by David Horne
He took a deep breath and sighed. “Let’s just get back to work.”
When he walks past me, I reach out and grab his arm, and wait for him to look at me. I see disappointment in his eyes and it’s like a knife to my heart. “Aaron, I’m sorry. Please believe me.”
He nods his head slightly, but the disappointment is still there when he looks at me again. “It’s fine,” he says, but he doesn’t mean it. I can see that it really isn’t fine. “Let’s just finish this built in, okay?”
As much as I don’t want to let it go. What I want is to hash this out until he forgives me for real, but instead I just nod and release his arm. We spend the rest of the day working in silence. Only speaking in short sentences and only when needed to get the work done. By the end of the day I feel like a complete dick, and there is a pain growing in my chest that feels like someone slowing hammering away at my heart. When I told Jim that Aaron and I had plans tonight it had been to give him an easy out from dinner with Jim, but a part of me had hoped we could spend the evening together. That was probably off the table now.
Chapter Eleven
Aaron
I hear a knock at the door right after I step out of the shower, so I quickly wrap a towel around my waist and go to see who is there. I hope it’s not Jim again. After today, I just need a beer and a slice of pizza, then hopefully I can get some rest tonight.
When I open the door, Caleb looks nervous, and I know he’s worried I’m going to tell him to leave after the way I snapped at him today. I can’t say I blame him, and I’m still angry, but the second I see him standing at my door I know that what I really want to turn this horrible day around is for him to stay.
“Hey,” he says. His eyes keep darting toward me, then my towel, then up to the sky. I grin because I know he’s fighting the urge to take me in, and to comment on the fact that I’ve answered the door wet and basically naked, but he’s trying to be serious.
“Hey,” I say back.
It occurs to me as I look him over that I have no idea where he lives. It must be close by because he’s clearly been home to shower. His hair is still damp, and he’s wearing a clean white button-down shirt, and a pair of gray slacks. It’s the first time I’ve seen him in anything other than jeans. Did he try to dress up for me?
“Can we talk?” he asks.
I step back and motion for him to come inside. “Sure, but we better do it inside. I’d hate for the wind to blow my towel away. Someone might drive by and get an unwanted show.”
Caleb glances down at the towel. “I don’t think it would be unwanted once they got a good view.” And there was the real Caleb.
“Yeah, well, I’m gonna go throw on a pair of shorts anyway.”
I was pretty sure I heard Caleb grumbling as I walked down the hall to grab some shorts and I chuckled to myself.
***
Once I was dried off and had on more than a towel I found Caleb sitting on the couch in my living room. He was staring at his feet with his hands clasped, nervously circling his thumbs around each other.
“Hey,” I said before I took a seat next to him.
He’s quiet for a couple minutes, just continuing to twirl his thumbs, then he says, “I was jealous.”
I look at him, confused. “What are you talking about?”
Caleb dropped his face to his hands and thread his fingers in his hair. “He was touching you, trying to hold your hand, and clearly flirting with you while asking you out. I wanted to rip off his arms, so he couldn’t ever touch you again. I wanted to take out his eyes, so he would stop checking out your chest. I was extremely jealous, and that’s why I acted like such a prick.”
I laugh because he couldn’t be any more ridiculous if he were dressed from head to toe like a clown. “Jim is my friend and my brother in law. There’s nothing to be jealous of, Caleb. There never has been anything more than friendship between us, and there never will be. He’s practically my brother.”
Caleb lifted his head and looked at me, completely serious. “I am not so sure that’s how he feels about you. The way he was touching you, and practically drooling over you, I don’t think he thinks of you as a brother even a little.”
“No, there’s no way he would ever think of me that way. He wouldn’t do that. He loved Ben. He wouldn’t think that I could ever be with him after I lost his brother.” I look at Caleb hoping for some reassurance. Reassurance that my best friend, my brother in law, couldn’t possibly want to cross that line, but his expression doesn’t offer me anything close to reassurance. He looks sorry, and not in the apologetic way that he did when he got here, but more like he’s sorry that I’m going through something so crazy.
