Despite his bold words last weekend, Leo’s palms were sweating enough to lubricate a whole army of cocks. He wiped his hands on his trousers as he pulled up in front of Dustin’s house, but it wouldn’t last long.

Just another Wednesday evening, he told himself, but he knew it was fucking untrue. It was Valentine’s Day, and he was going to meet the people most important to Dustin.

He couldn’t fuck this up.

“Hey!” Dustin looked adorable as always, but a peek at his neck showed he was wearing a tie today.

“Oh, shit. Did I underdress?” Leo had thought the white shirt and suit jacket were a little over-the-top, but apparently not.

Dustin’s eyes swept up and down Leo in a way that made him hastily think unsexy thoughts. “No,” Dustin answered after a moment and grinned. “That’s perfect.”

Leo cleared his throat and willed his cock to stand down. “Good. I mean, you’re all sexy there with your sweater and tie. I don’t want to be the slob on your arm you randomly picked up on your way.”

Dustin’s laugh always brightened Leo’s day. The wholehearted joy and playfulness he hid behind that serious exterior felt like a secret he’d painstakingly uncovered, and he cherished it.

Dustin leaned over the center console and pecked Leo’s lips in a quick kiss. “Happy Valentine’s Day to a handsome hunk I picked up in a bar.”

The blush was painfully obvious even to Leo. Dustin laughed as his cheeks heated up, and Leo waved a hand at him as he pulled away from the curb. “Oh, stop.”

“Never. I thought I was the only one who went tomato-red, but apparently it’s not just a saying.”

Leo snorted and swatted Dustin’s arm. “You’re a handful.”

“Two, later.” Dustin snuck a pinch to Leo’s ass, working his hand between the seatbelt and seat.

“Oh, you’re several handfuls,” Leo revised with a laugh. “So, what’s up tonight?”

“Now that the plan finally isn’t secret…” Dustin rolled his eyes. “Tapas, sangria, and painting.”

“Very multicultural.” It actually sounded like a cute idea. “Are all your brothers gonna be there? And plus-ones?”

“Yeah. Most of them are in relationships now… two aren’t, so God knows what they’re going to do. I think this was all a plot,” Dustin shook his head.

Leo glanced over. “To get you dating?”

“I really don’t want to admit it might have worked,” Dustin laughed.

“Then we won’t tell them a thing,” Leo winked. “How do you want to say we met?” His hand rested on the stick, even though it was an automatic car.

“Oh, we can tell them at a bar. They won’t judge.” Dustin grinned, sliding his hand over Leo’s. “And they’ll like you, so relax.” The warmth and pressure reassured him that he wasn’t about to be interrogated by a mob family.

“I hope you’re right.” Leo hadn’t met anyone’s family in… well, ever. Meeting chosen family seemed even more stressful, because these were people who had taken Dustin as a brother without any obligation. There were few stronger bonds than that of freely chosen loyalty.

Leo’s phone went off in the cup holder, but he ignored it. Dustin’s eyes, however, strayed down to the screen, and then he tensed up. He didn’t pull away from Leo’s hand, but there was a sudden air of caution, too.

As he pulled up to a red light, Leo glanced down at the screen in time to see Victor’s name come up on the missed call display. “Ah, shit.”

“Didn’t ditch plans with him to be with me, did you?” Dustin’s chuckle sounded forced.

“I figured he was talking out of his ass when he was drunk.” Leo scratched his neck as he glanced over at Dustin. “Last time we hung out, he said we should go hunt singles or something.”

“Well, you’ve caught one.” The light turned green and Leo had to glance away from Dustin. “What are you going to do with him?”

“Oh, I had plenty of ideas for later,” Leo growled playfully, turning his hand over to catch Dustin’s arm. He pulled Dustin’s hand to his mouth and kissed it, then pretended to nibble his arm.

It worked—Dustin relaxed and giggled. “Silly.”

“I aim to please.”

Dustin pulled his hand free and ran it up Leo’s arm. “Me too.”

