bowties, do they?”

“I bet we can find out!” Leo turned to Griff. “Oh my stars! Isn’t he the most precious bundle of love you’ve ever seen?”

“Better watch out, Griff. Someone wants a baby!” Pres laughed.

“Hey, there you are!” Gregor was all smiles when he came out of the kitchen. He was carrying a tray loaded with baked goods. There were a few whoopee pies, some cookies and what Julian thought were Napoleons. 

“Gregor!” Henry hopped off Leo’s lap and ran to Gregor, who’d just set down the pastry tray.

“Hey buddy!” Gregor scooped the little boy up and gave him a hug. “Did you meet all of my other friends?”

“I met Noble and Landon and Leo. He loves to wear bowties. Do you wear bowties?” Henry looked like hearing Gregor’s answer was the most important thing in the world.

Julian bit his lip to keep from laughing. He had a feeling the last thing Gregor liked was a bowtie.

“I’m gonna have to wear a bowtie at Presley and Drake’s wedding in a few weeks.”

Henry’s face lit up. “I want to go to the wedding too. Daddy, can we go to Drake and Presley’s wedding? Please?”

Julian was at a loss for words. Their time at the hotel would be over before the Fourth of July. “I’m not sure about that, buddy.”

Henry’s face crumpled. Gregor whispered something to him that brought his smile back. He set Henry in the empty spot next to Leo and moved toward Julian. He took him by the elbow and escorted him to the empty seat next to Henry. “I might be able to arrange that, Jules.”

Julian frowned up at Gregor. The last thing he needed was for Gregor to get Henry’s hopes up. “What do you mean?”

“Do you want to tell him or should I?” Griff wore a mysterious smile.

“You can tell him, Griff. It will sound more official coming from you.”

“Well someone tell me before I burst!” Julian looked back and forth between the two men. Everyone else at the table was smiling.

Griff nodded. “Gregor was telling us that you were interested in the blogger job at the hotel. We discussed it between us and we came to a unanimous decision.”

Julian’s stomach dropped like he was going down a steep rollercoaster. He took a deep breath, offering a silent prayer that they were hiring him. “Okay.”

“You’re hired!” Everyone chorused.

Julian’s mouth dropped open. “I’m hired? You’re hiring me?” He couldn’t believe his ears. The guys were clapping and Gregor leaned over to wrap an arm around his back.

“Congratulations, Jules.” Gregor waggled his eyebrows. “Guess we’re gonna be neighbors.”

“Neighbors?” Julian didn’t understand what he meant.

“Did you see the six little guest cabins along the left hand side of the hotel’s access road?” Presley asked.

Julian nodded. “Yeah they’re cute little cabins.”

“That’s where we all live,” Noble said. “And there’s one that’s vacant that has yours and Henry’s names written all over it.”

“Wait! The job comes with a place to live? How much is the rent per month?” Julian had no idea how much the job was going to pay and he didn’t have a lot of savings left after the divorce.

“Henry,” Gregor asked. “What is zero plus zero?”

“Ummmm, zero apples, plus zero apples, equals zero apples!”

“That’s how much the rent is, zero apples.” Gregor was all smiles.

That couldn’t be right. How was the rent on the little cabin zero apples? Julian looked at Gregor with a confused look on his face.

“The cabins are part of the property,” Gregor said. “We all decided that we wanted to live close to each other and the little cottages were perfect for that. Noble and Landon have the one closest to the beach, Griff has the next one, then mine and then Presley and Drake. Leo is living in the fifth one, which leaves the sixth one open for you and Henry.”

Julian opened his mouth but no sound came out. He was too stunned to speak.

“It’s fully furnished and has two bedrooms, so you and Henry will be able to move in as soon as your stay in the Captain Kidd room is over. That is if you accept our offer…” Griff trailed off.

“Do it, Daddy! We could be neighbors with Leo! And I could try on all of his bowties, right Leo?”

Leo giggled. “Of course you can, little man.” He turned to Griff and fanned his face. “No one’s ever wanted to try on my bowties before.”

“And Gregor could teach me to make WHOOPEE pies too and I could be in Drake and Presley’s wedding!” Henry got up on his knees and slapped his little hands on either side of Julian’s face. “Say yes, Daddy!” He tried to nod Julian’s head with his hands.

“Okay, yes! I’ll take the job!” Julian was half expecting to wake up in bed any second now. There was no way possible this could be real.

“Come by my office around 8am tomorrow morning and we can talk about the details.” Griff held out his hand.

Julian still felt like he was in a daze.

“Henry, I guess that means you and I have a date to make breakfast together while your Daddy goes to work.”

“Really? Can we make whoopee pies too?”

“I think that can be arranged, but you have to promise me you won’t come down to the kitchen unless your Dad knows where you are.”

“I promise, Gregor.” Henry yawned.

“I think it’s past someone’s bedtime.” Julian grinned at his son.

“I’m not tired. I was just stretching my jaw.”

“I meant it was past my bedtime, but that means it’s your bedtime too.”

Henry opened his mouth, presumably to argue, but he just yawned instead. “Okay.” He climbed onto Gregor’s lap, wrapping his arms around his neck. “Will you carry me upstairs? I’m too tired to walk.”

Gregor snorted and wrapped his arms around the little boy. “There’s something fishy about that story, but yes.”

“Good night everyone and thank you so much.”

“Welcome aboard!” Leo announced.

“We’re on dry land, Leo,” Henry mumbled sleepily.

“He’ll be here all week.” Gregor rolled his eyes and got out of his seat, setting a hand in the small of Julian’s back as they walked toward the stairs.

Julian’s heart was beating like a jackhammer in his chest as they climbed the stairs to the second floor.  He pulled the key out of his back pocket and opened the door for Gregor. Once they were inside, Julian hurried to pull back the covers on Henry’s bed so Gregor could set him down.

“I’d better go. I don’t want to keep you from your beauty sleep.” Gregor cupped the side of Julian’s face with his hand.

Julian loved the feel of Gregor’s rough skin against the side of his face. He leaned into the touch, setting his own hand on Gregor’s hip. “I can’t thank you enough for all of your help.”

“Shhh.” Gregor rubbed the pad of his thumb over Julian’s lower lip. “There’s no need to thank me.” Moving a bit closer, Gregor replaced his thumb with his lips giving Julian a quick kiss. “Sleep tight, Jules.” Gregor kissed him again and headed for the door.

“Good night,” Julian managed to whisper when the door shut behind him. He couldn’t decide what made him happier, finding a job and a place to live or Gregor kissing him. 

 

5

Julian had been so excited for his first day of work that he'd forgotten to set the alarm. Thankfully, Henry was up with the sun. They'd had time for a nice breakfast in the dining room before he had to see Griff for their morning meeting.

He'd dropped Henry off with Gregor in the kitchen, feeling bad that he had to work during their vacation. Henry seemed unfazed and had run to hug Gregor before dragging his stool to the sink to wash his hands. 

It was hard to tell who'd been more excited to see Gregor, him or Henry. At least Henry was able to run to Gregor and hug him, while Julian felt that two barely-there kisses didn't entitle him to hug Gregor. Unless of course the chef had hugged him, which he hadn't.  

Henry had gotten hugs and all Julian had gotten was a cheery wave and wish for him to have a good first day of work. It was sure as hell more than he deserved, so he'd take it. 

He'd made his way back to the employee offices, poking his head in doors until he found Griffin's. "Mornin', boss!"

"Hey, Julian, come on in." Griff stood up to shake his hand. "Are you excited about starting today?"

"I am. I hope you don't mind that I'm dressed in vacation wear. All of my professional clothes are at home." Julian was wearing the nicest pair of cargo shorts he owned and the dullest Tommy Bahama shirt in his collection.

"That's no problem. We all keep it pretty casual around here. I know you and Henry are on vacation, but I just wanted to talk to you about what we expect and I have a stack of HR forms for you to fill out so we can pay you."

Julian shook his head, still stunned that he'd gone on vacation and landed not only a job but a place to live too.

"We didn't talk about salary requirements last night." Griff pushed a folded piece of paper across the desk at him. "I hope this suits your needs and remember that part of your employment package includes free rent and utilities and all you can eat in the dining room."

Opening the slip paper, Julian glanced at the number written down. His breath caught in his throat. It was nearly double what he'd been making at Shadow Eats. "Jesus, Griff, I..." Julian couldn't think straight. 

"If you don't think it’s enough, we can renegotiate." Griff sounded worried.

"Enough? Griff, this is amazing. I'm stunned. I'll be able to start a college fund for Henry. Thank you." The knot in his stomach eased. He was going to be able to start his life over again without having to worry about money.

"I'm glad you're happy with it." Griff reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a manila folder and a set of keys. "These are the HR forms we need you to fill out and the key is to the cabin you and Henry will be moving into. I don't know if Gregor told you, but the house is fully furnished, not to mention hooked up to cable and Wi-Fi."

"Henry's going to love living here." And so am I...

"We're all very excited to have you both here. Henry brings energy to this place. Leo is especially fond of him."

Julian snorted. "I get the feeling you're especially fond of Leo." Julian cringed, maybe now wasn't the best time to rib his boss over a possible romance with the magazine writer.

Griff's smile was wistful. "He's a great guy and I like him a lot."

"But?" Julian hadn't expected Griff to be so honest with him. 

"I think he's interested in an old-fashioned romance." Griff looked puzzled by his words.

