“Before you go in, I should probably tell you—”
“You moved your stuff in, right?”
“Um, yeah. How did you know?”
“I know how many bedrooms are in my own house, and I didn’t think you’d be bunking with Mindy.”
“Of course. Sorry. I should have mentioned it before, but you know, priorities and all.”
Thom stopped and turned to face Ben. “Look, it’s okay. I mean, it made sense, what with everything that was going on.”
“So you’re not mad?”
“I’m not mad. I’m not… well, you know by now I’m not good with too much change too fast.”
“Do you want me to move my stuff out? I can move downstairs with Steve.”
“No! Hell, no. One of the reasons I wanted back upstairs so bad was that I missed sleeping with you.” Thom knew his face must be a raging shade of scarlet by now, but this had to be said.
“So, I can stay? My stuff can stay?”
Thom nodded. “Yeah, you can stay. But can I please go lie down now?”
Ben smiled and kissed Thom’s temple before helping him the rest of the way to bed.
* * *
“So,” Steve was waiting at the bottom of the stairs when Ben came down. “Looks like I’ve lost my roommate.”
“The doctor cleared him for the stairs as long as he doesn’t try to do them alone for a while.”
“I was wondering if you’d help me get online and arrange for a flight back to Tucson.”
“You’re leaving?”
“Son, I’ve been here almost two months. I need to get back.”
“I didn’t realize it had been so long.”
“Yep. If Thom can do the stairs now, he’s in better shape than I am and I need to clear out and let you boys get back to normal. And it’s started getting colder, and I’m ready to get back to the sunshine.”
“I’ve gotten so used to having everyone here, I guess that was starting to feel normal for me. I’ll miss you.” Ben turned and the two men started walking towards the office, Ben slowing his pace so Steve could keep up.
“I’ll miss you, too. All of you. Of course I’ll miss Thom. But we all need to lead our own lives. Don’t forget that, okay? If you start putting things off or putting your own needs aside, remember what I said.”
“Do I do that?”
Steve stopped, and Ben turned back to meet his sharp gaze. “There was a time, when I first got here, that I was afraid you might.”
“And now?”
“There’s been a lot of changes going on here the last two months. The building is just part of it. Thom is finally open about himself, and you’ve got a relationship with your father. He looks happier now than he did when I got here. Even Mindy – try to find a way for her to stick around for a while if you can.”
“You don’t miss a thing.”
“Still got it all going on up here,” Steve said, tapping the side of his head with an index finger. “What I’m trying to say is, you’re not the same man you were two months ago. You’ve had to make a lot of choices and do a lot of growing up. You’re the kind of person who worries, and wants to take care of folks, and that’s not a bad thing. But you’ve got to remember to take care of you, too. Like on the plane, when they tell you to put your own oxygen mask on before helping others.”
Ben nodded. “I’ll remember.”
Chapter 22
Shortly before dinner, Ben went upstairs to check on Thom.
“Hey,” he whispered, leaning over to kiss Thom on the forehead. “You awake?”
“Barely.”
“Are you hungry? You want to come down for dinner?”
“Ngh.”
“Is that a yes or a no?”
Thom rubbed his eyes and focused on Ben. “Sorry. Coming up the stairs took more out of me than I expected.”
“Are you in pain?”
“No, actually. But I’m beat. Would it be too much trouble if I had dinner up here?”
“Not at all. I’ll bring a tray and we can eat up here. After dinner you can have a nice hot shower and we’ll make an early night of it.”
“Sounds perfect. Thank you.”
“Okay – dinner’ll be ready in about twenty minutes. I’ll be back.”
* * *
“Your granddad’s planning to head back to Arizona in the next week,” Ben told Thom as he put their dinner dishes back on the tray. When Thom didn’t respond, Ben looked over to see Thom biting his lower lip. “You okay?”
“Yeah. No. Damn, I’m gonna miss him, you know?”
“Me too. But he said if you were fit enough to do the stairs, we didn’t need him around. And I think it’s starting to get too cold for him now. Anyway, sleeping in the dining room can’t be comfortable when he’s used to having his own place.”
“That’s true. I just got used to having him around again. It was kind of fun, in a way, sharing a room with him. Once the worst of the pain was done and I didn’t feel like an invalid anymore.”
Ben sat on the bed next to Thom and put his arm around Thom’s shoulders, pulling him close. “Once you’re out of the sling and off the cane, and it’s really cold here, we’ll go visit him.”
“We?”
“Of course, we. In a way he’s my Granddad, too. I don’t know if you noticed, but we’ve all kind of bonded over the last couple of months. I hadn’t really noticed it until I talked to Steve today. But my dad, Steve, Mindy, me, we’re family now. More than just by blood. It’s like, when that lightning struck it turned us all to glass, and we had to fuse or break. So we fused.”
“Glass, huh?”
“Yeah. That first night you were in the hospital, God I was so scared. The doctor sent us home, but I couldn’t sleep. I spent the night reading about lightning online. There’s this thing lightning does when it strikes sand – the lightning is so hot and powerful it turns the sand to glass. It’s called a fulgurite. That was us. We all came together, and it’s gonna be hard when we have to separate.”
