“Good, Mom. Great. Everything’s awesome. How are you?”
“Your dad and I are doing well. Your dad’s looking forward to retirement. Only eight months to go now,” she answered.
“Cool,” D muttered, opening the fridge and grabbing a beer.
“And, uh, well, Gunner’s not doing too good. He lost another job,” she shared.
Not a surprise.
Gunner got canned on a regular basis, mostly because he hadn’t learned yet that not everyone was going to put up with him running his mouth.
The man was thirty-four years old.
And Diesel was realizing he’d never learn.
“He’ll find something, though,” his mom said hurriedly. “He always does.”
“Yeah,” D replied, popping the cap just as he heard the back door open.
The garage door hadn’t gone up.
That meant Maddox.
His eyes went to the mouth of the hall as he put his beer to his lips.
“So, you and Molly haven’t been out to visit in a while,” she noted carefully.
Maddox rounded the corner and the instant he saw D, he grinned and jerked his chin up.
“Mom,” he said into the phone, and Maddox stopped dead, his brows popping before they dropped and his eyes narrowed.
Fuck, just that, he looked capable of killing somebody.
It was insanely hot.
“Molly’s never been out there,” Diesel went on.
And she hadn’t. The only times Molly had met his parents were when they’d come out to Phoenix for a bike rally and Molly, Mad and him had been dating and another time after they’d moved in together and his folks had come out for the same rally.
His dad was a biker.
Gunner was a biker.
Maddox and Diesel would both have bikes if, first, they weren’t all in to fix up the house, and second, if Molly didn’t lose her mind at the mention of them buying “death on two wheels” (her words).
“Well then,” he could actually hear her pulling herself together, forcing her voice stronger, “it’s high time she came out. You two have been living together for a while so it’s clear where this is going. And Thanksgiving is the only day of the year dedicated to family so that’s the perfect opportunity for us all to get together and have the chance to get to know her better.”
He could argue about Thanksgiving being the only day of the year dedicated to family, but he didn’t get into that. He watched Mad get close and lean a hip against the counter by D.
“Mom—” D started.
“No excuses, Diesel,” she cut in. “There’s plenty of time for you both to ask for vacation and buy tickets. And you should have a word with your sister. She’s hemming and hawing and I want her at my table too. All my babies all together. It’ll be the first time in years.”
Diesel looked in Maddox’s eyes.
“Mom—” he said low, trying again, but that was as far as she got.
“You can do that for me. You can do that for your father. And Diesel, you should.”
Diesel lifted a hand, curled it around the front of Maddox’s throat, watched Mad’s eyes flare, go warm, a muscle flex up his jaw, a crush of feeling pour out of him.
He’d take this for me. He’d do this for me. If it was at all in his power, he’d save me from this.
Diesel dropped his hand.
“Molly and I aren’t coming without Maddox,” he announced.
Maddox fisted his hand in D’s tee at his stomach and murmured, “Buddy.”
Diesel kept staring in his eyes.
Verna Stapleton was deathly silent.
“Do you get me, Ma?” Diesel asked.
“I cannot understand why you’d want your roommate to—”
“He’s not our roommate, Mom, and you know it,” Diesel said gently.
“He’s—”
Before she could say shit that might make his head explode or take this to a place neither of them could pull back from, he interrupted her. “I come with Molly and Maddox or I’m not there at all. You think on that, Mom. You talk to Dad. Unless they’re both invited, and welcome, with no bullshit, no asshole remarks, none of that crap, we’re not there. Are you understanding what I’m saying?”
“I absolutely am not, Diesel Joshua,” she snapped.
“Then I’ll share this. Maddox and I are buying a ring for Molly. We’ll be having a commitment ceremony in front of our family and our friends. And we’ll be together, building a family together, the three of us, until we die,” he stated, then gentled his tone. “I’m sorry to do this over the phone, Ma, but you’re most a continent away and it shoulda been said four years ago. Even earlier. There’s never gonna be a good time to—”
“That’s not even legal,” she spat.
“No, it isn’t. And that doesn’t matter.”
“It does in the eyes of God.”
“Maybe your God. Mine digs what He gave us and it’s all cool.”
“All cool with what? What is He all cool with, Diesel?” she demanded.
“You know, Mom.”
“I do not.”
“Ma, I’m bi. Maddox is not my roommate. He’s my man like Molly’s my woman. We’re together, all of us, together. All three. We’re in love, living together, building a life together, committing to each other and making a family together.”
A hissing whisper of a reply, “I cannot believe my son is saying these things to me.”
Diesel didn’t have a reply to that.
At the pause, Maddox tugged on his shirt, bringing him closer.
D lifted a hand again, squeezed the side of his neck, left his hand there, and nodded to share he was good.
Mad didn’t move away.
His mother broke the silence.
“Well, you can rest assured that man will not be invited or welcome at your father’s and my table.”
“Yeah,” Diesel muttered, “I figured that.”
Her voice was rising, hysteria sliding in. “You’ve just destroyed your mother. You’ve just destroyed me! And all you can say is, ‘Yeah, I figured that’?”
“Ma, how does this destroy you?” he asked quietly. “I’m still me. Molly’s still Molly. And Maddox is—”
“Don’t say that man’s name to me!” she shouted.
Oh hell no.
Diesel broke away from Mad, turning. “Then we’re done.”
“We’re not done!” she shrieked, the sound so piercing he had to take the phone from his ear. “You’re my son!”
“Think on that, Ma,” he replied softly. “Think on those words. Please.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded.
“Think on it. Calm down. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Your father is going to lose his mind, Diesel. He’s going to come undone. I knew it. I knew we should have never let you be friends with that Tommy Barnes. He stained you. He polluted you.”
Oh hell no.
“Stop. Fucking. Talking,” Diesel snarled.
His mother shut up and the silence was deafening.
Diesel didn’t give a shit.
“Think on this. Calm down. And when you’re calm, I’ll talk to you. But I’m not listening to any more of this. I love you. I hate this is hurting you. But you don’t understand why I hate it. And the why of that kills me and has for years. Think on that too, Ma. I’ll talk to you later.”