Page 10 of Finally
“My house is bigger, not nicer. Your condo looks like a builder model. Everything’s perfect.”
“That’s the goal,” Gray said. “Gets the fastest closings and the highest offers. But your place is more comfortable, and regardless, I don’t want you to drive alone late at night.”
“It’s a fifteen-minute drive, Gray, I can handle it,” Jack said softly. It was, for lack of a better description, a submissive tone that Jack absolutely never used at work and, for that matter, rarely showed in front of their friends. The gentle, almost whisper surfaced exclusively when Gray said or did something to take care of Jack. He had experienced it in person often enough to know even without seeing him that, in that moment, Jack’s shoulders had lowered, tension from his long day had eased, and a small smile graced his lips. The reward for nurturing Jack satisfied Gray more deeply than the multimillion-dollar client he had signed that morning.
“I know you can handle the drive, but I don’t want you to. You’ve had a long day. I want you to get into your comfy clothes and then we can eat and watch TV until your eyes are closing.”
“You know me so well, Gray, and you’re way too good to me.”
Comments like that were what made it impossible for Gray to like Jack’s ex, regardless of how many people sang his praises and regardless of how charming he acted in social settings. Byall accounts, Jaime Snow treated his husband Oliver well, but he hadn’t given Jack that same courtesy. Their friends didn’t share his viewpoint and, for that matter, neither did Jack. Seeing no benefit in pointing out the flaws of a man who had a starring role in a good portion of Jack’s past and still owned half of Jack’s business, Gray remained civil to Jaime, but he could never consider the man a friend.
“Nothing is too good for you, Jack.”
“Thank you,” Jack whispered. He cleared his throat and then said, “We can eat at my house if you’re sure. But by the time we’re done with dinner, it’ll be after nine and then we’ll watch a half hour show, but somehow a minute later, it’ll be midnight.”
“Time does fly by when we’re together.” Gray was pleased that Jack felt the same way.
“If you want to, you can bring a change of clothes and sleep over. That, uh, might be better than driving home late.”
“Great idea.” Gray shut down his computer and pushed his chair back.
“I have all that extra space and I'm closer to your firm in case you end up going into the office tomorrow.”
“You don’t need to convince me to spend the night with you, Jack.” Screw Jaime and every other man who mistreated a person with such a delicate soul. “I'll leave now and swing by my place to pack a bag and then I’ll meet you at home.”
***
“You’re being ridiculous,” Jack said to himself as he rolled up his driveway. “He comes over all the time. You had dinner with him three days ago. There’s nothing new about tonight.” Except that Jack had invited Gray to sleep at his house. That was new.
“In a guest room,” he reminded himself out loud. “That’s not strange.” With as late as Gray stayed at his place, spending the night made sense. Even if he did live only fifteen minutes away. Chewing on his bottom lip, Jack thought that over. He hadn’thad sleepovers with his friends since he was a child. Why would he? Everyone had a car or access to a Lyft and people liked to sleep in their own bed and wake up in their own space.
“Okay, it’s strange,” he admitted. “But Gray didn’t seem weirded out by it ergo it’s fine.” And Gray didn't have access to Jack’s thoughts, even if it sometimes seemed like he was reading Jack’s mind, which meant he couldn’t know that lately, those thoughts had been wandering in an X-rated direction. Besides, by all accounts, Gray wasn’t shy about anything X-rated or about spending the night with men, so he wasn’t likely to be put off even if he did know what Jack was secretly thinking.
He pulled into his garage and left the door open for Gray to park, and then he picked up the bag from the restaurant along with his laptop case and walked into his house. He had just placed everything on the kitchen table when his phone rang. After fishing it out of his pocket, he glanced at the screen and accepted the call.
“Hi, Kevin.”
“Hey. I’m not interrupting a date, am I?”
Shaking his head, Jack chuckled. “I just got home from work, and I have manners so I wouldn’t answer the phone if I was on a date.”
“True. True.” Kevin paused, and Jack waited for the question they both knew was coming. “What happened with that guy you were seeing?”
“It didn’t work out.” Jack put the phone on speaker and set it on the counter while he paced.
“Why not? You seemed to be having fun with him last Friday night.”
There was nothing fun about his brief time with Devon that night, but there was no point in getting into those details, so Jack tried to nudge the conversation in a new direction. “Gray mentioned you guys were at the restaurant.” He walked to therefrigerator and pulled out a bottle of seltzer water. “You should have come over to say hello.”
Not one to get distracted from his mission, Kevin said, “We didn’t want to interrupt your date. What happened?”
“He’s not my type,” Jack said, hoping to avoid getting into detail. He tipped the bottle against his mouth and took a drink.
“What does that mean?”
Not surprisingly, the avoidance tactic had failed again. Kevin wasn’t going to let it go, leaving Jack no choice but to explain why he had no interest in the latest guy he had tried dating and then they’d move on. “Lots of things.” He finished off his drink and took a deep breath. “He was flirting with some man at the bar. He’s an early morning person. He doesn’t have a band name.”
“He’s a musician?”
