Stay A Little Longer

by Jess Bryant

  “Say it.” Trent tilted his chin back up.

  “I believe you’ll be here when I come home from work.”

  “Good.” Trent kissed him swiftly, far too fast and far too easily, before pushing away from him, “Now get your fine ass out of here before I start undressing you again, Deputy.”

  Lance chuckled and gave a mock salute that earned him the bird. He gathered up his cell phone and keys and shot Trent one last longing look before leaving the room and the man behind. He actually liked the idea of leaving Trent alone here in his trailer, as if he belonged here whether Lance was with him or not. The thought of Trent lounging in his bed, showering in his shower, even just relaxing on his couch watching television made him smile.

  And he was still smiling when he walked out of the trailer and smack dab into the middle of the real world.

  “Good morning, Deputy Nichols.” The gorgeous blonde sitting at his patio table raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow when he came to an abrupt halt. “Running late for work?”

  “I uh…” His chest felt tight and his eyes darted around, checking to see who else might be lurking in his yard but when he didn’t see his boss he focused back in on the woman at the table, “Morning Lemon. Something I can help you with?”

  “Maybe.” She smiled easily, “I’m just waiting for my friend. You remember him right? Shane and I introduced you to him. He’s supposed to be staying next door and you’re supposed to be keeping an eye on him?”

  A cold sweat popped up on Lance’s skin and he swallowed hard, “Um, uh, yeah. Trent. Yeah. I remember him.”

  “Thought you might.” She leaned back in her chair and gave him a long once-over, “Since he spent the night with you and all.”

  His blood ran cold at the words. Spent the night with him. Lemon knew Trent had stayed the night. Lemon knew Trent was in his trailer right now, at this very moment, and a sick feeling of dread curled in his stomach.

  “Can you do me a favor and tell him I’m here? I assume he’s in some state of undress and I really don’t want to see it so...” She shrugged as if she hadn’t just said she knew Trent was nearly naked in his bed, “I thought I’d wait out here for him but you came out first so, be a dear and tell him I’m here would you?”

  Lance stared at her for a long moment, his jaw hanging open no doubt. She looked so calm, so classy, so… Lemon. Unfazed by the fact that she’d somehow discovered her friend was sleeping in his bed and thereby that he was gay. She hadn’t even batted a lash. Had teased him a little in fact now that he thought about her tone of voice. He stared at her so long he saw her eyebrows wing up before she grinned and shook her head.

  In a very loud, very clear voice, she called out, “Trenton James Thorne, get your sweet ass out here before your new boy toy passes out, would ya?”

  Lance felt faint. He was sweating despite the cool morning. He also felt a little dizzy and lightheaded. Lemon was here. The country music superstar that rivaled only Trent in sales. Trent’s best friend. His boss’s soon to be wife. She was here, sitting on his patio, announcing to him and to anyone in hearing range that he and Trent were sleeping together. He swayed slightly but a set of strong hands wrapping around his biceps kept him from going down.

  “It’s okay.” Trent was there, right there with him, holding him up, keeping him steady, reassuring him with soft words and a gentle touch, “It’s okay. Don’t freak out. Baby, please, don’t freak out. Breathe, baby.”

  Lance felt embarrassment flame up his cheeks, replacing the lightheadedness with nothing but heat. Baby. Trent had called him baby in front of Lemon. Twice. And he was treating him like he was some kind of fainting maiden that might fall over if he didn’t hold him together.

  “Let go of me.” He tried to jerk his arms away but Trent held firm and he hissed. “I said, let go.”

  “No.” Trent’s eyes narrowed and he followed him, holding steady as Trent tried to back away, instead shoving him against the side of the trailer, “No.”

  “Damn it Trent.” He felt himself shaking and hated the reaction, hated the fear that slithered through his veins and the fact that Trent knew him well enough to know he was freaking out and wanted to run away. “She… she… she knows.”