"And you're not sure if you are?" What the hell did old-fashioned romance mean? No sex until they got married? Only holding hands and chaste kisses? Julian didn't think he could survive not being able to fuck Gregor until their wedding night. If they ever had a wedding night.

Griff shook his head. "It's not that. I just don't know what an old-fashioned romance means."

It was Julian's turn to laugh. "I was just thinking the same thing. I assume it means no sex until your wedding night, but beyond that...?" Julian shrugged.

"I was thinking the same thing. I'm just not sure what to do next."

"Why don't you have a quiet dinner and talk about it? Maybe take him for a walk on the beach when none of the other guys are around? I bet Gregor could pack you a nice picnic.”

"That's a good idea." Griff stood up from his desk. "Thank you for advice. And thank you even more for not giving me any shit about Leo like the guys do."

"No problem, just remember that when the urge strikes you to give me shit about Gregor!" To be honest, Julian wouldn’t mind if Griff and the others did give him shit about Gregor. It would mean he’d been accepted into their circle of friends.

"I've already thought of that and it's Gregor we'll all harass." Griff sat on the edge of his desk. "Just a bit of advice about our Gregor..."

"Sure." Julian had a feeling he knew exactly what Griff was going to say. It would be something about if Julian hurt Gregor then Griff and his friends would hurt Julian. It would almost be cute if Julian wasn't the kind of man who fucked relationships up.

"I know he told you he was a SEAL,” Griff said carefully.

Julian nodded, surprised that Griff brought this subject up. He’d gotten a vibe from Gregor that his time overseas wasn’t something he talked a lot about.

"Sometimes he struggles with things. He had nightmares and he hasn't said it straight out to us, but I think he has flashbacks too. Just be gentle with him if..."

Julian felt his heart break for Gregor. So many men who fought to keep this country safe often came back damaged. "Griff, I don't know where this attraction with Gregor is going. I like him a lot and so does Henry, which is more important to me than anything. No matter what happens between us, I promise to be the best friend to him that I can be."

Griff slapped his knee. "That's good enough for me. Let's go see your office. You'll be sharing it with Gregor, but fortunately for you, he's hardly ever in there. He does most of his meal plans and recipe writing in the kitchen."

An hour later, Julian had finished filling out all the HR forms. He'd been able to log on to his laptop with no trouble either. That was half the battle right there. While he'd been surfing through the hotel's Facebook page at the older posts, Pres and Drake had come in to wish him luck on his first day. Drake had set up a meeting with him tomorrow morning. It seemed Griff only wanted him working half days until his vacation time at the hotel was over. 

Julian liked the tone of the posts Drake and the others had made on the hotel's behalf and all of the posts made by hotel guests were glowing. Julian could certainly attest to the quality of service and caliber of the food at Sand Dollar Shoal. 

He hit the refresh button to read the most recent posts when one in particular caught his attention. In capital letters, someone had written, "WORST MEAL EVER!!!"

Scanning through the story, Julian felt sick to his stomach. The post was talking about the fisherman's platter, which Julian had had for dinner himself the other night. He'd thought it was the best meal he'd ever eaten and it wasn't just because Gregor was the chef. This post said the scallops were rubbery and the fried clams tasted like something that had been scraped off a boat hull.

Julian didn't know if he should show this post to the others or if he should go straight to Gregor with it. Shaking his head, he picked up his phone and sent a quick text. 

XX

Gregor was showing Henry how to frost the whoopee pies when his phone dinged with a text message from Griff who wanted to see him in his office on the double. He rolled his eyes.

“Knock, knock, can I come in?”

Gregor recognized Leo’s voice. “Come on in, Leo! You know you don’t have to knock.”

“You might have been teaching Henry one of your secret recipes.” Leo turned to Henry. “Hello, Lovebug! Look at you making dessert.”

“Hi, Leo! Wanna help me frost the whoopee pies? I can teach you just like Gregor taught me.”Pride shown in the little boy’s green eyes.

“I would love to learn.”

“Step one is washing your hands.” Henry pointed to the sink.

“Do you have a little while to stick around? Griff wants to see me for a minute.”

“I most certainly do. Take as long as you need.” Leo patted Gregor’s shoulder before squirting soap into his cupped hand.

“I’ll be back in a little bit, Henry.”

“Bye, Gregor!”

As Gregor walked from the kitchen toward Griff’s office he had a feeling something was up. Leo showing up like that was too much of a coincidence for him. It was only the first day of Julian’s employment. He hoped to hell Julian hadn’t managed to get fired the day after he’d been hired.

Walking into Griff’s office confirmed his suspicion that something was up. All of the other guys and Julian were gathered together. “Oh shit! Is this some kind of an intervention?”

Noble snorted. “We’re all done with interventions unless Leo keeps buying more bowties.”

“I was the one who gathered everyone together, Gregor.” Julian stepped forward. He was carrying his laptop like a library book.

“Shit! You just got here, don’t tell me you’re quitting already?” Gregor had just gotten used to the idea of having Henry and Julian around. He didn’t want to think what his life would be like if they left in twelve days when their stay at the hotel was up.

Julian shook his head. “No, nothing like that. You all gave me a job and now you’re stuck with me.”

Relief swept through Gregor. Julian and Henry were staying put at Sand Dollar Shoal. “Okay, so then why am I here?”

Instead of answering, Julian set his laptop on Griff’s desk and opened it up to Facebook. “I was going through Sand Dollar Shoal’s page, reading the posts you all had made as well as what guests of the hotel had to say. Then this popped up.” Julian pointed to the screen. He stepped up to Gregor and picked up his hand. “I wasn’t sure how to handle this, so I asked Griff what he thought we should do and it was his idea to gather us all together and send Leo to watch Henry.”

Gregor was right. It wasn’t a coincidence that Leo had shown up to see Henry. “You’re scaring the shit out of me, Jules. Just tell me what this is all about.”

“Some anonymous Facebook troll left a bad review of the fisherman’s platter.” Julian bit his bottom lip.

“Oh, well, those things happen. I can’t get five star reviews all the time. Four stars are fine with me.” Gregor shrugged, feeling the weight of the world slip off his shoulders. He couldn’t believe Julian had made such a big deal of a four star review.

Julian’s face fell. “Uh, it wasn’t a four star review either.”

“Three stars?” A three star review wasn’t that bad either. It was middle of the road. He’d learned early on in culinary school that not everyone would fall in love with his cooking. For some people a dish would be too spicy, for others, not spicy enough.

Julian shook his head no. He was chewing on his bottom lip so hard that Gregor was surprised he wasn’t bleeding.

“Two stars?” Okay, fine. It was usually the petty complainers in life who took time out of their day to make someone else feel like shit. He could handle two stars. He’d just see what the reviewer had to say and see what improvements he could make.

Julian shook his head again.

“Jesus fucking Christ, let me see it.” Gregor plopped down in the easy chair in front of Griff’s desk and started to read. “My scallops are not fucking rubbery.” He kept reading, his disbelief growing with every word. “Haddock tasted like shoe leather? Gives the meal negative ten stars.” Gregor looked up at Julian with his mouth hanging open. “I don’t understand.”

Sitting in the seat next to Gregor, Julian picked up his hand. “I don’t either. I had that meal myself the other night and it was fantastic. This is probably some internet blowhard who gets off on ruining someone else’s day.

Gregor rolled his eyes. The last thing he needed right now was Julian trying to spare his feelings.

“I mean it Gregor. I’m the Shadow, remember? I’ve traveled all around New England eating fisherman’s platters in Michelin-starred restaurants and roadside seafood shacks. Without a doubt, your food is in my top three. And before you say it, no, I’m not kissing your ass.”

“But he’d like to be,” Noble mumbled.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Noble!” Gregor exploded out of his seat. “Can you be serious for just one fucking minute? This review is serious. This is the kind of review that makes people not come to our restaurant. This is the kind of review people will remember.” Gregor ran his hands over his head, pulling off his red do-rag. In all of the years he’d spent cooking, no one had ever reviewed his food in this manner before.

“Why don’t we go for a little walk?” Julian took Gregor’s hand and tugged him out the door.

“I don’t want to go for a walk, Julian! I want to fix this.” Christ, the last thing he wanted to do was lose his shit with Julian. Anxiety churned in his gut. Gregor took a deep breath, repeating his mantra and trying to calm down.

“And where are you going to go to fix it? The kitchen,” Julian answered for him. “Henry is in there and I know you don’t want him to see you fighting mad.”

“He thinks I’m the best cook in the world.” Gregor sucked in a deep breath. The breathing exercises his therapist taught him weren’t working. He was hanging on to his emotions by a thread.

“He’s right, Gregor. You are.” Julian’s voice was soothing.

Gregor snorted and tried to pull his hand away from Julian.

“This is what the asshole who wrote that post wanted. He wanted to upset you and I’ll be damned if we let him win.”

“There’s no ‘we,’ Julian. It’s just me.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. Look around at everyone who’s here. Leo would have been here too if it wasn’t so damn scary thinking about Henry all alone in the kitchen.” Julian shivered in the warm room as if his body were reacting physically to the thought of Henry alone with all of those knives. “The butt-munch who wrote the review isn’t even a real person.”

Gregor’s face scrunched up in disbelief. “Well what is he then? An alien from outer space?”

“His profile is a shell,” Griff answered quietly. “His profile pic is a picture of the Boston Bruins logo. There are no pictures of him, and he has no friends.”

Julian nodded. “Whoever this fucker is, he was too afraid to use his real name to bash your food and the service.”

