Page 40 of Balance

“I’ll talk to him, okay. I’m taking him to dinner tonight, and I’ll lay it all out for him.” I hated the idea. I knew that Troye was a good person who didn’t have some sort of ulterior motive, but Jett didn’t know that. And legally speaking, it made sense to protect Troye as well as protect ourselves.

“You know I don’t want to be right, don’t you?” Jett ran his hand through his hair. He was looking increasingly sheepish, which was par for the course after he realized that he’d tried to use his size to intimidate me.

Jett’s upbringing hadn’t been the best, and until he hit his senior year of high school, he’d been a scrawny, gangly, too-skinny teen unable to defend himself against his father, who was built broad and thick and was just as mean as he was wide. And though he didn’t mean to, and he worked hard not to, Jett’s defense mechanism was to puff up and make himself bigger. Because once he’d finally gotten big enough to rival his father’s size, the beatings had stopped.

He’d done a lot of work to try and deprogram himself so he didn’t default to being large and scary to get his own way when he felt threatened, but the fact he’d reverted back to that behavior was enough to make me understand I had to take him seriously.

Jett had put himself through college with scholarships and part-time jobs. He’d scrimped and saved and worked his ass off. This company was his baby. Our baby.

“I promise, I’ll either sort out a release with Troye, or I’ll scrap the project and brainstorm in-house. You should take the rest of the day off.” I clapped my hand onto his bicep and gave it a squeeze. “I know it’s hard on you when you get all puffer fish on people.”

Jett scowled at me, but there wasn’t any malice in it. “I hate you.”

“You don’t.”

“No, I think I really do. Just when I think you can’t possibly irritate me more than you already do, you prove me wrong. Puffer fish? Really?”

“Look in a mirror and tell me that I’m seeing things.”

Jett’s scowl intensified, etching lines deep into his face. His eyes narrowed and if looks could kill, I’d probably drop dead. “So much,” he said. “I hate you so much.”

“You adore me.”

“Not really,” Jett said, not meaning it, and he left me alone in my office to think about the conversation I needed to have with Troye.

CHAPTER 21

TROYE

“Guys, there is no collab. For the last time.” I’d ended my stream an hour ago, but I was still playing one of Gemstone’s older titles. And I might have let it slip to my mods, who were also my friends now, that I’d been to the head office of Gemstone Games recently.

I didn’t know how to tell them that I was sort of dating the CEO. Or that I called him Daddy sometimes. I didn’t even know if that was the kind of information that should be shared with people. But it was like there was a balloon inside me, and every time I breathed in, it expanded. The only way to get rid of it was to tell someone my secret.

But I wasn’t going to blast it on the internet for all to see and comment on. And what if I told the internet, and someone knew that he was daddy as fuck, and then they’d all know that he was my daddy. Catastrophize, me? Never.

There was a very real possibility that I was spinning out. I was about to call Matthew, because he was a good listener, when there was a knock at my door.

“Let me in, Troye. Don’t make me use my key.” The familiar threat got me to my feet, and I unlocked the door and let my neighbor slash best friend, slash moderator, Charlie inside.

Charlie and I had met the day I moved in. It was some time after my channel had really taken off, and I’d needed a bigger place to live. Before this, my set-up and I had been crammed into a studio apartment. It wasn’t ideal, and I’d made it work for far longer than I’d needed to.

Charlie knew who I was the minute he saw me, and it was weird to be recognized, but any apprehension I might have felt melted away when I realized Charlie was one of the most honest, genuine people I’d ever met.

“You’ve been out a lot more recently,” Charlie announced as he walked into my apartment. “Ask me how I know.”

Shutting the door behind him, I decided to cut straight through the bullshit and just tell him.

“I’ve been seeing someone.”

Charlie spun and looked at me, glee in his eyes, triumph scrawled across his face in the form of his wide smile. “I knew it.”

He hopped up onto my counter and sat there, feet swinging back and forth. “Tell me all about him. Where did you meet? What’s he like? I want all the details.”

“Well… actually hang on.” I went to my desk, ended my game and signed off before shutting down the computer for the day. When I came back to the kitchen, Charlie was still sitting on my counter, but now he had a cup of yogurt and was happily eating his stolen snack. I didn’t mind. Secretly, I kept food around just for Charlie like the yogurt he was eating. He’d let it slip that it was his favorite.

He pointed the spoon at me. “Details. Now. My curiosity demands it, and as my best friend, you’ve been holding out on me, so now to get back into my good graces, I need satisfaction.” Charlie lifted his chin into the air, giving him a regal sort of look. He might look more like the royalty he acted like if he wasn’t wearing mismatched socks.

“Would it satisfy you to know that I’ve been dating Matthew Kincaid, as in the CEO of Gemstone Games? As in the reason I was at the head offices last week.”