He reaches across and puts his hand on my knee. “Aaron, you said yourself that you didn’t think Ben gave him that key to your place. That you were convinced he’d broken into your home and spied on you, and that he was irate about us being together that night.”
I shake my head not wanting to believe that this could be true. “I know, but not because he was jealous it was you instead of him. He was mad because I’m starting to move on, instead of just sitting around crying and missing Ben. I can’t believe that what you’re saying is possible.”
Caleb took both of my hands in his and gave them a squeeze, and he smiled, but I could tell it was just an attempt to calm me down because it didn’t reach his eyes. “If you’re sure that he’d never go there with you, then I believe you. You’ve obviously known him far longer than I have, so if you say I was imagining things today then I was. Jessica did say she’d never seen me so engrossed in anyone before.”
I offer him a smirky smile because I know he doesn’t actually believe what he just said. He believes that Jim wants something more from me, something I never would have imagined he’d pursue between us, and something I would never consider. How could I possibly ever think of him that way when he’s already family…when he’s Ben’s brother.
Caleb stands up and points toward the door. “Well, I just came over to apologize.”
I quickly stand up and move in front of him. “Where are you going?”
“I’m leaving,” he says. “I don’t want to impose too much. I know I made an ass of myself today, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you need some time to decompress after the things Jim and I put you through at work today.”
I grab his arm, then slide my hand down until I am holding his hand. “I don’t want you to leave, Caleb. I know I was pissed off today, and I still think you were trying to antagonize Jim. Actually, knowing that you were jealous of him only confirms that you were intentionally pissing him off, but I won’t deny that I like knowing that you were jealous.”
Caleb grins, and this time it isn’t fake. It’s his cocky grin that is quickly becoming one of my favorite things. “You like seeing me jealous, huh?” He lets his eyes fall to the shorts hanging low on my hips. “Well, I’m feeling pretty jealous of those shorts right now.”
“Are you?”
“I might need to get between them and you. Show them who you’d rather have covering your dick.”
I feel my dick growing hard behind my shorts and, watching how Caleb’s eyes are growing wider, I know that it is obvious to him too. Cotton never does much to hide an erection. With his eyes on my growing bulge he bites his lip and I groan, grabbing a hold of my dick through my shorts because something about Caleb makes me feel like a horny teenager again and I don’t want to blow my load before he’s even touched me.
I yank my shorts down and smirk at him. I don’t have to say a word. Within a second he closes the distance between us, grabs my face, and crashes our mouths together. With our mouths still connected I reach between us and beginning unbuttoning his shirt, then he releases my face long enough for me to shove it off of his shoulders. Before I can reach for his pants he pulls his mouth from mine and drops to his knees. He wraps a hand around the base of my dick and makes two slow strokes up and down, circling his thumb around the head each time. Then he runs his t
ongue from the base, up to the head and then he dips his head and takes my dick all the way to the back of my pubes.
“Oh fuck, Caleb,” I groan. My hips jerk forward and I feel my dick hit the back of his throat and he swallows around my head.
I grip his hair with both of my hands and slowly probe his mouth. Caleb takes it all, moaning around my dick every time I thrust into his mouth.
“Caleb, I’m gonna cum.” My voice was raw.
Caleb moved his hands around to my ass and held me steady, sucking harder and faster until I felt my balls draw up, and my thighs started shaking. “Agh!”
I cried out when my release hit and filled Caleb’s mouth. He took in every drop. When I was spent he stood back up and pulled my face to his again, devouring my mouth with his.
I grabbed his face and pulled away with a smile. “Your turn.” Then I was on my knees, unfastening his pants and pulling them down his hips. My eyes flashed back up to his. “Commando, huh.”
Caleb shrugged. “I was in a hurry to get over here.”
“Good thinking.”
