Bittersweet Irish Cream Ch. 19

"Because I wanted him to know that as an adult I now know that I was too young. But I didn't have any adults to talk to about what I was going through, except Father O'Donnell a little. I advised him to talk to Father too. And talk to you."

Ethan sighed. "Did he ask how many partners you've had?"

"No. But if he did I would have told him."

"Okay I'm glad he didn't ask. Because that's not information he needs."

Jack smirked at Ethan. "Maybe not from you. I know the names of all my partners. Can you say the same?"

Ethan smiled. "Every man went through a slutty stage at some point, gay, straight or otherwise. Mine was in college."

Jack shook his head. "I didn't."

Ethan scoffed again. "When I met you, you were hooking up with Yosef the ShopRite manager."

"Yup," Jack said. "And he and I had been hooking up since my 17th birthday. On and off for six years. My only FWB."

"Seriously?" asked Ethan, astonished. "All your other partners were relationships?"

"That's right." Jack started counting his fingers, "Chris, Connor, Kyle, Maurice, Tae, then you."

"Pfff, that sounds like my first Spring Break," Ethan said, making Jack laugh out loud.

"Okay so maybe I need to be the one to talk to EJ, not you," Jack said. "Because I took sex and my sexuality very seriously."

"And I didn't? Just because I had more hookups than you doesn't mean sex and relationships weren't important to me." Ethan gave him a look. "You sound like a judgy church lady."

"You had a plethora of opportunities growing up in the city then going to college. I did not. I took opportunities as they came to me but I was still selective on who I slept with. If you and I had maintained our friendship, I was never going to sleep with you."

Ethan scoffed a third time. "We would have absolutely been fucking," he said confidently. "I would have replaced Yosef as your FWB."

"How you figure that?" Jack asked with both eyebrows raised.

Ethan leaned into the table and said, "Because none of them boys you counted on your fingers could make you cum like I can."

Jack leaned into the table too and said, "But I would have never known that. Because we wouldn't have been fucking."

"Oh I would have found a way to slip my dick in you," Ethan said, getting in Jack's face. "That smart mouth, arrogant garbage kid would have been bent over my office desk one way or another. Hollering my name. Eeeeeeethaaaan...."

"You cocky bastard," Jack said softly, his green eyes twinkling in amusement. "You think it would have been that easy to get me to bend over for you without a commitment?"

"Well you did bend over for me pretty quickly after we decided to make it official," Ethan said back softly. "Laying in my bed rubbing your ass all on me that night, practically begging for me to make you mine. Didn't take you long at all."

"Didn't take you long to open them cheeks up for me either," Jack said right against Ethan's lips. "You wanted to switch for the smart mouth, arrogant garbage kid from the first time I smiled at you ten years ago." Jack stuck his tongue out and licked Ethan's bottom lip.

They were face to face, staring at each other. Jack reached over first, grabbing the back of Ethan's neck and pushing their lips together. Ethan did the same, grabbing onto Jack's neck, and pushed his tongue through.

Ethan pulled back first and growled, "Get over here." He didn't wait for a response, practically pulling Jack over the table.

Jack allowed it, crawling across plates and falling into Ethan's lap. The chair fell over completely with both of their weights, crashing onto the floor.

"Ow!" Ethan cried. "That was a lot sexier in my head." He touched the back of his head with another "Ow."

Jack laughed and rolled off him. "We're old, man. Not as sprightly as we used to be."