“He’s probably just jealous of the food,” Presley chimed in. “The internet is lousy with people whose sole mission in life is to bring successful people down. That’s all this is, man.”

Gregor nodded miserably. “I am going to go for a walk, but I want to go alone. I’ll catch you guys later.” He pulled his hand away from Julian and headed out the door. The kitchen had always been his refuge, the one place where he felt safe.

Right now, the kitchen was the last place he wanted to be.

He didn’t know how, but he needed to find a way around this review. The hotel guests needed to be fed, but maybe he wasn’t the best choice to cook for them.

 

 

6

Gregor ended up on the beach. He’d plopped himself down on a bare stretch of sand and just stared out at the ocean waves. In his mind, he visualized the crashing waves stealing his anxieties and sucking them out to sea where they’d sink down to Davey Jones’ locker.

It was a ridiculous mental exercise, but his therapist back in South Carolina had suggested relaxation exercises would help him feel more in control of himself and his surroundings.

He’d thought that a lot of the PTSD coping skills bullshit the shrink preached was just a way to baby him now that he was back home. Gregor hated to admit it, but the breathing exercises usually made him feel better and calmed his anxiety. They weren’t helping now.

Not wanting to seem vain, Gregor had never told the other guys that he checked the reviews of the hotel on Facebook every night. Each positive review had made him feel as if he was doing his job.

His food was supposed to taste good. It was supposed to be professionally plated. Those reviews made him feel like he was on an even keel, but this one bad review had him so far off in the weeds, he wasn’t sure he could find his way out.

“Gregor!” Henry shouted before throwing himself at the chef.

“Hey buddy!” Gregor slapped on a fake smile. He didn’t want Henry to see this insecure side of himself.

“Leo and I finished making the whoopee pies and then he ate one!” Henry slapped both hands over his mouth. “Whoops! I wasn’t supposed to tell you that.”

Gregor found his first smile since he’d read the review. Henry was definitely a balm on his aching heart. “I promise to keep your secret a secret. How’s that?”

“It’s good, but why are you so sad?” Henry wrapped his arms around Gregor’s neck.

Gregor sighed. The last thing he wanted to do was burden a five-year-old with adult troubles. “I just needed a break from work.”

“That’s not an answer to my question.” Henry pressed a kiss to Gregor’s cheek. “When I get sad, Mommy always says I should talk about my feelings.”

“She tells you that, huh?” It was such a mom thing to say.

Henry nodded so hard that he almost head-butted Gregor. “You can tell me. I’m good at keeping secrets.”

Gregor laughed. “Except the secret about Leo eating the whoopee pie.”

“Hey! You promised you’d never tell that secret.” Henry frowned before bursting out in giggles.

Gregor loved the sound of Henry laughing. He was usually a pretty serious little boy and it was nice to see him acting more like a five-year-old, rather than a thirty-five year old. “Someone said something mean about my food.”

Henry stopped laughing and plopped down in the sand next Gregor. “Did they say it tasted yucky?”

“Something like that.” Gregor certainly wasn’t going to tell Henry what the reviewer had actually said.

“Well, he’s wrong.” The little boy folded his arms across his chest, like his opinion decided it.

“Why do you say that?” He couldn’t help being curious about what Henry thought.

“I eat your food every day and it’s delicious. Then I hear the other people telling Kimmie and the other waitresses how much they love your food.” Henry sighed and looked up at Gregor. “Sometimes people are just mean because they can be.”

Henry sounded like he was speaking from experience. “How do you know that?”

“The kids at school.” Pushing his glasses up his nose, Henry turned to look out at the ocean.

Gregor felt his heart break for the little guy. He honestly didn’t know what to say to make Henry feel better. “Guess we’re in the same boat then, huh?”

“Yup, but we have each other.” Henry climbed back into Gregor’s lap and hugged him.

Hugging Henry tight, Gregor realized if his little friend was brave enough to face mean kids at school every day, he could damn well be brave enough to face one rotten review from an internet troll.

“Hey, guys!” Julian sat down in the sand next to Gregor.

Henry lifted his head from the crook of Gregor’s shoulder. “Hi, Daddy. Gregor’s sad. I’m making him feel better.”

“It sure looks like you did a god job. Gregor’s smiling again.”Julian nudged Gregor with his elbow.

“I know. I just like hugging him.” Henry smiled up at Gregor.

Gregor snorted. “I like hugging you too, buddy.”

Julian ran a hand through Henry’s sandy blond hair. “Leo needs help in the kitchen. Why don’t you go give him a hand?”

“Okay!”

Gregor burst out laughing while Henry ran toward the hotel. He might have felt like that one bad review was the end of the world, but with Henry and Julian around it was far from it.

“What’s so funny?”

“Leo’s in the kitchen? I love him like a brother, but sometimes I wonder if that man even knows the difference between a knife and a fork.”

Julian stood up and dusted the sand off before offering a hand down to Gregor. “Well then you’d better get your ass back in there before Leo ends up serving whoopee pies for lunch!”

XX

Gregor had suggested going over to visit the cottage that Julian and Henry would be moving into as soon as their stay at Sand Dollar Shoal was over. Unfortunately for Julian, all of the other guys wanted to come along too.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to hang out with his new friends, he was just hoping for a little alone time with Gregor. If they had the chance to be alone, maybe Gregor would try to kiss him again. Or, he could turn the tables and plant one on the chef.

At the moment, kissing was a moot point. The three of them were standing in front of the split rail fence in front of the little cottage. Julian loved it already and he hadn’t even seen the inside yet. He’d been taking pictures of the cabin with his phone for the last few minutes.

“Daddy, when can we go see my new room?” Henry folded his arms over his chest.

“We have to wait for everyone else. All of our friends want to be there when we see our new house.” Julian just wished they’d hurry the hell up.

“I like our new friends, but let’s get a move on, people!” Henry shouted.

“Oh my stars!” Leo rushed out of cabin next door, his ubiquitous bowtie untied. “Why is my little love bug being so vociferous?” His hands moved quickly to tie the pink polka dotted tie.

Gregor snorted.

“I wanna see my new room, Leo, and no one is here but us!” Henry jumped up and down.

“Friends, ahoy!” Leo pointed down the access road. “Here they all come now.”

Henry turned and started running to meet everyone, He stopped short, almost falling flat on his face. He pushed his glasses back up his nose and started to back away before running to Julian and hiding behind him.

“What is it, buddy?” Julian had no idea what would make Henry act like this all of a sudden.

“That big dog’s gonna eat me in one bite!” Henry cowered behind his father.

“What big dog?” Julian looked down the road and saw a large German shepherd on a leash that Landon was holding. Oddly enough, the dog appeared to be smiling and was tugging Landon along behind it.

Gregor knelt down in front of Henry. “That’s Charlie. I gave her to Noble before he went to get help for a problem he was having. She is the sweetest dog I’ve ever met in my life and I think the reason she’s towing Landon behind her like that is because she’s excited to meet a certain little boy.”

Henry peered out from behind Julian. “She really won’t eat me?”

Gregor shook his head. “She won’t eat you. I promise. She might lick you though.”

“Eww, dog kisses!” Henry shook his head.

“Hey, guys. Sorry we’re late. It’s Pres’ and Drake’s fault.” Noble hooked his thumb over at the engaged couple who were both blushing.

“We hadn’t seen each other almost all day,” Presley offered.

“For the love of God, Drake! You’re flying low.” Griff rolled his eyes and turned away.

“Yeah, well, Noble was banging on our door like the house was on fire.” Drake zipped himself up.

Charlie nosed her way through the crowd, stopping in front of Henry. She sat down and offered a paw.

“That’s Charlie’s way of making new friends. She wants to shake paws with you.” Noble sat on the ground next to Henry and Charlie.”

“I don’t want her to eat me,” Henry whispered to Noble.

“She already had supper, buddy. I promise she won’t eat you.” Noble shook paws with Charlie. “See? Piece of cake.”

Henry tentatively held out his hand to Charlie and held her paw. “I did it, Daddy!” When Henry turned to look up at Julian, Charlie licked the side of his face.

“No kisses, Charlie.” Henry giggled. He leaned over to Noble and wiped the dog slobber off on his shirt. “Can we see my house now?” Henry sounded impatient.

“Right now!” Julian reached down for his hand and walked up to the front door. All of the cabins were white with red doors. Slipping his key into the lock, Julian turned it. “Here we go!” Julian opened the door and let Henry be the first person inside.

They were standing in the living room which had a small Navy blue sectional, a coffee table and a large wall-mounted flat-screen television. The floors were hard wood.

“The kitchen is this way.” Gregor led the way into the black and white tiled room which featured all new appliances and a breakfast table.

“Gregor, this is gorgeous.” Julian loved the little house instantly.

“That’s Noble and Landon’s doing. Noble did the renovation and Landon helped with the decorating.”

“Thanks for my house, Noble!” Henry hugged his legs.

“You are so welcome, little man! Let’s go see your bedroom! I really think you’re gonna like it.” Noble scooped Henry up and dropped Julian a wink before carrying him back through the living room to a small hallway that led to the bathroom and the bedrooms.

Noble set Henry down in front of the bathroom door and pointed to the closed door at the end of the hall. “Check it out.”

Henry ran down the short hall and pushed open the door. “Oh my stars!” he shouted. “Daddy, you gotta come see this.”

Leo squeaked from the back of the group. “He said my line!”

Julian patted Leo’s shoulder and moved through his friends to get to Henry’s bedroom. It was decorated in a Spiderman theme all the way down to the comforter on the twin bed. “Wow!”

