The Moore the Merrier Read online

  The boys giggled, and Julian said, “It’s like Cassius knows what’s going on.” Duh. Of course, he knew.

  Finally! They were bringing the boys home! Cassius would introduce them to Luna, and Luna could introduce them to the cats, and maybe the cats wouldn’t even notice Cassius in all the hubbub. But the boys didn’t come in. Instead, his soulmate Julian led him out of the car, opened the door to Luna’s house, said hello to all the house’s inhabitants, and left without him!

  ‘I have news! I have news!’ Cassius shouted to the cats. ‘I’ll tell you everything if you promise not to hurt me!’

  ‘Mikey and Leo are awesome! They won’t hurt you,’ Luna told him, but she was the only dog the two monsters liked. Technically, they’d never made Cassius bleed, but Mikey and Leo liked to swat his nose, and that wasn’t cool.

  ‘What is this news?’ Leo asked as he lazily bathed himself. He acted disinterested, but he was too tense to fool Cassius, and Mikey pricked up his ears. He had their attention.

  ‘The boys are coming! Chance’s brothers! I told you they were real and would come soon and it took them forever, but they’re coming! Today!’

  Luna wiggled with excitement. ‘We’re getting boys! We’re getting boys!’

  ‘I don’t believe you,” Leo grumbled. Cassius staggered back a step when he came closer. ‘Oh, stop it. I just need to sniff you.’

  ‘Swat him if he’s lying!’ Mikey said from his perch.

  ‘Of course. Now let me sniff you.’ Leo sniffed every part of Cassius, who quivered and stood as still as possible, and eventually Leo conceded, ‘He does smell a little like Chance but not quite. Just like Julian and Greg smell almost like Logan. It might be the truth. But why are they coming here?’

  ‘They’re still pups!’ Cassius explained. He was a little desperate to get their approval. Then maybe he wouldn’t have to hide from them until his Julian came to rescue him. ‘They don’t have daddies like us. But they have your Chance. So your Chance and Logan can be their daddies, which makes you their big brothers and you can boss them around! You’ll like that, right? And there will be more hands to pet you and, when Chance and Logan close their door on you, you can sleep with the boys because they’re really warm and really nice and they'll pet you.’

  ‘It would be nice to have extra hands and beds.’ Leo began to walk away, and Cassius sighed in relief. But the cat spun around, his blue eyes narrowed and warned, ‘But they better not take Luna. You know Luna is OURS. No touching.’

  ‘Can’t I play with her, just a little?’ Cassius whimpered. He loved Luna like a little sister, and he missed her. She was not the brightest dog, but Luna made up for that with her enthusiasm and happy disposition and her love of play.

  ‘It’s nap time,’ Mikey pronounced.

  ‘It’s always nap time,’ Cassius complained.

  ‘Please can we play, Mikey?’ Seeing Luna’s tail fall, Mikey gave in and nodded. Her tail popped up again and she told Cassius, ‘Guess what? I got a new toy! It’s white and fluffy and it squeaks and has ropes and let me go find it because it’s awesome!’

  For the next seven days (hours?), Cassius and Luna played tug-of-war and chase while the cats supervised. Cassius was so excited that his news made those mean old cats happy enough that they allowed them to have fun. When they got tired, he let Luna go cuddle with the cats. Since Cassius wasn’t sure how long the truce would last, he found someplace super safe. He might wrinkle his new hat, but nobody would be able to sneak up on him and smack his nose while he napped.

  Character Guide

  Sundays were usually fun, lazy days at the Moore Delicious. Weekend orders for cakes were complete, and most business was through café patrons, which was easy to keep up with. There were, however, a metric shit ton of holiday parties to prepare for.

  “You’re staring at me again…” Logan sing-songed as he put another tray in front of Chance.

  “Well, you are kind of hot, Sweets,” Chance hedged. Logan was hot, but he had ulterior motives. “Come here and give me a kiss.”

  Logan obliged with a brush of lips and Chance deepened the kiss until they were both breathless. He reached up with his left hand and brushed it along Logan’s cheek. “I love you.”

