Page 15 of Hearing Hank

“I’ll look forward to it,” Hank says, right before he kisses me breathless. He toasts me with his cup of coffee and says thank you as he heads out the door with a cocky grin on his face. That’s fair. I feel pretty cocky myself.

After a shower and some workout clothes, I drink my coffee and quickly clean up the apartment. Now that Hank’s not here, being here has lost some of its appeal. I know it’s too fast, and I’m not even sure I understand what’s going on, but no one in my life has ever made me feel safe and appreciated and insanely horny all at once like he does. It’s not like I don’t have anything to compare it to. I’m thirty-eight years old. I’ve been around. I’ve had serious relationships. Whatever we have going on between us is special. I’m pretty sure it’s working its way up to being the kind of love they make movies about, even though I feel silly for even thinking that way.

I text Paul to ask if he actually had a test or if he sent Hank on purpose. I get a smiley devil face in return, so I guess that answers that. I’m sure grateful he did.

After a full yoga session, I lay in corpse pose for at least twenty minutes thinking about my situation, and where I really want to go from here. My employment situation is still very not good. I’m going to have to find a job of some kind relatively soon. It doesn’t make sense from a career perspective, but I have to admit that I have a pull toward packing all my things and moving to Shafter Falls to be closer to Hank. He’s told me how much he loves the ranch, and you can see that his work is the perfect fit for him. If his feelings are getting as strong as mine I could probably get him to move to Denver for me, but I bet he’d be miserable. A two-hour drive isn’t that long, we could probably do the long-distance thing for a while. That makes the most sense, but I’m not sure I’m cut out for that.

The sensible side of my brain is trying to get me to calm down and not plan my life around someone I met four days ago. The emotional side of me is thinking about how good it felt to have Hank in my bed all night, and how much I’ve liked being with him. It feels like my whole life is at a crossroads, and I’m not sure how to choose a path. Right about the time I’m talking myself in circles, my cell phone rings. I scramble for it and say hello breathlessly.

“Hi,” the man on the other end says, “I’m looking for Leroy James?”

“You’ve got him,” I say cheerfully, “How can I help you?”

“This is John Alden, from Alden Security. I got your name from Wyatt Conroy. He mentioned that you might be looking for work in the analysis field.”

“I am,” I say, suddenly serious and wary. “He told me that you ran a company that might be looking, but he didn’t mention what you did, or exactly what field you are in.”

The man laughs. “I’d be disappointed if he did. We have our main office right here in Denver if you’d like to swing by and chat about what we’re looking for and if it would be a good fit for you. I know it’s Saturday, but we’re pretty casual around here. I’ve got some time this afternoon, or we can schedule something for next week. Is that convenient for you?”

“I actually do have some time today,” I tell him. “Can you text me the address and I’ll stop by around one o’clock?.”

“Will do,” John says, “See you then, and thank you for taking the time.”

“No problem, thanks for calling,” I say.

I hang up and a few moments later an address pops up in my text messages. I stare at it for a minute and take a few breaths. Talk about a coincidence. If nothing else, this should be very interesting. I can’t wait to see what kind of place Wyatt has sent me to.

19

Hank

Thedrivehomegivesme plenty of time to think. Actually it might be more accurate to call it daydreaming. I fantasize about how I can get Hank to move in with me and stay forever, and how great it would be to have him next to me every night and wake up with him every morning. When I woke up before him this morning I spent quite a while watching him sleep and admiring how beautiful he was.

I know he can have his pick of anyone he wants, and I feel so lucky that who he wants right now is me. I know that less than a week of knowing each other means that it’s way too soon to think of anything permanent, and there’s absolutely no guarantee that Lee is even open to that. It’s way too soon to even talk about it. But that doesn’t stop me from wanting it, and thinking about how wonderful it would be. I’d even consider moving to Denver if I had to, just to make it work. I’m sure I could put my degree to use somehow.

Driving through town on the way home I realize there are a couple things we need from the feed store. There’s no point in driving out to the ranch and then all the way back. I’ll just stop in now. When I pull into the lot I see that Frankie Mitchell’s truck is parked in front of the store, I let out a sigh. Apparently today was just going too well, and life need to take me down a peg.

I get what we need fairly quickly but when I make it up to the checkout I end up in line right in front of Frankie and two of the hands from his ranch.

“Oh look, it’s the retard,” one of the hands points. It reminds me of elementary school, and I briefly wonder how old this guy is.

“What’s the matter, don’t you have anything to say?” the other one mocks.

“Knock it off right now or get out of my store,” Roy says from behind the register. “We don’t put up with that kind of shit in here. I’ve told you before, Frankie.”

I put my things on the counter and Roy quickly rings up the charge. I sign the slip and head out the door. Just as Frankie pulls his cart up to the register, one of the geniuses behind him says, “Look at the dummy, running away.” He jabs Frankie with his elbow, “Get it? Because he can’t talk! He’s dumb.”

Suddenly I have no idea why I’m not standing up for myself. There’s nothing to be afraid of here. There’s no way these guys could actually hurt me. I have half a foot and fifty pounds on the tallest one, and they’re morons. I spin on my heel and stride back toward them. Frankie is almost always the loudest, so I head straight for him. I get right up in his space, and he takes a step back just like I expected him to. But when I look down at him I get a shock. The look on his face is not mocking or derisive or even fake tough. Frankie is absolutely terrified.

“Hey, guys,” I say in a much gentler voice than I intended to use. “How about you knock it off? Everyone’s tired of listening to your old, mean jokes. Grow up and work on being decent human beings instead, okay?”

All three of them looked surprised when I speak, but the two hands get over it quickly. One of them starts puffing up his chest and opens his mouth to say something, but I arch an eyebrow at him, and he subsides.

“Let’s get out of here,” Frankie finally says, not looking at me. “The old man doesn’t want us getting in trouble in town.”

The three of them sidle out the door, giving me a wide berth. I nod at Roy, who’s smiling at me, and I’m heading back out the door myself when I hear a slow clap. Sam is standing in the paint aisle grinning at me.

“I was headed up here to run them off. Looks like that won’t be necessary anymore.”

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