Chapter Text
March 2018
Austin, Texas
Today was Jensen’s fortieth birthday, and Jared had deemed it necessary to throw him a surprise party in Jack’s Room at San Jac to celebrate the monumental occasion. It had started hours ago. All of their close friends and coworkers had shown up as well as both Jared’s and Jensen’s immediate families. It was now just past 1:00 a.m. and the last of the guests were finally starting to funnel out of the private entrance. It had been fun, amazing even, but Jensen was ready to go home… because, you know, the room was starting to spin just a little too much. It seemed as if every one of the guests had wanted to buy him a birthday shot.
The TV over the private bar was playing a rerun of some reality show. Jensen wasn’t really paying it much attention. He sighed tiredly and dropped his forehead down onto the cool, polished wood of the bar. He could sleep right here if given the chance. Where alcohol made Jared even more tactile and outgoing, it made Jensen soft, pliable, and sleepy, almost like a ragdoll. Jared loved him like this, knew he could get away with just about anything.
Jensen jumped when he felt the heat of Jared’s familiar form press up against his back. Jared planted several kisses up the nape of his neck. The other man was quiet for a moment as his hands slid over Jensen’s shoulders massaging his tired muscles. Then he rested his chin on Jensen’s shoulder and spoke quietly into Jensen’s ear. Jensen could hear the grin in his voice as he spoke.
Maybe the eight—or was it nine?—shots of tequila were starting to get to Jensen because there was no way Jared had just suggested what Jensen thought he’d suggested. Them, on that show? The idea was outrageously ridiculous. Jensen nearly giggled from where his head lay on the bar top—yes, he was apparently that drunk—and he raised his eyes to the TV screen again, but then he moaned at the sweep of Jared’s lips, which were now caressing that spot just behind his ear. Jensen sat up on the barstool and tilted his head to the side to give his husband more room to suck, nip, kiss, and soothe. Jared’s right hand moved from Jensen’s hip and started to slide south with intent, and Jensen’s cock stirred at the idea of more. Whatever Jensen thought he’d heard, well, his alcohol-laden brain quickly forgot it as long, graceful fingers slid over the growing bulge hidden beneath denim and cotton and squeezed.
“What do you say, Jen, you game?” Jared whispered into his ear before moving back to his neck.
Soft puffs of warm breath lit the sensitive skin of Jensen’s neck on fire. A full-body shiver coursed through him and he rocked into Jared’s teasing grip on his cock.
“Huh? Oh. Yeah, Jay. Anything for you.” Jensen moaned again as Jared continued to move his palm over Jensen’s now throbbing cock. He’d kind of lost track of the conversation. But sex was somewhere in there. He was sure of it. “Fuck. Can we go home now? We need a bed… like now.”
Jared snickered. “Yeah. Okay. You think you can walk?”
“Uh-huh. I got it.” Jensen went to stand. He knew what he was supposed to do, but apparently his legs didn’t.
Jared laughed. “Sure, Jen. Maybe I’ll help you out to the truck. I’m glad you had a good time tonight.” He pressed a wet kiss to Jensen’s flushed cheek and led him to the door.
“Love you, Jay.”
“Love you, too… even if you are gettin’ old.”
Jensen aimed a playful punch at Jared’s shoulder but missed by a mile. He snickered and stumbled some. “Don’t worry. You’ll catch up in a few years.”
Jared snorted as he tightened his grip around Jensen’s waist and helped him out the door, locking up on the way out.
Three months later…
Jared was behind the bar helping out with the bartending when his cellphone rang. He didn’t recognize the number on the caller ID but swiped his thumb over the screen anyway.
“Padalecki,” he answered.
“Hi. I’m looking for Mr. Jared Padalecki.”
“This is Jared. Hang on just a sec…” Jared looked at Brent who was tending bar with him and pointed to his phone, then toward the office. At Brent’s nod, Jared headed into his office and closed the door behind him. “Okay, sorry about that. But yeah, this is Jared.”
“Hey, Jared. This is Dylan Jacobs. I’m on the production team of The Amazing Race. We reviewed your application and your audition tape, and we’d really like to have you and Jensen come out to our offices for an interview.”
