Reap The Whirlwind

Book 2 of the Killian Kendall Mysteries

By Josh Aterovis
Copyright 2026

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Chapter 3

I was in my room unpacking later that night when Aidan appeared in the open doorway. "Knock, knock."

I looked up from the box of art supplies. "What's up?"

"I thought maybe you could use a break. I baked cookies. You want some while they're still hot?"

I laughed. "Do you bake cookies often?"

He shrugged and looked a little embarrassed. "When I'm in the mood. Why?"

"Nothing. I just think I'm going to like living here."

Aidan grinned. "Good! Then my cunning plan is working. Come on. The cookies are getting cool."

I pushed the box aside and followed him into the kitchen. A sheet of freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies was cooling on the table and their heavenly scent filled the air. I grabbed one to find it was the perfect temperature, still warm but not too hot.

"Best roommate ever!" I gushed before biting into the gooey cookie.

Aidan grinned as he poured two glasses of milk. He slid one across the table to me as he sat down. I dropped into the chair opposite him.

"So," he said after we'd downed several cookies each, "tell me more about you. You're an only child, right?"

"Yeah."

"What's that like? I come from a big family."

"I dunno. Lonely? I was always a little envious of my friends who had big families. It was like they had built-in playmates."

Aidan rolled his eyes. "Assuming you get along. But didn't you grow up with Joey and Laura?"

"Yeah. We all lived in the same neighborhood." I didn't want to talk about them, and it must have shown. Aidan didn't pursue it.

"What about your parents? They still together?"

"Yeah. Dad's a Baptist minister and Mom's a stay-at-home mom."

"A minister? Wow. What was that like?"

I shrugged and grabbed another cookie. "It was just my life. I mean, I guess it had its challenges. It's a lot of pressure being a PK."

"PK?"

"Preacher's kid. Everybody expects you to be the perfect model child. And you're always at church when your friends are playing sports or doing fun stuff like going to the movies. Not that I was allowed to see that many movies."

Aidan's brow furrowed. "Not allowed?"

"My dad was pretty strict about what media we could consume. 'Junk in, junk out,' is one of his favorite sayings."

He frowned. "So, uh, I guess he probably wouldn't be too thrilled to find out you're living with a gay guy, huh?"

I dipped the remaining half of my cookie in my milk. "That would be putting it lightly. Which is why I don't intend to tell him. What he doesn't know won't hurt me, right?"

"Message received. So, um, does that have anything to do with whatever you're dealing with?"

"No...well, yeah. Maybe. I guess it does in a way."

Once again, he picked up on the fact that it was a subject I wanted to avoid and dropped it. "Gotcha! So what do you do? How come you're not in school like Laura and Joey?"

"I work at my dad's church as I guess what you'd call a secretary, but I do just about anything and everything that you can imagine. And before you ask, no, it's not what I want to do with the rest of my life. That's the thing...I don't know what I want to do with the rest of my life. I know my dad wants me to be involved with the church, but I don't know what I want. That's one of the reasons I haven't gone to college. I decided to wait a year, and hopefully I'll figure something out between now and then."

"One of the reasons?"

"Well, I'm also saving up to pay my own way through college. My parents would only pay if I went to a Christian school and, well, I didn't want to."

He pulled a face. "Can't say I blame you. What about a girlfriend? Didn't Joey mention you had a girlfriend? Becky or something?"

"Beth and I broke up. That was part of the reason I was having such a bad day last Saturday."

"Was it a rough breakup?"

"Not...exactly."

"So you broke up with her?"

"No, she broke up with me."

"I see, said the blind man."

I laughed. "It's complicated. We dated on and off all through high school, but there was never really any future in it. Not for me anyway. Really, it's just as well that she broke it off. I would have just let things drag on forever. At least now it's over and done with. See, I didn't feel the same way for her as she apparently felt for me. She wanted more from me than I felt like I could give her, and I don't think I ever would have been able to. It's hard to explain. There just wasn't...it wasn't...I just didn't feel anything with Beth."

