The Moore the Merrier Read online

  The Moore the Merrier

  Alex Miska

  Copyright © 2017 by Alex Miska and V. Soffer.

  Formatting and Cover Art by Bedford Book Design.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  The trademarked products mentioned in this book are the property of their respective owners, and are recognized as such.

  This is a work of fiction. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes; all other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book contains sexually explicit content that is intended for mature readers over the age of 18.

  Front Matter

  SPOILER ALERT

  Chapter 1: Julian

  Chapter 2: Cassius

  Chapter 3: Chance

  Chapter 4: Michelangelo

  Chapter 5: Jackson

  Chapter 6: Xander

  Chapter 7: Logan

  Chapter 8: Leonardo

  Chapter 9: Chance

  Chapter 10: Roger

  Chapter 11: Julian

  Chapter 12: Frankie

  Chapter 13: Dean

  Chapter 14: Chance

  Chapter 15: Jackson

  Chapter 16: Logan

  Chapter 17: Luna

  Chapter 18: Dean

  Chapter 19: Cassius

  Chapter 20: Julian

  Chapter 21: Xander

  Epilogue: Frankie

  Thank You

  About the Author

  Character Guide Moore Friends & Family Tree

  Alphabetical List

  Character Groups

  Spoiler Alert:

  THE MOORE THE MERRIER

  IS NOT A STAND-ALONE BOOK.

  It is strongly suggested that you

  read Love You, Moore

  before reading this book.

  This book starts immediately after the events in the last chapter of Love You, Moore. The first chapter of this book discusses the ending to Love You, Moore.

  Character Guide

  “I’m so excited!” Julian grabbed his new fiancé’s leg and squeezed. Xander just rolled his eyes. “Are you excited? I’m excited.” Their dog, Cassius, barked in the back seat. “See? Our dog’s excited.” He loved that he could say ‘our dog.’ Xander stopped at a light and Julian took the opportunity to shake his arm. “Come onnnn! Be excited!”

  “I’m excited, I’m excited,” he said placatingly. Of course, the man was so chill because he had been the one to share the news with nearly everyone they knew. Granted, the proposal had been incredibly romantic. Julian had returned home from the world’s most exhausting business trip two days ago to find Xander’s condo filled with their family and friends. Xander had gotten down on one knee and given an extremely touching speech before sliding a gorgeous, custom-made ring on his finger. Unfortunately, now Julian had few people left with whom he could share their exciting news.

  So today Julian was excited to tell everyone at Safe Harbor, the LGBT+ youth center and shelter Xander had founded. Technically, they were going because Julian gave a self-defense class every Sunday while Xander attended to administrative work, but mostly Julian was looking forward to flashing his ring at everyone.

  “Remember,” his fiancé said in his ‘dad voice,’ “we agreed not to mention adoption yet.”

  “Ugh! I knowww,” Julian moaned and flopped back in his seat dramatically. It was going to be extremely hard to stay quiet about the fact that he and Xander hoped to adopt four of the homeless teens: sixteen-year-old Kendall, who had spent weeks without speaking more than a few words to people, fifteen-year-old Marcus, who acted as her protector and talked enough for ten people, and the thirteen-year-old twins, Axle and Diesel, who now went by the less comically-masculine names Jackson and Dean. “I was the one who suggested we keep quiet, as soon as I realized that your attorney is glacially slow. I don’t think Kendall will feel safe until the paperwork is squared away and once we talk to them about it, I want to bring them home right away. Actually, I want to bring them home today anyway.”

  “All lawyers are glacially slow and, although we’ll have guardianship, it will take eighteen months or so for the adoptions to become final,” Xander warned him. Julian hadn’t known whether Xander would be on board with his desire to foster and adopt teenagers, but along with the proposal, his fiancé had surprised him with this gorgeous, gigantic SUV that could fit them, their dog, all four teens, and a mountain of luggage. Xander drew him out of his fantasies of family road trips to add, “And the twins still have that half-brother somewhere, so we might not be able to keep them.”

