by Erin M. Leaf
Jesus. Guy struggled to speak, even as his face burned. “I had no idea.”
“That Mom talked to me about it, or that you’re bi?” Jonathan had the nerve to ask.
“I never said I’m bi.” Guy scowled at his son. “And I had no idea that your mother talked to you about that sort of thing.”
Jonathan rolled his eyes. “She told me that you were bi, but that you were perfectly happy being married to her, and that being bi just meant you were attracted to both sexes, not that you were unsatisfied being monogamous.”
Guy scrubbed a hand over his face, willing his embarrassment to take a hike. “For God’s sake, I’m not bisexual.” He enunciated this very clearly, but the look on his son’s face told Guy he wasn’t buying it.
“Mom told me that sometimes you talk in your sleep,” Jonathan pointed out.
Guy felt his cheeks flush again. He did not want to be having this conversation with his son, yet here he was, and it was his own damn fault. “So?”
“Are we really going to go there?” his son asked him.
Guy most definitely did not want to go there. He’d had some raunchy dreams sometimes, but so what? Everyone dreamed. It wasn’t under his conscious control.
“You said he’s a Delegate? So, he’s got Craft?” Jonathan asked, mercifully moving the conversation forward.
Guy exhaled, relieved that they’d gotten off the whole sexuality and wet dreams topic. “Yeah. I looked him up online. He was chosen for the Council a few months ago.”
“Hmm.” Jonathan leaned forward. “And you’re sure he’s not just using you for some publicity talking point?”
Guy frowned. “No. He’s an Empath. He wouldn’t do that.”
“He has a lot of power?” Jonathan’s eyebrows rose. “He told you he’s an Empath? People don’t choose a Craft like that unless they have enough power to back it up.”
“I’m a WoodCrafter, remember? I know that,” Guy said impatiently. “His power was kind of obvious.”
Jonathan narrowed his eyes. “No Empaths have served on the Council in the last fifty years, and I don’t blame them. It’s worse than being a Healer. He sounds too good to be true.” He tapped a finger on his desk. “If he’s an Empath, that means he might end up heading the Council someday.”
Guy really didn’t want to think about that. The idea of dating a guy, let alone the Head of the Craft Council, freaked him out, not that he’d admit it out loud. “I haven’t ever met an Empath before. They’re rare, as you know. And he’s a good guy,” Guy said, thinking about how easy it had been to hang out with the younger man. “He seemed perfectly normal.”
“Does he know you have Craft power?”
Guy sighed. “Yeah.” He looked away from his son’s way too penetrating gaze. “He knows.”
“How does he know?” Jonathan asked, clearly not about to let his dad off the hook. “It’s not a flashy power. And you wouldn’t go around demonstrating, even if it were. You’re not that sort of person.”
“I sort of reshaped a tree while we were hiking.” Guy massaged the back of his neck as he remembered the curved bark weaving up the trunk of the tree. No bark grew in a pattern like that without supernatural help. “Accidentally.”
Jonathan stared at him for a moment. “Jesus, Dad.”
Guy forced himself to meet his son’s eyes. “I was as shocked as you are.”
“You know what that means, right?”
Guy carefully took another sip of water, letting the coolness soothe his raw nerves. “It could be a fluke.” Even as he said it, he knew he was being foolish.
“A fluke? You don’t do flukes. You have more control over your Craft than anyone I’ve ever met. Hell, I didn’t even know you had any gift until I was, what? Fifteen?” Jonathan looked unsettled for the first time. “You’re sure he’s a good guy?”
Guy nodded. “That’s the only thing I’m sure of.”
Jonathan leaned forward. “Then I think you should go on a date with him, and you shouldn’t look back.” His blue eyes, so like his mother’s, were clear. “Finding your soulmate is a gift.” He grinned, suddenly. “You need to expand your horizons. And wouldn’t this be the first same-sex soulmate pairing with an Empath? I don’t think I’ve heard of it happening before.”
“I loved your mother with all my heart, Jonathan,” Guy managed to get out. His throat was suddenly clogged with the tears he refused to shed. Any mention of his wife did that to him, but oddly, he missed Pamela even more right in this moment than he had at any other time except her death. She’d know what to do in this situation. But if she were alive, you wouldn’t be in this situation, he reminded himself guiltily. He didn’t want to feel this way about Theo. He didn’t want to expand his horizons, or become some publicity version of himself.
