Page 58 of Silent Is The Heart

“Oh, that’s nice. They’ve got a good bit up over on Chatham Avenue,” he offers.

I’m going to be sick. The panic bubble in my throat is damn near choking me, hearing the friendly chit-chat and watching the way Wolf looks like he’s waiting for my head to spin around.

Grabbing Aaron’s biceps, I tug him to follow me out into the living room. “I’ll…be back later,” I call over my shoulder to my ‘plumber.’

Behind Aaron, Wolf signs to me emphatically, nodding toward the bathroom.Should I stay?

Giving a stern shake of my head before Aaron notices, I hope he gets the hint that I don’t need or want him to babysit my convict father. Frowning warily, he nods and says goodbye to Aaron before making his way back downstairs. I’m sure I’ll hear more about keeping this from him later. Fantastic.

Running my hands up and down Aaron’s arms, I let out a breath, taking in the joy that radiates off him these days. “Just give me a second to get changed. Okay?”

“I think that’s a good idea.” He chuckles, plucking my soaked sweatshirt away from my stomach. “You’re sure you don’t need to stay while the plumber’s here? I don’t mind staying in. Lord knows you’ve had to drive home from my place enough times.”

Ugh. I freaking lied my teeth off to every guy I met before him. Why should this be so difficult? I could just tell him, but hopefully Leonard will be gone soon and there will never be a reason to mention him again.Soonwill require actually speaking to him to see how close he is to his housing search, but I don’t care. I’m not going to chance ruining anything with Aaron by housing someone of questionable nature any longer than I have to. He sees me as his boyfriend. I’m not going back to being seen as a kid with trauma and triggers again that he needs to fix.And maybe a part of me is just…embarrassed. I had enough humility back then; I don’t need another dose of it.

“No. It’s a mess.” Just as I say it, I spot Leonard’s uniform stack. Luckily, he moved it to the bottom shelf of the end table by the couch, so it’s less noticeable than before, but it sends my pulse racing. “I should probably come back here tonight, though, and get the bathroom cleaned up when he’s done. It leaked into Wolf’s stall downstairs and he’s not too happy about it.”

“Oh, crap.”

“Yeah,” I concur, grabbing his hand and leading him to my room with me past Leonard’s campsite area, hoping he doesn’t notice. “So, I’ll need to go check downstairs too to see if there’s any damage I can contain later.”

“We don’t have to go out. We can do it another night. I could help you with whatever you need to do.”

In the privacy of my room, it feels odd to disrobe in front of another man while Leonard is nearby, but I tear my sweatshirt off as a distraction attempt. Running my hand down my chest, I smirk. “You think either of us would get any work done if you were here?”

His gaze follows my hand as I unbutton the fly of my jeans. When he looks back up, his cheeks are pink, and his eyes are filled with the longing I feel. Laughing, he shakes his head. “Fair enough.”

There’s nothing fair about what I just did. It’s completely self-serving because if he knew who the man in my bathroom was, I couldn’t stand the possibility of him seeing me asless.

CHAPTER 28

Aaron

Sometimes it feels like my past belonged to someone else or was a story written in a book of fiction rather than a reality I lived. Nights like last night and tonight with Easton are to blame for that surreal feeling.

Wiping the smile off my face as Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ plays on the radio of the Suburban, I shake my head at myself. The past creeps in on the happiest moments to remind us that even fairy tales start out bleak. Easton is proof enough of that.

“You’re not enjoying this, are you?” I had asked him as we drove around looking at Christmas light displays. “Don’t tell me you don’t like Christmas lights. Oh, my gosh. Wait. You don’t. Do you? I didn’t see any up at your apartment or your tattoo stall.”

It’s true. Shannon has the reception desk decked out with garland and lights and every one of the artists has some kind of decoration in their work areas. Easton’s was its usual blank, sterile setting when I was looking for him in the shop earlier.

Scoffing, he shrugged and lifted a shoulder lazily. “We never put up lights when I was growing up.” Squinting, he gazed out the window at a ten-foot inflatable snowman in someone’s yard like it was a riddle he was trying to decipher. “My momhad one of those tiny little trees she put on our coffee table for a while,” he added casually.

The‘for a while’part made me think something bad happened to the tree, so I didn’t ask. He didn’t look sad exactly, just indifferent. I think the indifference broke my heart the most.

“I’m sorry. We can go back. I know you’ve got that mess to deal with and I’m keeping you from it.”

“No. It’s fine. I told you,” he assured me, reaching over and squeezing my hand.

“Easton, you’ve barely looked at the lights the entire time. It’s okay. I can accept when I have a bad idea,” I digressed.

“It’s because I’m too busy watching you looking at the lights.”

I got so lost drinking in the adoring look on his face that I ran over a curb. Nothing says you’re careful with the vehicle someone lent you like running over a curb.

“Like a deranged, drunk-driving Christmas elf,” he murmured playfully as I righted the vehicle.

His comparison wasn’t far off. I love Christmas. And him. God, I amsoin love with him.

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