  “Speaking of lawyers, when will he have a prenup ready?” Julian planned to keep asking until he got the right answer.

  “No prenup. If we get divorced, you can take me for everything I’ve got. Then you’ll have to go to all my family’s board meetings.”

  “Yes prenup.”

  “No prenup, Brat. We’re going to talk everything to death and work things out. After New Year’s, you’re going to be stuck with me forever and ever and ever.” Julian grinned at that. One month was an insanely short period of time to plan a wedding, but it was a good compromise between eloping and being forced by Xander’s family into planning some insane gala event full of people neither of them knew. With limited time came limited options, but he and Xander had such similar taste that Julian knew it would all go relatively smoothly.

  At the red light, Julian grabbed his fiancé by the shoulder and planted a firm, biting kiss on his luscious lips. “I love you,” he said as he released him.

  “I love you, Moore.”

  Julian groaned. “How much longer are you going to drag out that tired pun, Iceman?”

  “Forever, Moore.” He chuckled and turned into Safe Harbor’s lot.

  As soon as the truck was in park, Julian unlatched his seatbelt, hopped out, and opened the door to the back to release Cassius from his car harness, adjust the boxer’s silly peacock-tail hat, and snap on a leash. He clapped his hands at Xander, who was purposefully moving at a sloth-like speed. “C’mon c’mon c’mon!”

  Julian and Cassius were halfway to the entrance by the time he caught up with them. Xander made up for the delay by wrapping an arm around his waist and pulling him in for a long, soul-searing kiss. By the time Julian’s mind recovered, Xander was holding Cassius’ leash, opening the door, and grinning. “Are you coming or what?”

  Xander stopped by the office to tell Poppy, the director, the good news while Julian and Cassius raced into the common room. Sure enough, the four teens that were his (even if they didn’t know it yet) sat at a table together playing cards. He had planned on nonchalantly flashing the ring around until somebody said something, but instead he pounced on the group and shoved his hand between them shouting, “Look look look!”

  They remained silent. He wiggled his fingers jazz-hands style. Eventually, Kendall said, “It’s very nice.”

  “Really? Nice? That’s all you’re going to say?” While Cassius went to each kid, sniffing each of their tushes in greeting, Julian plopped down in the seat at the end of the table and pouted. He probably should behave with a little more decorum since, despite the eight-year age gap between himself and Kendall, he’d
soon be their father-figure. But he had a lovely pout, and he’d expected more of a reaction out of them.

  “You were practically engaged already, sharing a house and a dog… it’s not like it’s a surprise,” Jackson said, and they all rolled their eyes simultaneously in a choreographed gesture worthy of teenage Rockettes.

  “Well, I was surprised.” These four were far more mellow than usual, and alarm bells rang in his head. “What’s up with you guys? Everything okay?”

  Silence. That boded well.

  “They need to talk to you,” Kendall said. It was unusual for her to be so assertive and Julian found himself mentally cheering at how much she’d come out of her shell over the past couple of months. “Jackson? Dean? Tell him.”

  “Umm… We’ve been talking, and we think… I mean, we are ready…” Jackson said haltingly, and Julian immediately understood.

  “You want me to find your brother?” he asked. When Xander and Cassius found these two on the streets, they confessed that they had come all the way to Westchester, NY from Boston. The police had informed them they had a much older half-brother, whom their father had also kicked out when he was young. Their brother lived somewhere near here but had been in the hospital at the time, and the boys hadn’t been willing to be put into separate foster homes until maybe some guy they’d never met might take them in. So they ran away and came here on their own; the twins hadn’t been able to find their brother immediately and then had decided they weren’t ready to meet the man yet. After three long months, it seemed that they had finally come around.

  “Kind of. Umm…” Jackson looked to his twin, as though Dean wasn’t as tongue-tied as he was.

