More Than A Manny: Gay Romance Read online

  "That doesn't leave us any time to hang out," Brent complained.

  "I'm not your nanny," Nate told him.

  "I'm way better than some old books," Brent claimed and bumped into his shoulder.

  "Not to me. This is important work. I'm lucky I got this chance."

  "You better save some time for me," Brent said as he stared at Nate intently.

  "I'll see if I can fit you in," Nate said with a smile.

  "I hope you mean that in the dirtiest possible way." Now Brent was grinning too.

  "I'm going to check Ricky's homework now," Nate said to him.

  Nate checked over Ricky's homework and Georgie's scribbles too. She was very proud of herself when he gave her his approval.

  When Nate turned back to where Brent had been leaning, he was gone. Realizing that he was hoping to see him still standing there, Nate smiled to himself. Brent was so attractive and guileless that Nate couldn't help liking him. He didn't really mind his blatant come-ons. His open nature and lack of seriousness were part of his appeal, though mostly he was just plain gorgeous. In particular Nate remembered Brent's pretty brown eyes looking at Nate while he was telling him all that stuff he called boring. It must be something to have those eyes to look into while coming, not to mention getting to enjoy everything else that came with the package. He wondered if Brent would make a more aggressive move one of these days. Nate didn't want to complicate his already busy life, or he might even take him up on it.

  Chapter 3

  The rest of Nate's day passed in the company of Ricky and Georgie as they showed him the grounds. It was amazing to walk and walk and not reach the fence. There were some paths and benches, but mostly it was just nature allowed to do its thing with minimal human guidance. The flowering plants were few and seemed like they belonged. There was plenty of shade under the big trees which looked untrimmed but probably were. Between the trees were a few sunny, open areas. Nate noticed Georgie looking in some bushes along the way.

  "What's she doing?" he asked Ricky.

  "She's looking for bunnies."

  "Bunnies are always hiding," Georgie complained.

  "That's because you're always chasing them," Ricky told her.

  "I want to play with them," Georgie said.

  "Quin told you bunnies are wild animals. They don't want to play with little kids," Ricky reminded her.

  "If you make so much noise, the bunnies will run away. Let's be quiet and sneak up on them," Nate suggested.

  She went along with that plan for about two seconds, then she was back to being Georgie. As they wandered aimlessly, she monopolized the conversation, if you can call it that. Ricky corrected her a lot, but she didn't let him get away with that without a fight. Brent caught up to them at one point and begged to be saved from John.

  "He's boring me with business," he said to Nate and the kids, pleading for their sympathy.

  Ricky made a long suffering face while Georgie was ready to play the hero to her lazy dad.

  "We'll help you, Daddy," she said.

  When his phone rang, Brent handed it to Georgie to answer. She was happy to chat with John, but he made her give the phone to Brent. Brent held the phone away from his ear as John yelled, "Get your ass back to the office, or I'll fucking quit!"

  Georgie burst into a cute little laugh while Ricky looked guilty for hearing bad words.

  "You didn't hear that," Nate told them. Only Ricky took him seriously. To Brent he said, "So John has a temper."

  "I bring out the worst in him," Brent admitted with a smile and made no move to do as he was told.

  "Get going already," Nate told him.

  Brent saluted Nate crisply, kissed Georgie and Ricky on the tops of their heads and ran back to the house.

  "You can do that? Pam couldn't make Brent do things," Ricky said almost like he thought it might be a special power Nate had.

  "Not really. That was just a fluke." Nate wanted to ask Ricky why he didn't call Brent Dad, but Ricky spotted Georgie trying to climb a tree and went over to pull her down. Of course that started a wrestling match and a screaming fit from Georgie. She was laughing again pretty soon though. The kids chased each other for a while and made Nate tired just from watching them.