“Oh, now you’re going to get me very distracted while I try to parallel-park.”

“Expert-level parking. Impress me,” Dustin teased, but he pulled his hand back.

Leo smirked, trying to focus on the points of his car as he tucked it into the parking spot. If sangria was on the menu, it was going to be another Uber today. He was going to become one of their best customers any time now, after never having taken one before he moved back here just a couple months ago.

“Nice,” Dustin whistled under his breath. “A man with hand-eye coordination.”

“I’ve proven that already in oral arguments.”

Dustin laughed again, unbuckling so he could lean over and kiss Leo.

If that was what a clever joke got him, Leo was going to spend his idle courtroom minutes thinking them up. And maybe his idle classroom minutes.

Which reminded him again that it was Wednesday, so he had a short paper due tomorrow. Time just slipped away between one thing and another. Besides, this was more important.

His phone rang again, and Leo cursed under his breath. Of course Victor wasn’t leaving him alone. “Hold on a sec. Let me get him off my back,” he told Dustin.

“Sure,” Dustin answered and slid out of the car.

Leo hurried to grab his phone and answer while unbuckling his seatbelt. He kept his voice brisk. “Hello.”

“Hey, man. What’s up? It’s hunting season.”

“Sorry, man. I got a hot date of my own tonight.” Leo didn’t even care what came of this. “Have fun.”

“Ah, man. Bros before hos,” Victor complained. “What’s up with that?”

“Hey, can’t say you didn’t see it coming. Talk to you later.” Leo hung up and grinned to himself. That was going to drive Victor nuts. He might not even see him until that weekend, if tomorrow was a quiet night in Knoxville PD.

He hopped out of the car and locked it up with a cheery grin as he silenced his phone and pocketed it. “All ready.”

“Okay. It’s just around the corner.” Dustin walked close to him as he directed them to what looked like a little café. There were paper decorations and streamers in the windows, and a chalk board outside advertising their Valentine’s Day party.

A couple guys already stood around outside, one of them holding hands with another. Leo guessed those might be Dustin’s brothers.

“Blane! Falcon! Hey,” Dustin called out with a grin, probably for Leo’s benefit.

“Oh, you did find yourself a date after all!” The smaller of the two guys looked delighted. He leaned in to hug Leo, air-kissing his cheeks. “Falcon. This is Blane, my boyfriend.”

Leo shook hands with Blane, and then he found himself the center of attention as they were steered into the cafe. Half a dozen or more guys were already there.

One by one, he met the others: Nico, a big guy dressed in plaid who looked a little uncomfortable in the artsy space; Deen, vaguely familiar and wearing dark eyeliner; Roman, boisterous and cheerful; Oscar, already wearing a smock over a sweater with colorful paint-like splotches.

“And those idiots are Tyler and Josh.”

They were both wearing fake glasses—the plastic kind with mustaches built in. Before he could ask, Josh whipped his glasses off. “I’m Josh, that’s Tyler.” He put them back on after shaking hands. “And I’m Not-Josh, Tyler’s date.”

“Cheating cheaters,” Falcon muttered, but Oscar was cracking up too much to breathe. “They were supposed to bring a date…”

Leo grinned as he got it. “Well, maybe they did.”

“That’s right,” Not-Josh said, resting his head on Tyler’s shoulder and batting his lashes. “Isn’t it, darling? They shouldn’t mock our romance.”

Blane plucked the glasses off Josh’s face and shook his head. “Losers couldn’t even find a date for one night.”

“Dustin followed the rules,” Roman agreed, straightening his face as he shook his head. “And brought a very nice gentleman date.”

Tyler cleared his throat and tried for a contrite look, but he was smirking too much. “That sounded like effort.”

“Why do I get the feeling they didn’t even try?” Falcon rolled his eyes.

“Since when have we ever followed the rules?” Josh said.

