That was nice.
He wouldn’t tell her right away, he decided as she kept carrying on about the school and how quaint it was and how well he seemed to fit in at Saint Timothy. Maybe he’d wait until after Christmas. He wondered if he should do it right before he went back. Give her time to process, but not too much.
He excused himself from her to say goodbye to the Ambassadors and Salvo, and he and Giles went off for a private goodbye around the corner of the lobby.
This kiss was bittersweet—passionate, but everything about it said they were about to be parted and they didn’t like it. Giles grabbed Aaron’s ass, kneading it and pulling him close to almost grind against him. Normally Aaron would have balked at that in public—they were in an empty hallway, but anyone could come around the corner. The idea of leaving, though, of having this be the last touch until who knew when or how, meant Aaron couldn’t tell Giles no.
Which was why Giles’s hand was halfway down the back of his pants when he heard his mother call out in a strange voice, “Aaron?”
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the dark-haired woman gaping at them was Aaron’s mom. Giles didn’t jump back from Aaron, thinking if he pulled his hand out of Aaron’s waistband slowly, they could preserve the highly minuscule possibility of Mrs. Seavers not seeing Giles’s fingers in her son’s ass crack. Not much he could do about having his tongue halfway down Aaron’s throat, though.
Aaron had gone rigid in Giles’s arms. At first he gripped Giles’s waist, a seeking-comfort gesture, but he looked at his mother and let go as if scalded. Cheeks coloring, he stammered an apology to Giles.
Giles put a hand on his shoulder, rubbing gently, taking him into a subtle, comforting embrace. “It’s okay. It’ll be okay.”
“Giles, there you are—oh.”
Giles swallowed a groan. Fantastic. Now his mom was here too.
Vanessa Mulder appeared beside Mrs. Seavers, but after her initial eyebrow raise, she had a decidedly different look about her, scary for a more matchmaking kind of reason.
“Aaron, I’m so sorry,” Giles murmured.
After glancing down at their joined hands and over to his mother, Aaron drew a shaky breath and squeezed Giles’s palm. “It’s okay.”
The two mothers were a crazy contrast—Aaron’s clearly trying to process her son making out with another guy, Giles’s utterly naked in her glee at seeing her boy all partnered up. Giles didn’t know which fire to put out first. What would freak Aaron out more, his own mother being repelled by his gayness, or Giles’s for whipping out wedding samplers?
Keeping Aaron firmly at his side, Giles nodded politely to Mrs. Seavers. “Hi. I’m Giles Mulder. This is my mom, Vanessa, and that’s my dad Tim over there. I’m…dating your son.” He turned to his own mother. “Mom, this is Aaron Seavers. My boyfriend. Who you didn’t know about because this is relatively new. Though I actually know Aaron from Alvis-Henning.”
“Oh, really?” Vanessa held out her hand to Mrs. Seavers. “Hi there. So pleased to meet you. How darling is this, our sons going all the way to college to hook up? Where do you live, Oak Grove or Anoka?”
Mrs. Seavers accepted the offered hand in a kind of daze. “Oak Grove. We…haven’t lived there long. Only two years.”
“We’ll have to go out for coffee. I’m so sorry—I missed your name.”
“Beth.” She glanced at her son, still shell-shocked.
Aaron stared back at her, deer in headlights.
Giles didn’t know what to do now. This was supposed to have been a kiss goodbye, but he couldn’t very well leave Aaron now. Of course he could imagine his mother ramping up to a joint family dinner before they all pulled out of town, which would be good except Vanessa would be all about playing house while poor Beth tried to catch up. Which maybe would be what she had to do. All Giles cared about was Aaron. His mom could sink or swim.
He couldn’t figure out, though, what Aaron needed.
“Is everything okay?” Vanessa glanced between the three of them, finally realizing the awkward was getting thick. “Giles? Honey? What’s going on?”
Neither Seavers said anything, just kept staring at one another. Giles began to sweat. Seriously, what? How could he fix this for Aaron? Should he even try?