  It was evening, and Nate was poking around in the kitchen when Brent came in. Georgie had asked for a snack, and that made Nate aware that it was dinnertime. He looked for something that needed minimal prep work or that he could just heat up, but he didn't see any suitable dinner options. When he mentioned this to Brent, he shrugged and said, "So what are you going to cook us?" He hopped up to sit on the kitchen counter. Nate was again struck by how attractive and almost irresistible he was. Nate looked away from those warm brown eyes and down to Brent's long legs in jeans, crossed at the ankles, his feet bare. Nate wanted to see those legs out of those jeans. But now it was time to deal with dinner.

  "I told you at the interview that I can't cook," Nate reminded him.

  "I wasn't listening. I was busy imagining you naked and then arranging you in different sex positions."

  "Can you cook?" Nate asked.

  "Come on, be serious," Brent said like expecting him to have any useful abilities was a ridiculous idea.

  "What about Quin and John?"

  "Yes, they can cook, but they went somewhere."

  "We have to feed those kids something. What did you do before?" Nate asked.

  "Me? Nothing. Pam cooked."

  "I'll dig around some more," Nate decided and turned back to give the huge fridge another try.

  Brent had a different idea as he came to lean on the fridge door so he could stand close to Nate. He ran his hand along the edge of Nate's shirt sleeve and said, "Let's go out."

  "The kids too right?" Nate said since Brent sounded more like he was asking him out on a date.

  "If they must."

  "I'll get them ready," Nate said.

  And he did know how to make a few basic things like pasta with sauce as long as a box and a jar were involved. He just didn't want Brent to get more out of him than he was paying for – in more ways than one.

  While Nate got the kids ready, Brent went to his room to change. And he did know how to cook a little. It was fun as long as he did it only when he felt like it and maybe experimented a little. Tonight he felt like going out with Nate even if it was just a family night and not something more adult and intimate. Normally he would have gone out by now to hang out with the guys, wasting some hours before it was late enough to show up at the clubs. Brent wouldn't have been back home till late or early. Today was different. He didn't want to miss out on spending time with Nate. And going out with the kids was always fun. Maybe even too much fun for Nate's first day on the job. But Nate seemed like a guy who could handle himself. His calm, strong demeanor was just one of his many attractive qualities.

  Brent put on a white dress shirt with a jacket and no tie. When he saw Nate and the kids coming down the stairs, he asked Nate, "Why didn't you dress up?"

  Nate hadn't changed his clothes at all. He still wore jeans and that checkered shirt with snaps instead of buttons. He looked hot, but Brent wanted to see him put in a little effort.

  "We are going out to eat with kids," Nate said like that was any excuse.

  "Why didn't you dress them up too? Ricky looks damn cute in a suit," Brent said.

  Ricky frowned at him as he came down the stairs.

  Georgie said, "I want to dress up." She ran in circles around Brent, who tried to catch her. She was wearing a denim skirt with random, colorful buttons sewn in all over and a shirt with a picture of balloons on the front. Ricky wore jeans and a buttoned down checkered shirt. Brent looked from him to Nate as they stood at the bottom of the stairs.

  "I hope we're going somewhere kid friendly," Nate said. Hearing all this talk about suits and dressing up must have worried him.

  "Sure," Brent said. He caught Georgie and lifted her high as she giggled.

  Nate didn't look like he believed him.<
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  Nate had been right not to believe Brent. The restaurant he took them to wasn't fancy but it was definitely trendy. The decor was a mix of grungy modern and traditional Asian, Nate guessed Indonesian.

  "This is not kid friendly," he told Brent as they walked up to the doors, and Nate could see it better. It was the kind of place where you take a date you want to impress if you are lucky enough to be able to afford it. Nate expected not to be able to recognize any of the menu items as food.

  Brent carried Georgie, and Nate went in with his hand on Ricky's shoulder. In a metallic mosaic by the entry, Nate caught a glimpse of a slightly distorted reflection of a gay couple with their two kids. It made for a nice picture. Nate looked over at Brent as he spoke to the very pretty hostess, who addressed him as Mr. Leighton as soon as they walked in. One thing was for sure, wearing a suit and holding Georgie, Brent looked amazing. Nate wasn't sure he could get in dressed the way he was. Luckily the place didn't have a dress code, and they got a table quickly. Nate wondered if it was Brent's influence. He did ask for a table in the middle of everything.

