“Not like I’ve got anything better to do.” James shrugged. “Thank you.”
He jammed his hands into his pants pockets, strolled inside, and let his eyes adjust. At least there was plenty of eye candy to keep him entertained at the Hot Rods garage. It brimmed with sexy cars and the sexier people working on them.
Alanso had an engine in pieces, each doodad laid out meticulously on a canvas drop cloth so he could service it. His husband, Eli, was assisting him in between filling out some kind of paperwork on a clipboard. Their wife, Sally, wore a hooded white suit covered in speckles of a rainbow of colors that obscured the curve of her growing baby bump as she washed out paint buckets. Bryce reclined on a low board with wheels, then scooted under a heavily modified antique truck on a lift, rejoining his buddy Kaige, who was banging on something while cursing creatively.
James angled toward the last bay, where Carver was fussing with a piece of leather interior and his man, Roman, was installing what looked to be custom lights on a sick olive-green antique auto with exaggerated fins. James had never thought much about cars, but he had to admit, these would impress just about anyone.
He eyed the flat expanse at the lowered rear of the car as he waved to Carver. Hanging out with him and Roman was always comfortable and casual, which wasn’t all that typical for James, who wasn’t butch enough to fit in with most people’s expectations for a construction worker…or even a guy in general. Carver was built similarly to him, if an inch or two taller, and was comfortable letting Roman take the lead in their relationship. Being slender and short didn’t keep him from kicking ass in the garage or the occasional bar fight in their slightly shady past, though.
Roman and Carver were probably the most likely candidates for James, Neil, and Devon’s new besties outside the crew now that they were settling here in Middletown permanently.
Sure, all the mechanics were polyamorous like the Powertools, but something about Carver made James feel less like an oddball in the midst of some seriously macho dudes and kickass women. Carver’s unbreakable bond with Roman reminded James of how things had been between him and Neil before they’d met Devon, and gotten lucky enough to have relationship lightning strike for the second time in their lives.
After all, Roman and Carver had been in a relationship for almost as long as James and Neil had been, plus they enjoyed front row seats to the Hot Rods group sessions. Toss in Roman’s “little” brother Quinn, who was bi and married to both a man and a woman…well…they understood each other and their complex relationships like few other people could. Spending more time with them and the rest of the open-minded people who worked at the Hot Rods classic car restoration and Hot Rides motorcycle garages was one of the definite perks of the recent shakeup in their lives.
James laid his hand on the shiny trunk and thought about hopping up on it to shoot the shit with Roman and Carver while they worked on the fancy vehicle, which definitely did not have any scratches or even a speck of dust on it, for that matter.
“You’re not about to sit on there, are you?” Roman shot James one of those unmistakably Dom-type glances that made him squirm a bit. He barely stopped himself from responding, “No, sir.”
“Guess not.”
Roman scolded, “For Christ’s sake, it’s a one-of-a-kind, non-production 1951 Buick LeSabre concept, boy. This car spawned twenty years of record sales and launched an iconic aesthetic. Show some respect or I’ll put you over my knee.”
James put his hands out in an if-you-say-so gesture. It wasn’t the worst thing he’d ever been threatened with. Especially not if Neil and Devon were there to watch.
He turned, planted his palms on the tool bench opposite it instead, and hopped, scooting his ass back. James kicked his legs, swinging them idly in front of him as he leaned onto his hands, arms locked straight, and observed the mechanics. There was still plenty of room to spare both on top of the workbench and between it and Roman and Carver’s project. Sometimes it paid to be the smallest guy in the room. Roman never took his eyes off James, not looking the least offended about James’s second-choice perch.
In fact, his approving nod and wicked grin seemed to imply he enjoyed it being decorated with man-flesh.
“Settle down there, Barracuda, or you’ll make me jealous,” Carver teased as he traipsed in between them, laughing. He turned to James with a twinkle in his eye. “Just kidding. I don’t blame him for looking. You are hella cute.”
Roman growled. He impressed James with his reaction time, grabbing Carver and drawing the shorter man to him for a kiss that had James wishing Devon or Neil were handy. Roman didn’t hold back, completely possessing his partner. His mouth opened wide as he thrust his tongue into Carver’s mouth and dipped him backward over an arm that was ropey with bunched-yet-trim muscles streaked with grease. Carver went liquid in his man’s arms, letting him take whatever he wanted and enjoying every moment.
Whew. They were hot as hell.
“Oh, now you did it, James.” Alanso followed the chiding with something in Spanish that his thick Cuban accent made sound even naughtier than it probably was from where he was elbows-deep in his rebuild.
“Work now, play later.” Eli snorted with a shake of his head.
“Maybe it’s time for a pre-smoke break, if you know what I mean,” James joked. “I can go hang out with Tom and Ms. Brown for a while if you need to take care of some private business.”
He was going to miss those spontaneous interludes with the crew. He couldn’t count how many times they’d been in the middle of a job and someone had started something and next thing he knew…
James shook his head. He couldn’t think of that now or he’d be walking funny until Neil and Devon got home from their sites that evening. Or maybe until the Powertools kids went to bed and the whole crew could spend some quality time together.
Thank God for the industrial lock Joe had gotten permission to install on the door to the finished basement they’d claimed as their play area.
“Do you see this mess?” Kaige popped his head out from beneath the vehicle he was working on with Bryce. “If we take that kind of break, we’ll be here until we reopen Monday morning.”
“Are you sure you have time to look at my car?” James winced. The last thing he wanted was to impose. “It’s just a scratch…”
“It’s not. Hush.” Bryce tossed a rag in James’s direction, which Bryce’s wise old dog Buster McHightops tracked with his eyes while Bryce and Kaelyn’s son’s pup Professor Puddin’pop charged after and tried to destroy with adorable snuffles and exaggerated head thrashing. “Besides, you guys are doing so much to help us out right now, one baby car repair is nothing in comparison to the Hot Rods expansion project. I can’t wait until we have more room to spread out.”
Not that James was personally contributing on that front either.
“Speaking of, I’m going to walk over there in a bit and see how Joe’s doing. How do you like what you’re seeing of your new digs so far?” James wondered. One of his fellow Powertools, Joe, had been busting his ass for months to transform the site into a perfect, much bigger home for his cousin Eli and the rest of the Hot Rods gang than their current apartment above the garage. The project had already changed the crew’s lives and Joe was determined to have equally as big an impact on Eli and the rest of the Hot Rods. “You know if it’s not perfect, there’s still time to change a lot of the interior finishes and tweak stuff.”