Page 32 of Learning to Run

“I’m not sure Cashel would let us do that, but it would geta good reaction.” And their walk of shame wouldn’t be the first thing anyonethought about any longer.

“It would.” The pout came back as he sighed again. “But Judewould probably kill us because everyone would think we’d killed Brady for doingsomething ridiculous.”

Probably.

“He’s not the type to want to be the talk of the buildingeither.” He was slightly obsessive about keeping to himself, actually.

“Yeah.” Gareth’s pout didn’t last long and he smiled again.“We’ll find another way of driving him crazy.”

Because it was fun?

Revenge?

“Has everything been going good with him this week?” Most ofthe obsessive worrying seemed to have stopped, so I was glad when Garethnodded.

“Yep, no weird lectures and only a few glares.” Gareth’sexplanation had me wondering if I should laugh or have another talk with Jude.

“That’s good.” Keeping that mental debate on the backburnerfor the time being, I took Gareth’s hand and started leading him back towardthe bedroom so we could check on a suspiciously quiet Cashel. “I think you guysnot coming back home in pajamas or the clothes you were in the night beforewill help.”

And not coming back in my clothes would probably help too.

“You’re probably right but he worries about everythingso I’m not sure.” Gareth shrugged like he just didn’t understand Jude.“Yesterday he was worrying about us being too quiet or something.”

Gareth didn’t always translate Jude-isms well so I wasn’tsure what he actually meant as we headed into the bedroom…but at that point, Ilost all train of thought, so it didn’t matter.

Cashel was staring at the beds that were stacked neatly withclothes…lots of clothes. He finally looked over at Gareth who was smiling,obviously very pleased with himself. “This isn’t going to fit in the duffelbag.”

It would, however, have made a wonderful dead body.

Gareth looked between the beds, his head cocked slightlygiving him a thoughtful expression. “Maybe we could make a few trips?”

I knew he wasn’t trying to move in because the closet wascracked open enough for me to see the rest of their clothes, but hearing hislogic was going to be so much fun I just waited to see what would happen next.

“What did you pack?” Cashel finally stepped over toward hisbed, studying his stacks before reaching out and leafing through what seemed tobe his favorite pajamas and T-shirts, if I was remembering correctly.

“A bit of everything.” Gareth shrugged and seemed to thinkthat should’ve been obvious. “Enough pajamas to make sure you don’t have tosleep in anything sticky just in case and clothes for now that it’s still kindof chilly but then stuff for when it gets warm again.”

Frowning, he studied the piles. “If it took us this long tograb clothes, I figured we should make sure we’re taking what we’ll need forthe rest of the year too.”

He wasn’t wrong.

But I loved how confident he was about the trajectory of ourrelationship.

“And as long as we keep things folded neatly, it’ll fit inBates’s dresser.” He nodded decisively. “I measured.”

That did not surprise me, but it did make me question whenhe’d done his measuring.

“The dresser is a lot emptier than the closet.” My responsedidn’t help Cashel’s confusion but it pleased Gareth.

“You like hanging things up, so I left most of the fancierstuff here that Cash said I need for interviews and stuff like that. I evenfolded the jeans so they’ll fit neatly in your drawers.” Gareth looked so confidentI had a feeling he’d taken very good notes about my storage options.

“That’s wonderful.” And adorable. “And if we need to makemore space, they make a lot of under-the-bed storage options now. I looked at afew but haven’t bought any yet because I wasn’t sure what you needed.”

And I hadn’t wanted to appear pushy, but it seemed like thathadn’t been an issue I should’ve been worrying about.

Cashel was shaking his head like he wasn’t sure how we’dgotten to this point, but Gareth was ignoring it and smiled even wider at me.“We can plan that for phase two. I don’t think we’ll need anything now unlessCash wants to bring more than I planned for.”

Turning to his confused boyfriend, Gareth was back to beinghelpful and curious, without actually explaining what phase two meant. “Do youthink you’ll need anything else?”

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