"I understand what you're saying. I went through the same thing." He seemed to realize what he was saying at the same time I did. He rushed on, "Not that it means anything as far as, you know, you or anything. I was just saying that for me..." He trailed off into an uncomfortable silence.

I rushed to fill it. "So tell me about you." I didn't want to lose our growing rapport, but I did want to get the attention off of me. That seemed like a safe enough topic.

"Well, like I said, I come from a pretty big family. There are six of us kids altogether. I'm the oldest. My dad died three years ago from cancer, so it's just been our mom and us since then."

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah, well, it was rough, especially at first. My mom had to go back to work, and I had to help a lot with my brothers and sister."

"Just one sister?"

"Yeah, poor Siobhan. It's just her and Mom against all us boys. She's only two years younger than me, though, so she helped out a lot, too. And to be fair, my brother Liam did what he could, but with three boys under ten, it was still a lot of work."

"What are your other brothers' names?"

"Declan, Conor and Rory. Mom was really stuck on the whole Irish name thing."

"I think it's nice. How old are all of them?"

"Let's see...Siobhan is seventeen, Liam is fifteen, Declan just turned twelve, Conor is nine, I think, and Rory is the baby. He's only five."

"Oh wow. So he was only two when your dad passed away?"

"Yeah. He doesn't even remember him. We do our best to keep his memory alive though."

He was starting to get a little emotional, so I decided to shift the subject again. "Well, it's great that you were able to get away for college."

"All thanks to my Aunt Meg. She left her husband and moved in with us, and that freed me up to be able to go away to college. That was about the same time I started realizing I was queer, so when things got ugly up there I was able to just pick up and transfer to Pemberton."

"So are you, like, planning on coming out down here?"

"Honestly, I'm not exactly in the closet. Not that I plan to fly a rainbow flag or hang photos of naked men everywhere around the apartment, but if it comes up in conversation, I'm honest. Oh, and there's a LGBTQ student group on campus that I might check out at some point, too. I think it's called Haven. I got a flier for it during orientation."

I nodded, my mind in overdrive. I hope there was enough distance between Pemberton and my dad's church. The last thing I needed was for word to get back to him that I was living with a gay guy. He'd go ballistic.

I realized I'd been quiet for too long, so I quickly said, "So, uh, what are you majoring in?"

"I just changed my major to psychology when I transferred, so we'll see how that goes. I was doing criminal justice and some psych courses are part of that. I found them interesting so I switched over."

"Okay, wait, I'm confused about something."

"What's that?"

"Well, the first night I met you, you said you weren't rich, and just now you said that your mom had to go back to work to support the family but — and I don't mean to be rude, so tell me to buzz off if this is too personal — I was under the impression that money wasn't an object. I mean, this is a pretty nice apartment and you're giving me a break on the rent and all..." I trailed off sheepishly. "Now that I've said that out loud, it's totally none of my business." Maybe he had, like, an OnlyFans or something. Did I really want to know that, if he did?

"No, it's a fair question, and I can see how that would all be confusing. If it was up to my mom and me to pay for my college, I'd be living at home and going to community college still. But thank God for rich relatives!" He laughed. "My dad's mother is stinking loaded. We only see her once a year at Christmas because she lives in Belgium. Dad was her only child, and we're her only grandchildren, so she's paying for all of us to go to college. She has trust funds set up in case she kicks the bucket."

"Must be nice!"

"Yeah, I guess it is, now that you mention it. It's funny the things you take for granted. I don't even think about it. It's just something I've always known. God knows, she reminds us of it every time we see her."

"You don't sound like you like her very much."

He thought for a moment, then slowly said, "I'm grateful to her for what she's doing for me and my siblings. I mean, I wouldn't be here if it weren't for her. But I've always got the impression that she does it out of a sense of duty rather than any real affection. She's always treated us like the poor relatives, which to be fair, we were. I guess Dad was kind of a disappointment becoming a public school teacher instead of taking over the family business and being some vapid socialite. So no, I don't like her."

"She sounds, um...interesting."

"You know, she didn't even come to Dad's funeral. She was in St. Moritz and didn't want to end her vacation early. She just sent flowers. Can you believe that?"

"No. I don't even know what St. Moritz is."

