Page 41 of Dad Next Door
“Roger that.” The driver’s door closed.
“Get your butts in here so I can drool over you up close.” Nick popped his head out of the open door. “Quinn Methuselah Reynolds.” He shook his head ruefully as he looked me up and down. “If you don’t have a whole series of suit porn on your OnlyFans, Imma have to start a revolution.”
“Methuselah?” Tristan asked me quietly.
“His middle name is Hudson.” Nick rolled his eyes. “Quinn Hudson doesn’t have the same oomph when I wanna middle name him, so I made up a better one.”
“You gonna let us in?” I asked Nick.
“Oh, right.” He disappeared into the limo. “Get your sexy butts in here.”
We climbed into the back with him.
“Hi. I’m Nick.” Nick stuck out his hand and beamed at Tristan. “We’ve met, but not officially.”
“Hi. Tristan.” He shook Nick’s hand while I closed the door behind us. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“You too.” Nick pumped Tristan’s hand enthusiastically. “That’s Vlado.” He hooked his thumb at the open partition and the heavily muscled and tattooed man in the driver’s seat.
I’d met Vlado, who was Nick’s boyfriend’s best friend and bodyguard, multiple times and knew him to be friendly and chill, but he could be scary as fuck when he wanted to be.
“Hi.” Tristan swallowed and glanced between me and Vlado.
“He’s a teddy bear.” Nick waved at Vlado. “All grr and no kill.”
“Thank you for driving us,” Tristan said to Vlado. “We appreciate it.”
“My pleasure.” Vlado pulled away from the curb. “You want me to close this?” He motioned to the partition.
“Leave it open.” Nick glanced at us.
We both nodded.
“So, we have an hour until we get to the wedding.” Nick steepled his fingers like a movie villain and grinned wickedly. “I am loving that we’re choosing team petty. Now, tell me all the plans for Operation Put Dickbag In His Place.”
“Dickbag?” Tristan covered his laugh with a cough.
“You know what, that’s too nice for your ex.” Nick tapped on his chin thoughtfully. “A bag of dicks can be useful if you need a bunch of dicks or something to smack someone with. We can workshop a new name later. Now, tell me the plan so I can approve it.”
Tristan was smiling as he outlined what we’d talked about.
The plan wasn’t really a plan at all. We were going to show up, have a great time, and go out of our way to fuck with Simon while pretending to ignore him.
“I love it!” Nick clapped excitedly when Tristan finished. “The ignoring him part is key. That’ll piss him off even more because he’s gonna show up thinking you’ll spend the whole time watching him and Tristan 0.5 and be miserable. It’ll drive him crazy that he’s not the center of your universe anymore. Narcissists always melt down when they’re not the main character in their former victims’ lives.”
Tristan glanced at me. I’d floated the idea that Simon had some narcissistic tendencies based on what I knew of how he treated Tristan but hadn’t said anything to Nick. He’d come to that conclusion on his own.
“Tristan 0.5?” I asked.
“This Jace dude sounds like a downgrade. He’s the wish.com version of Tristan.” Nick shot Tristan one of his trademark grins, the one that lit up the room. “You’re the OG.”
“I don’t really understand everything you just said, but thanks.” Tristan smiled at Nick. “It feels good to have people in my corner.”
“We’re all in your corner, my guy.” Nick elbowed me in the side. “Be a dear and pour us some sparkling juice. Vlado took the champagne out of the car because he’s responsible.” Nick made a face.
“I took the champagne out of the car because I spent almost two hours cleaning up after the last time you opened a bottle of bubbly in the back.” Vlado’s voice was filled with affection as he looked at Nick through the rearview mirror.
“Not my fault it exploded like that. The cork scared me and I flailed.” He shot Vlado a sweet smile, then turned his baby blues on me. “Ahem. We’re still waiting on chivalrous Quinn to get us some refreshments.”