-1

The funeral was the first time I had seen him in, god, I don't even know how many years. He was still beautiful. Tousled hair and lush pink lips wrapped around a cigarrette, he was the only one who could make me lose my cool; something that Bobby Mercer just does NOT do. I was watching him now, standing in front of Jeremiah's house on the other side of the street, and I wished I could go up and wrap my arms around him. All I wanted at that moment was to kiss him until he was breathless and promise him he'd never be alone again.

I finally got up the courage to walk over to him, purposely ignoring Green and his cop pal parked down the street.

" Hey Baby Bro." I greeted.

He turned to me with a shaky smile.

" Hey Bobby. It's good to see you. How long you stickin' around for this time?"

As long as you want me I thought but ended up saying " I dunno, you know how it is. I just came to get this all straightened out, pay my respects to mom and all that."

He exhaled a cloud of smoke and gave me his shaky smile again.

I was starting to get a little worried.

"You okay Jackie?"

"Ya man." he said and I wrapped my arm around his shoulders, allowing myself this one little comfort.

"You know I love you right?" If only he knew how true that was.

I was gifted with a bigger smile.

"Ya, I know."

We turned as one and I walked him over to the house.

"Hey Jerry!" I yelled.

"Bobby!" he shouted and greeted me with a manly hug and a slap on the back.

"Man, how you been!"

I laughed and glanced at Jack out of the corner of my eye, " Not too bad man, missing my brothers though." missing Jack

Jeremiah smiled his goofy ass grin, " I feel ya there bro. Anyway, let's move our asses inside, it's freezing out here."

I turned to make sure Jack had heard that we were heading in and motioned for him to walk ahead . He gave me a weird look but then covered it with a smile and strolled by me.

As we walked up the path I couldn't help but glance down and enjoy the way his hips swung when he walked, slim legs covered in tight black denim.

Jerry opened up the door and walked in, pausing to tell Jack to put his smoke out before coming in.

Jack paused for one more drag and I stopped beside him as he flicked it down and stepped on it. We both moved to step in the door at the same time and then stopped and stared at each other. I broke the awkward moment when I laughed and placed my hand on the small of his back. Gently moving him through the entrance I let my hand linger for a quick stroke before turning to shut the door behind us. When I turned around Jack stood leaning against the wall, arms and legs crossed.

"Well make yourself comfortable CrackerJack." I teased.

He smiled and pushed himself off of the wall, coming to stand in front of me. Turning so his back faced my chest he said, "Hey Bro," and threw a look at me over his shoulder, " would you mind slipping my jacket off for me? Cold leather's a real bitch to get off by yourself."

My heart leapt into my throat and I unconsciously cleared it.

Trying to get myself together I smirked and forced a laugh, " That's a pretty queer thing to say Jackie Boy."

He didn't rise to the bait and I was forced to place my hands on his shoulders and slip the jacket off.

The black leather slid down his arms and pooled around his elbows. Underneath he wore a torn red and black T, so tight that if he'd turned around at that moment I think I'd have been able to see his nipples through the fabric. He dropped his arms and his jacket began to drop to the floor. I shot a hand out and caught the heavy garment before it could land and then raised my head back up. Jack had turned around without my noticing and we now stood chest to chest, almost but not quite touching. I was right, you can see his nipples I swallowed heavily and went to hand him his coat. He tilted his head to the side and my eyes dropped to his neck. God, all I wanted to do was kiss my way up and down the creamy skin he'd unconsciously presented me, maybe leave a mark or two to let the world know that he was MINE.

I snapped back to attention as he grabbed the coat from me and turned to hang it up on one of the pegs by the door. Running my eyes up and down his body I got angry Fuck this. I thought and raised my hand to spin him around and give him the kiss I'd been dreaming of when a shout came from the kitchen.

"Jack!" Jeremiah called out, laughing, " Get your ass in here and control your man!"

Jack laughed and strode off to the kitchen.

"What the fuck!" I muttered.

I walked down the hall and entered the kitchen, surprised to see a big black man sitting at the table with Jack in his lap.

"What the fuck!" I said again, this time yelling it out and causing the chatter in the kitchen to stop.

My eyes were still on the piece of shit sitting at the table so I saw when he told Jack to get up and then dealt him a playful smack on the ass.

He walked up to me and thrust out his hand.

"You must be Bobby. Jack never shuts up about you. I'm Derek, call me D."

I glanced to Jeremiah who stood shaking his head and laughing.

" Ya I'm Bobby," I said, turning back to the big black jack ass in front of me, " and I don't care who the fuck you are, get the hell outta my brothers house before I kick ya ass."

"Bobby!" I heard Jack yell.

I turned to him with a glare.

" So you ARE a little fuckin' fairy. I knew it. All those little faggot gestures of yours must've been leadin' up to something'. What, don't tell me you actually stick his dick in ya mouth and give it a good suckin'."

Jack stood up and stormed over.

" Just shit the fuck up Bobby. Fuck, you don't know anything about me! You just walk back in after fuckin' YEARS and expect everything to be like you left it! Well fuck you Bobby!."

He turned to "D" and grabbed his hand, his muscular heavily tattoo-ed fuckin' hand, and they walked out of the kitchen.

I turned to Jeremiah and apparently the look on my face said a whole hell of a lot because he sighed and gave Camille a kiss before motioning me to take a walk with him. We went outside and sat down on the porch swing.

"Look Bobby," Jerry started and turned to me, " I know you don't like what's going on here but Jack's still your little brother. You just gonna desert him now like all the others have?"

I took a deep breath and tried to get the image of Jack and Derek out of my head.

" Jere, it's not that he's…..like that," I said, " But that motherfucker ain't good enough for him. Not for Jackie."

Jeremiah smiled and set his hand down on my shoulder.

"Bobby, they've been going together now for a month and all the times Jacks brought him around the house he's seemed like an okay guy. If it makes you feel better Ma gave her blessing the day that Jack came out and told her."

I shifted. Ma shoulda been givin' US that blessin'.

" Fine Jerry, I'll play nice from now on but, can ya tell me one thing?"

"Sure Bobby, if I can."

I really didn't want to ask this, but I had to know.

"Is he happy?"

Jeremiah sighed and ran his fingers along the grooves someone had carved into the wood.

"Honestly? I don't know. I mean, some days he acts like everythings going his way and other times I could almost swear that he's trying to hide something'. I dunno if he's happy Bobby, but I can't say for sure that he's not. Just leave it be man, let your little brother do his thing without having to worry about us steppin' in and messin' things up."

I wasn't happy about it, that's for damn sure, but until I knew for a fact that Jackie was unhappy I'd leave them both be. It was my own fault anyway. Damn it! If only I'd come back two months, a month, ago then he'd be with ME. This Derek guy had better watch himself because I'd be watching him very closely from now on, and if he does anything to make MY Jack unhappy it's gonna be the last thing he'll ever do.