"Some town in Switzerland with a luxury resort."

"Oh. I went to Wisp once on a youth group trip with my church."

"Wisp?"

"It's a ski resort in Western Maryland."

He laughed. "I'm sure it's just like that."

"So your dad turned down all that to be a teacher?"

"Yeah, although I think it was just to piss off my grandmother, really. They were a lot alike, except he didn't have the money to throw around once she cut him off. He was kind of emotionally distant, as if he didn't know how to show affection. I don't know what his dad was like. He never talked about him, and he was dead long before I was born. My mom was affectionate, though, so I guess that made up for it."

"Sounds like my family. My mom is very affectionate, but my dad is too preoccupied with work. I guess I'm more like my mom, though. Joey and Laura always complain that I'm too cuddly."

"What? There's no such thing as too cuddly!" He shook his head.

"Tell them that!"

He reached for another cookie. "That's like saying you can have too many warm chocolate chip cookies."

I laughed. "I think we're going to get along just fine."

The next day was a flurry of activity as Aidan and I really started setting up house. For two guys on their own for the first time we had a surprising amount of stuff. Most of mine consisted of my art supplies, and most of Aidan's was either electronics or weight equipment. The weights at least explained Aidan's physique, which was nicely toned, to say the least.

We chose a large section of the living room closest to the huge windows to be my studio. We placed Aidan's in-home gym next to me so we could talk while I painted and he worked out. Setting up all my crap just the way I wanted it took up a sizable chunk of the afternoon, but Aidan seemed content to watch me while he did sit-ups, push-ups, and reps or whatever you call them.

Aidan seemed fascinated by all my paraphernalia, occasionally asking what something was and what I did with it. The last thing I pulled out of its protective cover was the painting from the previous weekend.

"You did that?" Aidan exclaimed, dropping his weights with a heavy thud.

"Yeah," I said shyly

I was a little self-conscious about my art. Outside of my art teacher and fellow students in high school, for the most part only Joey, Laura, and my parents had seen most of my work. Mom and Dad recognized that I had some talent, so they more or less passively supported my interest in art, but they seemed to think of it as a phase that I would outgrow — like my rock collection or my chemistry set. Most of my encouragement came from Mr. Takahashi, my art teacher, and he was the sort of exuberant teacher who encouraged everyone, so it was hard to really gauge how others might react to my work.

Aidan stood up and moved closer to get a better look at the painting. "Damn, Will," he said under his breath. "I mean, that's good. Really good. You're talented."

I felt a blush begin to creep up my neck. "Thanks," I mumbled.

"You just do this as a hobby?"

"Yeah."

"Have you ever sold anything?"

"Are you kidding? I'm not good enough to sell this stuff. I've never even had any real art classes, just school stuff and some kiddie classes when I was younger."

"Who says you have to have art classes? Haven't you ever heard of natural talent? If your other stuff is this good, then you're a heck of a lot better than some people I've seen showing in galleries."

"You know art?"

"Some. I'm hardly an expert, but like I was telling you last night, my dad was a bit of a snob. He made sure us kids were exposed to culture, as he put it. Most of our family outings involved museums. Some of the stuff he dragged us to see looked like something my youngest brother did the day before in Pre-K. The worst was the time he took us to see a toilet. I'm not kidding. It was just a regular toilet that the guy had bought at your average hardware store and stuck in the middle of the museum and called it art. I kept thinking it was a joke, but people were talking about how it was emblematic of something or other. Don't ask me. I felt like I was in the Emperor's New Clothes and I was the only one who could see he was naked. Maybe I'm just not sophisticated enough for that, but I fell in love with some of the other stuff, like the old Masters, the Impressionists, the Surrealists."

"You know more than I do. At least you had the opportunity to see that kind of stuff. The Eastern Shore's idea of culture is the Delmarva Chicken Festival. I envy you for that."

"Well, I envy you for your talent. I love art, but I can't even draw a stickman."

"I guess that makes us even then, huh? We can agree to envy each other."

Aidan laughed, then asked, "Do you have any more paintings here?"

"Um...I think I left most of them at home...well, Mom and Dad's. I didn't know what I'd do with them here."

