Home Coming

Chapter Two

When the couple walked into the kitchen from the garage, their little dog lost his mind when he saw Ben. Toby yipped, then jumped up onto Ben, his front paws on his thighs while he hopped up and down on his hind legs.

"You miss daddy?" Ben asked as he rubbed and scratched under the miniature schnauzer's white beard and then over the top of his floppy ears.

Toby yapped again and ran circles around Ben, so happy to see his daddy. Toby suddenly ran to the back door and slipped through the doggy door. While Ben peeked into the backyard to look after the dog, Benji filled up the doggy food and water bowls.

"Whew, I need a shower," Ben said with a grimace as he got a whiff of his damp armpit. He pulled off his big cowboy boots and set them down by the back door.

Benji gave him a sly smile. "I'm a little sticky myself. Want some help?"

Ben crooked his finger and Benji eagerly followed him into their master bedroom.

As soon as Ben saw the bed, he growled. There was an indentation on top of the comforter that looked to be exactly the size of a certain Schnauzer. Benji knew better than to let Toby on their bed, but he also knew that Benji got lonely when Ben was on the road. He was usually better about not getting caught, though.

Benji swept past Ben and smoothed out the blankets and turned around to give Ben a sheepish grin. "I was so lonely without you," he said. He smiled sadly at Ben and blinked his eyes.

"Don't give me that pitiful puppy dog face," Ben grumbled. He pulled off his t-shirt and turned and walked into their en-suite bath. If he stuck around, Benji's puppy dog face would melt him into a puddle.

While Ben adjusted the shower knobs to get the temperature right, Benji came up behind him. He wrapped his arms around Ben and rested his head against the bigger man's back.

"I missed you, Ben," he whispered as he rubbed his hands over Ben's hairy chest and stomach. "I'm so glad you're home. I love you."

Benji spotted Brandon right away and waved. Ben's older brother looked up from his menu and smiled.

Benji was always excited about Sunday lunch with his boyfriend's brother. They always had a good time eating and laughing. It was the perfect way to prepare for their weekly visit to their mother at the home, which was always hard on everybody.

Benji grinned back and waved happily at the big mountain of a man as he and Ben made their way to the table. Brandon stood as they reached the table. Benji looked up at him, amazed that he was even bigger than Ben. He was an inch taller and a few pounds heavier, but he carried the weight well for a man his size. And with the beard, it gave him a definite "bear" look.

"Hi, Brandon," Benji said as Brandon grabbed him in a big bear hug. He squeezed him tight and lifted the little man's feet off the ground. Brandon treated Benji like family, always joking and teasing, and Benji loved him as if he was his own brother and the feeling was mutual. "How's it going, little bro?" he asked as he rubbed the top of his head.

"Good, big daddy," he joked back.

Brandon laughed, then shook Ben's hand and smacked him on the back. "Hey, brother."

Benji sat down and picked up his menu. They all knew the menu by heart, but Benji still liked to browse. Ben didn't need to look at the menu. He always got the same thing when they came here.

"How's it going, Bran?" Ben asked.

"Good. No complaints here. Help yourself to the nachos," Brandon said as he scooped up a cheesy chip from the plate in the middle of the table.

"Mmm," Benji hummed as he picked up a chip, making sure to shake off the jalapeño slice on top. He'd leave those to Brandon and Ben since he didn't care much for spicy food.

"How's your love life?" Ben asked his brother, hoping for one of his infamous juicy stories. "Seeing anyone?"

"Yeah, the business is doing good," Brandon replied, ignoring his brother's question with a smirk. "Walker just bought a fixer-upper on auction. We're gonna try to flip it. After we see mom, I'm heading over there to look at it."

"You haven't seen it yet?" Benji asked, surprised.

"Nope. Walker said it was a good deal. I trust him, or he wouldn't be my business partner."

"You've known him since the service, right?" Ben asked as he chewed on a nacho chip.

Benji cleared his throat and pointed to his chin. Ben looked down at Benji and slid his tongue under his bottom lip. Benji laughed and shook his head. Ben reached up and wiped the stray blob of cheddar and sour cream from his chin. He looked at it with a frown and then pushed his messy finger into Benji's face. Benji laughed and dodged the finger, but Ben was laughing and just kept poking, trying to get Benji's nose. Benji suddenly grabbed Ben's hand and sucked the finger into his mouth, hollowing his cheeks as he slowly pulled it out.

Brandon about spewed beer all over the table, shocked at the sight. "f**k me," he groaned as he stared wide-eyed, running the back of his sleeve across his beer-soaked chin.

Benji wiped his mouth with his napkin and snickered.

"I got something I want to show you in the bathroom," Ben said, his voice deep and throaty, his eyes narrowed to slits.

Benji didn't miss Ben's hand discreetly kneading his bulging crotch under the table. He shook his head and folded his arms across his chest. "No way. If you think I'm falling for that one again... You already got us kicked out of my favorite restaurant. I thought I would die of embarrassment. I can't show my face there ever again!"