  “Look at me.” Trent demanded and as if the past few days he’d been brainwashed, his eyes automatically followed the command, rising to meet those beautiful blue eyes that were staring down at him with hurt and worry and something else, something that made his breathing hitch again, “Look at me. That’s it, baby. Look at me. Just focus on me. She doesn’t matter. Forget she’s even here. Focus on me.”

  “Hey!” A feminine squeak of disapproval came from nearby and Trent jerked his gaze away to glare at her.

  “Goddamnit Lemon. Go away. Go inside. Just, leave me the hell alone for a minute and let me deal with the mess you made.”

  Trent’s gaze came back to Lance’s before Lemon could possibly say anything and he sighed, raising his hands to cup Lance’s cheeks, “She doesn’t know shit. She doesn’t know how I feel about you. Doesn’t know how you feel about me. She doesn’t know anything so she can’t tell anybody anything. Do you understand?”

  Lance felt the panic attack that had been seizing him begin to loosen its hold but he shook his head, “She knows, Trent. She knows that I’m… gay.”

  Trent winced and Lance felt the ground beneath his feet shift all over again. Damnit, he couldn’t even say it out loud without nearly choking on the word. And that hurt Trent. He could see it all over his beautiful face. Hurt him because Lance’s denial of who he was meant the future was a bleak and unsure thing instead of obvious and standing right there in front of him.

  Trent smoothed a hand down his throat, holding him steady and swiping his pulse point soothingly, “It’s okay. She isn’t going to tell anyone. I promise. I told you that I wouldn’t out you. I won’t let her either. She’s my best friend and she would never hurt me by hurting you. Believe me. Please believe me.”

  Lance quivered at the touch and the words that made everything inside him want to melt into this man’s embrace. His mind was still racing, sorting through the scenarios. Lemon telling Shane. Shane slipping up and saying something to someone at the office. Lemon telling everyone even accidentally. His parents and sister finding out. His friends. His entire world crumbling to pieces all around him.

  “Lance, please trust me. You trusted me with your body. Now trust me with your heart. Please.” Trent was all but begging and when Lance looked back up into his blue eyes, a sense of calm washed through him like he had never known.

  He did trust Trent. With his secrets. With his past. With all his hurts and fears. He’d trusted Trent to take care of him, to know what he needed, to listen and to lean on for days now. He trusted Trent and he believed him and more than that… He loved him.

  He loved Trent Thorne and even if his entire world crumbled and he lost everyone else that he called family or friend, he would be okay just so long as he didn’t lose Trent.

  Lance raised his hand which was still shaking slightly and covered Trent’s where it rested on his cheek, “Okay.”

  “Okay?” Blue eyes searched his face hesitantly.

  “Okay. I believe you. Okay. I trust you.” He nodded slowly, “If you say my secret, our secret, is safe with her, then I believe you.”

  Trent’s eyes darted all over his face again, as if searching for the truth, and then his pinched brows loosened and he softened. His touch gentled and he moved closer. He brought their foreheads together until their mouths were an inch apart, until they were breathing the same air and his voice was ragged with what had to be relief when he spoke.

  “Thank you.”

  Lance shook his head, “Sorry I freaked out.”

  “She ambushed us. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’ll be more careful next time. I’ll…”

  Lance tilted his head just enough to brush their lips together, stopping Trent’s rush of words. There was no reason for Trent to be the one apolo
gizing. It was Lance that had asked him to stay. Lance that had invited him into his home and into his life and bed over and over again. If anyone was to blame for not being careful it was Lance, not Trent.

  Trent kissed him back softly, “Are we okay?”

  “We’re okay. We’re going to be okay.”

  “God, when I heard her voice I…” Trent winced as if the horror of it gave him physical pain but Lance shook him off.

  “No. We can’t. Not right now. I’m late for work. I have to go or people will ask questions. You’ll talk to her? Tell her that I’m not ready to… that she can’t…”

  “I promise.” Trent nodded.

