Clang(4)

Jackson nodded. "Great. Carry this shit out for me, huh?" He handed Cam a plastic bin filled with barbecue tools.

"Sure, get me to do the heavy lifting," Cameron groaned. He pretended to struggle to haul the box outside.

Chase laughed. Cameron wasn't as muscled as Jackson, but he was pretty  built himself. He looked a bit thinner than when they'd last met,  though, and he was a little more on-edge.

"Can you take the corn out?"

"Yep." Chase carried the bucket of corn cobs outside to the table next  to the barbecue where Cam was setting up the tools. "How's work going?"  he asked Cameron. He remembered Jackson mentioning he was a beekeeper,  but he didn't know anything else.

"Oh, busy this time of year," Cameron admitted. "My boss gave me the day off to see the doctor."

Ahh, there is something up with him. Aw. "Yeah? Must be good to have a break."

Cameron nodded. "I've got this heart thing that rules out exercise. This  time of year's when all the heavy lifting happens... it's pissing me  off," he laughed.

"I bet. I hate slowing down for anything."

A somewhat familiar voice filtered through the fence gate before Noah stepped through. "Hey, babe. Oh  –  hello!"

Noah had directed the same art show where they'd all met. He was a bit  too... well... flamboyant for Chase's taste. Chase respected his  artistic vision. It was just hard to be around him for too long.
         

     



 
"Hi," Chase answered with an awkward little wave. "How's it going?"

"Oh, good, can't complain. Well, I can, but... nobody will listen," Noah lamented, glancing at Cameron.

"Nope. He just wrapped one art show but he's already taken on two  more... After complaining all summer about all the work they are."  Cameron rolled his eyes.

"I couldn't turn them down." Noah leaned in to kiss Cameron's cheek,  then nodded at Jackson as he emerged carrying a plate of burgers.

Chase smiled. "Where?"

"One's a private show by this rich art collector out in Oromocto. The  other's at the arts center downtown. I mean, it's a nonprofit... hence, I  can't say no. And the first one pays well."

"It's all about money," Chase chuckled. "I mean, yeah, sure, we love art... but..."

Noah half-smiled. "You can't eat art."

"Well, if it's mine, you could--" Chase broke off, realizing that was a bit of a morbid joke.

"Oh, Jesus!" Cameron laughed from behind Noah, handing corn cobs to  Jackson to throw on the grill. "No cannibalism jokes before supper."

Noah looked horrified, but he relaxed into a smile. There was a weird  pause. Chase couldn't think of anything to say, and apparently, neither  could Noah.

Chase moved towards Jackson instead. "Must have been a good summer for barbecuing." It had been hot and dry.

"Perfect. When the sun's starting to go down a little, early evening, it  cools off. Now we've got those gates in, it helps. There's less running  into and out of houses."

Cameron laughed. "Though certain people kicked out the boards in the fence before we were even moved in."

"Liar. All the boxes were inside, ergo, we were moved in." That was  someone Chase didn't recognize. He might have seen him at the show, but  he couldn't remember talking to him. He looked a lot like Cameron and  Jackson in the nose and eyes, but he was built like Chase or Noah  –   willowy and slender. He didn't dress as femininely as Noah, though.

It was hard to do anything as femininely as Noah.

"That's our brother Thomas," Jackson added, waving the flipper at him.  That easy way of being around each other made Chase's chest ache with  yearning.

He wouldn't mind having a family like this.

"Hi," Chase greeted, and Thomas nodded in return. "What's up?"

"Oh, long day at the bank, but I can't complain. Someone came in looking  for a savings account we've never offered. We're still not sure where  they heard about it from..."

Jackson laughed. "Drama, then."

"For Fredericton, that's drama," Thomas laughed. "And I feel about ten  times less likely to get shot here... I used to work in Halifax," he  added in explanation for Chase.

Chase nodded. "I've heard about it."

"Grab a plate. Corn's up, guys."

Even though he'd met Noah before the rest of them, Chase still wasn't  sure how to react when Noah pirouetted out of Jackson's way and everyone  grinned. Something prickled deep inside: resentment, maybe? That was  kinda weird.