Ethan looked at him and smiled. Jack smiled back. They moved toward each other and began to kiss and take off clothing, ending up making love under the dining room table.

~~~

Jack opened his eyes, thinking it was 4am but it was only 2am, around the same time that his son would wake up. Remembering that Jamie wasn't there, he sighed. He reached out to an empty bed.

"E?" Jack called out.

"In the living room," Ethan said back.

Jack left the bed to find Ethan sitting on the couch watching Bright on Netflix with the sound very low and the brown throw around him. The box of cheesecake was half eaten on the coffee table.

When Jack approached him, Ethan said, "Will Smith still looks good, doesn't he?"

Jack watched the show for a moment. "Aging like fine wine. Will was my teenage crush."

"Was he?" Ethan said, looking up in surprise.

"Definitely. I was obsessed. What all my wet dreams were made of," Jack said dreamily.

Ethan laughed. Then his smile turned into a frown. "I miss my sons."

Jack nudged Ethan to move over and sat next to him. Ethan held the throw open and Jack got under the covers with him. He laced their fingers together. "Me too. It's too quiet. I'm missing all of my kids."

Ethan said, "God, EJ is growing up so fast, isn't he? Can't believe he's going to be a teenager in less than a year. It seems like yesterday he was just a baby. That chubby face toddler I used to sit out front to watch the garbage truck come by every Friday."

Jack smiled. "Yea. He had such a squeaky voice, 'Truck!' It made my heart melt every time I saw him."

"Man, he was the cutest. He went everywhere with that toy truck. I wonder where it is now?"

"It's with Jamie's things," Jack told him. "He hasn't discovered it yet."

Ethan sighed. "I really miss my boys. My smart mouth pre-teen and my baby."

"They'll be back today, E." They were quietly watching when Jack spoke again. "What do you say we head over to Connor and Jamel's for breakfast in a few hours? The girls will be up by six anyway."

"Yea, let's do that," Ethan agreed. He was quiet again then said, "Jack, if we lose Jamie to them, I don't know what I will do. It'll break me."

"I'm going to do everything within my power to not let that happen," Jack said solemnly. "We won't lose Jamie and you won't break. I promise you on my life, Ethan. We will not lose Jamison." Ethan put his head down on Jack's shoulder in comfort.

~~~~~

Late on Sunday afternoon Jack received a phone call from an unknown number. "Hello?"

"Pop!" he heard EJ yell.

"EJ? Whose number are you calling from?"

But another voice spoke. "Mr. Frazier, this is the driver, Clayton Byberry. The car has arrived. Please collect your children in front of the premises."

He looked at Ethan with a sour look on his face. "What?" Ethan asked.

"I have to go collect our children," Jack said. He put on his sneakers and went upstairs.

He immediately saw the black town car. The driver came out of the car and went around to the back door to open it. His eldest came tumbling out. "Hey Pop! We got a limo! How cool is that!?"

Jack smiled at his son despite his annoyance. "It's not a limo. But where are your grandparents? They didn't take the ride with you?" He reached in and unbuckled Jamie out of the car seat to lift him up. "Missed you, little guy," he said softly in his neck.

EJ said, "No, they said we would be fine. They trust Clayton. He's cool, he let me pick the music the whole way."

"That's great," Jack said dryly. "Go get the bags." He turned to the driver. "Thank you for bringing them back safely."

"Of course, sir. I'll see you in two weeks. You all have a great day." Clayton waited until EJ grabbed all the bags, gave him a dap and left.

Jack went inside as EJ talked up a storm about going shopping and having his room set up so that he can come every weekend that the Reedlins had Jamie if he wanted; how the car was packed with snacks so he was basically not hungry; how Jamie was good all weekend and smiled a lot.

As soon as they stepped into the apartment, Ethan quickly took Jamie from Jack's arms and put raspberries on his neck. EJ frowned. "Daaaag, did you miss me too, Dad?" he said sarcastically.

Ethan smiled, gave Jamie back to Jack and lifted EJ off his feet. He started kissing his face over and over again. EJ howled, "Oh my God, let me gooooooo!!!"

Ethan laughed and put EJ down. "I missed you a hell of a lot, kid."

EJ shook his head. "Okay, but don't do that again." He went into the kitchen for a soda.

Ethan took the baby back from Jack's arms. "Since you already have shoes on, go get the dinner from Red Rock that I ordered," he told Jack.

"That's fine because you're paying for it." Jack held out his hand. Ethan smiled and went into his wallet to hand him the debit card and Jack turned around and walked the two blocks down, two blocks over to the restaurant.

He went right to the bar and raised his hand to get BJ's attention. BJ raised his hand to acknowledge him but he was with another customer so Jack waited. He looked around and tried not to make a face. Matty was two empty seats away from him, bending over his drink looking miserable. Jack glanced at him, then glanced away.

BJ went to Matty first and said, "That one in your hand is your last one. I'm cutting you off." Matty glared at him as he walked closer to Jack. "Hey, Jack."

"Hey BJ. Picking up," said Jack.

"It's not ready yet, another couple of minutes," BJ told him. "But you can pay now. It's $68 even."

Jack pulled out Ethan's bank card and gave it to BJ to charge. Once completed BJ handed it back and went to serve another customer. Jack sat down in the nearest stool, flipping the card in his hand, deep in thought.

Matty began talking. "Freddie said EJ's brother spends weekends with his grandparents now. EJ called, said he was with them."

Jack hated talking to Matty. It always ended up in him wanting to do serious bodily harm to him. But he acknowledged him anyway.

