“First, you can tell my dad that I want a raise.”
“It’s your first fucking day!”
“So? Can we both agree that you and Dad withheld crucial information from me about the state of affairs?” Kayden stabs his finger toward the screen like he’s trying to stab it. Who the fuck is this guy? What the hell happened to shy little K?
“Yeah, I guess,” I mumble, scratching the back of my neck. “How about a bonus once the new site is up and running?”
“Really?” Within a split second, Kayden’s face transforms. Gone is the scowl, and instead he’s beaming at me, his eyes wide and vast, a surprised smile taking over his face.
Ahhh, there he is. My K.
I shrug. “Sure, why the hell not? So what’s the timeline?”
“I should be able to get it up and running by the end of the week if I work evenings too.”
“I don’t want you working nights, K. You probably have stuff to do.”
“I don’t mind.” He dips his gaze to a pile of papers on the desk. “It’s not like I have a social life anyway.” My stomach drops, and my chest squeezes. “I mean, aside from Gwen inviting me to bridge night down at the community center on Saturday.” He chuckles softly, but the smile has faded, and it no longer reaches his eyes. Gwen’s our secretary. She’s sixty. Kayden’s twenty-two. Yeah, that’s no good.
“I tell you what. If you include two nights this week, I’ll pay you overtime, and I’ll come over and put up those lights for you.”
He looks up at me hesitantly. “Really? You’d do that?”
“Sure. It’s not like I have a social life anyway,” I repeat his words, and Kayden blushes even harder.
“Gee, thanks. Make a guy feel special, why dontcha?” But the hint of happiness in his voice doesn’t elude me.
“Youarespecial, K.” I reach out to ruffle his hair, but he avoids my touch. My fingers tingle. I’m obsessed with those fucking curls. They just beckon to me.
“Special K?” Kayden muses. “Like the song?”
“Yeah. Well, not exactly. And how come you knowPlacebo? You were not even a thought when they wrote that song.”
“So? You listen to those old-school jazz singers all the time,” he digs back. “Good taste doesn’t have anything to do with age, Caleb.” He blinks at me, and I realize he’s right. Kayden was never really young, though, was he? He always had too great a burden to carry for him to be young and carefree. I see it in his eyes when he looks at me. The miles he’s wandered. The weight he’s carried along the way. The battles he’s fought, not just with the world and its norms, but with himself too. The body he used to live in has now been shed like a skin that never fit in the first place, and he’s blooming into a beautiful young man. It’s awe-inspiring, really. Yeah, that’s it. I’m in awe of Kayden. Still, I’m an argumentative motherfucker.
I cross my arms in front of my chest. “I listen to modern stuff too.”
He snorts. “Yeah, right. What’s the last song you listened to?”
That little shit. He knows me so well.
“I don’t know,” I lie through my teeth, but of course, Kayden calls my bluff.
He holds out his hand in a gimme gesture. “Give me your phone.”
“What?”
“You heard me. Give me your phone,boss.”
I groan, but dig my phone out of my back pocket and hand it to him. He smirks, then pulls up my Spotify.
“Aha!” he glowers at me, his eyes blue twin flames. “I fucking knew it!” He turns the phone and holds it up to me, waggling it in his hand triumphantly. “Surprise, surprise, big guy. It’s Nina!”
I groan, parts because he knows me so well, and parts because of that goddamnbig guy. My dick involuntarily thickens in my jeans, and I breathe through my nose.Don’t get hard in front of Kayden. Your best friend’s son. Your employee. Don’t.
“Ugh!” Kayden groans, digging his pearly white teeth into his bottom lip. “I fuckingloveNina.Just in Timeis one of my favorites.”
Mine too.My dick instantly responds to Kayden’s low groan. The fucker doesn’t care that it’s Kayden. It’s a guy groaning, that’s all it cares about. When’s the last time I had a guy groaning underneath or on top of me? Way too long.