This was about Beth being surprised. This was about Aaron being scared his mother was about to reject him.
Make it so she can’t.
“I think—” Giles wasn’t sure what he was saying, his mouth moving faster than his brain. “I think we surprised Mrs. Seavers is all. I don’t think she knew about me. It’s my fault. I was a little…more affectionate than maybe I should have been in a public hallway.”
“Oh, honey.” Vanessa tsked at Giles and pursed her lips. She turned to Beth. “I’m so sorry. I can only imagine. Giles has always been…exuberant.”
“It’s…okay.” Beth’s gaze never left Aaron. “I was surprised. But it’s okay.” She couldn’t quite smile, but she was trying. “It’s okay, Aaron.”
Aaron did smile at his mother, tentatively.
Okay. Giles let out a breath. “Mom—can I meet you out front? Aaron and I— We have to go get something from backstage. We forgot our…folders.”
Fuck, that was unbelievably lame. But it seemed their mothers might have fallen for it, because they both said they’d meet them in front when they were ready.
Giles led Aaron to the single-stall bathroom, locked the door and drew him into his arms. “I’m so sorry, Aaron. Seriously, I feel like complete shit. I don’t have any idea how to make it okay, but if I can—”
“It’s all right.” Aaron leaned against Giles, crouching so he could rest on his shoulder. “I mean—yes. It’s going to be awkward. But…I think mostly she’s surprised. Maybe this is better than going nuts all break trying to work out how to tell her.”
“I’m such an asshole. I’m so goddamn sorry.”
Aaron nuzzled Giles’s neck and slipped his hands into Giles’s waistband over his ass. “It’s okay.”
Giles shivered at the feel of Aaron stroking him. “You have to call me tonight and let me know how the ride home is. And if I can see you tomorrow.”
Aaron’s hands slid deeper. “I will.”
Giles wanted to fuck him, not leave him. He kissed openmouthed at Aaron’s collarbone. “Let me show you how sorry I am for fucking up. Let me show you with my mouth on your dick.”
God but Giles loved the way those words alone made Aaron plump in his pants. “I— Our moms—”
“I’ll suck hard and fast, honey.” Giles went to his knees, trailing his hands and mouth down Aaron’s chest.
It felt good, having Aaron’s cock in his mouth, tasting him, smelling him. He made it a goddamn good blow job, lots of tongue and suction, hums in the back of his throat, teases into the slit. He fondled Aaron’s balls and rubbed his taint. With a press against Aaron’s pucker, he had himself a fountain, and he sucked Aaron dry. Climbing a now-boneless boyfriend, Giles cradled him to the wall and indulged in a slow, spunk-flavored kiss.
“You promise you’ll be okay?” he asked when they came up for air. “That if you’re not, you’ll call me?”
Aaron nodded, nuzzling his nose. “Giles—thank you.”
Giles ran his hands down Aaron’s arms. “What for? Outing you to your mom? Making out with you in the hallway?”
Aaron’s touch was so gentle it made Giles shut his eyes. “Just—thank you.”
It took them another fifteen minutes to leave the bathroom and go back to their mothers, and they went hand in hand. Vanessa and Beth were chatting on one of the lobby benches, Giles’s dad loitering in the background. The moms looked like they were getting along, and Beth seemed a lot more even-keeled than she’d been when they left. The real test, though, was when Aaron came up to her. How would she react?
When she smiled at
her son with a soft acceptance in her countenance, Giles finally allowed himself to relax, at least a little.
For the first ten minutes in the car, neither Aaron nor his mom said anything. Eventually Beth broke the silence.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
She wasn’t being angry or confrontational, which was good. If anything she sounded hurt. Which, oddly enough, annoyed Aaron.
“Because I only became okay with it myself in the last few months. And Giles—we’ve been friends for a while, but this…only happened last night.”
“So you didn’t know before last night?”
Tension spread across his chest. Aaron leaned against the window, hating that they had another hour before he could go to his room and wait for school to start again.
