“Being in a calendar doesn’t make you a legend, Wyatt. Just photogenic.”
“I can show you legend.”
“Please don’t take off your shirt again.”
“Enough you two.” Noah paused the game, grabbed a beer from his brother and turned on the couch to face them. “And don’t be too hard on dick-smacked over there. He didn’t see it coming either. Frankly, I’m not sure he’s ready for Christmas Eve. Our golden boy fears change, and this is about as big as it gets.”
Owen crossed his arms and shook his head. “I fear change? Me? I can’t believe you’re saying that with a straight face. I damn well paved the way for the rest of you. You can fall in love with a dick-fingered Martian if you want and no one will bat an eye. Don’t mock me. Thank me.”
“First of all, that sounds like a good idea for a sci-fi porn, but technically? Big brother Brady did the paving,” Rory corrected. “He was a giant gay Marine before it was cool. And then I came out in high school… Jeremy was bisexual pretty much from the get-go, right? Why exactly should we be thanking you again?”
Owen glowered at his cousin’s facts. “You came out but no one else came in. You’ve never brought anyone home to meet the family.”
“Sol’s a homophobe and Jeremy was practically adopted by your parents already,” Rory countered. “Doesn’t count. Anyway, Brady did it for me after your proposal. Don’t steal your best man’s thunder. Give my brother his due.”
Owen rolled his eyes. “Fine, Brady is the paver. He’s also the only one of you who stepped off the path Sol the Elder laid out for his sons.”
“Also not true,” Wyatt said, pretending to be insulted. “I’m a fireman. He wanted us all to be cops.”
Solomon and James were police officers, but these three were still first responders. Two cops, two firemen and an EMT. Brady had been a police officer, then a Marine, a politician’s bodyguard and now…well, Owen wasn’t sure what to call him now. He was still fighting criminals by working with Ken, so he hadn’t wandered too far from the master plan.
Rory stood and wiped the dog hair off his shirt. “He wanted us all to date women, too. To be fruitful with the multiplying and not mar the family name.”
Noah choked on his beer and chuckled. “Poor old Sol. Nothing ever goes his way.”
Wyatt grinned. “Well we’re not gay.” He checked with Noah. “We’re not, right? Not that it would matter to me if you decided to hop the fence but…”
“As far as I know. But now I’m worried you’ve been breathing in too many of those bad fumes again.” Noah shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Sol blusters about family reputation, but caring about us personally is a little outside of his capabilities.”
“Oh he cares,” Rory muttered to no one in particular. “Just not in the way you’d want him to.”
“That intervention did a number on him, didn’t it?” Wyatt whistled as if to convey a bomb dropping. “The look on his face when we told him we knew about his ménage with Ellen and Uncle Shawn? I’ve never seen him like that. I guess he thought he’d get to the grave with that secret.”
“I wish I’d been a fly on the wall.” Owen was damn proud of his cousins for confronting Sol. They’d all needed to get a few things off their chest. “I can’t believe he didn’t pop a blood vessel.”
“I was on hand for that, just in case,” Rory assured him dryly. “But the old man is resilient, if nothing else.”
Noah shook his head. “I don’t know if it did any good. He is who he is, and one honest conversation isn’t going to change that. I hope Uncle Shawn isn’t disappointed when he doesn’t show up for the wedding.”
“I know he’s grateful you tried. Despite it all, Dad still misses his twin. I can’t imagine Stephen and Seamus being angry at each other for that long.”
“How is Seamus?” Noah asked quietly. “We know Younger’s been spending a lot of time at the pub lately. He says your brother has become obsessed with microbrews? He set up something in that studio behind Finn’s Pub.”
Owen nodded. “He’s been talking about that since we started construction. He has a lot of plans for the place. I’m just glad he’s focused on something positive. It’s been a hell of a year for him.” Especially the last few months.
Stephen might be the star of the Finn fold, and Owen the spoiled charmer, but Seamus was the good son. He spent the most time with their parents, taking care of them when they were ill, bringing the kids over every chance he got. He’d worked for their father when Shawn started slowing down and took over the pub from him when it was time to retire. Without fail Seamus always did what needed to be done, and he did it with love in his heart and a smile on his lips.