“Wow. That’s… it’s…”
“Sappy?”
“Humbling. I’ve been so focused on myself, I never gave a lot of thought to what was going on with everyone else. I knew everyone was working hard, and I felt bad about that. But I didn’t think about how stressful it must have been.”
Ben shrugged. “I guess it was. But it wasn’t all bad. It was great, in a way, being part of a team. We worked hard, but with everyone here chipping in, we made it work. And you did your part by focusing on getting better.”
“Still…”
“Nope. No brooding. I’m going to take these dishes downstairs and help clean up,” Ben stood and picked up the tray. “When I get back I’m going to help you with that shower – no arguments! We don’t have grab bars up here and we are not taking any chances when you’re this close to being well.”
“Fine,” Thom sighed. “Just hurry, okay?”
“I’ll be back before you know it.”
* * *
Mindy was in the kitchen finishing up the dishes when Ben got downstairs. “Hey, Ben,” she greeted him. “Just put those on the table and I’ll take care of them.”
“No, you did all the rest, I’ll take care of these.”
“I am so not going to argue with you.” She stepped away from the sink, drying her hands as Ben slid in to take her place. “Want a beer?”
“Nah, I’m going back upstairs when I finish these. There’s no grab bar up there and I want to make sure Thom doesn’t fall in the shower.”
“Yeah, right,” Mindy smirked as she popped the top off a beer and leaned against the counter and watched Ben load the dishwasher.
“You’re awful young to have such a dirty mind.”
“Dude, I’m the same age you are. The only reason you finished school first is because I had to go part time for a while.”
“Really? I didn’t know that.”
“Yeah, I had to work. There’s six of us, and I didn’t want to finish sch
ool with a load of debt.”
Ben closed the dishwasher and turned to face his cousin. “You really are scary smart, you know?”
Mindy shrugged and took a sip of the beer. “Don’t forget my loads of common sense.”
“That, too. So, what are you going to do when you graduate? You’re graduating this semester, right?”
“Yeah. Don’t know yet. It’s not a good time right now, especially since I don’t really want to go far. What I really want to do is get involved in planning, working with towns like Cable’s Bend to come up with solutions to problems like flooding and traffic and sustainable growth. But that’s just not going to happen anytime soon.”
“So…?”
“So, look.” Mindy started picking at the label on the bottle she was holding. “I’m thinking, with the winery, brewery, whatever going in, maybe there’ll be something I can do? Some kind of job for me?”
“Seriously?”
Mindy nodded, her face tight.
“God, yes. I mean, it’s not my place to say yet, but I can’t imagine that there wouldn’t be. You know we’re going to have a sit-down tomorrow morning – we’ll figure it out.”
“Oh, thank God. I was hoping.”
“I’m going to offer my friend Doug a job, too. I think the three of us would make a kick-ass team to get this started.”
“I don’t know anything about brewing beer, though.”
“But you’re more organized than the rest of us put together, and you’ll learn anything you need to. Doug and I will teach you.”
“Thanks. I won’t let you down, Ben.”
“I know. We’ve got a long way to go, though. Let’s get through tomorrow and see where we are.”
* * *
“How are you really feeling? Honestly?” Ben asked as he ran soapy hands across Thom’s shoulders and down his back, kneading the tight muscles between his shoulder blades.
“Mainly frustrated because I still can’t do anything with my right arm.”
“Does it hurt?”
“No, but it feels weak. I know it will be, and I’m sure Alex will come up with new ways to torture me.”
Ben snorted.
“But mostly I’m frustrated and antsy, because I can tell I’m almost there. I want to throw down that cane and go back to normal, and I have to keep reminding myself that I can’t.”
“And there’s at least three people who would tackle you before you made it to the front door.” Ben finished rinsing them off and reached around Thom to turn off the water.
“Yeah. One less when Granddad leaves.”
Ben pulled a towel off the rack and handed it to Thom before grabbing his own and rubbing it over his face and hair. “I wanted to talk to you about that, actually.”
“About Granddad?”
“About our full house.” Ben wrapped his towel around his waist before taking Thom’s and using it to dry Thom’s back where he couldn’t reach.
“Does it bother you?” Thom asked.
“No. I thought it might bother you.”
Thom thought about it for a minute. “It might have, once. Now – I don’t know if I like it or I’m just used to it. But it doesn’t bother me.”
“I wanted to talk about it before we all sit down tomorrow and make sure we were on the same page. Hold still a second while I fix your sling.” Thom stood still, holding his right arm in place while Ben eased a clean, dry sling into position and secured his arm and shoulder. “Feel okay?”
Thom nodded and Ben finished drying off while Thom started the one-handed process of brushing his teeth.
“Anyway,” Ben picked up the thread of their conversation, “I don’t know how long Dad is planning to stick around Cable’s Bend. I think it might be indefinitely, but I was hoping it would be okay if he stayed here a while longer? Until he figures out what he’s going to do?” He met Thom’s eyes in the mirror and Thom nodded.
“And then there’s Mindy.”