Falcon clicked his tongue. “Now that we’re all here, with our dates,” he said with a severe stare in their direction, “these lovely people have tapas for us.” The place was set up with stools in two rows facing each other, tables between them. “We’re going to eat before we start painting and probably get paint all over ourselves.”

While the heckling continued for Josh and Tyler, Leo took a moment to look around and remind himself of people’s names. He was sitting opposite his date, next to Josh and Tyler, with Roman and Oscar on the other side. There were other couples there, too, but the brothers had claimed one end of the area for themselves.

“So, everyone’s going to be looking at you two,” Oscar warned, leaning in to murmur with a grin. “Since Josh and Tyler neatly avoided that trap.”

Leo gulped. “Uh oh.”

Oscar laughed. “Oh, they’re nice. I only just started dating Roman, but they’ve been great.”

“Really?” Leo felt a little less like an outsider now. “Good.”

“Tapas!” Roman announced as a waiter emerged bearing plates of food. A general round of applause went around.

As always, the food broke the ice, and conversation struck up.

The usual question came up pretty quickly: “What do you do?”

“I’m a forensic photographer.”

Roman caught his breath and looked over at Dustin, then back at Leo. “Ahhh. I see. You work together?”

Leo half-smiled. “Sometimes. His hours are more regular. I’m on-call a lot. I’m pretty new at the department, so they give me a lot of overnight shifts. And I try to squeeze those around class hours—I’m taking classes.”

“Oh, neat.” Josh was listening in. “What in?”

“Just the basic requirements this year. Nothing’s been jumping out at me yet. I really liked the look of some of the basic business courses, but everything else is just high school all over again,” Leo laughed.

Tyler grimaced. “Gross. I’m glad I never went for that.”

“What about you? What do you do?”

Tyler just answered vaguely that he drove, and Josh said he ran a farm nearby. Roman was a pilot, and Oscar ran a dance studio.

“Huh. A mixed bunch.”

“Wait ’til you hear the rest,” Dustin laughed quietly. “We all pretty much started in the same place, and then…” He made a spreading motion with his fingers. “Kaboom. Went in all directions. Falcon’s an artist, Blane’s a vet—zoo,” he quickly added with a significant smile. “Nico works for the park service, and Deen’s in music.”

“That’s…” It took Leo a second to wrap his brain around it all. “Wow. That’s cool.” No wonder Dustin had seemed so open-minded about his career history and current trajectory. “No boring jobs here.”

“I’m probably the most boring one.” Dustin laughed. He didn’t seem as shy as he usually did in large groups, like at the office party. It made Leo glad to see.

“No,” Leo said quickly, glancing over at him. “Without you, my work would be useless.”

Dustin looked pleased as he glanced down and popped another piece of crusty bread in his mouth. He modestly shrugged.

“Finally, someone who appreciates him.” Roman elbowed Leo and clapped his back.

“Oh, of course. Though it sounds like you guys have his back, too.” Leo smiled back at him. It felt like a test of some kind.

“I am right here,” Dustin pointed out, and they laughed.

The conversation shifted to people’s days at work and catching up on inside conversations, with frequent breaks to discuss how boring Josh and Tyler were for their stunt and their lacking love lives.

The humor never stopped, and only when the canvases were brought out did Leo realize his cheeks were hurting from smiling.

Dustin was right. They get me. Leo had always believed you could tell a lot about someone from his friends, and these guys all seemed cool. Maybe this was going to work out perfectly.

“And now, you’re going to paint something for your date!”

Aw, shit. No sooner did I think that…

Leo groaned and leaned around his canvas to see Dustin. “I apologize in advance. You don’t have to put this up anywhere. We can burn it in a bonfire.”

“How do you think I feel? I’m dating a damn artist,” Blane complained. “I’m going pure modernism. Splotches all over for me.”

“Just like some of us later,” Deen muttered, not too quietly, prompting an outbreak of laughter and sexual jokes.

Leo picked up his brush and shook his head as he stared down the blank canvas. He was in too far now to back out.