Justin couldn’t believe he was doing this. Once Brian had dropped him off, he had to think about the pros and cons about the new job and the house. The pros outweighed the cons, by a big margin. There was no way he could keep the kids if Tara found out about living in Daphne’s little apartment. He had been lucky to keep it from her this long. Thankfully, when she started this he was still living in his and Ethan’s home. He had to give that up when the lease ran out, and the landlord wouldn’t renew to him.

When Molly and the kids got home that night, he had brought up the idea about the house. Molly had been ecstatic, Nanette had been happy about getting all her stuff out of storage, Mika on the other hand was worried about the move. But all in all, they agreed the job and move would be what would benefit them the most. Before bed he had called Brian to officially accept the job and house. Brian had him meet at the Liberty Diner the next day with the paperwork for both. Brian was meeting his realtor at the Diner and going to look at places for his office after that.

The next week was busy for everyone. Brian was starting an agency in his office while waiting for the renovations on the building he bought for the office to complete. Justin thought it was funny that it once had been the Baths, a place Ethan would have never been. But Brian was just waiting to turn it in to his office building. The differences between Ethan and Brian were like night and day. Sadly, even though he liked Brian, he felt he was cheating on Ethan. Also, now that he was working for Brian it was best to keep their relationship strictly professional. Justin was busy himself, doing everything Brian asked him to from his house and putting the house together.

He and Daphne had moved everything from storage to the new house, Daphne even gave Molly her extra bed. The twins were sharing a room but that’s what they preferred anyway. Setting up his bedroom was hard. There was so much stuff of Ethan’s and not very much of his. Ethan very much had to have everything just the way he wanted. He didn’t like any of Justin’s artwork or his supplies in the room.

It was the first Saturday night since he moved into the house next door to the Kinneys. He had noticed that Brian never came home until late, probably chasing down clients. He had sent Justin several ideas that he wanted him to follow. Justin’s first task was to come up with a logo. Justin was having trouble making BriKin work. Brian Kinney was a genius when it came to all this Ad agency stuff, but Justin was sure the name was wrong. Following his own idea instead, he came up with the design for Kinnetik, and had sent it too Brian. That had been earlier in the day and he hadn’t heard anything from him. He wondered if he were already fired from this job.

Justin was waiting for Molly to get home from her date, flipping through channels. Now that she had a home with a room of her own, she could be just a normal teenager. She had been different since they moved in, almost like she was freer. Before they moved, she seemed to be worried that he would change his mind and not take her. But after the move, it was like she knew he wasn’t going to abandon her. It made him angry at his parents all over again.

Just as he found something to watch, someone knocked on the door. Standing, he felt the cool wood floor under his bare feet. The house was a dream come true, he just wished he could fell comfortable in it.

Opening the door, he was greeting to the sight of a beautiful but visibly exhausted Brian Kinney.

“Hey, what are you doing here this time of night?” he asked.

“Sorry, I realized when I pulled in the drive that I forgot to send you a message about the name. I really like it and the logo. But that meant I had to put some work into changing everything on the paperwork. You are now looking at the owner of Kinnetik.”

“That’s great, Brian.”

“I thought we could continue where we left off,” he said seductively.

“About that,” Justin hedged. “Now that you’re my boss, I don’t think there should be anything but work between us.”

He watched Brian’s face, waiting for the anger at being led on. But that didn’t happen, Brian just shrugged. “No problem. I’ll message you later about a potential client I’m working on.”

One last smirk and he was gone. That wasn’t at all what he was expecting. When Ethan hadn’t gotten his way, or if Justin just wasn’t in the mood, he accused Justin of being a tease. But Brian hadn’t done that, he accepted his decision and went on with life. Justin didn’t know how he felt about that. Thankfully, headlights in the drive told him Molly was home, taking his mind off his boss.