Ben actually looked like he was blushing and Brandon slapped his hand on this thigh and laughed until tears streamed down his cheeks and his gut ached.

After finishing lunch, Ben had to use the bathroom and told Benji to wait by the truck.

Brandon snickered as he and Benji walked out of the restaurant together. "That cheese must have run right through him."

Benji leaned against Brandon's enormous pickup truck and looked up at the older man. Brandon pulled a lighter and a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and packed them against his hand.

"You should quit, you know," Benji said.

"I know," Brandon acknowledged. He shoved the pack back into his jacket. He had tried to quit so many times before, but something would stress him out and he'd start back up again. He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, where a knot of pain had settled.

"You haven't been over in like three weeks, Bran. We miss having you around."

Brandon shrugged. "I've been busy with work and all. Besides the remodeling, we're trying to get into flipping..."

"Yeah. It's just... Ben misses you. And I miss you, too."

Benji looked up at the big guy. He knew that he was giving him the 'puppy dog face', but he couldn't help it. He had come to think of Brandon as his big brother and lately, he seemed distracted and stressed out and was always too busy to come over to hang out. He had grown used to seeing Brandon two or three times a week.

Brandon sighed and grabbed Benji's arm and pulled him close. The big man wrapped his arms around Benji and gave him a tight hug. "I'll try harder to make time for you guys. You know you and Ben are my favorite people in the world."

Benji leaned his head on Brandon's chest and let out a sigh. "Good."

Benji felt a growing pressure against his stomach. When he realized what it was, he gasped and stepped back, unable to look Brandon in the eye. A quick glance at Brandon's crotch verified it and Benji couldn't tear his eyes away fast enough.

"Sorry," Brandon mumbled as he shoved his fists into his front pockets and took a step backward.

Brandon Davis entered the address of the house flip into his GPS and put his truck into gear.

He couldn't believe that he got a f*****g boner while hugging Benji. The little man had been totally mortified. Things were awkward for a few moments, but by the time they got to the nursing home, it seemed like things were mostly okay and Brandon's gaffe was somewhat forgotten, but Brandon could tell that Benji was a little more reserved and slightly nervous around him. He just prayed that he didn't say anything to Ben. He wasn't looking forward to having to explain to his brother why he was pressing his c**k against his boyfriend.

On the bright side, their Mom had a good day today. Brandon hated seeing his mom in the home. But with the Alzheimer's getting worse and worse, he and Ben just couldn't handle taking care of her. She needed full-time help. It killed him and his brother to do it, but it was for the best.

Brandon was grateful for today. Mom not only remember him, but she remembered both Ben and Benji as well. A lot of times she wouldn't know who Benji was or she'd be unintentionally cruel to him, but they all knew that she didn't mean it. Though Benji knew that she wasn't herself during those times, the words still hurt. Brandon hated to see the little guy in pain, almost as much as Ben did.

It wasn't that Brandon wanted Benji. He liked the idea of Benji more than anything. Ben was so happy and that made Brandon happy. Ben spent most of his life alone and miserable, no one seeing him for the good man that he was. He deserved someone like Benji, who saw what a good person he was on the inside and loved him unconditionally, faults and all.

That he got a boner while hugging the little guy made him feel like the biggest f*****g heel in the world. Still... even Brandon admitted to himself that there was something about Benji. He was so damned cute, so quiet and shy. And from what Ben told him, he was simply out of this world in the sack, all traces of shyness gone once they were in bed together. But more than that, he was so loving and devoted to Ben. That's what Brandon wanted. Someone like that. But a girl. Definitely a girl.

Brandon was married once. The marriage didn't last and the divorce was ugly. His ex-wife Ginny was a selfish cow. Brandon didn't normally reminisce on their years together and he wasn't going to start now. The next time Brandon got involved with someone, it would be someone like Benji. But not a guy.

Brandon didn't go for dudes. He was straight. That buddy of his in the Army didn't count. It was the circumstances of the situation. Besides, it was just a blowjob. Okay, it was a bunch of blowjobs. But his buddy was doing the sucking, not Brandon. So it didn't count. That last time they were together before he was transferred, Brandon gave him a handjob. But that didn't count either. It was just a guy thing. All guys do stuff like that when they're young and horny.

When the GPS announced that Brandon arrived at his destination, he was surprised. He was so lost in thought that he drove the twenty minutes without even remembering how he got there.

When he looked up at the house, he cursed under his breath. He double-checked the address. "Fuck."

The place looked like something straight out of a 50's horror movie. The ranch home was clearly abandoned and in disrepair. The front yard was completely overgrown, with more weeds than grass. The sides and back weren't even sodded, just dirt with patches of weeds. The garage door was falling off its hinges.

On the plus side, it was a good-sized home on a nice plot of land, at the end of a dead-end street with lots of space between its closest neighbor. But it was definitely going to be more work than they planned or budgeted.

