Page 34 of Stirring Up Trouble
Bobby Allen smiled. "Well then, by all means, I will accept all the hugs and happiness. Just making sure I didn't do something.”
"You didn't do anything," she said to him as she lifted the two plates she'd made.
His eyes went wide as he took in all the food. "I might only need one of these. Elton's not big on food when he’s this tired, and honestly, I don't need to eat that much before bed. That heartburn can be tough."
Ms. Connie squinted at him as if trying to detect any lies. Whatever she saw was enough to have her putting down one plate and handing him the single one, along with enough silverware for them both and some bottles of water.
"You just call out if you need anything else," she said.
He thanked her and took off.
When it was just us three again, Ms. Connie took the plate that she'd made and wrapped it up to put in the fridge. She then went about cleaning up the kitchen before she leaned on the counter, elbows in place and hands holding her face.
"Tell me how it happened," she said. Her voice went musical. I laughed and shook my head, finishing off the last bite of cornbread muffin.
Robin, who apparently was just as smitten with the idea of sharing, leaned over, ignoring his food completely to start up. “From my point of view, the way it started was he nearly knocked me on my ass, pardon my language, Ms. Connie. Whenever I first saw him, I was done for.”
“Is that the truth?” I asked.
He smiled, nodding again. "Yep, I took one look at Blaze Anders when I was sitting at that dining room table and I said, 'I want to take a bite out of that.'Now, obviously, I had never thought that about a man before in my life, so it was a bit trippy. But the men of the Coleman Ranch are all queer, so it wasn't that it bothered me. I was just stunned.”
"Okay, good, good, go on. Blaze, how did you feel?”
I grunted as if pretending I didn't enjoy this discussion. “It was about the same for me, too. One minute, I was perfectly fine, and then the next, there was this sweet-looking man who had me tongue-tied. All I wanted was to know who he was, why he was here, and how I could keep him."
It was putting my feelings mildly. Robin made me want more. He made me remember what it was like to wish for things and then go after them. I wasn’t singularly focused on business anymore. I had plans outside of work to live for, to enjoy.
“That sounds a little bit like a felony, honey,” Connie teased, pulling me back to the conversation.
I rolled my eyes as Robin laughed at her. "It wasn't that type of decision," I said, "More like I wanted to understand where these feelings had come from and how I could make sense of them, because it made no sense to me that a perfect stranger would have me so captivated."
Connie clasped her hands together as she pushed to stand. "Of course it makes sense. Haven't you ever heard of love at first sight?" At my wide stare, she clicked her tongue. "I'm not saying you love him. Don't be getting all paranoid. I'm just saying that there can be times when people become attracted to one another right away and have to pursue those feelings. It may not be love now, but it could be in the very near future."
I reached for my glass, drinking down most of the water before I chanced a look at Robin. My boy was already staring at me, his face a mask. I couldn't tell what he was feeling. Couldn't tell if he thought the same as Connie or if he was panicking like I was.
Love was a very powerful word, one that was strong enough to change everything. While I could admit that I did feel something pretty damn close to that, I didn't want to drop the L word on him. Hell, we didn't even know what the living situation would be like or if he wanted to have something more permanent.
I was jumping all the guns here. I needed to dial it back.
"Dinner was delicious, Connie," I said instead of following the trail she'd left out for me.
"Thank you, sweetheart. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Now I'm off to bed, so you'll have to clean up your dishes yourself. Understood? Good.” She answered herself, then took off to her mother-in-law suite we'd built on at the back of the house. It was all hers with its own little kitchenette area. She still preferred to cook in the main area. She said it was nicer to have people come and go as she worked. I didn’t question the sentiment becauseI knew the woman enjoyed company, which is why I could tell how odd it was she just decided to up and leave in the middle of a discussion. She probably thought I was going to talk this out with Robin. She was wrong though. This was not the time to talk about anything.
I had promised my boy that I would fuck him once we were home. Therefore, we needed to wrap this shit up pronto.
Right as I was about to suggest we go to bed, his phone rang. I glanced over at it to see the name Griffin written across the screen.
"It's my business partner. He wouldn't be calling unless it was important. Especially not at this hour."
“Answer it,” I said, motioning to the device.
He picked it up and was met with squeals.
"What in the world?" Robin said.
"Oh my God, we saw you," one voice called out. "It was amazing. How did you even do that?"
Another said, "You've been keeping secrets from us, Robin."