I didn’t waste any time. I gripped his ass in my hands and pulled him closer, rolling my tongue around his tip before taking him in my mouth. His hips jerked forward and I squeezed his ass while I continued to move my mouth up and down his dick. He was so hard, but soft in my mouth and I wanted to make him lose control.
I pulled my mouth off his dick for a moment and he groaned in frustration. Looking up to meet his eyes, I brought my fingers to my mouth and wet them, then I moved my hand between his ass and slowly pushed one, then a second finger inside. Caleb squeezed his eyes shut and his breathing kicked up another notch. He moved his hips making his ass grind back against my hand. I continued probing him with my fingers as I brought my mouth back down on his dick, licking and sucking in time with my fingers. Caleb gripped the back of my head and it wasn’t long before he was thrusting hard and fast. I felt the muscles in his ass tighten just before hot streams of his cum shot into the back of my throat. I continued to work his dick with my mouth, licking his shaft and head until every last drop of cum was gone.
Caleb bent down and pulled me up to my feet and kissed me again, this time long and slow. Then he pulled back, still holding my face in his hands and just let his eyes roam over my face like he was trying to commit every inch to memory. The last person who looked at me like that was Ben, and the emotions it stirs in my chest are overwhelming. I can feel tears forming behind my eyelids so I quickly look away.
“Hey.” Caleb’s voice is soft. “Look at me.” It takes me a second to blink away the tears and I finally look back at him. “You don’t have to hide from me, okay? I know you’re thinking about Ben, and I know that this between us is probably hard for you because you loved him so much. If you need time, or you need to yell or cry or kick things, just know that I understand. So, you don’t have to look away when your feelings get the best of you, and if you ever need me to leave or give you space I can do that, just as long as you don’t expect me to stay away for good. I don’t think I can do that, not now. I’m becoming addicted to being with you, and I’m sure that my need for you is only going to keep growing stronger. Just tell me what you need and I’ll do it, okay?”
His words make me lose the battle with my emotions. “I swear I’m not usually this sensitive. It’s just that you reminded me of Ben just now. He used to look at me like that all the time. Like he never wanted to forget any detail of my face.”
“Sounds like a smart guy,” Caleb said with a smile.
I smiled back. “Yes, he was.”
Taking a deep breath I calm myself down, then look down at our discarded clothing on the floor. “Why don’t we throw some clothes back on and order some pizza. That’s what I planned to do before someone caught me coming out of the shower.”
“Lucky guy,” Caleb said.
I roll my eyes. “Yeah, yeah, but I’m starving now, so let’s get some food and relax a little.”
“Sounds good.”
Chapter Twelve
Caleb
The next morning I woke up early so that I could go home and change and grab whatever I needed for work. Aaron woke up when my alarm went off and made us both a cup of coffee before I had to leave.
“Ya know, if you’re going to keep staying over here after work, maybe you should start keeping an overnight bag in your truck just in case,” Aaron said with his coffee cup hovering just in front of his mouth. I nearly spit my own coffee out, not because I was opposed to the idea, but I was caught completely by surprise. Aaron looked away but I saw the disappointment on his face before he did. He was taking my reaction all wrong.
I put my cup down, walked up to him and took his cup from his hands, placing it on the counter. I cupped the side of his cheek and moved his face to make him look at me. “I want to spend whatever time with you that you want me, but I don’t want to make you feel like you’re being pushed into something you might not be ready for. Losing someone you love so unexpectedly, well, I can’t even imagine what that was like for you. I just want you to know that you don’t need to feel like we have to do anything you’re not ready to do. If there is anything you aren’t ready for just tell me, and I’m okay with waiting. Just don’t try to force things, okay. I do know how that turns out, and in most cases, it’s not good.”
Aaron leaned in and gave me a small kiss. “You don’t have to worry about that with me,” he said. “It’s been two years, and in that time not a single person has made me want to even think about moving on. Then I met you and I felt drawn to you right away. I believe that means something, but I do promise if something comes up that I’m not ready for, then I will let you know.”