Jared’s heart skipped a beat, and he fell back into his chair. Holy shit! And Jensen was going to kill him.
“Really? Oh, wow. That’s, uh… that’s great!” He grabbed a pen and a sticky note to write on. “When would you need us to come out?”
“Next Thursday, 8:00 a.m. sharp. Is that doable? We don’t have a lot of wiggle room in the schedule. Things happen fast around here.”
“Yeah, I get that.” Jensen was going to torture him first and then kill him. “But yeah, we can be there next week.”
Over the next ten minutes or so Dylan went over a few necessary bits of info. Jared listened as he gave him a quick rundown of things he and Jensen needed to know…
The travel to and from the production offices in El Segundo next week would be at Jared and Jensen’s own expense—the network wouldn’t start picking up the tab until they were actually selected to be on the show.
They also needed to bring their passports with them when they came out. Dylan explained that one of the things they would be doing while visiting with production was filling out applications for visas, a good dozen or so of them. If Jared and Jensen were chosen to be on the show, the production team would have all of the paperwork processed for the countries they would potentially be visiting. Because of this, Jared and Jensen would also have to leave their passports with the team. Of course, some legal papers would be signed to guarantee they would be used for the purpose of traveling on the show and only for that. If Jared and Jensen weren’t selected to participate, their passports would be FedEx’d back to them.
If they didn’t know how to swim or drive a manual transmission, Dylan told Jared to get some lessons scheduled ASAP since they would have to know how to do both in order to run the race. Jared grinned. Both he and Jensen were country boys. Jared had known how to swim since before he could walk, and Jensen was probably the same. And manual transmissions? Well, considering their trucks were both manuals, they had that in the bag too.
And the final, biggest thing was Jared and Jensen could tell NO ONE about being on the show, except need-to-know personnel or their immediate family such as their spouse or parents. There would be NDAs that needed to be signed. If anyone let the cat out of the bag, lawsuits would be filed and large fines would be given. CBS didn’t play around.
Dylan asked if Jared had any other questions.
“When does filming start, and how long would we need to be away if we get on the show? Jensen and I, we both own businesses and would have to make arrangements.”
“We start filming the third week of August, but we would need you here a week in advance for some things that we’ll go over at the meeting next week. The race itself is generally about twenty-one days. Worst case, twenty-eight is the max allowed by production. If you’re eliminated before the end, you’ll be sequestered until the last three teams cross the finish line. The Powers That Be don’t like to risk things getting out, even if NDAs are signed. I hope you understand that. Plus you might be called back in to act as a decoy in a challenge or two at some point, but we’ll talk more about that later. Anything else?” Dylan asked.
Jared nodded as he took in all the details. “Yeah, no, I totally get it. And no, I think that covers everything for now. Anything else that comes up, we’ll just ask when we’re there.”
“Are you excited?”
Jared grinned. How could he not be? And he knew, in the end, Jensen would have a blast. It was just getting him to agree to do this in the first place. “Hell, yeah!”
“Good. That’s what we like to hear. Now, here’s the address of the office as well as my contact info should anything come up between now and next week…”
Jared scribbled down the information.
“We’ll see you next week.”
“Thank you, Dylan. See you soon.”
The call disconnected. Jared threw a triumphant fist in the air and gave a loud whoop! Now he just needed to figure out how to break the news to Jensen.
Jensen pulled up to the house and got out of his truck. He could smell barbecued meat from here and wondered what the occasion was. He looked down at the gravel driveway for a minute and frowned. He couldn’t think of any particular anniversary or anything that was now or anytime in the near future, nothing until Jared’s thirty-sixth birthday next month.
He walked up the steps of the large wraparound porch of their early nineteenth-century farmhouse and entered the foyer. They’d just finished with the interior renovations this past spring and the whole thing had come together quite nicely. Jensen had been planning to have a large cookout sometime over the summer to celebrate its completion. A lot of hard work, sweat, and tears had gone into it—and he and Jared had happily christened every room once it was done. Jensen smiled at the fond memories hoping to repeat quite a few of them quite often.
“Jay?” he called out, dropping his keys on the kitchen counter and heading out to the back deck. “I’m home.”