“I’m sorry.” She kept fidgeting. He could practically feel her trying to make this his fault, making her face this, and yet she seemed to keep running into the fact that this wasn’t about her. “It was a strange way to find out.”
“It wasn’t how I’d planned to tell you, no.”
“How were you planning to tell me?”
“I don’t know, Mom. If I could have figured out a way to never bring it up, believe me, I would have.” Originally he’d intended to ask for dinner, but now he was glad his stomach was empty. “Please don’t tell Dad. He’s going to be angry enough about my classes.”
“Why? What happened to your classes?”
He wished he didn’t have to go home. He wished he could have gone home with Giles, not just to get a ride but to stay at the Mulder house. Shutting his eyes tight, Aaron pressed his forehead to the cold glass of the window.
“Aaron. What happened to your—?”
“I dropped all the pre-law stuff Dad signed me up for. I took a bunch of music classes. I want to be a music performance major.” His gut knotted, and his chest got so tight his breaths hurt. Please leave me alone. Please don’t be disappointed in me again tonight.
“Oh. He’s…not going to like that. At all.”
Aaron tried to pack himself down, to rediscover the same cool silence he’d stumbled into when Tanner had rejected him and he’d had to move away. It was hard, though, to smother all the joy he’d found at Saint Timothy, that he’d come to take for granted.
His pocket buzzed once, then kept buzzing. Pulling out his phone, Aaron saw four texts from Giles.
Checking in to make sure you’re okay.
I think your car is two ahead of me.
My mom will not stop texting about how cute you are. Then texts me to stop reading texts while I drive.
She’s right. You’re very hot.
Another text appeared while Aaron read the screen.
I do, you know. Love you. It’s probably dumb to keep saying that so soon. But I really do.
Smiling, Aaron felt a great deal of the tension fall away from his chest. He thumbed back a reply.
I love you too.
Beth glanced over. “Is that him?”
“Yeah.” Aaron brushed his thumb along the edge of the phone. “He wanted to make sure I was okay.”
Her smile was quiet, almost sad. “You relax around him. I only got to watch the two of you for a few minutes, but you haven’t been like this with anyone since Tanner.”
A soft, sorrowful lump eased down Aaron’s solar plexus. “Yeah. Probably true.”
She patted his leg. “It’s good to see you happy, honey. I wish you could have told me…differently, but…I’m glad he makes you feel good.”
Aaron touched the washed-out, wide-eyed, sticking-out-eared selfie Giles sent him. Me too.
Chapter Nineteen
When Aaron had thought about going home for Christmas, he’d assumed he’d alternate between quiet days while his mother went to work and long, uncomfortable evenings with her when she was home. His weekends would be peppered with holiday visits to his aunt’s house, awkward because his mother’s sister had the perfect, smiling family and Aaron and Beth decidedly did not. The climax would be his father calling to ask about his grades, and Aaron would have to either lie or confess the truth.
These assumptions, however, were all made PG: Pre-Giles.
To start, Giles came over at least every other day. He apologized profusely for being less available, for taking Aaron on such lame dates. Aaron loved, though, how Giles took him on late-afternoon drives to get a Frosty in Anoka. Giles always called before he went to bed, and they texted so much Aaron usually had to charge his phone midday. Most of it was nonsense, but Aaron treasured those emojis as much as their Frosty runs. He loved Giles’s selfies while he made cookies with his mom, his running play-by-play of whatever family gathering he was at now.
There were several naughty Snapchats too. Giles convinced Aaron to play that game with him, and those photos became almost more of a bonding event than the texts relating their days. At first they went with standard cock shots, which was hot, but they soon found teasers were more exciting. Giles went incoherent when Aaron sent him a selfie from his waist down as he lay in his underwear on his bed, and Aaron learned Giles could render him speechless with a carefully angled shot of his neck and collarbone. They still teased each other with the full monty—if Aaron went too long without sending a pic of his bare ass, Giles began to complain—but the soft-core shots were where they spoke to each other.