"Next time you swing by there, pick them up. I'd like to see them." He bent close to the painting of the frog again. "This actually reminds me of some stuff I saw at a show in Philly one time, years ago. I can't remember the artist's name but he was up-and-coming, like the next big thing. Hey, maybe that could be you. You could be the next big thing!"

I felt a blush coming on again. I hated having both fair skin and a predisposition to blushing.

"You don't like getting compliments or talking about yourself, do you?" Aidan asked, noticing my discomfort as he straightened up.

"Not really. I guess it makes me kind of uncomfortable."

"Why?"

"I dunno. I guess I feel like I don't deserve the compliments."

His eyebrows jumped up. "But you have to know how talented you are."

"You're just saying that to be nice. I mean what else could you say? 'Man, Will, that sucks.'"

"I wouldn't say I liked it if I didn't. First thing you need to know about me is I'm always straight...well, bad choice of words, but you know what I mean."

I laughed as he grinned at me.

"Just accept the compliments for what they are and say thank you," he finished.

"That's easy for you to say. You're so...confident and outgoing."

"And you have low self-esteem."

"Thank you for your diagnosis, Dr. Scott, but I could have told you that."

"Why do you think you have low self-esteem? I mean you're cute, talented, funny..."

"Do you think we could continue this session at another time," I interrupted loudly as I felt my face blaze with color. "Your cousin will be here in an hour, and we still have empty boxes and crap all over the place."

"Hmm...aggression, deflection...the subject is exhibiting signs of classic avoidance," he said in a phony German accent.

"I'll show you avoidance," I growled playfully as I tackled him. We rolled into a laughing heap on the floor where we wrestled for several minutes. I wrestled with Joey all the time, but I was no match for Aidan. He had me outweighed and out-muscled. There was no contest, but as we rolled across the room, I suspected that he was giving me a lot more openings than I would have ever gotten if this were a serious fight.

We were so caught up in our wrestling match that we didn't even hear the knocking or the door swinging open. The first we knew of our visitors was when someone called, "Hello? Aidan?"

Aidan let go of me so quickly that my head bounced off the hardwood floor. "Ugh," I grunted and stayed still while I waited for the stars to stop spinning.

Aidan scrambled to his feet, towering above me. His shirt was pulled halfway over his head, and he hastily tugged it back into place. His face was flushed from our exertions, but the shade of red only deepened in a blush as giggles came from the direction of the door.

"Are we interrupting something?" a guy asked.

"No, I mean...uh...we were just playing around," Aidan stammered.

I'd never seen him so flustered. I was definitely enjoying watching the usually unflappable Aidan come unflapped. Uncharacteristically, I decided to push things a little farther. I ran my hand up his leg to his thigh. Aidan yelped and danced away to a safer distance and glared at me as I laughed.

"We have guests, darling," he said deliberately, then turned back toward the door. "Come on in, guys."

I sat up, still giggling, and saw the two guys from the photo Aidan had shown me the night before. They definitely made a striking couple. They were even cuter in person, somehow. Their eyes darted back and forth between Aidan and me. I waved cheerily.

Aidan held out a hand and effortlessly pulled me to my feet. "Will, this is my cousin Killian and his boyfriend, Asher. Guys, this is my roommate, Will."

Killian looked from me to Aidan. "And they were roommates..." he said in a stage whisper.

"Yeah," Asher said, a grin almost splitting his face in two, "roommates." He placed air quotes around the word.

"No!" I gasped. "I mean... Yes! Just roommates. That's all."

Aidan started cracking up.

"But when we walked in you two were..."

"We were wrestling!"

Killian's eyes twinkled. He made air quotes and repeated, "Wrestling."

"I swear! That's all. Right, Aidan?"

Aidan couldn't stop laughing but did manage to choke out, "That's what I tried to tell them from the beginning, before you decided to feel me up."

"I didn't... I was just... I'm not..." I sputtered.

Aidan was bent double laughing, while Killian and Asher still stood awkwardly in the doorway. Aidan waved them in as I attempted to salvage what little dignity I had left. What a way to make a first impression.

"You should see your face!" Aidan howled.

