Have Yourself a Joey Little Christmas...

Have Yourself a Joey Little Christmas...

Heather Mar-Gerrison 2022

Smashwords Edition

Fabulous front cover courtesy of Shutterstock designs

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except where permitted by law. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. The Author holds exclusive rights to this work.

Prologue

Joey heaved a heavy sigh and rubbed his eyes. It wasn’t easy being the little brother in the Little household at the best of times. He’d had to put up with numerous ribbings over the years because of his surname, sometimes from his mates, sometimes from people he would never consider friends.

But that was nothing, nothing compared to the ribbings he’d suffered since his brother had started to ‘almost’ marry people... See, the bigger problem was this; Joey’s brother had become a serial wedding fleer.

It all started when he came back from uni and met back up with an old-flame. The preparations for the wedding were wonderful. The stag night had been awesome – well of course it was, since Joey had arranged the whole thing and everyone was delighted that Lucas and Kate were going from childhood sweethearts to man and wife...

But alas, the marriage wasn’t to be. Lucas actually ran out of his first wedding... As if that hadn’t been bad enough, the same behaviour was repeated almost exactly a year later when he backed out of his second wedding at the eleventh hour and now he was getting cold feet over the third – to Declan. Probably the best of the three... Probably the best guy Joey had ever met and the person he was most looking forward to welcoming into the Little family...

The worst thing about the entire situation was that Declan was such a great guy. He was everything Joey never knew he needed in his life but he did need him in his life. He was such a sweet and loving guy and he adored his brother. Well, Joey assumed he did, anyway. To be fair, he spent most of the time watching him and his brother laugh and chat and treat each other like bros. You’d never guess that they were supposed to be getting married next year...

If Joey were in Lucas’ shoes, he’d be showing Declan in every way possible how much he loved him, which made him wonder if this was yet another whim of Lucas’.

If Joey’s boyfriend had asked him to be his husband – he was certain that he’d have been showering him in affection every conceivable way possible to show him how much he loved and adored him. Lucas’ way of dealing with things was always to throw money at it – but that wasn’t love. It didn’t even begin to scratch the surface... Joey felt that his brother was floundering and decided to wade in and find out what was going on...

He had a horrible feeling that his brother was settling for less with Declan. They didn’t have a whole lot in common, Lucas liked the gym, Declan was more your outdoorsy type, like Joey. The thing was that Joey knew, deep in his bones, that epic love existed – and that it shone as a beacon of hope for all hapless lovers who haven’t yet found it. Dylan and Nathan, Lucas’ wedding planner and his partner had shown them that. And that was what made Joey convinced that Lucas wasn’t Declan’s soulmate. It only dawned on him once their wedding fell through, instigated by Declan this time, rather than Lucas – that maybe Declan could be his soulmate, instead...

The most shocking thing of all for Joey was this. He’d always been entirely convinced – until he fell in love with his brothers’ fiancé, that was – that he was as straight as an arrow...

Chapter 1 – The Day after...

June 2020

Joey

I woke up and stared at my brother’s spare room ceiling. Blinking the sleep away from my eyes, it took a moment for me to remember the events of the previous day.

Oh, that was right. Declan had pipped my brother to the dumping post. Let me explain – my brother, Lucas, was a serial fiancé dumper – and Declan was about to become his third in three years but he’d got cold feet right at the last minute instead. I’m not gonna dress it up – I’m sure it was partly due to the fact that Lucas had failed to inform him that he was bisexual – and presumably, partly because he just wasn’t all that into him. Whatever Declan’s reasons were, he’d called the whole thing off.

I let out a long sigh. Once the shock had worn off that I wasn’t about to see my two most favourite people in the world tie the knot, I had to admit something to myself – and that was that my overwhelming feeling about the whole thing was utter relief. I just couldn’t work out the reason why.

The likelihood was that I probably wouldn’t be able to see Declan again and my heart ached – but for him to be married to my brother was always something I’d been conflicted over. Jealous, I guess. I just couldn’t work out precisely what I was jealous over.

I groaned as I rolled out of bed. Lucas and I had drunk a few beers in the evening, going over things – well, Lucas was going over things. I was just offering the odd bit of bad advice. I got like that when I’d had a drink...

Just get laid. I slurred, "Just have a good time with a guy and move on. You don’t have to ask everyone you sleep with to fucking marry you."

I don’t, he protested feebly, I never slept with Kate.

I blinked, instantly feeling slightly less drunk. Uh? He’d never slept with Kate? Why the fuck not? She was gorgeous... I’d have slept with her. Well, you know, if she’d been mine...

He shook his head, She was a virgin. He explained, And she wanted to wait till our wedding night.

Wow. I murmured, What about Jonathan and uh, I swallowed, suddenly finding it a bit hard to hear the answer, Declan?

He shrugged, It depends on what you call sleeping with someone. He said, "We never went the whole hog, so to speak."

I blinked anew, feeling abso-fucking-lutely one hundred per cent sober all of a sudden. What the fuck? What was wrong with him? "You mean you never got down and dirty? You never got fucked by, or fucked, either of them? Holy shit." I started to raise my voice as something else dawned on me, "Are you still a virgin?" Fuck’s sake, Joey, rein it in a bit, will you? It really wasn’t any of my business but I couldn’t stop the words from spewing out of me. I had to know.

I was aware that I was staring at him with my mouth open, probably looking hideously eager to hear all of the juicy details but Jesus, I lived for nailing one-night-stands. I’d never fallen in love, but fuck, everyone had a good time... I was the king of oral sex. I could get girls to come in mere minutes and they all seemed to love sucking my cock, too. I didn’t expect girls to swallow either. I was a total gent when it came to girls. I’d be just as gentlemanly with a guy, I was sure, but guys didn’t really do it for me. I had absolutely nothing against guys dating guys and everything that went with that. Hell, I could totally appreciate a good-looking guy but it didn’t mean I wanted to fuck him. Besides all that – I figured that one queer in the family was enough for the olds to contend with, anyway...

Lucas sighed miserably and shook his head again, No. he said, Well, it depends on what you call being a virgin... If you mean intercourse, then yeah. He was bright red and he wouldn’t look me in the eye – and I wasn’t surprised with his text-book references, I just... I just... I guess I couldn’t muster the enthusiasm for it.

My eyes almost bugged out of my head. Couldn’t muster the enthusiasm? For sex? With Declan? Fuck’s sake, Did he even have eyes? Fuck’s sake, Luke. I breathed, "It’s such a good job you guys didn’t go through with this."

He nodded miserably, Yeah, He said, it kind of is.

I grinned at him. There was no ‘kind of’ about it, Your prince is out there, mate. I assured him, Just don’t ask him to marry you before he’s had his dick inside you next time, okay?

I suppressed a snort of mirth. Suddenly everything seemed so much funnier and brighter and more hopeful. Lucas managed a chuckle and the next minute we were rolling around on the floor, both of us laughing hysterically.

Chapter 2 – Missing Joey...

Declan

Shocked? I couldn’t begin to tell you how absolutely rocked I’d been by Lucas’ confession that he was bisexual.

I mean, it didn’t really matter in the grander scheme of things. Of course, it didn’t. If you were committed, it didn’t matter