“Am I fired?”
Sully"s head snapped up, his stare drilling a hole through Patrick. “What?”
“Am I fired?”
“No, you are not fired.” Sully seemed damned irritated about that.
“But you"re appalled, right?” Patrick asked sadly.
Sully slammed his hands onto his hips. “No, son, I"m not appalled. Is that what you think of me?”
“You look appalled,” Patrick pointed out.
“Well, hell, I guess I am—but only because I think this is what you kids call a TMI violation.”
A muffled snort issued from behind Brandon"s hand. Patrick sent him a dirty look.
He turned back to Sully. “I don"t understand.”
The captain sighed. “Patrick, I think of you like a son. And like any of my sons, I really do not want to know anything at all about your sex life. Please,” he pleaded, actually shuddering. “You live your life as you see fit. You know I"m fond of Destiny 193
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and Brandon. Just, for god"s sake, no details! And don"t you dare tell Shirley about this.”
“Why, because she’d be appalled?” Patrick asked, totally confused and trying to make sense of what Sully was saying.
“No, son, I just don"t want you giving her any ideas. I"m too old for that shit. I can barely keep up with her as it is.”
An image popped into his head and Patrick couldn"t control his face fast enough to hide his response.
Sully laughed. “Well, now you know how it feels to get a little too much information. See how you like it? Now, please, it"s time for you go home—all of you. I don"t want to see any of your faces for a few days.” 194
Destiny Calls
Chapter Eighteen
Brandon wanted to rip off his and their clothes and roll around in bed, rejoicing that they were all home, safe, together. And he would have, but it was impossible not to see Patrick wasn"t feeling one hundred percent. Nor could he ignore how the long night was dragging on Destiny.
So, though it was still early on a bright, sunny fall day, they crawled into bed the moment they arrived home. They were asleep in one big, happy pile within seconds.
Brandon woke up with Patrick half on top of him and Destiny gone. He managed to wriggle out from under Patrick, the rubbing almost sending his good intentions right out the window, and went in search of Destiny. He tried not to worry she"d fled after Patrick"s declaration of love to Sully. He wanted to believe she wouldn"t do that again.
If for no other reason than he"d been watching her while Patrick had been announcing his long-term intentions and all she"d done was smile happily.
Brandon still couldn"t believe Patrick had gone and outed himself to Sully. To everyone. The declarations of love over the radio could be explained away by drugs, the group hug in the bullpen by years of friendship, but there was no mistaking the way he"d held both of their hands as they"d walked out of the precinct together.
It was official. They were out. Hell, they were so far out, the closet was now in a different zip code.
It had taken him his entire adult life to get up the courage to be open about his sexuality and then he"d done it because he"d felt he hadn"t had a choice. Patrick had done it in under three weeks and only because it was the right thing to do.
How could he not be completely in love with the jerk?
He was wondering how long it would take him to get used to knowing it was reciprocated when he entered the kitchen and found Destiny at the table, stacks of papers and books spread out around her, her laptop glowing in the soft light. It was almost sunset. They"d slept the entire day away.
He didn"t bother to ask before lifting her out of her chair, sitting in it and dropping her back down on his lap. She immediately curled into him, her nose pressed to his throat.
He was sure he"d never get used to having her and Patrick"s love.
“Hey there, sleepyhead,” she murmured against his skin.
“Hey there. Whatcha doing?”
“Oh, just trying to dig myself out of work. I don"t have Sully to tell me to take a few days off, so I have to go back tomorrow.”
Brandon frowned. “You should get some rest, though.” 195
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Destiny smiled up at him. “Oh, I did. Unlike you two, I slept for a while at the station. And I slept for a few hours once we got home, but then Farley was giving me goo-goo eyes and I thought about how we needed food, and I needed to get my work and run some errands.”
“You"ve been busy.”
He could feel her smile against his skin. “I wanted to make sure I could give my undivided attention to other things once you two woke up.”
“That sounds like a really good idea,” he offered, the mere idea of what they might get up to enough to send blood singing to his cock. He knew the moment Destiny felt his response by the sultry wiggle of her ass over his burgeoning erection.
He hummed low in his throat. Shit, that felt good.
As much as he wanted to do something about the blood pumping into his now fully hard cock, he also wanted to wait for Patrick to join them. He could see the happiness shining in Destiny"s eyes and knew they"d turned a corner. A few of them, as a matter of fact, but none more important than the quiet acceptance and contentedness he sensed from Destiny.
With more willpower than he thought he possessed, he helped her up off his lap and stood. She looked disappointed and he chuckled.
“Back to work!” he said, pointing at her laptop.
She pouted but sat at her computer, while he retrieved the newspaper from the front porch and sat with her. Patrick stumbled downstairs an hour later, complaining that his hangover had been replaced by ravenous hunger.
He was recovered. Brandon could see his relief mirrored in
