Silver & Sage Read online

  Silver & Sage

  Silver in the City

  A.D. ELLIS

  Contents

  1. Boden “Bode” Silver

  2. Sage Holder

  3. Bode

  4. Sage

  5. Bode

  6. Sage

  7. Bode

  8. Sage

  9. Bode

  10. Sage

  11. Bode

  12. Sage

  13. Bode

  Epilogue

  Notes

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by A.D. ELLIS

  1

  Boden “Bode” Silver

  “I don’t like him. Call the next one on the list.” I ran a hand through my messy brown hair before I hefted a moving box onto the kitchen counter and sliced through the packing tape with a box cutter.

  “Bo-dee,” my twin, Benji drew out the syllables of my nickname in a huffy whine, “that was our fifth candidate from the list. He was by far the best of them all.” He tapped a pen against the notepad on his lap. We were fraternal twins, but we looked almost exactly the same, enough so that strangers would sometimes confuse us. His hazel eyes snapped to mine. “We need a roommate.”

  He wasn’t wrong. This latest guy just wasn’t who I wanted to share our apartment with. Yeah, because one look at him has you all hot and bothered and you’d rather deny him a place to stay than work around any kind of feelings.

  “In all honesty,” my cousin, Kyson started, “that’s not saying much. The first four applicants royally sucked. This guy, what was his name?”

  “Sage,” Benji provided.

  “Yeah, Sage wasn’t just the best of them all, he blew them away.” Kyson was not only Benji’s and my cousin, but he was our best friend. Born within two months of each other, we were inseparable from birth on. And the family resemblance was uncanny. He could have passed as our brother with no problem. “The first guy looked like he planned to kill us in our sleep.”

  I couldn’t help but smile. He wasn’t wrong.

  “The girl was fine, seemed cool. But her bestie dropped too many hints about trying to ‘convert’ us to the hetero side.” Benji shook his head. “That third guy almost pissed himself when he learned the apartment was above a bar. When you asked if he was okay with the three of us being gay, I thought he was going to pass out. Probably couldn’t pay him enough to take our extra room.” Benji laughed.

  “Guy number four was already asking about getting an extension on paying rent ‘a little late.’ That’s a hard no.” Kyson gave me a look. “Seriously, Bo, Sage seemed great.”

  “And not just in comparison. Sage seemed great overall.” Benji stood up. “What could you possibly not like about him?”

  “He’s a baby, for one.” I took plates and cups from the box and began stacking them in the cabinets of the new kitchen. I refused to think about how sweet and innocent the kid looked blushing his way through the applicant interview.

  “So, he’s young. What did he say? Twenty-four? That’s only ten years younger than us.” Benji stood with hands on his hips. “Try again. I’m not letting this one slide. What else could you not like about him?”

  Kyson left the living room, which was open to the kitchen, and joined me in unpacking. “He seemed very bright and responsible.”

  He seemed like a sexy, smart nerd. And I’m not even going to acknowledge why that seems to be a turn on for me.

  “He’s a student. He needs to study. An apartment above a bar isn’t exactly conducive to studying.” I broke down one box and opened another one.

  “We were very clear with him about the location and probable noise level. He’s aware and if he wants the apartment, I don’t see why we wouldn’t rent to him.” Benji continued to stare me down in challenge.

  “He was shy and skittish. Not exactly our type.” I gave another argument, but I knew it was a lame attempt. “He looked like he thought we were going to eat him alive.” And why the fuck do I keep thinking about wanting to eat him up?

  Benji snorted. “He was definitely intimidated by you, but that was probably because you scowled and looked like a fuckin’ grump-ass the entire time we talked to him.”

  “Why are you so against him? He has proof of payment history, references from his old place. Hell, that landlady said she was sad to see him go, but he wants to be closer to downtown. We’re on Massachusetts Avenue in downtown Indianapolis. You can’t get much closer to downtown. He claims to be tidy, keeps to himself, doesn’t care that the room is above a bar, and he was polite. Plus, he was cute.” Kyson waggled his brows.

  “Soooo cute.” Benji smiled. “And was it just me or did he seem super innocent?”

  “Yes. Very cute and innocent. Like super smart and capable in so many ways, but fragile and inexperienced in others.” Kyson nodded as he broke down another box. “Is that what you’re worried about, Bo? This kid is so cute and innocent he may get tarnished by your grumpy gruffness and aversion to relationships?”

  My cousin and brother laughed.

  I rolled my eyes.

  But in all reality, the words hit a little too close to home. Sage was young, innocent, and so damn adorably cute I wanted to wrap him in my arms and protect him. That was a problem. I didn’t have time for protecting some kid who I had absolutely nothing in common with. I had a bar to open and make successful. I didn’t need a cute nerd as a distraction. But I couldn’t very well tell Benji and Kyson that, so I huffed and shrugged.

  “Fine. If he wants the room, he can have it. I want it noted that I think he’s too young, I think he’s not the type for living above a bar, and I think he’s going to be more trouble than the rent payment is worth. And I’m not taking care of his ass or listening to him gripe and complain about noise level.” I unloaded dish soap and sponges to the under-sink cabinet.