"Yup," Jack said without looking at him. "Not every weekend but twice a month. But this was just the first weekend."

"Well," Matty said, "You got more time with your daughters. Teach them how to be young ladies, not a little slut like my daughter." He snorted and took another drink.

Jack couldn't help it. He turned to him in disgust. "Did you really just call your own daughter a slut?" Matty didn't answer at first, just took another sip. Jack scoffed, shook his head and turned away.

"Madeline is pregnant," Matty spoke. "My first born, my baby girl, seventeen and pregnant, just like Stephanie was. Just like I was," he said bitterly.

A very small part of Jack felt sorry for Matty. "It's not the end of the world, Matt. You and Stephanie were kids but you made it work, with the support of your parents. So support her decision and be there to love her, not call her names or chastise her."

Matty looked at him angrily. "There is no decision. She's gonna marry that dumb fuck who knocked her up and take responsibility for her mistakes."

BJ came back out with Jack's food all bagged up and placed it in front of him. Jack sighed internally but did not speak, letting Matty continue to vent.

"I raised my children to be good and pure, have a moral compass, not to be sluts and whores. But I got one daughter who is knocked up, another daughter who skips out of Mass and does God knows what because she barely talks to me and always on her fucking phone, and a son who hangs out with people like... you."

Jack scoffed out a laugh as he took the bags off the counter. "Good luck with all that."

He stood up and turned to walk away when Matty spoke again. "You know that's the only reason why I let Freddie hang out with EJ. EJ needs someone to be a good influence on him. How to be a boy and grow up to be a good man full of morals. A manly man."

Jack slowly turned back around, annoyed at his audacity. BJ tapped Matty's arm with the back of his hand and said, "Shut the fuck up." He said to Jack, "Ignore him, he's drunk and feeling sorry for himself. He just wants to pick a fight with someone."

"Well lucky for him I promised Ethan that I wouldn't touch one hair on his head," he told BJ. "No matter how much of an asshole he is."

Matty laughed and slurred his words, "Hey, somebody gotta show that pure boy how to be a real man. Cuz he ain't learning that from the two of you."

Jack gave him a nasty look. "So it makes you feel like a real man to beat up on a 12-year-old? Your own son? Yea, real manly of you."

Matty looked around at who might have heard, then looked at Jack angrily. "I'm not going to apologize to you or to anybody for disciplining my son the right way. Maybe if you had a daddy who slapped you around some, you wouldn't be the sissy you are today."

BJ tapped him again, harder this time. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

But Jack answered back, "Well your daddy beat the shit out of you regularly and you're still a pussy."

Matty stood up quickly and got in Jack's face. Jack calmly put the food down on the nearest table. BJ scoffed. "C'mon y'all, not tonight. Matty, don't make me kick you out. Jack, he's drunk, walk away." They both ignored him.

Matty said, "There's only one pussy I see and it's you."

Jack answered, "And yet, you been avoiding me all these years since I beat the shit out of you right outside this bar. What, you got a little liquid courage and think you can take me, you homophobic piece of shit?"

"You got lucky. Why don't you sucker punch me again and see what happens now?"

Jack really really wanted to. But he again remembered his promise. So he backed up slowly and reached for the bag again. BJ let out a sigh of relief, knowing Jack had zero restraint once the confrontation became physical. But then Matty spoke again.

"Yea, that's what I thought," Matty sneered. "Now get the fuck outta here before I make you suck my dick." He grabbed his genitals.

Jack smiled sarcastically, looked down and back up at him. "Is that why you're in my face? Because your ice queen bitch of a wife won't suck your little ass dick so you need a real man to?"

Matty was pissed that he brought Stephanie into their argument. "No, because it's the only thing you're good at, you fucking fag."

Jack had had enough. He quickly grabbed Matty's shoulders and headbutted him, then lifted up his knee smashing it hard into Matthew's groin. Matty howled and fell to the floor.

Matty grabbed onto himself and screamed at Jack, "You sonofabitch!"

BJ ran around the bar to stop Jack from attacking him again but Jack had already turned around and walked out with his food. So BJ just shook his head at Matty still crying and rolling around on the floor of his bar in tremendous pain.

When Jack arrived back home he put the bags on the table. Ethan walked over to him and looked at him closely. "Why do you have a knot on your head? What the fuck happened?"

Jack looked at Ethan and said with a straight face, "I didn't touch any hairs on his head."

Ethan opened his mouth, then closed it. He shook his head and went into the freezer to grab a bag of frozen peas, and kissed Jack's bruise before he placed the bag on it.