“I can’t believe it!” Henry fell back onto the carpeted floor in a fake faint. “Who did all of this for me?”

“We all pitched in, but it was my idea for Spiderman to be the theme.” Gregor shrugged. “Griff and Leo ordered the vinyl wall decals, Pres and Drake shopped for the toys and Noble and Landon did all the decorating.”

“I love it, Gregor! Thank you.” Henry ran to him and hugged his leg.

“You’re welcome, Henry. I know you’re gonna be so happy here! There’s one last surprise for you near the table next to your bed.”

Henry ran to the table which had a clock and a Spiderman lamp, sitting in front of it was a Tupperware box. Ripping the lid off, Henry’s mouth dropped open. “Comics! There must be hundreds!”

Julian turned to Gregor. “Those should keep him busy for three or four days!”

Gregor laughed and linked hands with Julian. “Since he’ll be busy for a bit, why don’t we go see your room?”

Julian’s heart stopped in his chest. He nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

“Well, we’re off.” Presley smiled at Julian. “We were in the middle of something when Noble came to get us.”

“They all know what we were in the middle of, Pres.” Drake grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the door. “Night, everyone!”

“At least someone’s getting some,” Griff mumbled and headed toward the door.

Leo shot Julian a baffled look before standing up straighter and fussing with his bowtie. “I’m going to keep Henry occupied.” He winked at Julian and walked off.

“We’re going too.” Noble slipped an arm around Landon’s back. It’s time for Charlie’s w-a-l-k on the b-e-a-c-h.”

“Why are you spelling? You know I can spell, right?” Henry laughed and hugged Noble’s legs.

Landon rubbed the dog’s ears. “Charlie can’t spell. She knows those words and if she knew what I was spelling, she’d have dragged us out the door by now.  We’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Good night, guys. Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for us here.” Julian felt himself choking up.

“Anytime, man.” Noble grinned. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” He waggled his eyebrows and headed for the door.

Julian laughed, leaning closer to Gregor.

“I love it when you laugh.” Gregor brushed his thumb over Julian’s cheek. “You’re both gonna be so happy here.”

“I can’t thank you enough for arranging all of this for me and Henry.” Julian took a deep breath trying to keep his emotions under control. “What happened with my marriage ending and losing my job was all my fault. People were awful to me. Strangers on the street would come up to me and call me a dirty cheater. I lost so many friends, including my best friend Matt, who dumped my ass when he found out I was fucking my coworker.”

“Wait, how does a best friend break up with you?” Gregor blew out a harsh breath. “You were having an affair with your best friend too?” Gregor wore a confused look on his face.

Julian nodded, trying to pull away from Gregor, who grabbed his left hip and wouldn’t let him move. “Matt was my college roommate. He kissed me one night coming home from a party. It was junior year and I was already engaged to Carolyn. I’d never been with another guy before and being with Matt that night was like opening a door to a whole other world. I never knew it could be like that.”

“But you stayed engaged?” Gregor looked like he wanted to shout at Julian.

Julian nodded miserably. “I was confused about a lot of things, but I did love her.”

“Just not enough to be faithful?” Gregor’s jaw set in a hard line.  A tiny muscle in jaw started to tick.

Julian gasped and pulled away from Gregor. “You have no idea what it was like for me. I felt like I was being pulled in so many different directions. I wanted to explore things with Matt and was going to break up with Carolyn, but a week later she came to me telling me she was pregnant. I was twenty years old. I knew I needed to grow up and be there for my unborn child, so I married her.” Julian turned away from Gregor and walked into the kitchen.

Yanking open the refrigerator door, he was surprised to see it was stocked with food and condiments. He grabbed a bottle of water and turned back to face Gregor. “Matt and I got together once a month or so. Carolyn knew him from college and never suspected anything. I didn’t want to cheat on my wife, but Matt was like a drug. I couldn’t get enough of him and I didn’t want to give him up.”

Gregor leaned against the doorframe. “How did you end up with the coworker?”

Julian shook his head. “Out of all the mistakes I’ve made in my life, sleeping with Rob was the biggest one. He was relentless, like he made it a full-time job to pursue me. After months of him hounding me and rubbing up against me, I just wasn’t strong enough to resist. We were only together that one time…” Julian trailed off. One time was all it took for Carolyn to come home and catch him with his pants down.

Standing up straight, Gregor crossed his arms over his chest. “Your relationship track record is shit,” Gregor grumbled. “All you do is cheat and because of that, you almost lost your son. As it is now, you’ll barely see him once school starts.”

Gregor was right, no doubt about it, but at the same time, he didn’t need to be so fucking judgmental. Julian shrugged, making eye contact with Gregor. Where he was used to seeing a sunny smile, he was unprepared for the look of anger on Gregor’s face. The chef looked mad enough to punch his throat out.

“Fucking say something,” Gregor hissed.

“You said it all for me. Obviously you think that I’m nothing but a fucking cheater. I lost everything the day my divorce was finalized. Everything but Henry. That little guy makes me want to be a better man. I want to be the role model he deserves. Before you offered me the job at the hotel, I was searching for new jobs constantly, but you wouldn’t know that because you never asked.” Julian could really feel his temper getting riled up, but the last thing he wanted to do was start shouting at Gregor with Henry and Leo in the bedroom.

Gregor raised an eyebrow but otherwise looked unimpressed.

“I haven’t been with another man since that night with Rob. There have been opportunities, but I didn’t want to be with anyone else.”

“Why not? Fucking around seems to be your biggest hobby.”

It was the look in Gregor’s eyes that crushed Julian. They were cold and dead, with no hint of their usual warmth. “I told you, I’m trying to turn my life around. I’m sick of fucking around.” Julian made finger quotes. “I want to fall in love, get married, give Henry the family he deserves.”

The frown on Gregor’s face deepened, but he stayed silent.

Julian shook his head feeling completely worn out. It was obvious Gregor had made a decision about the kind of man Julian was and would always be. “As much as I want to, I can’t change my past and it doesn’t seem like you can get past it.” Julian sighed and carded a hand through his dirty blond hair. “I think you should go now.”

Silently, Gregor did as he was asked.

When Julian heard the front door shut, he let the tears he’d been holding at bay fall. His feelings for Gregor had been getting stronger as the days passed, but he should have known it would be his past that would trip him up in the end. After all, who wanted to date or fall in love with a dirty, rotten cheater?

 

7

“You said what?” Noble’s eyes popped open so wide that Gregor was afraid they were going to drop out and bounce away.

Gregor sighed, running a hand over his bald head. “I don’t know what the fuck happened, Noble. He was telling me how grateful he was for everything we’d done for him and how he’d lost everything when his wife caught him cheating. Then I just lost it.”

“Where was Henry when you ‘just lost it’? Could he hear you fighting?”

“No, he was in the bedroom showing Leo his Spiderman room. I didn’t raise my voice.” Gregor felt like shit. He’d been a world class dickhead and deserved Noble’s harsh words.

“Jesus, Gregor. We all make mistakes. Hell, I was a good for nothing drunk, but even during the worst of my drinking days, you were never that cruel to me. Why the fuck would you treat Julian like that? He was opening up to you and what you did was like a punch to the face.” Noble shook his head and started pacing around the kitchen.

“I don’t need you to make me feel worse than I already feel.” Gregor had barely slept at all last night and when he had managed to drop off to sleep, he’d startle awake with the sad look on Julian’s face haunting him. To make matters worse, Henry hadn’t come down to make breakfast with him this morning. Gregor had seen the little boy sitting with Leo on the back deck of the hotel, lost in his comics.

“That’s exactly what you fucking need.” Noble shoveled a hand through his messy hair and blew out a harsh breath. “Shit, man. I’m sorry. I’ve just seen so many positive changes in you since Julian and Henry got here and now…”

“I’ve fucked everything up. I know, Noble. I’ve felt like a piece of shit from the moment the words slipped out of my mouth.” He’d spent the morning trying to figure out how to apologize, but he wasn’t having any luck with finding the right words.

“So tell me why you did it.” Noble pulled out one of the high stools Gregor used when he was sitting at the counter writing recipes, and took a seat.

Gregor shook his head and closed his eyes. “I like him. I really fucking like him.” Gregor’s pain-filled blue eyes popped back open. “He’s a good father and he’s been nothing but a good friend to me.”

“None of those things answer why you went off on Julian for sharing a bit of himself with you.”

“When he was just staying at the hotel for two weeks, I was able to keep my growing feelings for him under control. It didn’t matter that he’d cheated on his wife and lost everything, including his job, in the process.”

“But now that Julian’s here to stay, your heart felt a little flutter of hope?” Noble asked gently.

Gregor nodded. “I could deal with an affair sinking his marriage and his wife being vindictive enough to take his money, his son and his career, but when he told me about his best friend, I just lost my mind.”

“What about his best friend?” Noble looked confused.

“They were college roommates and one night coming back from a party their junior year, he kissed Julian. They’ve been lovers ever since.”

“Ever since college?” Noble looked confused. “Christ, Julian’s got to be about twenty-five years old, right?” Noble sucked in a harsh breath when Gregor nodded. “So he’s been fucking his best friend for the last five years?”

“He says he was going to break up with his fiancé so he could explore his bisexual side, but she came to him and said she was pregnant with Henry.”

“So he stayed with her and kept a piece on the side?” Noble didn’t seem to believe the words that were coming out of his own mouth.

