Page 13 of Poles Apart
They sat, and Dom looked at the small menu. Jacob already knew what he was having.
“Aren’t you looking?” Dom asked, squinting as he looked at Jacob.
“I know what I’m having. Abby and I come here often. She always gets the carrot cake, and I get the lemon drizzle, but all the cakes are amazing.” Jacob finished the sentence with a wink and was pleased to see a small smile cross Dom’s face. Maybe this wasn’t such a lost cause after all.
“OK, I’ll have a pot of tea with the carrot cake. If Abby likes it, I’m sure it’ll be great.” He handed the menu to Jacob.
“Good choice.” Jacob went to the counter and ordered the food, returning with two huge slices of cake served on patterned china plates. “They’ll bring the tea over shortly.”
“Well, isn’t this...quaint!” Dom said, turning the plate around and picking up his little cake fork. “You don’t get this in the clubs in Ibiza. You’re lucky if you get a bowl for your nuts.”
Jacob frowned at his words, not sure if he was taking the piss. “Sorry, I thought it’d be nice, and we could walk along the river when we’re done here. I have a couple of hours before I have to leave. Unless you’ve got other plans.”
Dom looked up from his plate, their eyes meeting. Jacob had to admit Dom had a captivating face. His skin was so smooth, not a hint of stubble. Perfect light-brown eyebrows and eyelashes, enhanced by a little mascara. He was wearing eyeliner again but no other make-up and didn’t that just fire up Jacob’s libido. His lips were a perfect pink; one could describe them as pouty, and Jacob was sorely tempted to kiss them.
“You’re staring,” Dom said, a smirk sitting on those perfect, pouty, positively kissable lips. Jacob shook himself out of it.
“Sorry, it’s been so long since I saw you, and I’d forgotten how beautiful you are.” Jacob dipped his head, a blush forming on his cheeks. In for a penny, in for a pound, though. “I’ve thought about you constantly over the years. Wondering what you were doing, and if you were thinking about me too. I came back to Chester after a couple of years, but you’d gone.”
“Yeah, that happens when you realise you have to move on with your life after being left alone. Not knowing what’s going on.” Dom sat back in his chair, arms crossed against his chest. The playful Dom of a moment ago, completely gone. “Perhaps this was a mistake. We should keep it professional, me tutoring your sister.” He pushed his plate away and went to stand up, but their tea arrived at that moment, and Dom was forced to sit again to avoid knocking it out of the waitress’s hand.
Jacob reached out and touched his arm gently. “Please, stay. I need to explain.”
Dom waited until they were alone again. “Yeah, you fucking do. Eight years of not knowing, Jacob. Eight fucking years.” Jacob could see the flash of anger in his eyes, and he was perfectly justified in feeling that way. He supposed he hadn’t tried particularly hard to find Dom after he’d initially returned when he was twenty. He knew, deep down, that Dom wouldn’t have stayed around. They hadn’t had any mutual friends in high school or college. Jacob had stopped by Dom’s old house, but whoever had lived there then hadn’t known him.
Raising Abby had taken its toll on both his social and love life. Neither one got the attention they deserved. He only had Colin as a friend; the rest were colleagues or people he knew from the gym, and as for a love life… Yeah, not so easy when you’re looking after a ten-year-old who’s forgotten who you are. Trying to get a babysitter had proved nigh on impossible. It was only recently that he’d felt comfortable enough to leave her for an hour or so, and then he’d only managed a quick hook-up via an app.
But today, he was hoping to change all that. He wanted Dom in his life again, and looking closely at him today had only cemented that thought in his mind. He wanted him. He was going to win back his trust. Dom wouldn’t know what had hit him.
Chapter Seven
Dom
He shouldn’t have agreed to this. Dom studied Jacob, his spectacular square jaw, light-brown stubble and those deep-set, navy-blue eyes flecked with silver, like starlight in a velvet-blue sky. He wore his hair a little longer than before, falling casually over his right eye, and Dom had to restrain himself from sweeping it from his forehead and running his hands through it, feeling how luxuriously soft he knew it would be. His light-brown hair was streaked with natural golden blond highlights and it shone in the sun.
Nowhewas staring, but he couldn’t help it. He was still wildly attracted to Jacob. He needed to calm down. He had too much on his plate at the moment, looking after his brother and now with Seb and his stalker… He had an inkling Seb was going to need his friendship.
“Just say what you need to, then we can go our separate ways.” Dom picked idly at his cake, using his fork to break small, bite-size pieces off and eating them. He couldn’t help the moan that slipped out of his mouth as the flavour of the cake burst on his tongue.
“Told you it was good,” Jacob said, a smug smile on his face. Dom sighed and looked at him, urging him to get a move on.
“OK, so that night.” Jacob took a deep breath. “Can I start by saying that was the best night ever? I loved it, right up until my parents walked in, obviously.” He took a sip of his tea and carried on talking.
“After you left, they were furious with me. Couldn’t understand what I was doing with another guy. I’d never told them I was gay, about us or anything. It wasn’t anybody’s business except yours and mine. I would have come out to them eventually, at some point in the future, when I wasn’t living there anymore.
“My dad had always been strict with me, not so much with Abby. I was the one who was going to do well. Get a good job, a degree and probably a wife and kids, a happy married life. Something that I now know, he didn’t have. I don’t know if you know what happened to my parents?”
Dom shook his head. He had no idea what had happened, and while he could have Googled it, he wanted to hear it directly from him.
“Let me tell you what happened to me first. That night, after all the arguing and me shouting myself hoarse telling them I was gay, they took my phone from me and stopped me from leaving the house. They stopped me going to work, telling my employers there was some family emergency and that I needed to move.” Dom could tell that this was still hurting Jacob. His eyes were misted over, and there was a hitch in his voice that hadn’t been there before.
“I had an aunt who lived over in Durham. I don’t know how my parents did it or why, but they arranged for me to go and live there. They transferred my apprenticeship, and within two weeks, I’d moved. I had no phone, no computer and no way to get in touch. Your number was in my phone, and I didn’t know who any of your friends were. I suppose I could have tried harder, but my aunt watched me like a hawk. She used to report to my father what I’d been doing. So, I kept my head down and my nose clean.
“It hurt, Dom. I know you probably don’t believe me, but it fucking hurt. Not seeing you, not knowing how you were, where you were. I don’t want to have to go through that again. I’m not going anywhere. My life is here now.”
Dom leaned against his chair, placing his fork on his plate. “That’s an admirable sentiment, Jacob, and I am sorry they did that to you, but you have to understand. That’s a part of my life that I’ve tried to forget. It hurt me too. I didn’t realise until you were gone how much you meant to me, and I’ve worked hard to get you out of my system.”
Dom couldn’t let Jacob in. They were both hurting, and although he knew Jacob had settled here, Dom couldn’t say in all honesty that this was where he was meant to be. He didn’t want to have to think about what might happen after Jordan started work, but his brother was still his focus right now.
