Bitter Taffy Read Free

saw that he was a young man, not much younger than him and Adam, and not a boy. “You’re Adam’s only family, and this was not the kind of impression I wanted to make.”
    Rico shrugged and smiled. “Yeah, me neither. But it’s nice to meet you. I’ll, uh, see you in the morning.”
    Finn stood on his tiptoes, pretty and lithe in his briefs, and kissed Adam’s cheek. “Don’t talk too long. You’ve got work in the morning.”
    Adam turned his head, caught his lips briefly, and then smiled. “I hear you. Night.”
    They both watched Finn pad down the hallway, Clopper at his heels, and Rico saw Adam grimace as bedsprings creaked way too loudly for just that one slightly built man.
    “Are you letting my dog sleep on the bed ?” Rico asked, scandalized. “I’m gone for four months and you ruin my dog? And wasn’t there supposed to be a cat?”
    Adam grunted. “Why do you think the dog’s on the bed? The cat’s there. Dog wants to sleep with cat. Adam isn’t in the way. Finn’s a pushover. You can have your dog back when I go back to bed.”
    Rico smiled in spite of himself. God, it was just so… warm. So friendly. That time in Manhattan, the only thing really warm had been Ezra. “I still say you ruined my dog.”
    “Yeah, well, you kept telling me I couldn’t fuck him up too badly. You have only yourself to blame. Now sit. I’ll make coffee. And heat up the soup. You look like shit. Let’s talk.”
    God. Their grandmother and Adam’s mother had pretty much acid-blasted all of the small talk and confidence out of Adam when he was a kid. But apparently nothing could take away the sweetness that had always appealed to Rico. Adam had always been the best playmate because he was never mean. He’d been willing to take direction, but he always had good ideas of his own.
    And he’d always thought Rico walked on water, and Rico had to admit, that sort of guileless admiration had given him all sorts of fucking courage when they’d been growing up. He could run for student body president because Adam thought he was a god. He could apply to the big colleges because Adam looked at him like he could do anything. It wasn’t until Rico went away to college—Adam’s gift of a peacoat insulating him from the Bay Area chill—that Rico had the distance to see that Adam’s adulation had come at a terrible price to Adam.
    Rico had been the golden boy, the oldest legitimate son, the one with two parents—however distant—and the one everybody had the expectations for.
    Adam had been the kid crying under the bed while his mother and grandmother screamed about how much nobody wanted him around.
    Rico wanted him around. Rico had been so relieved when Adam had quit the service and come home. When he’d walked into Easter dinner and said, “You all might want to put away my table setting. I’m gay and I know how much you hate that,” Rico had wanted to stand up and cheer, because in their entire childhood, he’d never seen Adam stand up for himself.
    Adam’s reward for standing up for himself had been getting thrown out on his ear.
    When Adam’s VA grant got pulled because he missed one class (and the draconian justice of that made Rico bristle all over again), Rico had been so happy to give Adam a break. Just one break— God ,that was all Rico’s cousin had ever asked for from life.
    And Adam had run with it. He’d gotten a job, a boyfriend, and he’d be enrolled in school come fall. One little bit of kindness and Adam was here to put on a pot of coffee, feed Rico some rockin’ chicken fajita soup with homemade bread and butter, and listen as Rico unloaded the worst moment of his life.
    “Oh man !” Adam said, enthralled as a kid while Rico told about the staff presentation that turned out quite differently than he’d expected. “That’s….” He shook his head. “Oh man, Rico. That’s fucked up. I mean… I’m sorry. That’s harsh.”
    Rico nodded and took another bite of the exquisitely