  "A table out of the way would be better so we don't disturb too many of the other patrons," Nate said to the hostess.

  The hostess looked at Brent for the decision.

  "Whatever he says," Brent told her.

  Once they went in, Brent gave the seating arrangement no thought, but Nate decided that it was best if the kids sat across from each other. That put Brent and Nate on opposite sides of the table as well, and that was probably also for the best. You could call it a look but don't touch arrangement. It put them out of reach while giving Nate the best view in the place. Brent grinned at him like he knew what he was thinking, all of it.

  Nate found that the menu wasn't bad at all, but as his mother would say, the prices were so high you could get a nosebleed. Ricky read some of the menu items aloud. He had trouble with quite a few of them. Puzzled by how to pronounce them, he looked at Nate, but Brent was more help.

  "I like pineapple," Georgie piped up when she heard the words pork satay in pineapple sauce.

  "I guess you made your choice then," Brent said.

  Nate got a plum brandy braised beef, which came with a spicy parsnip puree.

  "It says assorted vegetable crisps. Is that the one I like?" Ricky asked Brent.

  "That's the one, and pecan crusted chicken."

  When the food arrived, Georgie wanted to eat from everyone's plate. They each gave her a taste. She mostly ate with her hands.

  "My Georgie is a dining nightmare," Brent said as he wiped her face.

  She only laughed.

  "It's not her fault she doesn't know how to eat," Ricky said in her defense.

  "No one is saying it is," Nate told him while Georgie protested that she did know how to eat. She showed Ricky the partially chewed food in her mouth to prove it. "No one needs to see that," Nate said to her.

  "It's fun to tease Georgie. She's a good sport. See?" Brent told him.

  It was true. Georgie liked anything her father said to her. But soon she gave Ricky's plate some attention. While she was stealing the crispy vegetables that came with his order, Ricky pretended he didn't notice. Georgie looked at her father conspiratorially and giggled. Acting oblivious, Ricky let her think she was getting away with something. When Nate gave Ricky an approving smile, he turned away, a little embarrassed. He seemed most comfortable acting the part of the grouchy, big brother.

  "Bathroom!" Georgie announced suddenly and too loudly.

  Brent sighed and got up to take her. That reminded Nate that he needed to know the procedure for taking a little girl to a public restroom.

  When Brent came back carrying Georgie, he stopped by the table and nudged her.

  "Now you say it," he whispered to her.

  "Mission accomplished!" Georgie said and raised her arms in the air while Brent held her up.

  "So what do you do? Do you take her to the ladies' room?" Nate asked once they were seated. "My cousins were both boys. I just had to make sure they washed their hands after."

  Brent explained his own procedure for taking Georgie to the ladies' room.

  "I just yell out 'Fire in the hole! Man coming in!'"

  "And Georgie!" Georgie said.

  "That's what she yells," Brent said and tickled her.

  "I will not be yelling 'fire in the hole,'" Nate told him.

  "Announce yourself however you like," Brent said.

  Then Ricky spoke up.

  "John and Quin ask a lady to tell the other ladies."

  "That's a good idea. Thanks," Nate said to him.

  Now that both kids were at the table again, it didn't take long for them to lose interest in food and start messing around. Their sometimes noisy antics earned them a few glares from the other diners. Brent didn't seem to care, if anything he encouraged them. Georgie went under the table. While Ricky seemed like he wanted to stay on his best behavior, he couldn't help crawling under the table after her.

  When Brent did nothing about this, Nate leaned down, stuck his head under the table and told the kids, "You need to get back in your seats now. This is not a playground."

  Georgie peered at him like she had no intention of taking him seriously despite his gruff tone, but with Ricky's encouragement, she was sitting in her chair again. Within minutes, she was trying to kick Ricky under the table. Her little legs couldn't reach him, but she could reach Brent's and Nate's knees just fine. Watching Brent and Nate try to get her to stop kicking them, Ricky laughed despite himself.