On the Friday after Christmas, Aaron went to a family gathering at Giles’s house. Giles had said over and over Aaron didn’t have to come, which at first made Aaron think Giles didn’t want him there. When Aaron hinted at this, though, Giles got flustered. “No, I want you there. I just…I get it if you think it’s weird.”
“Why would it be weird?”
“Because it’s my family. I don’t want you to think I’m trying to assimilate you or anything.”
Aaron never fully understood what Giles had been nervous about. Giles’s family was nice, very friendly, and best of all they didn’t fight. They bickered, particularly Giles and his mother, but nothing was the same as the tension-riddled dinners and shouting/weeping arguments Aaron had grown up with. Giles’s sister and brother were present too, and their spouses. They welcomed Aaron, let him hold the new baby, made him feel at home. For dinner Aaron had a big meal of chili and bread chased down by eggnog and Christmas cookies. He played board games and sat with Giles on the love seat while they watched cheesy stop-animation specials on TV, snuggled beneath the blanket hiding their entwined hands and legs.
He got a present from Mrs. Mulder, which was sweet but made him panic because he hadn’t brought anything. When Giles took Aaron to his room and produced another wrapped box, Aaron tried to refuse it.
“I didn’t get you anything—I’m so sorry.”
“Whatever.” Giles pressed the package into Aaron’s hand. “It’s kind of lame anyway, so don’t get excited. It’s one of those things that seemed cool in the store and now probably not so much.”
It was cool: it was a bound notebook of blank composition paper, with jotting space in the margins and chord spaces in the header. Aaron ran his fingers over the cover. “I love it. But I didn’t get you anything.”
“You can write me a song,” Giles suggested with a wink.
Aaron had been composing lately, a short, simple melody line that made his heart feel good. That was as far as it had gone, though, and as usual he couldn’t think of what words should go with it. He had nothing presentable enough for Giles. “I meant a present right now.”
“Then sing me something.” They were sitting on Giles’s bed, and Giles leaned back on his pillows, resting his hands above his head. “Something right now. Just for me.”
Aaron tapped Giles lightly on his belly with the notebook. “That’s not a real present.”
“It would be perfect. You have no idea how many times I’ve listened to you sing and wished you were singing to me.”
“You haven’t sung to me.” Giles ran a hand down Aaron’s arm, then withdrew, abruptly self-conscious. “You don’t have to, obviously.”
Aaron caught Giles’s hand, threading their fingers together. “What do you want me to sing?”
“Anything. You could sing the alphabet song, and I’d get the shivers.”
Aaron thought about singing that to tease him, but he couldn’t, because for Giles, he could only pick one song. “I’ve sung this one before, a lot with the Ambassadors. But most of the time, inside I was singing it to you.”
He watched Giles settle into his pillow, flushed and pleased. Finding the opening pitch in his head, Aaron drew a breath from his diaphragm and began the opening strains of “Somewhere Only We Know”.
Usually when he sang it, he belted—but he had the piano or the rest of the Ambassadors beneath him. Here in Giles’s bedroom, it was only his voice, the two of them in the evening quiet. Aaron sang softly, dragging the tempo out. Through it all, he gazed directly into Giles’s eyes and held his hand.
Drank in the beautiful expression on his boyfriend’s face.
Usually Giles was sharp-edged, alert and focused, but right now he looked like melted butter. Soft as putty and ten times as malleable. The funniest part was that the more he sang, the more confident Aaron felt—for once he was the sure-footed one. Each word was for Giles, even though the lyrics themselves weren’t exactly right for how the song made Aaron feel. For Aaron it was the melody, the way the notes rose and fell, the innocence and lushness. The plea for a lover to take him away to a special place where only they two could be.
When the song finished, Giles stared at Aaron for several seconds, not saying a word. Aaron waited, the music echoing in the air between them, wrapping around them, holding them close.
Giles drew him down for a kiss, murmuring soft thanks, sliding his arms around Aaron to pull him closer and make love to him.
No, Aaron didn’t feel bad about his present anymore.
Fever Pitch Page 21