“Yeah. When the best friend found out that Julian was sleeping with a coworker, the best friend dumped him too.” Gregor rolled his eyes and braced his arms on the stainless-steel counter as if he needed it to hold him up.

His mind had turned over the facts all night long. There was no escaping the reality of what Julian had told him. He was a life-long cheater and cheaters never change. The last thing Gregor needed was to get caught up in a relationship that was only going to break his heart in the end.

Gregor looked up at Noble who seemed to be lost in thought. Out of all their friends, Noble was the most outspoken of the bunch, but he was also the most cerebral. He had this way of looking at problems from multiple angles. It was the reason he’d texted Noble this morning telling his friend he needed to talk.

“One thing that Julian has going for him is his honesty.” Noble held up a hand. “Before you scoff at me, take a breath and listen. Yes, he cheated on his wife with multiple lovers, but he paid a heavy price. When he drove through the gates of Sand Dollar Shoal, he had no wife, no friends, no job and only the summer to spend with his little boy. No one knew him here. He didn’t have to be honest with you. He could have made up a story about his life, but he didn’t.”

Gregor hadn’t thought about Julian that way.

“Until you got to know him though, you never would have guessed he was facing those kinds of issues in his life. He’s always happy and it’s obvious how much he loves his son. He’s determined to make this summer the best of Henry’s life.”

“It was his smile and upbeat personality that attracted me to him. All of you are so fond of pointing out what a grumpy bastard I am and Julian’s the opposite of me. I thought maybe some of his sunny personality would rub off on me.”

“Here’s a news flash for you, Bobby Flay, it did!” Noble snorted. “In all the years I’ve known you, I’ve never seen you this happy. Once or twice in the last week, I thought you were happy enough to skip!”

Noble wasn’t wrong. There were times when hanging out with Henry and Julian had made him feel downright giddy.

“But then reality kicked in and you saw the darker side of Julian. The story he told you is ugly, no two ways about it, but he was honest enough to tell you what happened. I know why you did what you did last night, Gregor. Are you honest enough to admit it to yourself or to me?”

Gregor sighed. He knew exactly why he’d pushed back from Julian. He was in love with the impossible man. “I’m scared, Noble.” It killed him admitting that to his friend. He was a battle-tested Navy SEAL for fuck’s sake. Nothing should scare him, but falling in love with Julian Parsons terrified him.

“I believe you, man. I was scared too when I realized I was in love with Landon.  After Vincent died, I never wanted to fall in love again and be vulnerable to that same crushing feeling of grief. I almost lost Landon because I was too stubborn to see past the pain he could cause me to the pleasure of what being with him brought me.  I know you’re afraid that if you give in to your feelings for Julian that he’ll cheat on you like he cheated in the past. All I’ll say to you is this, what if he doesn’t?”

Gregor stared at his friend. He’d spent the entire night feeling miserable, but justified in knowing he’d saved himself a lot of heartache by walking away from Julian while he still could. Listening to Noble now though, he was starting to rethink his position.

“You were the one who told us the other night that he was trying to turn his life around and be a better man. I, for one, believe him. Maybe you should too. I’d hate to see you miss out on something that could be amazing simply because you’re afraid of getting hurt. And then there’s Henry…”

Sucking in a deep breath, Gregor rubbed the heel of his hand over his heart as if that could somehow lessen the pain he was feeling. “I love that kid with my entire being,” Gregor admitted.

Noble shrugged. “It’s interesting that you’re not afraid to admit your feelings for that little guy.”

“Henry is so free and open with his emotions. It must have killed him today to not come make breakfast here with me.” Gregor had missed Henry too. He loved spending his mornings cooking with the boy.

“I can certainly see how much it killed you.” Noble reached across the counter, slapping his hand against Gregor’s beefy shoulder.

Gregor nodded, not trusting his emotions enough to speak without his voice cracking.

“You brought me in here to ask for my advice, so here it is in one word: apologize. Make it a good one. Be honest with Julian and tell him what made you lose your fool head. Communicate and for God’s sake, Gregor, hug him. Tell him you’re sorry for being a judgmental prick.”

Noble slid off his stool and walked around the counter to pull Gregor in for a hug. “Take a risk. Fall in love. You were the one bitching about what lucky bastards Pres and I were for having the loves of our lives literally knock on our front doors. Here’s a news flash for you, the same thing just happened to you.”

Gregor shuddered at that thought and hugged Noble back. How could the thing he wanted most in his life be the one thing that scared him to death?

XX

Julian wasn’t a fan of crawling into bed when his life crashed and burned around him, but he was making today the exception. When he’d finished his morning shift in the office he and Henry had a quiet lunch on the back deck overlooking the ocean and then they’d come up to their room.

He knew his son didn’t mind spending the afternoon reading in bed, but it still made him feel like a jerk for wasting a gorgeous day at the beach by being in their room with the curtains drawn.

The one thing Julian knew without a doubt was what a dick he’d been to Carolyn, not to mention to Marty and Rob. He’d tried to apologize again and again to Carolyn, but she hadn’t been in the mood to listen to his bullshit lies. Her words.

Same went for Marty. His former best friend hadn’t returned any of his calls or emails. To be honest, Julian didn’t blame him. If the situation had been reversed, he wouldn’t have wanted to talk to Marty either.

No man in his right mind would want to be with him when he had that kind of track record under his belt. Especially not a man as good and special as Gregor Allen.

At the time he’d found out Carolyn was pregnant with Henry, he’d been about to end their engagement. It had amazed him that he could spend nineteen years thinking he was straight, dating and having sex with women, and after one kiss from Marty know without a shadow of a doubt that he was gay.

Getting out of bed, Julian grabbed the room service menu off the desk and carried it back with him. Throwing himself down on the bed, he glanced at the kids menu. It was filled with the usual fare of chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese. There were several things he knew Henry would like. He was just about to ask Henry what he was hungry for when there was a knock at the door.

“I’ll get it! Maybe Gregor’s feeling better!” Henry bounced off the bed and ran to the door.

Julian cringed. He’d told Henry the reason he couldn’t go cook with Gregor this morning was because the chef wasn’t feeling well. He’d hated lying to his son, but he couldn’t exactly tell him the truth either.

“Can Henry come out and play?” Noble and Landon yelled together.

“Hi guys!” Henry hugged both of his new friends.

“We’re on our way to go grab some pizza and visit the comic book store.” Noble was all smiles.

“Can Henry come with us?” Landon crossed his fingers.

“Sure!” Julian pasted on a fake smile. He walked across the room to grab his wallet and pulled a twenty out.

Noble shook his head. “Your money’s no good here, Julian. We want to take Henry out for a fun night.” Noble leaned forward to whisper in Julian’s ear. “Gregor told me about last night.”

Julian stiffened, not wanting to know what Noble thought of his asshole ways. It was nice that Landon and Noble wanted to take Henry out, but he couldn’t imagine either of them would want to be his friend now.

“I was pretty rough on him, but I’m hoping maybe you won’t be. You have every right to rip him a new one, but…” Noble shrugged and hugged Julian.

“I’m ready to go, Noble.” Henry smiled at him from Landon’s arms. “Do you think they have Spiderman comics at the store?”

Noble laughed. “I don’t know, but let’s go find out, huh?”

“You make sure you listen to Noble and Landon, okay?” Julian smacked a kiss against the side of his son’s head. He had no doubt that Henry would behave perfectly.

“I will, Daddy! Bye!”

“Bye!” Julian felt all of the emotion of the day flow out of him when the door shut behind Henry and the guys. He collapsed back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. Listening to what Noble said, maybe he wasn’t going to lose his and Landon’s friendship after all.

It hadn’t been the easiest decision to tell Gregor about Marty. Hell, it hadn’t been easy for him to tell Gregor any of the sordid details about his past, but he’d done it to prove that he was taking steps to become a better man. The kind of man who wouldn’t cheat on his next lover.

None of that seemed to matter to Gregor. All he’d been able to see was the piece of shit Julian had been before he’d come to Sand Dollar Shoal, not the man he was trying to be now.

All Julian could do going forward was to keep improving who he was and try to get over the feelings that had been steadily developing for Gregor. It wasn’t going to be easy, but he was going to pull up his big boy underpants and be an adult.

Sitting up when his stomach rumbled, he reached for the menu. Just because he’d decided on a plan of action didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy a little room service. There was no way he wanted to go and eat in the dining room.

His pain was still too raw to risk seeing Gregor. He called down to the front desk and spoke to Presley when he placed his order. Pres assured him dinner would be up in twenty minutes or so.

He’d brought his work computer upstairs with him and it wouldn’t hurt if he got to work on a piece he was writing about the braised short ribs and grits Gregor had made for dinner last night. He was jotting down his observations about the food when there was a knock on his door.

Julian was shocked when he opened the door to find Gregor holding a huge tray. “Uh, hi.” He stepped aside to let Gregor and the tray into the room. Julian turned to watch him set the tray on the small table in front of the large window.

Gregor pulled the metal lid off the tray to reveal dinner for two.

“Noble and Landon took Henry to dinner and the comic book store. It’s just me for dinner.” What was Gregor doing here with dinner for both of them? He hoped to fuck Gregor wasn’t here to continue their chat from last night.

“I know.” Gregor stared down at his shoes. “Who do you think asked them to take Henry out for a few hours?”

“It was you?” It all made sense now. It had seemed coincidental that Noble would show up asking to take Henry and then let it slip that he’d given Gregor hell for what had happened between them last night. He should have known Gregor was going to show up when Noble asked him not to rip Gregor a new one over his dickish behavior.