Chase tried to put it aside and relax with the rest of Jackson's family.  Even if it was a painful reminder of what he'd lost, he refused to  think directly about that.

Chase was going to fucking have fun, and make friends he didn't fuck. He deserved that much.

You can't have this one. Just learn to be okay with that. Didn't stop  him from fantasizing a little about what it would be like to kiss  Jackson, though.





Chapter 5


Thomas


After the barbecue, Cameron headed to Noah's place and Jackson started  work at his forge. Thomas cleaned his kitchen and made his grocery list  while he had a moment to breathe. He left the window open to smell the  wood smoke from Jackson's forge.

Neither of them had someone else to cook for, so sometimes they cooked  supper together when Cam wasn't around. Jackson tended to go for easy  meals when others weren't there. Thomas, however, didn't mind cooking  for himself. Even at the end of a long week, it was a nice break. He  liked taking that time.

Thomas smiled as he glanced out across their yards from the kitchen  window, washing the last few pots. Cam was lucky that he'd met Noah  before even properly moving to the city. Thomas had moved back here at  the same time in May and Jackson had always lived here.

It's not like I don't try, though.

With that in mind, Thomas dried off his hands and grabbed his laptop.  Curled on the sectional couch, he first checked his dating site  messages, then browsed for local matches. He was used to seeing the same  few faces, but it was possible someone new had signed up.

There was a new match, and his photo looked weirdly familiar.

"Oh, Jesus."         

     



 

Jackson's Facebook profile photo for ages had been him in front of the  walking bridge in town. Before that, he'd had a handsome professional  shot taken of him while forging. Those two thumbnails showed up when  Thomas hovered over his profile.

His brother was on the dating site, too?

Fuck. Has he already seen me?

Thomas's hand almost shook. He navigated quickly to his recent visitors and scanned the list.

Nope. He'd found Jackson first.

He clicked back to the profile and blocked it before his nerves calmed.  It wasn't like it would be awful if Jackson figured out he was on the  dating site looking for men, but...

It was complicated and Thomas didn't want to get into thinking about it.  His two gay brothers of all people would be cool with it, but he didn't  want to talk to them. And for their part, neither of them had ever  bugged him, thank god.

He was curious, though. He hadn't heard Jackson mention online dating before. Might be worth stopping by for a chat.

Thomas closed his laptop and headed out to the workshop.

The muffled ringing of metal sounded through the door. Thomas padded  through the tall grass en route to the converted workshop building where  Jackson had installed his forge. It had been hell to get it up to code,  but Thomas knew Jackson was prouder of it than his own house now.

Thomas knocked, not that it would have made a difference, and let  himself in. He closed the door after himself to keep the sound down.

"Jesus, it's hot in here." Good thing he was just in a t-shirt and light jeans.

"Oh, I know." Jackson was shirtless and red-cheeked. His gaze was  utterly focused on the strips of metal he was hammering together. His  big brother was ripped, sweat running down his back as his biceps  rippled with the effort of joining metal to metal.

Sometimes Thomas felt bad that he didn't work out even a little compared  to his brothers. Then, he remembered that he liked pasta and hated  lifting weights. If he never landed a man because of it, fine.

Jackson paused to look over at Thomas. "You all right?"

"Oh, yeah," Thomas smiled. "Need any help?"

"Grab those metal bits and clean them up if you wanna help," Jackson  nodded. Thomas went over to start gathering them into a bucket. "Having  an exciting Friday night?"

"Not as exciting as yours," Thomas laughed. He examined a few cast-off  scraps, wondering if they could be turned into art pieces somehow. Some  of them were twisted in cool ways. Maybe that was Jackson's plan. "It  was cool to meet Chase earlier, though."

"Yeah, we have coffee now and then. He's nice. A little hard to read  sometimes, but nice." Jackson frowned at his metal piece, then folded  his arms.

"What's up?"

"Whenever I wonder why I don't have a boyfriend, two seconds later, I  geek out over these  –  no, seriously, look at these joins. C'mere. Look."