By the Numbers (15 page)

"Maybe." Deuce doubted it. "You ask real nice later, but if she's busy you just phone, okay? Don't give your mom a hard time."

Lacey shook her head, and her hair, so like Holly's, fell in strands around her face. "I never do," she informed him. That was likely untrue, but Deuce let it go.

"Okay." He went to his car and opened the door. "Hey, you can call me, too, if you want. You know the number at the house."

A thoughtful look stole over her. "Can I talk to Q?"

"Of course." He laughed. "She'd love that. I have to go, Little Beans. Have fun today."

"We're making atlases," she reminded him. "Bye." And with that, she shut the door.

"I wish life had an atlas." Deuce sighed and got in his car. He hoped Trey wasn't too mad at him, though he deserved it. Honestly, would it have been so hard to keep his mouth shut and himself out of the middle of things?

But he was in the middle, and Lacey and Holly were somehow a part of his life now. He'd have to come up with coping skills, pronto.

Annoyed with himself, worried about Trey, Deuce went to work, not looking back at the little yellow house.

It couldn't have gone worse, in Trey's opinion.

He stewed about his and Deuce's morning until lunch time. Trey kept mostly to himself except when it was unavoidable. Their engine had two calls; one was a small kitchen fire that was out by the time they arrived, and the other was an elderly patient who had fallen in her driveway and needed several stitches in her forehead. Trey did his job mechanically and didn't make an effort to laugh or joke with anyone.

He stayed in his dorm at lunch time and ate a sandwich on his bunk. Lunch wasn't a formal affair anyway; the rest of his crew would either eat in front of the television or out back at the picnic table. It was during dinner that they gathered at the big table in the kitchen like family.

And they
were
family, Trey supposed. He'd worked with the same crew for several years and they knew each other well. Including Chance, of course, who Trey had a sneaking suspicion knew more than he let on.

So when Chance appeared in the doorway of Trey's room, it was not a shock. "You all right?" he asked, with his usual no-bullshit attitude.

"Yeah. I guess." If he could just make the whole morning go away, Trey would be all right.

"Shake it off." It was more of a command than a suggestion. Chance had a job to do and part of it was dependent on Trey.

"Oh, really? Shake it off?" Trey snorted and lay back on his bunk. Despite knowing Chance was just doing his job, Trey was unable to keep his sarcasm in check. He liked his captain, but Chance occasionally had a rep for being a dick because of his impassive nature and unwillingness to bend rules. Trey supposed that was what made him a good captain, though.

Chance appeared to consider things, then stepped into Trey's dorm and leaned on the small row of lockers that Trey shared with the men on the other shifts. "That guy. The one you live with. It's something with him?"

It would be too much for Trey to go into details, especially since he was still feeling torn up about the morning. "Kind of. Him and my ex-wife."

"Rough. Is there something you need me to do?"

Trey shook his head ruefully. "No. I'll snap out of it. I might call him and have him come to dinner, though."

Chance shrugged. "Sure, fine by me." He paused, as if thinking carefully about his next words. "I know what it's like to try and block out relationship crap while you're here. But try."

"Yessir," Trey mumbled. Chance was right. His job was too important to let anything distract him, even Deuce and Holly.

"Thank you." Chance pushed off the lockers and looked as if he was about to say something else, but a soft buzzing noise interrupted him. Trey looked over in time to see him take his phone out of his pocket and study the text message on the screen.

When a corner of Chance's mouth curved up in a soft smile, Trey raised a brow. He would bet his left nut that he knew who'd sent it. "Tell Tucker I said hi." Block out relationship crap, indeed.

"Okay." Chance smiled again before blinking and looking up at Trey. The smile vanished from his face and he looked slightly abashed. "Just call your guy," he said sharply, and then left, presumably to answer his text.

Trey rolled his eyes. Seemed as if no one was that successful in blocking out relationship crap, even Chance.

Might as well follow orders, though. Trey dug his phone out of his pocket and called Deuce's office line.

"Good afternoon, G2G Systems. This is Nathaniel." Deuce sounded ever so slightly distracted, but possibly only Trey would notice. "How can I help you?"

"Yeah, I have a problem with some code you guys helped me install last week." Trey hoped that sounded close enough to what Deuce actually did at work.