“I was hoping we could talk about some things while Henry was off with the guys.” Gregor shrugged. “Turns out Leo and Griff wanted to go too, so it’s a good bet Henry’s gonna come back with some serious loot, and knowing Leo maybe a bowtie of his own.”

Julian snorted. “That’s so nice of them. Henry deserves that kind of day. It’s not something I can do for him now, but in a few weeks…” He trailed off, not wanting Gregor to think he was a bigger loser over the state of his finances.

“Do you mind if I stay? I’d really like the chance to talk to you.” Gregor nibbled his lower lip, with a worried look on his face.

Shrugging, Julian took a seat at the small dining table. Gregor had brought the rib-eye and potatoes he’d ordered, along with a big salad and some rolls. “You said a lot last night.”

Gregor sat down hard in the chair opposite Julian. “I know I did, Jules. I was a first class asshole. I’m sorry I was such a judgmental son of a bitch.”

It wasn’t exactly an eloquent apology, but Julian would take it, after he asked a question of his own. “What the hell set you off? I mean you knew about my past and then all of a sudden you’re biting my head off.”

“You’re right. I’m not proud to admit this, but I couldn’t help wondering if you’d cheat on me like you cheated on everyone else.”

Hearing Gregor explain it like that stopped Julian in his tracks. On the one hand Gregor had obviously been thinking about the two of them being together as a couple and then on the other hand, he’d been thinking about Julian’s past behavior destroying their chance at happiness. “Wow, to be honest, the reason you were upset is worse than what you said to me last night.”

Gregor reached his hand out, setting it on Julian’s. “Jesus, I’m not trying to make things between us worse, I’m just trying to tell you that my anger came out of fear. If we got together, not only could I possibly lose you, but Henry too. I’m not afraid to tell you that I love that little boy with my whole heart.”

Julian understood exactly where Gregor was coming from. “Henry loves you like crazy too. I’m sorry I kept him from seeing you today. I honestly didn’t know if you wanted to see him after how angry you were with me.”

“It’s okay. You were doing what you thought was right for Henry. I could never be upset at that, but I missed him.”

“He missed you too, and so did I.” Julian met Gregor’s eyes. “I know all that Doctor Phil bullshit about past behavior being a good indicator of future behavior, but I promise you, Gregor, I’m not that man anymore.”

“What man are you then?” Gregor pulled back from touching Julian and rested against his chair.

“I’m the man who knows how badly he’s fucked up his own life and I’m not going to make the same mistakes I made in the past.” Julian knew that to be true in the depths of his heart, but convincing Gregor he meant what he said was another matter.

“How can you guarantee that?” Gregor looked like he was starting to get worked up again.

“I can’t. Nothing’s a guarantee in this life except that we’ll all end up in a pine box someday. All I can do is earn your trust. If you’ll let me?” This was it. Either Gregor was going to was going to agree to Julian’s proposal or he was going to walk away.

Gregor got up from his seat and pulled Julian into his arms. “I’m so sorry I was such an asshole. Can you forgive me?”

Julian smiled against Gregor’s neck. “Of course I can. Do you think you can trust me enough to let me into your life?”

Gregor nodded. “I know I can.”

“Well then let’s eat, I’m starving.”

“I’m starving too.” Instead of letting Julian go and heading back to his dinner, Gregor kissed him.

Julian gasped, allowing Gregor’s tongue to sweep into his mouth to mate with his own. Julian gripped his hips and pulled them even closer together.

Gregor’s kiss was heaven. It was hard and sweet all at once and he couldn’t get enough. Even with Gregor kissing his lips off, Julian was cognizant enough to know he’d just been given an enormous second chance. One he swore to himself he wasn’t going to screw up.

 

8

Gregor wanted to eat Julian whole. He'd never felt this level of attraction for another man in his life. His cock had gone rock-hard the second his lips pressed Julian's. If he wasn't careful, this wildfire desire burning in his veins would consume him. 

He wanted to go slow with Julian and savor him like a fine wine. Gregor needed to prove to Julian he was sorry for jumping to conclusions about his past. Gregor had been terrified that Julian wasn’t going to want to hear him out. Gregor was going to treat this opportunity like the second chance that it was.

Julian moaned into his mouth. Gregor could feel the evidence of his arousal pressed against his thigh. His own cock was in a similar needy state. He gripped Julian's hips hard to keep his wandering hands from palming the very evident bulge in Julian's pants. 

Pressing one last kiss against Julian's full lips, Gregor pulled back. His cock jerked when Julian whimpered. "I could get lost in those gorgeous green eyes, Jules," Gregor whispered. "They remind me of storm-tossed seas."

Julian smiled, his blush evident. "Yours remind me of a perfect summer blue sky. They're so warm and boundless."

Gregor liked the sound of that. He kissed Julian again. Slower this time, with just as much passion as before, but without the need to eat him whole. He took his time rubbing their lips together before his tongue darted out to taste Julian's damp flesh. "Your lips are delicious. I could snack on them all night long."

"I didn't know you were a poet." Julian twined his arms around Gregor's neck.

"Any man could kiss your lips off, getting you hot past the point of reason. I want you aware and thinking clearly. I'm sorry for being a huge dick to you. You didn't deserve that."

"What do I deserve?" Julian pressed a line of small kisses up the column of Gregor's throat. 

Gregor grinned. "You deserve the very best." Gregor kissed him again, rubbing his aching cock against Julian. 

Julian gasped at the contact and Gregor took full advantage by sweeping his tongue inside to mate with Julian's.

"You deserve a man who puts your pleasure ahead of his own," Gregor whispered before kissing the sensitive spot behind Julian's left ear. His hand went for the button of Julian's cargo shorts. As soon as the zipper was down, he pushed the shorts down to Julian's knees. 

Gregor pulled back long enough to take a long, slow, appraising look at Julian's cock. It was perfect, about eight inches long and cut with a drop of pre-come gathering on the tip. 

He wanted nothing more than to drop to his knees and worship that gorgeous dick, but he wouldn't, not yet anyway. He didn't want Julian to think he was only interested into getting in his pants. 

"Like what you see?" Julian sounded breathless."Oh yeah." Gregor ran his fingers down Julian's shaft. He stopped to fondle his balls before closing his fist around his cock. "God, you feel so good in my hand."

Julian pressed his face against Gregor's neck. "Harder, Gregor. I want to come all over your hand."

"Not so fast, Jules. We've got time." Gregor set a slow, luxurious pace, giving his hand time to memorize every glorious inch of Julian's cock. 

His free hand reached up to hold the side of his lover's face. "Look at me. I know you made mistakes in your past."

Julian moved to pull away, but Gregor tightened his hand against the side of his face. 

"Hear me out, okay?" He pressed a kiss to Julian's lips, his hand moved a bit faster along the length of Julian's cock. "I know you made mistakes in your past, but I can see how hard you're working to make yourself a better man."

Julian relaxed in Gregor's grip. "All I want is to be a better man."

"I know and you're succeeding. I'm just afraid of getting my heart broken."

"I can't imagine a big, strong Navy SEAL like you could be afraid of anything."

"Hmm." Gregor licked across Julian's full bottom lip. "It's true. I'm afraid of fucking things up and hurting you. I'm afraid you'll wake up one day and realize you could do so much better than me."

"Never," Julian whispered. "Gregor, I-" Julian's breath caught in his throat.

"You what?" He knew Julian was reaching the end of his endurance. He could see how hard his lover was trying to hold on, reaching for one last bit of control. It looked like he wasn't the only one who didn't want this to end.

"Gonna...come..."

"Yes you are. That's exactly what I want you to do. Come on, handsome. Come all over me."

Julian's eyes rolled back before they closed.

"Oh no, you're not getting off that easy. Open those gorgeous eyes and look at me. I want to watch you watch me as you come."

Julian groaned, but managed to obey. His pupils were blown, leaving only the thinnest ring of green visible. They were glassy and unfocused, but Gregor knew Julian could see him. 

"That's it, Jules. Come for me."

"Gregor," Julian whispered before his cock bucked in Gregor's fist. 

As much as he wanted to watch Julian's cock explode in his hand, he kept his eyes locked with his lover’s. "So gorgeous."

Julian clutched him tighter as he rode out his release. He was whimpering and whispering Gregor's name. 

When the last aftershock rocked through Julian's cock, Gregor released him. "Don't move." Gregor kissed him hard and went off to the bathroom where he cleaned himself up and got a washcloth for Julian.

"Holy shit, Gregor! That was... It was..."

"That good, huh?" Gregor quickly cleaned Julian up and then tucked him back into his boxers before pulling up his cargo shorts and setting them to rights.

"Yeah." A bright pink blush bloomed up his neck. 

"You hungry? Let's eat." Taking Julian's hand, Gregor led his lover back to the small table where he'd set their dinner. His erection screamed for release, but there would be time for that later, once he was home. What mattered now was having a nice dinner with the man he knew he was starting to fall in love with.

XX

Julian's head was still spinning not only from the force of his orgasm, but from Gregor's unselfish behavior. Never before had he been with a man who'd so completely taken care of his needs without wanting anything in return. 

After they'd sat down at the table, Gregor had dug into his steak like he hadn't seen food in a month. Julian watched as the man in front of him devoured his meal like it would be his last on earth. He couldn't help laughing. 

"What's so funny?" Gregor swiped at his mouth with his white cloth napkin.

"I've never seen a man eat that fast before."

