Page 27 of Another Chance
“So? Can you repair it?” Theo asked, and Eric smiled a little. He’d gotten lost in the problem, in planning out what needed to be done, and how, and who needed to be contacted. He knew he could get a little lost in himself when he did that, and he lightly squeezed Theo’s fingers right back to signal that he was back in the present.
“Yeah,” Eric said comfortably. “The hole in the wall is the biggest issue. I gotta see how much the drywall is damaged. But yeah, I can do it.”
Eric turned to look at Theo and then froze. He’d surprised some sort of reaction out of the man, and there was a look of longing, naked and terrifying and terrified, in Theo’s eyes as they met, held, locked with Eric’s.
This was an honest reaction from Theo, the desire he saw. The desire which had actually not a lot to do with the joining of their bodies, though Eric found himself reacting on a visceral level to that look he was getting.
It was a desire to stay. To have this house rebuilt. It was, in essence, the same desire that Eric had, the reason that he hadn’t told Theo to just knock the place down and sell it for the land. That would be easier, and definitely cheaper, and since the land was the part which was actually valuable, it would probably cost more money.
Shit. Money. Here he was, happily spending Theo’s money in his head, without even checking with him.
“Look, I won’t lie to you,” Eric admitted. “It won’t be cheap. The people I’ll have to bring in, they don’t work for free. So if you want …”
It brought a feeling of relief rising up into his chest and blooming through the rest of his body when Theo shook his head once more, their fingers embraced, squeezed, tightened. Relief, because Theo was interrupting him before he said the words which he knew he couldn’t take back. Before he could propose the logical course of action.
“It’s fine. The money, it’s fine.” Theo spoke about it like it was nothing, and Eric’s shoulders relaxed. That’s right. Hadn’t Anne or Mary or something told him that his former best friend was some sort of big deal famous writer? Wealthy enough, apparently, that he could afford this sort of project.
“Okay.” They were both, Eric realized suddenly, talking about this like it was going to happen. Like the agreement had already been made. Eric had never been so abrupt with this before. There should be contracts. A clear agreement about how much money would be involved.
But this was different because while Eric would never try to make any of the contractors he knew work for free, he wasn’t going to accept so much as a cent for this work. Not one red cent.
Not when it was going to keep Theo close to him for months.
“It’ll take awhile, too,” Eric added. “Forget a few weeks. This is gonna be a few months. My guys will do it right, but that takes time.”
They both knew what that meant. While the house was being renovated, cleaned, made fit to live in again, Theo and Jupiter couldn’t live there. There was just no way. So he and Theo would be living together, playing house. For that chance, Eric would do a lot more work than he knew fixing this house up was going to need.
“Okay. Do it.” Theo spoke so decisively. His beautiful, awkward friend had grown up, had become so strangely confident. How strange that Eric could honestly say he’d known someone famous way back when.
Then all thought fled his head because Theo, using his grip which he still held firm and warm on Eric’s hand, tugged him close and Eric felt himself going all melty inside, heart, stomach, muscles, everything. He flowed toward Theo, knowing what was happening before it happened, if only just a few seconds.
They sealed the deal in a way which Eric, for all of his escapades, had never done before. They sealed it with a kiss and a long, lingering, electric one that only ended when Theo started to sneeze from the mold spores.