"That's not good. What project is that, sir?" Deuce sounded like he was suddenly paying attention. "Was it something to do with idiot boyfriends who don't know when to shut up?"

"More like idiot boyfriends who expose their partners to bitchy ex-wives." Trey looked at the ceiling of his dorm and played with a belt loop on his uniform pants. "I'm sorry. She was awful to you."

"That's hardly your fault." Deuce sighed. "For some reason I keep expecting her to act like a rational adult, despite all the evidence to the contrary. I should have just let her spit venom -- it's not like I actually care what she thinks about me. Although, to be honest, if she's going to tell Lacey that kind of anti-gay bile, you're going to have to do something. That's just not cool."

Trey went over the conversation from that morning in his head. He remembered Holly saying something about telling Lacey that Daddy liked to kiss boys, but Lacey had already been told that when Holly had said he was gay. "She's not anti-gay," he said slowly. "She's just anti-me. She'd behave the same way if I told her I was a communist or a lumberjack or a white collar criminal."

There was a long pause before Deuce replied. "This morning she made it about telling Lacey that you like to kiss and hug me instead of her, and that Daddy likes boys. Then she said that she will tell Lacey what she thinks and feels. Given the high feelings and the level of her disdain, it sounded and felt very anti-gay to me."

Trey considered how to answer. There were so many variables and details that Deuce didn't know, and that wasn't his fault. Now was probably not the time to get into them, though. "I know what she said," Trey finally replied. "She's unhappy I'm gay. That doesn't mean she's homophobic. She's already told Lacey that Daddy likes boys instead of girls, and judging from how calm Lace was about that when she and I talked, Holly didn't make it into something disgusting or wrong. I can't defend Holly on much, but she's a decent parent and she loves Lacey. She knows Lacey loves me, and she won't do anything to jeopardize our relationship. I won't jeopardize theirs, either. It's in writing." God, that court and custody battle had sucked so much.

"I can only tell you what I heard and how I heard it, Trey." Deuce sounded tired. "I'm not going to yell at her again or anything -- in fact I'll just do my best to never even see her. But that's what it felt like to me. I'm not used to feeling like a bug under someone's shoe. All of that aside, it wasn't your fault and I don't want you to say you're sorry. We've learned our lesson, and we did the right thing by telling her, even if she doesn't see it that way."

"It sounds like you're trying to explain something that I don't see. It's not like that." Trey felt even more miserable.

"Don't worry about it, all right? Just let it go, honey. It doesn't matter."

"Of course it matters. That leaves you with a perception of me that I don't like."

"My perception of you hasn't changed at all. My perception of her has, but since I don't actually have to deal with her, that's fine. I'll stay out of the way, and I'll only ever say nice things about her to Lacey."

Trey supposed that was all he could ask for, at this point. The fact remained that Holly was showing Deuce nothing but her bitchy side, and Trey would always have lingering guilt at the way they'd left things at the end of their marriage. "All right," he sighed. "I'd like it if you could come by for dinner tonight. If you want."

"Of course I want." Deuce sounded pleased, or possibly relieved. "I'll come from work. I have to stay an extra half hour because of this morning, but I should be there about six. I went home at lunch to let the dogs out, so they'll be okay."

"That's fine, we never know when we're going to eat around here anyway. I'll see you tonight. Thanks." He really, really didn't like the fact that Holly had come between them, however briefly.

"I'll see you tonight. Count on it." Deuce was positively warm as he hung up.

It was a relief to hear Deuce sounding so calm, so maybe things would work themselves out. As much as Trey would have liked to promise him that they'd avoid Holly forever, it just wasn't possible. She was going to be part of their lives. Trey was still unsure about how long this relationship thing was going to last, but right now he hoped "a long time" was a good estimate.

He rolled off his bed and shoved his phone back in his pocket, then went to see if anything needed to be done around the station.

The afternoon passed more quickly than the morning had, so by the time six p.m. rolled around, Trey barely had time for a quick shower and a clean shirt. He had just wandered into the kitchen to see if he could help the other crew cook when he heard the doorbell.

"I got it," he announced casually, and made himself walk to the door instead of bolting there. He opened it and smiled. Deuce hadn't had time to change, so he was still dressed in work clothes and looked delicious. "Hi. I'm glad you came."