“Mom would’ve wanted you to be happy,” Jonathan said softly. “She told me to make sure you’d get back out there. That you’d try and meet someone. You’re too young to shut yourself up in your shop, Dad. You’re only forty-five.”
Guy nodded, but then he shook his head. “I don’t know if I want to do this.” He knew that Jonathan hadn’t really thought through all the implications, but he had. He’d have to come out, which would be hard enough, but it would be even crazier for him, because same-sex soulmates were astonishingly rare. He’d met maybe one other bonded same-sex couple. And when people discovered he was a WoodCrafter, he’d be inundated with requests for soulmate rings. And then there’s the bigotry problem, and Theo is an Empath, so it would be particularly difficult for him. Guy really didn’t know if he had the strength to deal with that. He could barely wrap his head around the idea of dating a guy, let alone committing to one.
His son tilted his head. “I never took you for a coward, Dad.”
Guy froze. His son certainly didn’t pull his punches. “Christ, Jonathan.” He raked a hand through his hair. “This isn’t easy.”
Jonathan leaned back again. “Just have lunch. That’s not a commitment. Maybe you misread things.”
Not likely, Guy thought, thinking about how they’d almost had sex up against a tree not two hours after their first meeting. “Yeah, okay,” he said, mostly because he couldn’t imagine not seeing Theo again, despite all the uncertainty the man would bring to his life. And what it would do to his. Shit.
“Whatever you decide, I’ve got your back, Dad,” Jonathan said, smiling. “You know that, right?”
Guy snorted. “You have no choice but to have my back. You’re my only son.” He capped his water bottle and stood up. He’d done what he came here to do. There was no sense in dragging his son down into his emotional rollercoaster. “I’ll let you get back to work.”
Jonathan grinned. “You sure don’t do things halfway, do you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Guy said, heading for the door.
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Jonathan called out.
Guy grimaced. Jonathan might be a great veterinarian, but he also liked to jump out of airplanes and ride motorcycles. He waved, not trusting himself to respond to that statement. His son was a much more impulsive man than he was.
It wasn’t until he reached his car and slid into the driver’s seat that he realized his son hadn’t really questioned his certainty about Theo’s motives. He’d asked with emphasis, but he hadn’t argued when Guy had insisted that Theo was a good man.
Why does he believe this is real? Guy started the car, and slowly drove home. When he unlocked the shop door, his gaze immediately went to the cabinet in the corner, where he’d put the wood he’d tried to make into rings for him and Pamela. He’d hoped they were soulmates, and he’d tried to Craft the wood to prove it, and he’d ended up with nothing except a lot of frustration, and an unchanged burl of wood his wife refused to let him throw out.
“You can’t just toss something you poured your soul into, Guy,” she’d said, all those years ago. “You might need it someday.”
And fool that he was, he tho
ught she’d meant they’d figure it out, as if being someone’s soulmate was just a difficult puzzle he hadn’t yet managed to unlock. It never occurred to him that she might mean he’d someday find someone else, and that she’d be fucking gone. If he’d ever imagined that, he would’ve destroyed the damned thing the moment it dropped into her hands.
“So, what are you doing here now, Guy?” he asked himself, even as guilt swelled up inside him again. He hadn’t remembered Pamela when he’d rutted against Theo in the woods, but now she was all he could think about it. He felt like he was cheating on her, but he didn’t turn away from the cabinet.
“Fuck.” Steeling himself, he unlatched the small door, and took out the soft pouch. The velvet wasn’t worn out at all, because after a few more half-hearted attempts to Craft rings, he’d given up trying and shoved it in here. Pamela had asked after the wood once or twice, and he’d reassured her that he hadn’t thrown it out, but he’d certainly done his best to forget it existed.