Thom leaned over to spit out a mouthful of toothpaste.
“What about Mindy?” he asked before starting to brush again.
“I want to offer her a job.” Their eyes met in the mirror again and Thom cocked his head to one side, encouraging Ben to go on.
“She’s graduating soon, and there’s not a lot of jobs around here for her. You know how smart she is. If we can keep her challenged, I can see her running the show before long.”
Thom spat out the rest of the toothpaste and rinsed before replying. “So, you’re talking about her staying, too? But her family is right down the road. It’s not like she needs a place to stay.”
“I can’t speak for Mindy, but Steve said he thinks she wants to stay. I’d like to offer her that option, but in the end it’s your decision.”
Thom limped over to the bed and crawled in while Ben brushed his teeth and finished drying off.
“You okay?” Ben asked as he slid under the covers, rolling onto his side to face Thom.
“Just now, when you said it was my decision?”
“Yeah?”
“I feel like my life has been on hold. So much has been going on and I’ve just gotten swept along and I had almost forgotten that it all comes down to my decisions in the end.”
Ben pushed himself up on one elbow and looked down to meet Thom’s eyes. “None of us were trying to take that away from you, I swear.”
“I know.”
“But in those first days, you were unconscious and things had to happen. Then we just all put the priority on getting you well. Maybe we overstepped.”
“No. That’s not what I’m getting at.”
“What, then?”
“At first, I had to let go, and then it was just easier to go with the flow. It’s back to what we talked about earlier – when I was so focused on getting well that I lost track of what was going on with everyone else. Now I’m realizing that it’s time for me to wake up and get my ass in gear.”
“What–”
“Don’t ask what you can do. I’ve got to figure this out myself.”
“You’re right.” Ben rolled onto his back and looked up at the ceiling.
“I am?”
“Yeah. I was going to ask you that. Steve and I talked about this earlier. He says I try to do too much.”
“Maybe. But we wouldn’t have made it through the last couple of months if you hadn’t.”
“We had a lot of help.”
“Yeah.”
They lay there for a few minutes without speaking. Ben reached down and took Thom’s hand in his, threading their fingers together.
“After the accident, everyone kept calling you my partner.” Thom said at last.
“I was wondering when you’d bring that up.”
“I think it’s the main thing we need to discuss before we can talk about anything else, don’t you? Because if you are – my partner, that is – then it affects every decision that comes after.”
Ben nodded, not trusting himself to speak.
“So, how?”
“It was Uncle Chuck. When we were in the waiting room while you were in surgery. He told Dr. Sterling I was your partner so they’d tell me your condition and let me see you. I didn’t say anything, and then everyone assumed, and here we are.”
“You went with the flow, too, then?”
“I guess so.”
“It wasn’t your decision.”
“But I didn’t deny it. I told Steve the truth, though.”
“What if it had been your decision?”
“I’ve told you how I’ve felt from the very beginning. But it’s not just my decision. It takes both of us to make that decision.”
“So much has happened.”
“Yeah. But if you’re not ready to believe I’m not going anywhere, or if… if maybe you don’t feel the same way I do–”
“Stop. Just… how can you think I wouldn’t believe you at this point?”
Ben raised himself back up on his elbow so he could see Thom’s face, even if the
older man wasn’t meeting his eyes at the moment. “So you believe me, but do you want me? That’s the real question.”
“How can you doubt that, either?”
“We haven’t really had a chance to talk about it, have we? I know actions are supposed to speak louder than words, but if I’m making big life decisions, I need to know where I stand. I love you, Thom Caldwell. I’m in love with you, and I want to stay here with you. I can’t get any clearer than that.”
“I…” Thom took a deep breath, and his face flushed when he raised his eyes to meet Ben’s. “I love you, too. And I want you to stay.”
Ben smiled, and lowered his head for a lingering kiss. “Now,” he said when he raised his head, “was that so hard?”
“You have no idea.”
“So, partner, do you want to make some more decisions, or…?” Ben let the question trail off as he let his hand drift down, skimming over Thom’s belly, tickling at his navel, and following the trail of hair lower still, until he reached the patch of hair at the base of his lover’s semi-hard cock.
“I think we’ve made enough decisions for now, don’t you?”
Chapter 23
Thom looked around the breakfast table the next morning. Jon was at the stove flipping the last batch of pancakes onto a plate and everyone else was pouring coffee and piling food on their plates. He waited for Jon to join them, then took one more sip of his coffee before carefully setting the mug down by his plate.
“No time like the present,” he said.
Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at him except Steve, who continued buttering his pancakes.
“We’re at a point where we’ve got to make some decisions about what’s going to happen in the next few months, and what we’re each going to do about it.”
He felt Ben squeeze his thigh, and reached down to take his partner’s hand.
“I need to start by thanking all of you for staying here and helping me – for helping Ben and me – get through this. I honestly don’t know what we would have done without you. The doctor says I may be out of the sling in a week or so, and I’ll be off this cane soon, too, so we’re going to be shifting gear and getting down to business.”
Saving Grapes (Cable's Bend Book 1) Page 17