“Hey, babe.” Jared dropped the lid of the grill and set down the tongs. He immediately came over and wrapped Jensen up into his arms and pressed a kiss to his lips, quickly deepening it and sweeping into Jensen’s mouth, causing his knees to practically give out.
When they broke apart, Jensen took a deep breath and looked up at Jared. Jared blinked and looked down, then away. Jensen knew the younger man too well. Something was up. He glanced over at the grill, then back to Jared who was chewing on this bottom lip. Every action and expression told him something was definitely going on.
Jensen stepped back and put his hands on his hips. “Okay, Jay. Spill.”
Jared looked up almost too quickly with wide hazel eyes. “What? Is there something wrong with a man who wants to make his husband a fine Texan barbecue after said husband has been at work all day long?” He grinned then.
Jensen lifted an eyebrow sharply at that. There was guilt lacing every word that fell from Jared’s beautiful mouth. “I won’t turn down the barbecue, but while we eat, you’re going to tell me what’s going on.” Jensen couldn’t imagine what Jared was feeling guilty about, but he had a very vivid imagination, especially after having been with him for so many years. He knew Jared and had personally seen some of the things he could get up to.
Jared nodded and pressed another quick kiss to Jensen’s lips before stepping back over to the grill. He looked over his shoulder. “It’ll be done in just a minute. I’ve got potatoes too. Do you mind grabbing some plates and beers? And whatever you want for fixins, I’m good with.”
“Just give me a second to wash up and I’ll be out.”
Jensen washed his hands at the kitchen sink, then grabbed some silverware from the drawer and plates from the cabinet and put them on a tray along with a few things from the fridge. He grabbed four beers as well because something told him they would each be needing more than one if he went by the way Jared was acting. It would be almost funny if Jensen wasn’t so concerned with what might really be going on. One thing he did know was that if it was something serious, Jared would have called him already rather than just trying to soften him up with dinner. So it couldn’t be all that bad.
The steaks were tender and juicy—Jared knew for a fact that he could cook a damn near perfect steak—and the potatoes were flawless, but he was having a difficult time getting it down, even with a few swallows of FBBC beer. They didn’t talk much while eating, but that was nothing new when you put two Texan boys together with a plate of fresh barbecue in front of them. No matter how picky of an eater Jensen might be, he certainly liked anything that came off the grill. It was in his blood, just like every other Texan.
“So…” Jensen led after he put his fork and knife down on his empty plate. He sat back in his chair, arms crossed, and looked at Jared expectantly.
Jared grimaced when he swallowed a too-big piece of steak. He picked up his beer and gulped down the last of it, wiping his hand across his mouth when he was done.
“Okay.” He looked across the table at Jensen. “Um, just promise not to kill me.” He smiled weakly at Jensen.
Jared was so excited at the prospect of doing something as crazy as running a race literally around the entire planet, but Jensen was quiet and reserved unless he was in a place he knew and around people he knew. This race was one hundred percent out of Jensen’s comfort zone. Jared knew exactly how Jensen would react when he told him the news.
Not long after Jensen’s birthday, they’d done it, made the tape. Jared hadn’t been able to let it go after that night, that one little suggestion. That seed had been planted, and it had grown, niggling at his subconscious. The recording wasn’t supposed to be sent in. It had just been for shits and giggles. Add some drinks to the mix, and well… there you go. They did stupid crap like that all the time—there were too many things to name, but they were all fond memories. They had just thought it would be funny to make a video and pretend. But after a quick edit, and thinking it was pretty damn good, a slightly inebriated Jared had talked a slightly inebriated Jensen into letting him submit the audition video online. He may have used some other ‘techniques’ to make Jensen cave as well.
Jared knew Jensen hadn’t really thought anything more of it than doing a stupid recording of them bantering and laughing at each other, maybe even pointing out some of each other’s funnier character flaws and more than a few of each other’s better qualities. He vaguely remembers swearing to Jensen it wouldn’t get anywhere. Millions of people applied to be on the show. Their three-minute clip probably wouldn’t even get watched, he remembers saying. He’d hit the submit button and had forgotten all about it. Until today.
Jensen snorted. “Ohhh… this is gonna be good. I’d ask if you wrecked the car, but I saw your truck in the driveway and it looked fine. So, what did you get yourself into, Jay… or us, which is more likely the case. And you know damn well I wouldn’t kill you. Maim you maybe. Withhold sex? Quite possibly.”