“That’s all I needed to hear.” Aaron picks his cup back up and turns around to refill it from the coffee pot and I smack him on the ass. He looks back at me with a raised eyebrow. “And maybe I’ll throw together a bag when I stop by my house, just in case you can’t make it through tonight without me.” Aaron just rolls his eyes and laughs while I finish off my coffee so that I can get going.
***
It was still early when I left Aaron’s house, so there wasn’t much traffic on the road. Shortly after I pulled out onto the road a black car pulled out behind me. I wouldn’t have paid it much attention except for the fact that the driver was riding my ass, revving their engine like they were the king of the road and I was in their way. I moved over so the asshole could go around, but he followed me to the far-right lane like his front bumper was tethered to my tailgate and continued to ride my ass. Their windows were tinted so dark I couldn’t get a glimpse at the person driving. I tried swapping lanes a couple more times, but the car was glued to my bumper and nothing I did seemed to make a difference. When I came up to a restaurant with a packed parking lot I decided to pull in, hoping the possibility of onlookers would prompt the person in the car to stop following me. I was almost in the parking lot when the asshole hit their gas, speeding up and catching the corner of my bumper just as I made the turn. It wasn’t enough to do any significant damage to my truck, especially considering the small size of the car, but it still freaked me out a bit. I don’t have any clue who could have been in that car, but one thing I know for sure is they targeted me, and they hit my truck on purpose. I just don’t understand why.
I sit in the parking lot for another fifteen minutes waiting and watching to be sure they aren’t going to turn around and come back for a second round of crazy driver. When I figure the coast is clear, I crank up my truck and head back out to get ready for work knowing that I’m probably going to be late now because of the fiasco. When I get home, I run in and start changing my clothes. I dial Aaron’s number on speaker to let him know I’m running behind.
“You left my house early,” he says. “How are you running late now?”
I rack my brain quickly. The last thing I want to tell him is that I am running behind because some jackass tried to run me off the road. “I had some trouble with my truck on the
way home. Had to pull over and take care of it.”
“Oh, no. Do you need me to give you a ride then?”
Hell no. I don’t want him coming to my house right now. What if that jackass is still on the road and Aaron ends up being his next lucky victim. “No, I got it taken care of. I’ll see you at the house.”
“Okay. See you there.”
***
Aaron came out to meet me as soon as I pulled up to the house. “Truck didn’t give you any more issues on the way here did it?” he asked.
“No, it was fine.”
“I’m pretty good with cars if you need a hand working on it,” he offered. “We could do a full tune up to make sure everything’s in order.”
Smiling, I reached forward and pulled him closer to me. With my hands on his hips I leaned in close to his ear and whispered, “As much as I’d love to see you under the hood of my truck, sweat and grease dripping down your chest, I don’t think that’s necessary. It was a loose hose, but I fixed it, so we’ll have to find another excuse to get you all hot and dirty.”
Aaron laughed and shoved my shoulder before walking around to the back of my truck. “I’ll at least help you bring in your too… damn, what happened to your truck?”
“What?” I turned around and looked at Aaron. He was pointing toward the bumper. Right where that jackass had rammed me when I turned off the road. The bump when the car hit me was so slight, and the car so much smaller than my truck that I hadn’t even looked to see if any damage was caused. I’d just assumed it couldn’t have done much damage. That and I’d been in a hurry to get to work.
I walked around to the back of my truck where Aaron was standing, still staring at my bumper. I looked down and wanted to strangle that S.O.B. driver all over again. In all reality it wasn’t that bad. All I needed was a new bumper which was something I could take care of myself, but it was still so messed up.
I could feel Aaron glaring at me so I looked at him. He had his arms crossed in front of him, and his mouth was pressed together tightly. “So, is this the car trouble that held you up this morning. The reason you didn’t want me to come and give you a ride, or a hand working on your truck?”