  “I’ll never get tired of hearing you say that,” Logan said with a smile. “And I love you too.”

  He pulled back, and Chance grinned at the green smear of icing along Logan’s cheekbone that now had a matching red smear on the other side. Perfect! Logan now looked like a Christmas quarterback (or wide receiver or whatever position he’d played once upon a time, before Chance had met the middle Moore brother).

  “I want a Christmas tree this year!” he announced. With Logan sharing his home, Chance was really feeling the holiday spirit. “Let’s go to the tree farm and pick one up before dinner.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Logan said without looking up from his batter. “We have cats. Besides, real trees make a mess, and you have to water them… Let’s get an artificial one. They look pretty realistic these days.”

  “It’s not Christmas without a real tree,” Chance grumbled.

  “We can get pine-scented candles. Trust me, cats are li-”

  A cacophony of dueling ringtones split the air, and they each wiped off their hands to answer them. Logan usually used speakerphone, so Chance trotted off to the office. “What’s up?”

  “Are you sitting down?” a familiar gruff voice asked.

  Chance grabbed the swivelly desk chair. “I am now!”

  “It’s a boy! And another boy! And a girl!” In the background, he heard Julian call Xander a great big dork, so Chance didn’t have to.

  “Wait, just two boys? Did Marcus say no?” Chance knew his friend was planning on adopting the kids, but he’d been under the impression they came as a set.

  “No, we haven’t talked to them yet. Sorry, I’m explaining this wrong. Stop it, Brat. You talk to Logan. I’ve got this.” Chance chuckled and waited while the adorable couple bickered. “Okay, so… you’re sitting down?”

  “Yes, Xander, I’m sitting down. What’s going on?”

  “You have two brothers and a sister, and your dad’s a total douchebag.” Only three-quarters of that was news.

  “Julian already looked for them? That was-”

  “He didn’t have to, Chance, they found us.” Chance didn’t know how to react to that. Why would they find Xander? Were they okay? “They’ve been staying at Safe Harbor.”

  Chance listened in horror as Xander told him who they were and explained what had happened. Chance had even met them. He should have recognized them. He should have talked to them more. And, holy fuck, he’d been in the hospital when they’d needed him to swoop in to the rescue just like Nana had rescued him nineteen years ago.

  “Where are they now? Wait, they’re there, right? I’ll come get them right now. Do I need to sign them out?” He should swing by the house to get his birth certificate so he could prove he was their brother.

  “They’re not library books, Chance. Relax.” How could Xander possibly expect him to relax when his brothers were living in a homeless shelter? Chance took a deep breath while his friend said, “They just told us your name five minutes ago. Julian’s got to teach his class, and they’re packing their bags. We’ll bring them over there in an hour.”

  “Wait… what about my sister? You mentioned a sister. Is she okay? Is she with dad? We should get her too.”

  “Gigi’s okay. Your grandparents took her in when your dad had to spend a little time in jail, and it looks like they’re holding on to her. They don’t want her to have contact with the boys, and they’re keeping a close eye on her, but she’s been able to sneak out and call them occasionally.” Shit. He’d almost forgotten about his grandparents. He definitely couldn’t leave her with those homophobic assholes and their obsessive religious crap and Grandmother’s disgusting cookies. Especially the cookies. He didn’t want to
go to Boston, but he couldn’t leave her with them. “Listen, Chance. She’s only a year or so older than the twins, and she’s been able to stay at the same school and keep the same friends. If you try to take her, you’ll have a custody battle on your hands. If you get a conservative judge, it’ll be hard to convince him to grant a gay man custody, no matter how they’ve treated the boys. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but she might be done with high school by the time… Shit. Chance, hang up and go into the other room. Logan’s going to put you on speakerphone.”

  Logan! How was he handling this? How would this change things? He adored the man and had no doubts that Logan loved him too, but it would be asking a lot of him to take on two teenagers. Teenagers tried the patience of a saint. Then again, the poor man had put up with Chance’s crazy anxiety so… Chance walked back into the kitchen and braced himself. If Logan needed to move out or break things off, he’d have to let him. He understood.