Jared tapped his fingers on the table next to his plate. He looked at his empty beer bottle and wished he had another, if only for something to do other than look at his curious, too-gorgeous better half sitting across from him. The best thing to do was to just rip the Band-Aid right off. Right?
“Okay.” He swallowed thickly and took a deep breath before looking up at Jensen and continuing. “We need to fly out to California next week, or more precisely, El Segundo.”
Jensen leaned forward in his seat, elbows coming to rest on the table in front of him. He narrowed his eyes at Jared. “And why would we need to do that, Jay?”
“Uh—” Jared fidgeted, bit into his bottom lip. He glanced down at the table, then back up at Jensen.
A look of dawning appeared on Jensen’s face then. “Oh, shit. No. Jay, please tell me CBS did not call you.” His green eyes were wide, mouth hanging open. He shook his head no.
“Maybe,” Jared confessed. “Someone from production called me today. They like us, want to talk to us in person.” A warm breeze blew in from the southeast. It ruffled Jared’s bangs down over his eyes and he swept them back in place as he waited for Jensen’s reply.
“No.”
“But—”
Jensen rubbed at his brow and sighed, looking off toward the sunset in the west. It was a sign that he was thinking, and Jared stopped talking. He’d give Jensen a minute or two to absorb the news.
“Seriously?” Jensen groaned. “Have you seen that show? You do know the hell they put those people through—and we don’t see the half of it. We wouldn’t get any sleep, hardly any food, no real showers. The tasks are grueling. Never mind having to deal with the potential attitude problems of the other racers. And Jesus, I don’t do heights, Jay.” His words were nearly pleading. “They always do height challenges.”
Jared picked at the sweaty label on his empty bottle. “I could do anything that has to do with heights,” he said quietly, crumbling the part of the label he’d peeled off and dropping it to the table. As he said it, he knew there was no guarantee they would catch all of the height challenges from the clues or that it wouldn’t be a team thing and both of them would have to do something together. They’d both seen enough episodes of the show to know that.
“You know you can’t promise that, Jay.” Jensen sat back and sighed again. He was quiet for several long minutes. It felt like an eternity. Then he looked back at Jared. “You really want to do this, don’t you?”
Jared perked up some at hearing those words. “Maybe. Yeah. I think we could have a good time, Jen. Just think. We could see so many things. And how awesome would it be to win a million dollars? Could you imagine that?” He grinned at Jensen. “Not to mention, we’ll actually get to spend some time together. We’ve both been so busy we hardly see each other anymore.”
“I know, Jay. Running two businesses isn’t easy, and we knew that going into things. But we could just take a vacation, do what normal people do. We don’t need to go on a reality show to spend time together. And you have to look at it realistically. I’m not twenty-five anymore, Jay. Those kids would kick our asses.”
Jared scoffed. “No, they wouldn’t. Have you seen you? And what about me?” He lifted an arm and flexed his bicep. Jared used their home gym almost daily, and he knew Jensen did too.
Jensen looked pensive. After a minute, he spoke. “What about the brewery and the bar? We can’t just up and leave them for a month.”
“Gino and Dave are more than capable of handling things while we’re gone. You know that, Jen. C’mon, let’s just fly out next week and see what happens. Please?” He knew he was practically begging, but if he’d gotten this far, gotten Jensen to at least talk about it… Hell, he even seemed like he might be considering it.
The slightest smirk tilted Jensen’s lips then. “A month on the road with twenty other people, plus a camera crew, and who the hell knows who else? You know it’s not my thing. But the real question is… can you go a month without getting laid, Jay? We could be sharing rooms, sleeping in huts, on the sidewalk, in airports…”
“Jensen, you wound me. You know there’s nothing and no one on this planet that could keep me from having sex with you. If there’s a way, I’ll find it.” He waggled his eyebrows at Jensen causing the other man to laugh. “And you’ve never turned down a challenge. This would be the biggest one yet. C’mon, babe. What do you say?”
Jensen flicked his tongue out to wet his lips. There was something in his eyes that hadn’t been there just a few minutes ago.
Jared knew he had him.