Gregor snorted and set down his fork and knife. "Goes back to my time in the Navy. When it was chow time, you ate. There was no talking, just eating."

"Why did you decide to join the Navy?" Since he'd shared so much of himself with Gregor, it was only fair he learned a bit about the man who'd just rocked his world.

"I'd enrolled at Yale to major in Political Science. It was what my father wanted me to do. Then September 11 happened and I realized I couldn't just sit in a classroom while the people who did that to my country got away with it. I went to the local Navy recruiting office and signed up the next day."

He'd heard of other men who'd done the exact same thing in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. Signing up to go to war after an incident like that really showed Gregor's character. He was a man who stood up to evil and went after justice. 

"Do you know how brave that was?" Julian reached out a hand to Gregor when he started shaking his head no. "I remember crying when the towers came down, but beyond that, I didn't do anything to help my country."

"You were what? Ten years old when that happened?"

Julian shook his head. "I was thirteen."

"What the hell could you have done?" Gregor pulled Julian's hand to his lips. "You were too young to join up."

"I know." Julian shook his head. There had been a man from his hometown who'd died when the first plane had crashed into the North Tower. That had shaken him more than anything in his life ever had. "Did you like being in the service?" It seemed a stupid question to ask.

"I liked parts of it. I made a lot of friends along the way. They were the kind of men who wouldn't hesitate to die for me. I felt the same way about them. I liked seeing different parts of the world and learning a lot about Middle Eastern culture, but…”

"You lost people?"

Gregor nodded. Julian could see how he was fighting for control of his emotions. "It happens, but yeah. I lost a lot of people. Men gave their lives for mine. It still gets me here." Julian rubbed a hand against his heart.

Julian nodded, wishing there was something he could say to ease the ache in Gregor’s heart.

“Anyway, I took advantage of therapy once I was back stateside. Noble’s dad, Nick, was really there for me when I got out. Told me getting my head back on straight was the first thing I needed to do now that I was a civilian again. Then he was the one who encouraged me to go to culinary school.”

“Was he like a second father to you?”

Gregor nodded. “He loved all of us like we were his own sons. Noble, Griff, Pres and I went to high school at Phillips Andover together. We’ve been best friends since. We all used to go home on school breaks with Noble. Nick loved having us stay with him. I picked a Le Cordon Bleu accredited college in Boston, rather than going to one back in South Carolina. I wanted to be closer to Nick and Noble.”

“I’m so glad you had Nick.” Julian thought back to his own parents happily retired in Florida. They kept in touch via phone and email on occasion, but it wasn’t the same as having them here to talk to face-to-face.

They hadn’t been pleased with the breakup of his marriage and of his preference for men, so the phone calls and emails were few and far between lately. Losing his parents’ support was just another in his list of failures.

“Me too. You’ll get to meet him in a few weeks at Pres’ and Drake’s wedding.”

Gregor set his napkin onto his empty plate and stood up. He stalked toward Julian, offering a hand down to him.

Julian took it and let Gregor pull him to his feet.

“I’m glad I have you and Henry too.” Gregor brushed their lips together.

Julian reached out to take fistfuls of Gregor’s shirt to pull him closer. He kissed Gregor back hungrily until a knock on the door startled them apart.

“Daddy? Are you sleeping?” Henry yelled.

Gregor snorted. “Who could sleep through that racket?” He went to the door and yanked it open.

“Gregor!” Henry dropped the bags he was carrying and flew to Gregor. “Are you feeling better?”

Gregor raised an eyebrow at Julian who shrugged. “I sure am, buddy. How was your trip to the comic book store?”

“We’re exhausted.” Noble looked harried. His usually well-kept hair was sticking up in patches and he looked like he could sleep for a week.

“Here are all of your goodies, little man.” Landon brought the shopping bags into the room and set them next to Henry’s bed.

“Did you guys buy out the store?” Julian couldn’t believe all of the bags.

“It was a near thing. Leo had to threaten Griff with an intervention if he bought one more comic for Henry.”

“I love Griff. He bought me so many nice things and I didn’t even ask for them.”

“It’s true,” Noble agreed. “He has such good manners.”

It was nice to hear his friends praise Henry like that.

“Okay, buddy we’re off. Gotta go let Charlie out for her walk.”

“Good night guys. Thank you for taking me out tonight.”

“Bye.” Landon waved and shut the door behind him.

“I should get going too,” Gregor sounded reluctant to go.

“Awww! Can you stay for one comic?” Henry pleaded.

Julian knew Gregor wasn’t going to be able to refuse Henry’s sweet request.

“Okay. Just one comic.” Gregor winked at Julian and climbed onto Henry’s bed.

Henry had climbed up next to him and was showing him the cover art of the comic. Julian couldn’t believe how far things had come in just a few hours between him and Gregor. He could only hope tomorrow would bring them even closer.

 

 

9

“A crab festival? What the heck is that?” Henry stood with his hands fisted on his hips staring up at Julian and Gregor with a mutinous look on his face.

Julian couldn’t help but laugh at his son. The little boy looked appalled at the idea of going out for the evening instead of staying home to read his comic books. “It’s a big seafood festival. There will be food, carnival games and things to buy.”

“No thanks. I wanna stay home and read the comics Noble and Landon bought me.”

Julian had a feeling this would happen. When Noble and Landon had brought Henry back from their night out, his son had been loaded down with bags of Spiderman comics and a new poster to hang up in his room. 

Henry had barely made a dent in all of the comics Gregor had put in his new bedroom, add that to the new material to read, Julian knew he’d be hesitant to go out and leave his comics behind.

“It’s going to be so much fun, Henry, and I need to do some research on the festival.” Gregor knelt down in front of the little boy.

“What kind of research?” Henry seemed only mildly interested.

“I was thinking of renting a booth at the festival next year for the hotel and I want to see how it all works. I could really use your help. Pleeeeease?” Gregor gave him a big smile.

Julian rolled his eyes. With Gregor imitating Henry’s way of begging for things, the two of them were going to be a force to be reckoned with if they joined their powers.

“Okaaaay.” Henry sighed, like agreeing to leave the hotel was a fate worse than death.

When they got outside to the parking lot, Gregor got Henry into his car seat and buckled him in. “Are all the crabs ready to go to the festival?” Gregor asked with a smile when he got into the passenger seat of Julian’s Honda.

“I’m ready!” Henry held up his hand.

“Me too!” Gregor agreed.

“What about you, Daddy?”

Julian turned to smile at Henry. “I’m not a crab.”

“You are too a crab!” Henry sounded offended. “When the alarm clock goes off in the morning, you’re a big crab.”

Julian burst out laughing. “Well, when you put it like that. This crab is ready to go too.”

It had been a restless night for Julian. Now that he and Gregor were on more solid footing, he’d thought he’d sleep like a baby. Instead, he spent most of the night reliving his time with Gregor. That man was owed some tall payback when they managed to find some time alone together. 

Gregor had brought up the idea of going to the festival this morning. It was his way of asking Julian out on their first date. Julian hadn’t been out on a date in years and had no idea what to wear or how to act. He could only hope Gregor knew what he was doing and could follow his lead.

The one thing they had both agreed on was not to tell Henry that they were dating each other. Julian didn’t want to get Henry’s hopes up that he and Gregor would always be a couple.

“This is it right here.” Gregor pointed to the Wal-Mart parking lot.

“The crab festival is at the Wal-Mart?” Henry sounded shocked. “I hate Wal-Mart!”

“No, silly. The parking for the festival is at the Wal-Mart. The festival is down along the water.”

“Oh, well, okay then.” Henry sounded pacified.

“Why does Henry hate Wal-Mart?” Gregor whispered.

“Because they don’t sell Spiderman comics.” Julian shrugged.

“Ah. Ask a stupid question…”

“There’s no such thing as stupid questions, Gregor,” Henry said wisely from the back seat.

“Only stupid people,” Julian muttered quietly as he hopped out of the car.

Henry was walking between his father and Gregor, with each of them holding his hands. He’d managed to get over the disappointment of parking at Wal-Mart when Gregor held him up to see all of the people down by the water.

Gregor paid for their tickets to the festival and they started walking past booths offering chowder, lobster rolls and nautical crafts. There was even a face-painting booth.

“Look at the crab hats!” Henry pointed to a couple who were wearing red hats shaped like the namesake crustacean.

“Would you wear one of those?” Gregor asked.

“Yup! I like the crab festival!”

Gregor leaned closer to Julian. “Would you wear a crab hat?”

Julian shivered in the hot summer air. Gregor’s breath against his ear drove him absolutely crazy. He nodded and Gregor took off to buy the hats.

“This was a good idea for a first date, Daddy,” Henry said matter-of-factly once Julian was out of ear-shot.

“You think this is a first date?” Christ, Henry didn’t miss a beat.

“You and Gregor act just like Landon and Noble.”

Julian would never cease to be amazed at Henry’s powers of observation. “And how do Noble and Landon act?” He was curious to hear the similarities Henry saw between them.

“They are always happy to be together, just like you and Gregor.” Henry offered his father a proud smile.

He had to admit his son had a good point. Julian was always happy to be with Gregor, even if it was for just a second or two.

“Here we go! Crab hats all around!” Gregor was already wearing his hat. He set one on Henry’s head and handed the other to Julian.

“Hey! Who turned out the lights?” Henry asked from under the crab hat which fell halfway down his face.

Gregor burst out laughing. “Guess I gave your Daddy your hat and put his on you.”

Henry peeled back the hat and started to giggle. “You look funny with a baby crab hat, Daddy. Let’s take a selfie!”