  “We already met him,” Marcus blurted. “At least, we think we did. Their last name is unusual and he looks like them and he seems really nice and we-”

  Kendall clapped her hand over Marcus’ mouth, which was probably the only way to keep him from talking. “They have to do this themselves.”

  “That would be an amazing coincidence,” Julian said. Safe Harbor was one of the only LGBT centers north of New York City, so it was possible that a gay man in his twenties or thirties might stop in, but it seemed unlikely. “I’ll make sure to look him up and do a thorough background check anyway. Have Xander or I met him?”

  “Eew!” Kendall pulled her hand from Marcus’ mouth and wiped it on her pants. He grinned triumphantly and waggled his tongue at her.

  “Oh, you’ve met him, alright!” Marcus said while Jackson murmured a name that sounded far too familiar.

  “Did you just say Chester Blevins?” he asked and all four teens nodded. Chester had gone by the name Chance for the past nineteen years, and Julian knew him extremely well. In fact, he was one of Xander’s closest friends and was currently in a very serious relationship with Julian’s older brother, Logan. The boys had met Chance at the Halloween party a month ago. Julian’s eyes welled with tears. “Wh- why didn’t you say something?”

  “We weren’t sure, and your brother had just moved in with him, and he was so happy,” Dean lamely explained. “We don’t want to come between them or be a burden. I mean-” Julian smacked Jackson’s arm since he was the closest of the two. That was the most stupidly selfless, misguided reasoning he’d ever heard from anyone except… well, except for their idiotic brother.

  “God, you really are related, you morons!” Huge tears started to roll down Julian’s cheeks and Kendall, prepared for his reaction, handed him a tissue. He hopped up and hugged each boy hard. Cassius barked, as he always did whenever Julian hugged anyone. “Oh hush, you!”

  “Julian, I thought we agreed-” Xander said as soon as he took in the scene.

  Before he could finish his sentence, Julian blurted, “Chance is their brother!”

  Xander froze in place like he’d been shot with a comic book ice-gun. When they’d first met the twins, both he and Julian had described them as ‘little Chances,’ and it had torn Julian apart to leave them at the shelter. The one time Julian actually agreed not to invade their privacy, afraid the kids would bolt if he stepped over the line, and look what happened!

  “Do you want them to come here? Or we could go to Chance’s house, or find somewhere neutral, or…”

  “Can we meet them at your brother’s bakery?” Dean asked. “We don’t want to just, like, show up on his doorstep and force him to-”

  “There won’t be any forcing. And if for some reason you don’t feel comfortable with him… you’re family now.” Julian sniffled again, and Kendall handed him a second tissue. He thanked her and walked over to his fiancé. “Come on, Iceman, we have some calls to make. You two, go pack your bags.”

  Cassius followed the foursome to their bunks, and Julian dragged his silent fiancé to the office. He told Poppy what they’d discovered, and she vacated the room to give them some privacy.

  “Baby koala?” Julian warned quietly. Usually, he jumped his man out of excitement or passion, but right now he hopped up, wrapping his arms around Xander’s middle and burying his face in the curve of his neck, for the security. His fiancé held him close and cried into his hair. Julian cried along with him, but did his best to reassure him. “This was their choice, Iceman. We took them somewhere safe until they were ready. And they’re finally ready for us to bring them home.”

  “My face is sticky now,” Xander murmured into Julian’s hair, sniffling. “You use too much product.”

  “Skin can be washed, but my hair needs to look fabulous all day long.” Julian kissed him lightly and slid down his body. Pulling Xander’s phone out of his front pocket, Julian handed it to him. “You call Chance; I’ll call Logan. Are you ready?”

  Julian tried to believe his own words: the boys were safe, waiting was their choice, hacking into school or police records to find kids named Axle and Diesel was illegal… And then he dialed his brother, Logan.