He let the diesel engine of his F-250 rumble idle and turned the radio down. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed Walker Adams on speed dial. It went right to voice mail. After the beep, Brandon cut right to the chase: "This place is a f*****g piece of s**t, Walker. I'm gonna f*****g kill you when I see you in the morning."

Brandon pressed the end button on the phone and tossed it onto the passenger's seat. He shut off the engine and opened the door and hopped down onto the ground.

At six-foot-seven and 320 pounds, Brandon Davis was an intimidating figure. He definitely planned on using that intimidation when he saw his business partner the next day.

He scratched his fingers through the beard growing on his face. The dark auburn hair was nice and thick, unlike the hair on the crown of his head. Even though he'd been out of the service for 12 years, he still kept his hair cut in military standard. He reached up and pulled the old Browning ball cap off his head, and scrubbed his hand over his head and down his face.

He replaced the ball cap, then slid his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out his pack of cigarettes. He shook one out and cupping his hand over the end, lit it. He inhaled the smoke deep into his lungs and felt himself relaxing a little as the nicotine ran through him. He rolled his head on his neck until he felt the satisfying pops.

He grabbed a pen, clipboard, and measuring tape from the truck's lockbox and started to take notes.

The front porch looked like it was about to fall down from wood rot and the grass had completely overgrown the sidewalk. Brandon didn't feel like wading through thigh-high weeds or having his big ass fall through the porch. The back door looked to be the best option for entering the place.

When he got to the back of the house, Brandon took one last drag of his smoke and then dropped the butt on the ground and stomped it out with his size fourteen steel toe.

He stepped towards the crumbling concrete steps that led to the back door and froze when the sudden odor of s**t assaulted his nose. He looked down and lifted his foot.

"Motherfucker!"

He looked around and noted the little piles that littered the backyard, some of them looking a little too fresh. He walked over to the faucet next to the back door and turned the handle, relieved when water poured out. He lifted his boot under the stream and tried to clean it as best as he could with the water while scraping it against the home's concrete foundation.

He shut the water off and stepped up to the back door. The doggy door caught his eye and when he kicked it, it swung open freely.

"A-ha. Got you, you little shit."

He went to unlock the door with the keys that Walker gave him, but it was already unlocked. He pushed open the door and found himself in the kitchen.

He tried the light switch next to the door a couple of times, but there was no electricity. That should get switched over in the next couple of days or so. Hopefully, before next Monday when they were supposed to start demolition. They would need the power to run their tools.

The kitchen was a little musty, but not too bad. There were no appliances and the cabinets were s**t. Of course it would all need to be gutted and modernized. Brandon made some notes and took some measurements, then made his way further into the house. As he walked into the living room, he noted that the house wasn't as bad as he thought, at least from the inside. It had a nice layout and even though it was abandoned due to foreclosure, it was in reasonably good shape. The outside was completely f****d up, though. It had no curb appeal whatsoever.

Yip!

Brandon jumped and spun around, startled by the sudden noise. He looked down to see a yappy little mutt glaring at him. It looked like somebody's science experiment gone wrong. Definitely a chihuahua, and some other mutt mixed together.

The ugly little dog growled, showing off his sharp little teeth, and then barked again, trying to do his best demon dog impersonation.

Brandon was not having that bullshit.

"Listen here, you little squatter," Brandon growled back. "This is my f*****g house. Not yours. I'm the big dog 'round here. And you... Well, you are outta here."

The dog stepped back and sat down on its butt. It c****d its head to the side like it was listening to Brandon.

Brandon lifted his boot. "You see that? That's your s**t. I outta rub your nose in it..."

Brandon shook his head, wondering why he was talking to a f*****g dog. He went through the rest of the ranch-style house, making notes as he went along. The little s**t followed him the whole time, cautious, but no longer barking or growling.

When Brandon stepped into the master bedroom, he was surprised to see a mattress. The bare full-sized mattress sat on the ground and had several blankets on it, the only piece of furniture in the whole house. Brandon looked down at the dog. "This where you sleep?"

The dog bounded over to the bed and sat down on one end and laid its head down on its front paws.

Brandon kicked his foot at a couple of black garbage bags. They looked like they were filled with clothes. They'd get rid of this stuff during demo. He was just grateful that this was all there was. It would save them at least one roll-off container.

He peeked his head in the master bath and noted that it would need to be completely gutted. He turned and headed for the back door, the little dog hot on his heels.

The dog rushed around his legs and dashed through the doggy door.

Brandon chuckled. "Oh yeah, well, I got you now, you little shit."

Brandon squatted down and looked for a way to block the door. He noticed the door's locking mechanism and reached for the latch. He hesitated for a moment and then jumped when the door pushed open and the little dog bounded back through. It looked up at Brandon and blinked and wagged its tail.

Brandon stood up to his full height and looked down at the dog and let out a sigh. "Yeah, well, I guess you can stick around for a few more days until we start demo. At least you're keeping the rats and s**t away. But after that, it's off to the pound."