Page 79 of Playing His Game

Adam shook with laughter and handed him a washcloth.

After they secured towels around their waists and Adam checked the coast was clear, they hustled to their bedroom. The house sounded deserted, but Mo refused to risk getting caught mid-flight by Adam’s returning family.

Not that he cared. Well, notreally. Okay, so he didn’t want them to think that he was a bad influence, making Adam do slutty things like have sex in the middle of the day in his parents’ house.

“You know,” Mo said once they were once again behind closed doors, “if you were going to tackle me in the middle of the day, we could have rented a hotel room.” What would a Fredericton hotel would be like? They probably had at least one posh place, probably two if there was a historical one.

“Why would I do that?” Adam looked baffled.

Mo shrugged, dropped his towel, and shimmied into underwear. “I don’t know, privacy? More banging time? An en suite so we don’t have to skulk around your parents’ basement?”

Adam stopped dressing. He stared at Mo, standing in just his briefs, pants held at his side. “I only have five days off. Why would I want to spend time away from my family? And why do you think this is my parents’ house?”

Mo finished buttoning his jeans, then looked at Adam. “It’s not?”

“How much money do you think teachers make?” His lips quirked.

Mo crossed his arms. “I don’t know.”

“Well, they definitely don’t make enough to afford four-thousand-square-foot homes on three acres. Even in New Brunswick real estate.” Adam was definitely smiling now.

“You could have chipped in,” Mo argued for some reason.

“I offered. They didn’t want to move out of the house where they raised us.” He shrugged and resumed putting on his pants.

Of course they didn’t. But if the house was outside a teacher’s budget, that meant it wasn’t in Chelsea’s either. “So… this isyourhouse?”

That made no sense.

“Yeah. Need somewhere to live in the summer.”

Mo stared. Watched Adam’s beautiful chest disappear behind a T-shirt, then a sweater. And became abruptly aware of his own naked torso. He turned to find something clean. Damn that this morning’s hoodie was now all sweaty.

“If it’s your house, why the hell aren’t you in the master bedroom?” Because what the fuck.

“Why would I be? My parents need more space than me. And they’re here longer, have to come early to set things up. They usually stay here now with Chels, Simon, and Chuckie for at least a week around Christmas so they can share holiday and child-minding duties.” He shrugged.

“Didn’t you say they all live in Fredericton?” A bubble of hysteria floated up Mo’s stomach.

“Sure. But they don’t live in the same house.”

Mo was talking to a crazy person. “Adam… how far away do they live?”

“I don’t know, five, ten minutes?”

“Why the fuck do you stayin the same house?”

Adam stared back, reflecting Mo’s confusion. “I only have five days off, and that’s a lot this year. I don’t want to miss time with them.”

Mo dry-washed his face and tried to take this in. Adam apparently bought a house in his hometown big enough to hold his extended nuclear family so he could put them all up during the holidays and get every second possible with them,even thoughtwo-thirds of them lived in that same town. Adam could have stayed with his parents, surely. But no, staying with a third of his family wasn’t good enough. What the fuck.

“Wait, wait, your mom was talking about having someone come in to fix the dishwasher less than a week ago,” Mo said stupidly. His brain refused to adjust to this reality where Adam owned a house where he slept in the worst bedroom. Seriously, it was tiny and in the basement. It didn’t even have decent windows—they were basement safety in-case-of-fire escape windows, since it sat at the front of the house, instead of the back, which was entirely ground floor and opened up onto the yard.

Adam said a little defensively, “I leave a card to pay for house stuff,” like that was the point.

Mo laughed. He couldn’t help it. “Your house haspetty cash.”

“Well, I can’t have my parents pay for maintenance or to stock the kitchen. You did notice the bill total earlier, right?” Of course Mo had noticed how much the cart of alcohol had cost, he just hadn’t thought anything of it. Now that he stopped to think about it, though, he guessed most people probably couldn’t afford a drinks bill with four figures.