He could finally relax at home for more than a night. The whole weekend was his. He was going to spend time with his kids and maybe go out and have a little adult time too. When Justin had shot him down a week ago, he had been a little letdown, but he was an adult and could take rejection. Not only that, there where tons of guys who would love to be with him. He hadn’t fucked around as much as he had planned when he was a hormone driven teenager, kids are the ultimate cockblock. But he wasn’t a sexless drone either, that was Ted.

Just as he was thinking about getting up for the day, he heard the doorbell ring. He knew at least two of the boys were up, so he took his time getting ready. He planned to take Gus out for some bonding. They hadn’t talked more than the bare minimum since he got back from his trip. Everything had happened so fast, he lost his job, started up Kinnetik, there were other things he had to do. But now, he needed to fix his family, starting with his oldest.

He was standing in front of his closet when his door was opened.

“Dad?”

“Yeah,” he said, still looking over his choices for the day.

“Can I talk to you?”

He had been planning to talk but he wanted to do it while they were out. “Sure.”

“I was wondering if I could go out tonight,” he said, Brian looked at him and it looked like he was blushing.

“Going over to one of your friend’s house?” he asked suspiciously.

“No, well…you see…Isort’vehaveadate,” he said, jumbling his last words together.

“Say that again.”

“I sort’ve have a date.”

It wasn’t unexpected, he was fifteen after all. He’d been on group dates for two years now. But he guessed this was going to be different. There were many things he had to get used to since his boys became teenagers. Making sure his kids knew he was on his way to their room, giving them time to clean up. Knocking on the doors loudly. Making the kids do their own laundry, he wouldn’t touch their clothes to save his life.

“A date? With who?”

“The girl next door. Molly Taylor. Her brother works for you.”

She was a year older than Gus but that wasn’t Brian’s real problem. He had seen the girl come home from several different dates. He didn’t want his son’s heart to be broken. Knowing it was the way of life, he had no choice but to give his ok.

“Alright, but you and I are going to run some errands today.”

“Daaad.”

“No arguing. Who was at the door?”

“Some guy, told him he had the wrong house.”

“Where was he going?”

“Next door to Molly’s to see her brother.”

“Who was it?” he asked, wondering who would be visiting Justin this early in the morning.

“What do I look like his parole officer?” he asked snottily before leaving the room.

Don’t kill the boy. Don’t kill the boy.

Shaking off his agitation that he was sure was because his smart mouthed son, not that some unknown man was visiting Justin. It didn’t bother him in the least that Justin could be seeing someone new. Not one little bit.

That’s what he told himself after his shower when he made his way over next door. All he wanted to do was make sure there wasn’t a problem.

Ringing the doorbell, he waited. A red-head he recognized as Justin’s sister Molly answered.

“Can I help you?”

“I’m here to see Justin. I’m Brian Kinney.”

“I know who you are Mr. Kinney. You’re Gus’ dad.”

Great, now he was known as someone’s dad. He might as well go get a walker and hearing aid.

“Yeah. Right, anyway, Justin?”

She shuffled her feet a little, looking a bit embarrassed. “He’s in his room with someone.”

Really? He was having sex in the house during the day with a strange man while his sister and children home. Even Brian never did that, his children didn’t need to know about his sex life. Looks like he and Justin weren’t on the same wavelength as he thought.

“Alright, just tell him to be on time Monday morning.”

They were working out of his office in the building while the rest was being renovated. It had been the first completed.

“You are an idiot,” Justin snapped. He couldn’t believe Collier had gotten himself in such a mess.

“Tell me something I don’t know. I couldn’t help it, when he looked at me, it was like all he saw was me.”

Justin pushed the clothes he had been sorting on the bed off, they plopped on the floor. “Sit, I don’t think your brain can help you stand anymore.”

Collier landed face first on Justin’s multicolored duvet. He said something, but it was muffled in the bedding.

“What?” Justin asked, sitting down beside him.

Turning over, Collier huffed, pushing himself into a sitting position.

“What I’m I going to do?”