  “Okay.” Lance took a deep breath for courage and then stepped away, “And we’ll talk tonight. There’s uh… we should talk some more, about what this means. About how we feel about each other. Right?”

  “Right.” Trent smiled at him softly. “About how we feel about each other. Because we’re on the same page.”

  “We’re on the same page.” Lance agreed, coming as close to saying the words as he’d ever imagined he could. But instead of saying those three little words, he just said, “See you tonight.”

  He couldn’t deal with his realization right now. There wasn’t time. It would have to wait for tonight. He had work to do. Trent had promised he’d still be here when he got back, that he’d handle Lemon and everything would be okay. So tonight, when he got home from work, he’d tell Trent he was in love with him and then they’d figure out the future together.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Trent watched Lance leave even though it took everything in him not to grab the man and pull him back inside. Strip him naked and convince him to spend another day in bed with him. Anything to keep them here, in their safe space and out of the real world.

  But the real world had already come knocking and there was no going back.

  He stomped into the trailer, slamming the door behind him so hard it rattled the entire building, and glared at the little blonde that had just nearly torn his world apart, “Why?”

  Lemon only blinked at him, “Why what?”

  “Why are you here? Why did you just show up unannounced? You could have ruined everything, do you know that? Do you know how hard I’ve had to work to get him to trust me? And then you show up and nearly ruin everything! Goddamnit Lemon you had no right!”

  “Woah, now. Hold on a second.” Lemon held a hand up, “Take a step back and lower your voice. You don’t get to take that tone with me.”

  “Lemon…”

  “No.” She cut him off with a glare, “No! I get to yell now. Because to answer your questions, no, I have no idea how hard you’ve worked to make him trust you because you haven’t picked up your phone in twenty-four hours. That’s why I showed up.”

  “It was one goddamned day!”

  “Yeah, one day can change your entire life. I thought you’d know that by now. You didn’t answer your phone and I got worried. Mostly I was worried you’d taken off on your own but of course you didn’t do that. You did something a whole lot dumber. You fell for the straight guy next door like a complete dumbass even after I told you that he was bad news.”

  Trent felt like his head was going to explode. He loved Lemon. He really did. He loved her like a sister. Like a sister he wanted to hug and cuddle and protect from the world sometimes. Then, at other times, times like now, he loved her like a sister he wanted to strangle.

  “He isn’t bad news. He’s a nice guy, a good guy.”

  “No, you have a type, Trent and it’s bad boys. Straight bad boys, actually.”

  “Lance isn’t straight!” He snapped.

  “Well, clearly. Congrats, you seduced one to the dark side finally.” She rolled her eyes and he physically stepped back from her when the thought of shaking her until her teeth rattled popped into his head.

  He wasn’t a violent man. He’d never been a violent man. But the urge to shake Lemon until she listened to him, until she really heard him, was strong.

  He forced in a steadying breath and then blew it out slowly before he spoke again, lowering his voice and trying to appear calmer than he felt, “Lance isn’t straight, Lemon. He’s never been straight. I didn’t seduce him. Well, I might have, the first time. But he definitely seduced me the second time and it’s been mutual ever since.”

  Lemon blinked at him as if he’d grown another head, “Second time? Mutual ever since? I’m sorry… are you saying that this thing with you and Lance was more than a one-night stand?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying! I’ve been with him since the night I came to Fate!” He pulled at his hair. “I’m in love with him you idiot!”

  His best friend gaped. She actually gaped at him like a fish out of water. Her mouth opened and then closed again without any words coming out. She blinked and studied him for a long moment and then she sat back in the chair she’d taken and crossed her arms over her chest.

  “Huh. I didn’t see that coming.”

  “No shit. Neither did I.” Trent shrugged his shoulders in defeat, “I wasn’t prepared for him at all but he got under my skin and I… I want him.”

  “Well, duh. I saw the way you were looking at him, Trent. I know you want him. That’s obvious.”