  “Hey, there,” Chance said lamely.

  “You have brothers,” Logan said with a small smile. “Come here.”

  Chance allowed Logan to pull him in for a one-armed hug. “Okay, guys, I’m here. What’s up?”

  “Chance, I still have-” Logan began.

  “Shut up!” Julian snapped.

  “Brat, be nice.”

  “You know they’re both idiots.”

  “Julian, get to the point,” Chance said, because he needed to get the moving-out conversation over with.

  “I’m going to ask you some yes-or-no questions. Don’t say anything else or I swear to Go- ow! Xander that hurt!” Logan snickered at whatever Xander had done to his brother. Xander told him to get on with it, so Julian said, “Chance is taking the boys in. Logan, do you want to-”

  “I understand if you want some time to get to know each other at first. Or for a while. And I don’t want to int-”

  “YES OR NO, LOGAN!”

  “I-still-have-the-apartment-if-you-want-me-to-move-out,” Logan said in a rush before his obnoxious little brother could interrupt him again. Chance tried to breathe. He’d seen this coming; Logan was only twenty-six.

  “I know you didn’t sign up for this…” Chance began.

  “No, you two are not doing this again!” Julian snapped. “Yes or no, Logan, do you actually want to move out? Or are you just being understanding?"

  “Ummm…” Logan looked at his hands. “I don’t want to move out. I mean, I really want to help, but I don’t ha-”

  “Good,” Julian said. “And Chance, do you want Logan to move out? Or are you just being understanding?”

  “I don’t want him to move out, but-”

  “Thank you. See? That wasn’t so hard. The twins have done enough ‘being understanding’ for all of us for the next decade, okay? They didn’t want to be a burden or come between the two of you, so-”

  “Are you kidding me?!” Chance screeched. “A burden?! Even if I lived in a one-room shack, I’d take them in in a heartbeat. No. I am coming to get them right now.”

  “I’ll come with you,” Logan said.

  “NO!” Julian and Xander shouted simultaneously. Xander told Julian to go ahead and speak for both of them. “They specifically asked to meet you at the bakery. Logan, get started on that cake we talked about. Chance, get your head together. We’ll see you in an hour.”

  And with that, Julian hung up. Logan turned to Chance, “You’re sure you don’t mind me sticking around?”

  “Of course not! I love you.” Chance wrapped his arms around his boyfriend and was enveloped in a proper hug; Logan gave the best hugs.

  “I’m so sorry your brothers are as stupid as we are,” Logan said. “We’ll have to work hard to let them know they’re welcome.”

  “Thank you, Sweets.” Reluctantly, Chance let Logan go. “I love you so much.”

  He sat down hard on the stool and stared at the half-decorated elf cookies he’d been working on.

  “Oh, I made a list! It’s kind of disorganized right now, but…” Chance grinned at his adorable boyfriend. Especially when Logan was anxious, he made lists for everything; this one seemed to be scribbled on the back of an order form. He went down the list: clothing, cell phones, computer, guardianship, health insurance, school, rules… “Those bedrooms upstairs need fixing up. We can paint the wood paneling, and they definitely need new carpeting because that green shag has creepy stains, and of course they need beds and dressers and desks. Oh, and if you want, Julian and I can drive to Boston to pick up their things on Tuesday because I know you might not want to deal with your dad and grandparents and all of-”

  Chance kissed him to stop the torrent of words. He could always trust his adorable boyfriend to think of everything; his list made this simultaneously overwhelming and a challenge he felt he might actually be able to tackle.

  “Thank you, Sweets. We should probably take them shopping before dinner, if they’re up to meeting everyone at dinner,” Chance said. “As for going to Boston, I’ll have to do that. After all, my sister might want to move here too. Can you believe it? I have a sister. And brothers. Holy shit.”

  Chance sat down on the stool at his little workstation and stared at his partially-decorated elf cookies. Amelia bustled in with a cake and began shouting commands from the customer, but he didn’t really hear her. Something about a Birthday Santa?