He was looking at Justin like he could just say a word and dig him out. This was beyond his purview, there was no way he could help. Then he remembered that now that Ethan was gone, Collier was his friend. This was the man that was hurting in his own right, and still held Justin and his kids together in those first few months. He had put off his own career to do it; that was more than Ethan had ever done.

“Just be honest with him. A relationship can’t be built on a lie,” he told him. Collier looked at him, raising an eyebrow. “Alright, it can but it wouldn’t be a good one.”

“Fine. I guess I’m single again.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault you told him you were a rich and famous cellist. How about this next time ‘Hello, my name is really Chase, but Collier sounds more pretentious. I’m better at electric cello but I’m scared of my mother, so I play acoustic. I work in my baby sister’s law firm as a legal assistant to make ends meet, I also live in her attic like a weirdo.’ See that’s a better way to say it.”

Collier’s face reddened but then he smiled, Justin didn’t like that.

“I guess that’s alright. But I think yours would be better. “Hello, my name is Justin, I look down on anyone who wasn’t born into a silver spoon in their mouth, as I was. I’m an artist but I like to complain that I don’t have time work on it. I treat everyone I know like they are just adorable little peasants. Even though without my best friend and Pretentious Collier, I would have lost my kids six months ago. I treated my husband like he was trash because he was born to a working class family that he cheated on me since the day we got together. He never thought we would last, so much he- “Collier stopped whatever he was about to say, his face paling.

His words had hurt, and he didn’t want to think about the cheating but whatever it was, Collier hadn’t meant to share.

“What?” he asked, his voice hard.

“Nothing. I think we’re just getting on each other’s nerves.” He stood up, brushing the wrinkles out of his clothes.

“Tell me now, Collier.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“What do you mean. Please, if you were ever my friend, tell me,” he pleaded.

“He- “Collier took a breath. “He didn’t provide the sperm for IVF, he had Carter do it. He thought you and he would never work out. He didn’t want you to be able to come after him for child support if you broke up. He changed his mind when he saw the twins though, he loved them even though they weren’t his blood. Please, don’t hate him.”

Justin was stunned. He couldn’t even process what Collier was telling him.

“I don’t understand. I was with him at the clinic. Not in the room because I had to get my own sample, but he was there.”

“He met you at the clinic, he helped get the sample from Carter right before he met you. They said it would work as long as it was within thirty minutes.”

“Does Tara know?”

“No, only me, Carter and Ethan ever knew. I wouldn’t have known if I didn’t question why Ethan ended all communication not long after the twins were born.”

“Wait! So, you KNEW he was cheating on me?” The look of guilt was clear on his face. “But Mika looks like Ethan.”

“Dumb luck.”

“What do you know about Jeremy Knott?”

“Who?”

“Don’t lie to me. If Ethan was having an affair for years, you would know. Now tell me, who is Jeremy Knott?”

“Justin, I swear, the only man he slept with more than once was Carter. He wasn’t having some long affair. I don’t think he usually even got names. I promise you, this Jeremy Knott whoever he is, didn’t have a years long affair. One night at most.”

“Not only had he cheated on me the whole time we were together, but he violated my trust with the IVF. And he VIOLATED Tara’s trust and body. She agreed to carry Ethan and my children. She didn’t agree to me and Carter. This is starting to make sense now. It wasn’t that he wanted her to be close to the kids, that wasn’t why he never had her sign over her parental rights. It would be because a paternity test would be done because of it. He didn’t want his lies to be found out.” Something just hit him like a wall of bricks. “Carter could take Mika,” he whispered. “Not only that, we always assumed that Nanette was mine because of looks but if Mika is Carter’s, they look nothing alike. But redheads father blond kids all the time.”

He was sinking fast and he knew it. He wanted to grab his kids and run.

“Listen, I’m sorry.”

“GET OUT!” When he didn’t move, Justin shoved him towards the door. “I SAID GET OUT!”

Without any reason to stay, Collier slunk out the door like the snake he was.