  Character Guide

  Cassius couldn’t believe these people. Seriously, he adored Julian, but sometimes his soulmate could be a little dense. The dog had been trying to explain to Julian for months that they had taken the twins to the wrong home. Cass had become somewhat of an expert on comparative familial butt-sniffing over the years. Those twins had been extra smelly when he met them, and it was obvious: they belonged to Chance and his always-cheerful yorkie-dachshund mix, Luna. Either the mirror-boys were Chance’s brothers or maybe inbred cousins… but they were definitely his family. And now finally, FINALLY everyone knew. Cass wished his friend Frankie was here, so he could share his exasperation and relief with the little pug.

  Luna’s new boys smelled of guilt and worry right now, and they just didn’t get it: they needed to go home. It was a travesty that Luna and her cat roommates only had 4 hands to pet them. Chance and Logan’s pets had to share… 28 hands each? No, that couldn’t be right. Cassius was really bad at math, but he knew that dogs had to multiply everything by 7. Whatever. There were 3 pets and 2 people and everyone knew the people had to outnumber the pets. Maybe that was why those cats were such assholes.

  Cassius rushed to Kendall and Marcus. They smelled so sad and hopeless, worse than Julian did the first time they met. Cass licked them both, but it didn’t seem to help much. Kendall’s hood was up and Marcus was baring his teeth. That didn’t mean he was warning them he was going to bite; usually, people did that when they smelled happy. People were weird like that. But Marcus didn’t smell happy. Or aggressive. So he was lying. Did Julian know he was lying?

  He’d thought Xander would fix this when he arrived, but nooooo… Xander got stiff, and his heart beat fast, and Julian rushed him out of the room even though their kids were scared and unhappy. Well, screw them. Once again, the boxer had to do everything himself.

  Cassius followed the kids wherever it was they were going. On the way, he leaned against Kendall's and Marcus' legs so they would know they were his and he would keep coming back for them until they came home. It was very smart of Xander and Julian to make these
two family too, even if everything humans did got needlessly complicated and took forever.

  When they got to the bedroom, Kendall sat on her bed and Cass did his best to climb onto her lap, but a dog his size just couldn’t fit on a lap that tiny. He’d make sure she ate more when she lived with him. The four kids talked quietly together. Julian was probably doing his kicking lessons, so Cassius had seven days (minutes? weeks?) to make Kendall and Marcus feel better. With some effort, Cass eventually knocked Kendall over so he could climb on top of her for maximum cuddling effectiveness; it always worked with his Julian. Marcus lay down with them, so Cass turned to be sure they each got half of him.

  “Of course, I get the butt half! Thanks a lot, Cassius,” Marcus griped, as though the butt half wasn’t the best part! Marcus always asked so many questions, but now with one sniff, he’d know everything Cassius had done and eaten and… well, everything. “By the way, I love your peacock hat. Very fashion-forward.”

  Cassius preened under the praise for his beautiful headgear, with its spray of crocheted feathers, but he didn’t let that distract him from the problem at hand. Maybe he could try Frankie's approach and stare at Kendall and Marcus hard, beaming happiness into their brains. Cass wasn’t convinced the pug’s method worked, but usually people couldn’t avoid staring back, so it certainly did something useful.

  Before he knew it, Xander and Julian were back, and all four kids were following them through the kid-play-house and toward the door. They smelled so lost.

  ‘Tell them! Tell them they’re ours!’ Cass shouted at his men. Everybody jumped and gave him a dirty look.

  “Please come with us,” Julian said. “You can meet their brother, help them get settled in, and we can all have dinner together.”

  Cassius sat down next to Kendall and Marcus. He wasn’t leaving until Julian and Xander convinced them to move in. Marcus said something about dog and car and Cass knew he’d won. But it was a trick! Kendall just buckled him into his seat while Marcus hugged Luna’s boys, and they both said goodbye. Cass shouted after his kids to come back, but Xander just told him to shush. At least he had Jackson and Dean on either side of him. The boys smelled excited but scared, so he attempted to lick them into happiness.