Gregor gathered them all close and snapped a few pictures of them. When he was done, he plucked Julian’s hat off Henry’s head and switched them. “There, that’s much better. Now, who’s hungry?”

Henry’s hand shot into the air.

“I am too,” Gregor agreed, why don’t we walk around and see all the food before we decide what to eat.”

“Can we find hotdogs?” Henry asked with a smile.

Gregor raised an eyebrow at Julian as if to ask if Henry was kidding. “Yes! Let’s find hotdogs!” Plucking Henry off his feet, he set the little boy on his shoulders.

“I’m the king of the world!” Henry crowed.

XX

Half an hour later, Gregor managed to find a hotdog for Henry. He’d also grabbed bowls of seafood chowder, a tomato-based version for himself and the more traditional cream-based version for Julian. He’d also grabbed plenty of spoons so that they could share.

“How’s the hotdog, buddy?” Gregor couldn’t help smiling at Henry, whose face was smeared with ketchup.

“It’s good. You should add hotdogs to the kids menu at the hotel.”

Gregor hadn’t considered that before. “What about hamburgers? Do you think kids would want to see those on the menu too?”

Henry shook his head and took another bite of his dinner. “Not big hamburgers, but what about those baby ones?”

“You mean sliders?” When Henry nodded, he pulled out his phone, Gregor tapped on the Notes app and started typing in Henry’s suggestions. “How’s your chowder?”

Julian frowned. “It’s got corn in it. Who puts corn in seafood chowder? And there’s some weird flavor I can’t identify.”

Grabbing one of the spare spoons, Gregor stirred it through the chowder. He saw what looked like fire-roasted corn, along with chunks of crab and lobster meat. He took a bite and was wowed by the kick of something spicy. “Is the weird flavor hot?” Gregor kept digging through the bowl of chowder.

“Yeah, but it wasn’t like eating a jalapeño or something with cayenne, it was a slow-building heat.”

“I think its habanero. I don’t see any pieces of it in the chowder, so I’m guessing it was pureed.” Gregor typed more notes into his phone and was about to slip it back into his pocket when the Facebook app dinged.

He knew he should just stick the phone back in his pocket and not interrupt dinner by looking at the post someone left about the hotel, but he couldn’t help himself. He had to know.  “Looks like someone posted a food review.”

Julian looked worried. “Are you sure you want to read it now?”

Gregor knew Julian was worried that it was another bad review like the one some anonymous asshole posted about his food last week. “I’ll just take a quick peek.” Tapping the app, Gregor clicked to the review and his blood instantly ran cold when he read the title. “WOULDN’T FEED IT TO MY DOG!!!”

“What is it?” Julian moved over to Gregor’s side of the picnic table and started reading over his shoulder. “Oh my, God!”

“Is the bully being mean to you again?” Henry hopped off his seat and ran around the table to climb into Gregor’s lap.

The people he cared most about were huddled around him, giving him every ounce of their support, but nothing Henry and Julian did could take away the sting of the reviewer’s words. “He says the braised short ribs were so badly cooked that he had to spit pieces out into his napkin.”

“That’s not true. I had that meal myself and they were the best short ribs I’ve ever eaten. They were so good, Henry even tried some and then stole my plate.”

“Your food’s delicious, Gregor. Don’t let those assholes hurt your feelings!” Henry’s face was serious.

Gregor snorted. “I appreciate the support, little man, but let’s not use that word again, huh?”

Henry nodded and tucked his head under Gregor’s chin. “I love you, Gregor and your yummy food.”

“I love you too, Henry.” Gregor hugged him tight, while Julian laid his head on Gregor’s shoulder. “What if this keeps happening? What if no one wants to eat at Widow’s Walk because of these reviews?”

“Bad reviews are a part of this instant gratification day and age. If people don’t like what they taste, their remedy is one click away on their phones.” Julian lifted his head from Gregor’s shoulder. “When I was working for Shadow Eats, I ate at this restaurant that had been raved about all over town. I was so excited to eat there and the night I went was a total disaster.”

“What do you mean?”

“I ordered the veal scaloppini with capers and brown butter and when the plate came, it was chicken. I let my server know and she brought my plate back to the kitchen. When it came back, it was chicken again.”

“I can’t imagine a trained chef not knowing the difference between chicken and veal.”

“I thought the same thing. Compounding the food issue was the staff. The woman who served me seemed preoccupied all night and was a bit rude. It was the hardest review I’d had to write in my four years with the show.”

“What did you do?” Gregor was curious to hear how a professional reviewer would handle that kind of situation. He knew for a fact that the short ribs he served that night were the best quality and that no one had sent the food back to the kitchen. In fact all of the wait staff reported empty plates that night.

Gregor had a rule that if more than half of the meal was left on the plate when the table was cleared, he wanted to know about it so that he could speak with the guest himself and find out why the meal wasn’t satisfactory. In the few weeks that the hotel had been open, Gregor had only spoken with a handful of dissatisfied guests.

One guest hadn’t liked how heavy handed he’d been with the cilantro in the chicken quesadilla, while several others had simply eaten their fill of the large portion and mentioned how convenient it would be if the hotel rooms came with microwave ovens so the food could have been reheated later as a midnight snack.

“I wrote two drafts of the review. One that was bare bones with all of the facts. The second review was more watered down. My bosses went with the watered down review and even asked that I tone that one down more. He said we weren’t in the business of hurting restaurants.” Julian shrugged. “I’ve seen a lot of bad food reviews in my day, but these reviews are mean-spirited and intentionally cruel, but what I think is worse is that they’re bald-faced lies.”

Gregor nodded. “I’m sorry I ruined our night by looking at that damn post.”

Julian shook his head. “You didn’t ruin anything. There’s still so much to see and I know someone who wants to get their face painted.” He pointed down at Henry who was still hugging Gregor.

“Do you think Henry will want to get his face painted too?” Gregor winked at Julian.

“I was talking about Henry!” Julian laughed before pressing a kiss to Gregor’s cheek.

“I thought we were keeping this on the down low.” Gregor shot Julian a confused look.

“Nope! Henry already figured out this was a date.”

“Will you get your face painted too, Gregor? I want us to be twins!”

“You bet, buddy!” There was nothing Gregor wanted more than to be twins with Henry. The five-year-old had a way of making Gregor see just what was important and what was important tonight was having a blast with the most important men in his life.

 

 

10

Julian couldn’t sleep. He’d been up since about 4:00am tossing and turning. He needed to figure out a way to stop the bastard who was posting those awful reviews of Gregor’s food.

When Julian shopped for books on Amazon, he always read the one and two-star reviews first. Some people gave low reviews because there was too much sex or conversely, too little sex. Then there were reviews for bad editing or poor character development. The reviews that always pissed him off the most were the ones that were vindictive, as if the review writer was just trying to ruin the book’s good rating. He had no doubt that was exactly what this writer was doing to Gregor.

He guessed the bigger question was who had a bone to pick with Gregor? From Gregor had told him, he’d gone to high school at Phillips Andover for four years before spending two weeks at Yale. After the 9/11 attacks, Gregor had joined the Navy and when he was discharged, had gone back home to South Carolina where he worked in a restaurant after he’d attended culinary school in Boston.

Julian supposed it was possible for someone from Gregor’s past to be doing this to him, but the chances of that seemed unlikely. Yes, people could change their look over time, but he couldn’t imagine Gregor not recognizing someone from his past who hated him enough to be doing this.

Since the hotel had only been open for a short time, it didn’t have many reviews and now two of the ones it did have were pure vitriol. What Julian needed to do was figure out a way for a large number of people to taste Gregor’s food at one time and leave them with a feel-good vibe that would make them want to leave a five-star review of their own.

Finally, around 5:30am the answer came to him. He grabbed his phone and sent a quick text to Gregor who wrote right back saying he’d have everyone gathered in the dining room in ten minutes.

Julian dressed quickly and not knowing what else to do, scooped a still-still sleeping Henry into his arms and left the room.

When he got downstairs, Julian was greeted by one happy face and six very grumpy ones. Gregor got up to greet him, dropping a kiss on Henry’s forehead before doing the same with Julian.

“This had better be good, Julian.” Griff stretched his arms over his head and yawned.

Leo patted Griff’s shoulder and hopped out of his seat, shooting Julian a sympathetic look. “I made coffee. He’ll be right as rain in about ten minutes.”

Julian took a seat, cradling Henry in his arms. “All of you know about the second review?”

Everyone around the table nodded their heads. Leo tisked his tongue against the roof of his mouth as he set Griff’s coffee in front of him and started pouring out cups for the rest of the guys. “If you’ll pardon my French, I don’t get these anonymous internet troglodytes who get a rise out of being hurtful. It isn’t right.” Leo shook his head and took his seat.

“I couldn’t agree more, guys. I have a plan to defeat that butt-munch.” Julian made eye contact with Gregor, who looked like he’d had a rough night with little sleep. There were dark circles under his eyes and his face was rough with stubble. The only reason a man as mouthwatering as Gregor should look like that was if he’d spent the night having marathon sex. “Gregor took Henry and me to the Hyannis Crab Festival last night.”

Presley laughed. “We loved the pictures of your crab hats and the spider web face paintings were adorable.”

“One of the reasons I know Gregor wanted to go to the festival was to check out his local competition all in one place. He mentioned to me last night that he’s interested in signing Sand Dollar Shoal up for a booth next year, but then, this morning I thought, why wait?”