I chose to ignore him. "Just put your stuff over here by the wall for now," I said, playing the host. "The couch opens up into a bed if you stay the night. Sorry about all the boxes. We weren't expecting you to be here this early, and, um, we got distracted.."

"Obviously," Killian said with a grin. "We'll help you clean up."

Wiping tears from his eyes, Aidan finally stopped laughing. "You guys don't have to clean. Sit back and relax. We've got this."

"Nah, we can help too," Killian insisted. "That way it'll get done quicker and we can all hang out."

You can't argue with logic. Everyone chipped in to straighten up the living room. The last step was to break down all the empty boxes, then Aidan carried cardboard out to the recycling dumpster, leaving me alone with the guys.

"So, how did you meet Aidan?" Killian asked after a few seconds of awkward silence.

"Through mutual friends."

"Cool. Do you go to Pemberton too?"

"Uh, no. My friends do though."

"Gotcha. Did you grow up around here?"

"Yeah. Lived here my whole life."

He nodded. "So are you gay?"

Asher elbowed Killian as I felt my face heating up. "Uh, no."

"Bi?"

"Killian!" Asher snapped.

"What? I'm just asking..."

"You'll have to excuse him," Asher said, looking a little embarrassed. "He has an incurable case of chronic curiosity."

Killian threw his hands up. "I'm just trying to get to know him!"

I chuckled nervously. "It's okay. I'm straight, but I'm cool with..." Where was I going with that? "...everything." I finished, feeling extraordinarily lame.

Killian quirked an eyebrow. "I'd hope so if you're living with Aidan. He's a great guy."

"Yeah, he is. In fact, he's so great he made cookies. You guys want some?"

Asher's face lit up. "Cookies!"

"I'll take that as a yes." I grabbed the cookies we hadn't polished off the night before and joined the boys on the couch.

We were just digging in when Aidan got back.

"You started the party without me?" He poked his bottom lip out in an exaggerated pout.

"Oh yeah," Asher said around a mouthful of cookie, crumbs spraying everywhere. "You missed all the fun of Killian grilling poor Will like he was a hostile witness."

"I was not!" Killian protested.

"You kind of were," I said with a straight face.

Killian looked aghast. "Was I? I'm so sorry!"

Asher and I burst into laughter.

"I'm just giving you a hard time," I assured him. "It's all good."

Aidan vaulted over the back of the couch and settled on the far end from me on the other side of Asher. "Great. Glad we're all getting along. Who wants to play a game?"

"Spin the bottle?" Killian asked, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"You just want to make out with me," Aidan shot back.

Killian screwed up his face. "Ew! You're my cousin."

"Oh, so you want to make out with Will?"

I laughed nervously as Asher grinned. "I'd watch that," he said suggestively.

Killian shoved Asher. "That's it. We're breaking up."

"Finally!" Asher crowed. "Now I'm free to date Aidan."

Killian threw an arm around me. "Whatever. I'll just snuggle with Will." I giggled and gave in to the air of silliness, laying my head on his shoulder and batting my eyes at Asher.

"Damn, you guys," Aidan said, shaking his head. "I just meant Clue."

Killian lit up as Asher groaned. "I love Clue!" Killian exclaimed.

"That's because you always win," Asher groused.

"Well, we could play Monopoly," Aidan offered. "But those are your only choices. I don't have any other games."

"Why not both?" I suggested. "We've got all night."

Killian nodded thoughtfully. "The little one has a point."

I pushed Killian away. "Hey, watch it with the short jokes."

Asher laughed. "Don't mind him, he's just glad there's someone shorter than him for a change."

The playful bickering went on all night. It was as if we'd all been friends forever. We played Clue, which Killian won as predicted, followed by a marathon game of Monopoly that Aidan eventually won in the wee hours of the morning. Asher was looking droopy by then, and I was just as tired, so I suggested we all hit the sack.

Aidan and I helped Asher and Killian make up the sofa bed, then we retired to our respective rooms.

Maybe change doesn't have to be so bad after all, I thought as I undressed. Who needs Joey and Laura when you have friends like Aidan, Asher, and Killian?

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