  “Oh god, what happened?” she asked Chance.

  “Chance has brothers, and they’re going to live with him, and they’re coming here in an hour. And you know the cake I made for dinner? Julian wants me to change the decorations, so I’ve got to get to work!” Logan blurted. “Chance, I’ll deal with the cake. Go upstairs or into the office and relax. Call your Nana and Dani. I’ll call my parents and give them a heads-up. Oh, and Greg too because I don’t know when they last saw a doctor and hadn’t Dean’s arm been broken?”

  “I think so.” Dad broke his arm. What kind of brother was he, that Chance had forgotten that? Granted, he didn’t know his brother was his brother at the time, but still…

  “Go on. I’ll try to keep Greg from telling Dani before you do.”

  “Shit, could you imagine the crap she’d give me? ‘Chester Horatio Blevins! Why did I have to hear this from Greg instead of my best friend?’ I’ll call her first,” Chance told him, giving his man a quick kiss before running off to make his calls.

  Dani listened and was supportive as he told her all his fears: What if they didn’t like him? What if only one brother liked him? Would they listen to him if he set down rules or told them to do their homework or gave them a curfew or made them use a swear jar? Despite the seventeen-year age difference, he was just their brother… When he slowed down, Dani told him to stop stressing out before he even met his brothers properly, and ordered him to wait a week before letting himself freak out. Chance put ‘Mental Breakdown’ into his phone’s calendar for next Sunday and suddenly felt calmer.

  Next, he called his Nana, who picked up on the first ring. “Chessy? What happened? Is everything okay?” Nana was the only person he allowed to call him Chessy, mostly because there was no way he could stop her. Every week they had scheduled video-chats, so he’d known a phone call might alarm her.

  “Everything’s fine. Well, it’s not fine, but it will be? Umm… Remember how you took me in when I was eleven?” God, he was such an idiot. What kind of question was that? “Of course you do. Never mind. What I’m trying to say is… You know how people say being gay can be genetic?” Chance poured the whole story out to her. Instead of stressing about the what-ifs, he told her the raw truth about what had happened.

  His Nana listened quietly and, when he wound down, told him, “If they’re anything like you, they’ll need to know that you’ll always be there, your love is unconditional, and that you’re happy to have them in your life.”

  “Do you think my sister’s okay? She’s been all alone with Grandmother and Grandfather for months.” Chance had only known them the way a ch
ild might, but Nana had dealt with them directly.

  “Yes,” she said without hesitation. “They’re strict, but they do care. Gigi will probably be fine once she knows you’re taking care of her brothers.”

  Chance checked his watch and realized that nearly an hour had passed, so he said goodbye to Nana and agreed to gather his brothers to video chat with her tomorrow night. He returned to the kitchen to find Amelia fixing Logan’s hair and trying to convince him not to check it out in the bathroom mirror; the green and red icing streaks remained in place. As soon as she spotted Chance, she ran away with a cake box, singing, “You can’t see it until laaaterrr!”

  Logan looked a little worried, so Chance crossed to him and wrapped his arms around his man, saying, “In case things get crazy and I don’t get the opportunity to tell you later, you are amazing and wonderful and sexy and I can’t believe you’re mine.”

  “I can’t believe it either, but for some reason you’re willing to put up with the big buffoon,” Julian quipped from the doorway. Julian knew –heck, everyone knew– that Chance was the lucky one. He wasn’t sure what he’d done in a past life to deserve Logan, but somehow this brilliant, sweet, loving man was actually willing to put up with all his insecurities and kitchen ineptitude and math geekiness. In fact, the crazy man loved him.

  Chance would have said something to that effect, but he was distracted by the two adorable, wide-eyed boys Xander was pushing into the room ahead of him. He ran over to them but paused a foot away and, instead of hugging them, held up a hand and did a weird little wave saying, “Hi, I’m Chance. Or Chester. Or…”

  One boy mirrored his awkward wave, and the other said, “We won’t call you Chester if you agree not to call us Axle and Diesel.”