  “No, Lem. I want him. For keeps. I want him to be mine. He is mine. Even if he’s still wrestling with it in his own head. He knows the truth as much as I do. It’s like he was made for me and it took my world falling apart for me to come here and find him.”

  Lemon ran a hand through her hair and sighed, “Trent…”

  He cut her off before she could say all the things he knew she would say, “I know. Okay? I know it’s only been a couple of days. I know it seems insane but we just… fit.”

  “Trent…”

  “Don’t say my name like that. Like you don’t know what I mean. You do! You know! You know that when you know, you just know. You said you felt the same way when you came home to Shane.”

  Lemon reached out and grabbed his arm, “Honey, sit down.”

  Trent realized he’d been pacing the small confines of the trailer he’d spent less than a half hour in since coming to Fate, Texas. He huffed but did as she said. He dropped into the chair opposite her and crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for her to say all the same things his logical, reasonable side, had been telling him for days.

  “What?”

  “Don’t get defensive with me.” Lemon sighed. “I just want to talk to you.”

  “Fine. Talk. You’re not going to say anything that’ll change my mind.”

  “I don’t want to change your mind. I just want to understand.” Lemon frowned, “Just… walk me through it. How did this happen? And what do you mean you’ve been with him since you got here? Shane and I just introduced you two… didn’t we?”

  Trent winced as he remembered the awkward greeting that Lemon and Shane had witnessed. She thought that was the first time Trent had met Lance. But he’d known him longer than that, since the night he arrived in Fate, and he felt like he’d known Lance even longer.

  He knew there was no getting out of this so he told her the truth. He told her about how he’d confused the trailer that first night because her directions sucked. Told her about how he and Lance had ended up in bed together both confused and fumbling to piece together what had happened, and then, after his sweet gesture with the gun, calming Trent down from his panic, how they’d truly ended up in bed together.

  He told her all of it, or at least most of it. There were things he didn’t share. Personal things. Intimate things. Things that weren’t his to tell about the man he loved. Things that Lance wouldn’t want him to tell, not even to his best friend, and he kept those special, private moments to himself.

  He didn’t mention Lance’s past or what it really meant. He didn’t tell her how much time they’d spent just staring into each other’s eyes, completely silent, just content with each other. He didn’t tell her about Lance’s apology for holding bac
k, for not knowing how to deal with what they shared just like he didn’t tell her how worried he was that one misstep would make Lance push him out of his life completely. He didn’t tell her just how worried he was that Lance would never be ready to accept that what they had was real.

  But he told her everything else and when he was done, Lemon was still frowning. Her brows were furrowed and her lips were thin. He’d told her that he loved Lance, that he’d fallen in love with him recklessly and hopelessly and he couldn’t imagine losing him now. Couldn’t imagine not waking up to that gorgeous face every morning, couldn’t imagine not falling asleep with that sexy body wrapped around him every night.

  When Lemon finally spoke, she didn’t say anything along the lines of what he was imagining, instead she asked, “What about Nashville?”

  He tilted his head, “What about it?”

  “Trent.” She all but growled his name.

  “What? What’s there to say about it? I’m not going back to Nashville. Not right now. Maybe not ever. There’s nothing left for me there, Lemon.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “Yes, it is and we both know it.”

  His career was done. Nobody wanted a gay man in Nashville singing love songs. They weren’t ready for that and honestly, he didn’t know if he was either. He’d enjoyed the spotlight. Enjoyed the fame. But he didn’t feel like Nashville was where he was supposed to be anymore. Not since he wound up in this tiny little West Texas town and found everything he’d ever wanted in a man, in a partner.

  What he wanted, what he needed, was here. Not in Nashville. It was here, in Fate, with Lance.

  “No, I don’t believe and neither do you. More importantly, neither does Rick.”

  Trent’s eyes whipped up from where he’d been staring at his hands, picking at his nails, when she said his manager’s name, “You talked to Rick?”

  “Yeah. That’s why I’m here actually.” Lemon rolled her eyes, “You’re not returning his calls so he called me and sent me looking for you.”