  "Sorry, Daddy. Sorry, Nate," she would say then she would be back at it again.

  Finally Brent just took off her shoes.

  "That should minimize the damage," he said and gave her shoes to Ricky. Now Georgie was in her socks and out of her chair. Ricky and Brent were playing keep away with her shoes while she squealed.

  "Can we have the check, please?" Nate asked their waiter when he passed by. Not that Nate had any intention of paying it. He didn't even want to look at it. The waiter knew to hand the check to Brent. He didn't look at their bill either, just handed over a credit card and told the waiter, "Thirty-five percent."

  Seeing that they were about to leave, Georgie started asking for dessert.

  "We'll go to Bessy's," Brent said.

  That got a cheer from Georgie, and Ricky's eyes lit up.

  Bessy's was a hole in the wall ice cream sandwich shop. They had every kind of ice cream and every kind of freshly baked cookie to choose from. Soft ice cream scoops were served between two large cookies or three if you ordered a triple-decker, which was called a Messy Bessy. It was messy eating no matter what you ordered. That's why the ice cream sandwiches came with a side order of wet napkins. Georgie needed several. Maybe it lacked dignity, but Nate couldn't deny that it was delicious.

  After they took the long way home, Georgie led the way through the dark house faster than Brent could turn the lights on along the way. She stopped in one of the sitting rooms on the first floor. When she pointed out the window, Nate saw why she picked this room. There was a fountain right outside, lit up with lights that changed color. Georgie called out the colors. It appealed to Georgie, but it wasn't exactly tasteful. The light show didn't fit in with anything inside or outside the house.

  "Greta would kill me. I had them put in the lights for Georgie," Brent whispered in Nate's ear like he had guessed what he was thinking. "You made a face," he said to explain his clairvoyance.

  Brent's voice made Nate's spine tingle. With Brent standing so close, Nate felt a strong urge to just lean into him. He pushed back those impulses. But when Brent went to sit on the sofa, Nate took a seat next to him even though there were other options. It wasn't as good as the full body contact he craved, but it was still nice.

  While it had seemed garish at first, the changing light outside became soothing as it transformed in slow rhythm. It lit up the water, the wet stone of the fountain, and the trees around it. Georgie was bored with the view already. She
gathered a few of the knick-knacks and started playing with them. Some of them were definitely breakable. Of course Brent did nothing to stop her and stopped Nate when he tried.

  "Let her. If she breaks something, we'll take it away from her so she doesn't cut herself." That was Brent's concession to responsible parenting.

  "She has actual toys. I know because they are spread all over the house." Nate had seen a doll stuck in the sofa cushions, another one was in a potted palm in the foyer, a doll's head was propped up on a candleholder, the rest of its body on the stairs, and various accessories and stuffed toys were everywhere else. And this was all before he had even had a proper tour of the place. "I don't even want to know how much those tchotchkes are worth," Nate said to Brent as they watched Georgie playing with them.

  While she was busy, Ricky looked a little fidgety. To keep him amused, Brent did something on his phone then handed it to him. Ricky took it excitedly and became absorbed in it.

  It wasn't long before Brent turned and gazed at Nate. Leaning in, he nuzzled him. Nate gave him a look that stopped him dead.

  "How many dates before I get some?" Brent asked him.

  Nate was pretty sure the kids wouldn't know what they were talking about so he answered.

  "Two. But don't start counting until you actually take me out on one," Nate told him.

  Brent squinted at him then leaned his head on Nate's shoulder. Nate let him. It gave him a good feeling, and it wasn't anything the kids shouldn't be exposed to. Looking up from the phone, Ricky did stare at them for a while. He went back to what he was doing when Nate winked at him.

  "Are we supposed to be keeping the kids up so late?" Nate asked after seeing Georgie yawn.

  "I don't make the rules," Brent said, abdicating responsibility and not moving his head from Nate's shoulder.

  "Who does?" Nate asked him.

  "John? Quin? Ricky? Hey, Georgie, you in charge?" Brent said to her, but she was too distracted by her project to answer.