  “Bode, you’ve gotta relax. You’re tied in knots over The Salty Lizard and it’s not even open yet. You’re gonna give yourself ulcers.” Benji threw an arm over my shoulder.

  I was closer to my brother than anyone in the whole world. Together since conception and every day since, we had a special bond. Benji knew me like he knew himself, and I knew him just as well. We were so very similar, but had differences too. I was loud and extroverted, the life of the party, and wanted to prove myself to my father and society. Benji was slightly quieter, preferred to observe the party, and was happy with his art and jewelry creations; he didn’t care about proving himself. But Benji had always been my father’s favorite twin. My dad, Richard—yes, my dad had the perfect porn star name, Dick Silver. And my uncle Rodney was Rod Silver. The guys and I called them the porn brothers—anyway, my dad had always made it clear that I needed to be more like Benji. More studious, not so loud, not so impulsive. So, yeah, I had a lot to prove to my dad with The Salty Lizard.

  “I say we contact Sage and offer the room to him. I have a good feeling about him.” Kyson held up his phone and raised his brow.

  I rolled my eyes. “Fine, offer the room to him.” I couldn’t help but smile at Kyson's fist pump.

  If I was one extreme, Benji was in the middle, and Kyson was the opposite extreme. As a kid, Kyson had always been the most easy-going of the three of us. As an adult, he was the same. He earned his massage therapy license and focused a lot on holistic therapy and healing. Kyson was our ground, our center, our peacemaker. Kyson would be opening his own massage therapy practice soon after The Salty Lizard was opened.

  The three of us were born and raised in a small town in southern Indiana. After high school and college, we moved to Indianapolis with our three separate-but-connected goals. Thanks to a loan from Dick Silver, I had money to lease an entire building on Massachusetts Avenue. Downstairs would be The Salty Lizard bar a
nd dance club, and the three of us would live upstairs.

  The upstairs apartment was extremely large. It was broken into four separate bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, dining room, and three bathrooms. In order to make paying the lease easier—because most of the loan from my father was going into the bar—the three of us decided that renting out the fourth room would be the best plan. It seemed like Kyson and Benji were set on Sage being our roommate.

  As long as the kid didn’t bother me, I could deal with it. I had bigger things to worry about. My dad had loaned me the money for the building and getting the bar up and running. He had allowed me one year to prove that I could make The Salty Lizard profitable. But he had promised to check in every month to see where his money was going and if I was using it in ways that he deemed smart and effective.

  Dick Silver and Rod Silver were business tycoons in their own right. Dick had started an insurance company and Rod had started an accounting firm in the small town we grew up in. They had no competition when they were first starting out so they quickly had a monopoly on the insurance and accounting needs of our town, our county, and even some of the surrounding towns and counties. Would Richard and Rodney be successful in a large city like Indianapolis? I wasn’t sure. They were both good at what they did, but it was hard to say if they would have been as successful in a large market versus the small market they started in. But because they were big fish in a small pond, they had amassed a large fortune both individually and in their shared endeavors.

  I was very appreciative of my dad loaning me the money to lease my building and start The Salty Lizard. I did not appreciate the constant pressure and reminders from him about how he was watching to make sure I spent his money the way he deemed fit.

  Benji, Kyson, and I had often discussed that our sexuality had never been as much of an issue for our fathers as our future careers. Our moms were best friends and supported us no matter what. Always had and always would. Dick and Rod were more concerned about our financial futures.

  Kyson going into massage therapy and planning to make a career out of it in Indianapolis was not only perfect for him, but it meshed well with our fathers’ expectations. Kyson was level-headed and had a good head for business according to Dick and Rod. Kyson would make a great massage therapy practice owner.

  Benji had always been passionate about art. He created beautiful pieces of jewelry, decorative artwork as home décor pieces—pottery, paintings, stained glass, and various other mediums—and was planning to combine his love of art and talent in creating pieces with a desire to teach. Soon after The Salty Lizard was up and running, and Kyson’s Mass. Ave. Healing Massage was open, Benji would open The Silver Creative. Our dads were just as emphatic that Benji’s business was the perfect career for him as they were about Kyson’s future practice.

  But me? My plan to open The Salty Lizard? Foolish, impulsive, not a sound business decision according to my dad. Uncle Rod was never as hard on me as my dad was, but he did try to sway me toward a different career. No matter that I had the most complete business plan of the three of us. No matter I had taken the most initiative in finding a location—Benji and Kyson had recently found buildings available on Massachusetts, they simply had to wait for some paperwork and finalities to be completed. My dad insisted that a bar and dance club was a waste of time and would be a colossal failure. Would he have said the same if Ky or Benji had planned to open The Salty Lizard?

  I sighed. It didn’t matter. I was a thousand percent determined to make my business a success. I had the support of my brother and cousin. I had the gumption to make it work. And I had a solid business plan along with a solid financial source. If only my dad would stop lording his power and doubt over my head.

  I grabbed three beers from our new refrigerator and took them to Benji and Kyson in the living room. Throwing myself onto the couch I sighed. “Damn, who knew moving could be so exhausting?” I glanced around room and smiled. “I’ve got to say I really like this place.”