"I'm glad you invited me." Deuce gave him a smile and very briefly touched his arm. "How was your day? Any calls this afternoon?"

"Always. This station is busy." He'd actually been thinking about transferring somewhere quieter for a while and applying for paramedic school. "Hopefully we'll be slower tonight. It's just spaghetti for dinner."

"Spaghetti is good." Deuce nodded. "I'll cross my fingers for a restful night for you."

Trey glanced around and, seeing no one else in the hallway with them, leaned in for a fast kiss. "Restful nights are always better for my attitude the next day. We're both home tomorrow; you want to go out and do something? Go down to the beach, maybe?" They hadn't really gone out together as a couple too much.

"I'd love that. Maybe have lunch out, wander around? Do you want to go to a movie tomorrow night, too?"

Trey thought for a moment. Other than grabbing a quick burger once in a while at their local place, they hadn't been out for a real date. The relationship had fallen into place easily, but Trey figured there should be a little courting, too. Better late than never.

"Okay, let's do this. We'll grab sandwiches and go the beach for a while. I do a little body boarding once in a while, so we can swim, too. And then maybe dinner out and a movie after." If we get that far, he added silently. Mostly they seemed to cut their time out in public short and go home and mess around.

Deuce beamed at him. "That sounds like a wonderful day. It's a date." He winked one eye slowly. "So, this is a lovely hall we're standing in, but maybe we should move out of it."

"There are other people around. It's quiet here." Trey knew he was taking a risk, though. Twelve other guys in one station house meant someone was going to come along any minute. "But okay." He leaned in for one more kiss and then pushed off the wall. "Let's go see if we can help cook."

"Sounds good to me." Deuce followed along behind, and Trey felt a hand on his ass for a few steps, Deuce laughing softly behind him. "You're very cute," he whispered.

Trey's cock hardened instantly, and he stopped short in the hallway. "Nathaniel," he warned.

"Sorry." Deuce sounded anything but. The hand went away, though not immediately. "Carry on."

It took a moment for him to get himself under control. His uniform pants weren't very forgiving in terms of walking around with a stiff dick. Now, his turnout pants were different. Those hid everything, and thank God for it. More than once Trey had been woken up at night from a dirty dream by the paging system. He'd pulled on his turnouts and no one knew he was hiding a hard on under them.

When his cock had finally gone down, Trey brought Deuce into the kitchen. The men greeted him courteously, and Chance gave him a handshake and a, "Hey, how's it going?"

"Well enough, thanks. And thanks for dinner, too." Deuce spoke to a couple of the guys by name and made himself at home, helping to set the table and offering to help out with the chopping.

Trey was pleased by the easy familiarity Deuce had with Trey's crew. It was nice to know that Deuce could drop by to say hi and no one would disappear into their dorms or find something to do in the garage, as so often happened with visitors that no one wanted to be around. Holly had been one such example.

"Chow," Eric Dayton announced, a captain on the truck. "Call it, Trey."

Trey handed Deuce two tall plastic cups of ice water and nodded toward the end of the table. He picked up the paging system handset and made the chow call to the station, then joined Deuce at the table. "There's plenty, as usual. Take as much as you want." He indicated the two heaping pots of spaghetti and the bowls of sauce.

Deuce dug in with the rest of them and for a few minutes there was just eating; apparently sitting at a desk all day wasn't that far removed from more physical labor, and Trey wondered if Deuce had even eaten when he went home to let the dogs out at lunch. Just as he was wondering, someone asked about the puppies and Deuce entertained them all by telling of Pi's latest escape attempt and the reaction of the next door neighbors, who had been a little startled to see a dog's face suddenly appear behind their garden.

"We had no idea that dogs could even climb that high," Deuce told them, indicating how far up Pi had scrambled in order to clear the fence. "So now Pi doesn't get to go out alone. Six, on the other hand, is a perfect angel."

By the time they were done eating, Deuce had passed around his phone twice with photos they'd asked to see, and all three dogs had admirers. Other phones appeared, and pet photos of dogs, cats and one horse were all shown off.

"Let me help clear," Deuce said when they were done eating. "It's the least I can do since you fed me."