  “I agree.” Kyson opened his beer and took a long swallow. “I knew I liked it when we first looked at it, but now that everything is moved in I really love it.”

  Benji opened his beer and threw the cap at me. “The rooms are actually very big. The kitchen and dining room are nice. It’s not like we do a lot of cooking for entertaining, so they are perfect for us. The best part is the living room for movies and video games.”

  I was really looking forward to getting the rest of the boxes unpacked and the apartment organized and decorated. I wasn’t much for coordinating colors and decorations, but I knew Kyson and Benji would be all over that shit.

  Kyson’s phone buzzed. “It’s Sage. He wants to know if he can go ahead and move in today.”

  I glanced at Benji. He shrugged. I sighed. “Sure, tell the kid to come on over.”

  Kyson tapped out a text with a smile on his face. Benji gave me a stern look.

  “You need to go easy on Sage. He seemed quiet and shy, but he seemed particularly nervous around you.” My brother never had any qualms about telling me what I should or shouldn’t do. Which was fine, because I didn’t hesitate to tell him the same.

  My face scrunched up. “I’m not going to change who I am because of some innocent little college nerd. If he doesn’t like me the way I am, he can lock himself in his room or he can move out. But he loses his first month deposit.” I swigged my beer and ignored the little voice inside that told me I was being an asshole douchebag.

  Twenty minutes later there was a knock on the door.

  “Surely that can’t be Sage already.” Kyson went to the door. He glanced through the peephole and then turned wide eyes back toward Benji and me. “It’s him,” he whispered.

  Kyson opened the door. “Hey man. Come on in.”

  Sage stood with a bag on each shoulder, a backpack on his back, and a large box in his hands. His cheeks were pink, and I couldn’t tell if it was from the exertion of carrying so much stuff or embarrassment over his excitement to move in. Maybe both.

  “I feel kinda silly coming over so quickly.” Sage spoke quietly as he stepped through the door. “But I was getting so tired of sleeping on my classmate’s couch. Since I gave notice at my old place, I didn’t feel it was right to keep staying there. I wanted my old landlady to be able to rent the apartment to someone else as quickly as possible. But sleeping on that couch was getting old.”

  Benji jumped up and took the box from Sage. “Here let me help you with that. You can get everything unpacked in your new room.”

  “Yeah, unpack and then come on out here for our first official house meeting.” Kyson gestured towards the living room.

  Sage’s eyes grew wide, but he nodded before ducking into his room.

  “Our first official house meeting? What the hell are you talking about?” I crossed my arms over my chest and scowled at Kyson.

  He smiled and spread his arms wide. “We’ve got this amazing new space, grand new business adventures, and a new friend to share it with. We need to do some bonding and set some ground rules.”

  “Oh Jesus, Kyson,” I growled. “We don’t need a bunch of feel-good shit. We’ve got a new place, we’ve got new businesses, we’ve got a new renter. That’s all. Don’t make this into something that it’s not.”

  Benji took the three empty beer bottles to the kitchen. “No, I think Kyson is right. We need to get to know Sage and he needs to get to know us. After all, we’re going to be living together. And it’s better to set guidelines and rules now than to argue over them later.”

  I rolled my eyes and huffed. That was how the three of us worked. Always had been. We were either all in, or two would overrule the third. Looked like this was a Bode gets overruled time.

  2

  Sage Holder

  I stood in my new room and took a deep breath trying to calm myself. I was a jumble of emotions. Embarrassed about showing up twenty minutes after the guys offered me the room. Excited about having such an amazing space in a gorgeous
apartment at a superb location with three of the hottest guys I’d ever laid eyes on. Okay, that last part maybe wasn’t so much part of my excitement, but definitely fed into my nerves. Being smart and academically successful with a solid plan for furthering my education definitely didn’t help me with being socially awkward and nervous as hell, especially around attractive guys.

  “Calm down,” I whispered harshly to myself. “They are all older than you. Probably all have significant others and are focused on establishing their careers. None of them are interested in you.” My mind immediately strayed to Boden Silver. “Call me Bode or Bo,” he had said. “B-o-d-e, but rhymes with Jodie.” Boden, Bode, Bo, I didn’t care what he wanted to be called; the man was sex on a stick and made my heart thump out of control. But he was also gruff and seemed intent on making his dislike of me known. I think he was actually disappointed when I said the three of them being gay didn’t bother me because I was gay too. Bode had frowned like me being gay was a problem for him.

  I chuckled to myself thinking of the phrase Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Twins and a cousin all gay and they find a gay roommate? I wasn’t going to complain; I’d just say a big thank you to Fate. The apartment was too nice, the location too fabulous, and the rent payment too perfect. The fact that I was at least safe from any homophobia while in what was now my home was an amazing bonus. Three hot guys to secretly ogle was icing on the cake.

  But I had to put my things away and go face a house meeting. With all three of them. Kyson and Benji seemed pretty laid back and nice. Bode seemed like he wanted to chew me up and spit me out. And he did not appear to be keen on the idea of a house meeting. The daggers he shot Kyson were proof of that.