Hands shaking, he undid the string and spilled the chunk of burl maple into his palm. He remembered the walk he’d taken with her, when they’d found this wood together. He remembered how Pamela had touched the tree and it had simply given up a piece of itself into her hands. He’d thought that meant something. He’d been a damned fool, but now, today, the wood tingled against his skin, and he swore, almost dropping it. His Craft surged, enveloping the burl, and he wanted to hurl it away from himself, but he remembered the look on Theo’s face after they’d kissed, and he couldn’t bring himself to ruin the possibility of a future with him, no matter how much he also missed his wife.
“God help me,” he whispered, and then he wrapped his fingers around the wood. “I’m so sorry, Pamela.” His Craft power surrounded the burl, and it heated up, and Guy closed his eyes and let his gift guide him. He remembered the way Theo tasted, and how the younger man’s energy shined through his eyes when he talked, and he especially remembered how solid Theo felt, pressed against him. And he remembered Pamela offering him this wood, and her sweetness, and her amazing courage at the end, when she’d died. And Guy poured all of that into the wood, and it changed in his hands.
A long moment later, he opened his fingers and stared down at two beautifully formed soulmate rings, rings he’d made with his energy and his soul, and God help him, his heart, too.
Chapter Four
“Theo, you have got to get your mind back in the game,” Rose said, snatching the folder from his hands and shoving a different one into its place. “Focus.” She snapped her fingers under his nose.
Theo jerked his head away. “Stop it.” He frowned down at the forms, trying to remember just what the hell he was supposed to be doing with them. He sensed Rose’s irritation like a scratchy buzz along his empathic senses, and he reinforced his mental walls.
“You barely paid attention at the four o’clock budget meeting,” Rose said, obviously exasperated. “What is up with you?”
Theo sighed, and rubbed his eyes. “It’s that guy.”
“The one in the woods?”
He nodded.
“What about him? He was cute, but seriously, Theo, when have you ever gotten so wrapped up in a dude that you can’t focus on your work? You’re the most disciplined man I know,” Rose said, snatching the papers back out of his hands. “Don’t even bother with these. I can tell you’re not going to remember any of the words if you try to read them right now.”
Theo leaned back against his desk. “He’s more than just cute, Rose.” He thought about kissing Guy and how it felt when Guy had shoved him up against that tree, and his cock hardened. Shit. He moved around his desk and sat down to disguise his erection. His skin felt too tight. He shifted in his chair, trying to ignore the arousal simmering through him. Good thing I’m the Empath in this room and not Rose, he thought, vaguely embarrassed.
“More than cute?” Rose frowned as she stuffed the papers into her briefcase. “What exactly are you saying? I thought you were going to ask him out on a date, not moon over him for half the day.” She hmph’d. “Hell, I even encouraged him, but now I’m regretting that.”
“You what?” Theo had no idea what she was talking about. He looked at the stack of population forms on his desk. He needed to get the data together for the next Council meeting and he still hadn’t correlated the information from his area. He’d skimmed through the documents, absently noting that Craft births had dropped in the past five years, but the number of latent gifted people had increased. What did that mean? He rubbed his eyes.
“I told him that he could do worse than you,” Rose said.
Theo looked at her, refocusing his thoughts. She has no idea what I felt when I met Guy. He shook his head, wondering if he should tell her. It’s not like you’re going to be able to hide it for long, and especially not from your best friend. He tapped a finger on his desk, then made the decision to let her in on the situation. “He’s my soulmate, Rose,” he said, not trying to sugarcoat it.
Rose, in the process of zipping her briefcase up, dropped it on the floor, and Theo barely contained a wince. That bag held her laptop. “What did you say?” she asked, eyes widening.
“You heard me,” he said.
Rose stared at him, and then she sat down in the chair placed in front of his desk. She didn’t seem to care that her bag was on the floor, spilling papers out over the tile. “You know what that means, right? Are you sure?”
“I’m absolutely sure.” Theo gave her a crooked smile. “I’m an Empath, remember?” He felt her shock over his pronouncement loud and clear, but he was also too polite to mention how easily he could read her. He was a trained Empath, and that meant being tactful. His parents had made sure of that much before they’d disowned him. Before they discovered I was gay.
“Oh my God,” she said, staring at him as though he’d sprouted horns.
“For God’s sake, I don’t have the plague, Rose,” Theo retorted, uncomfortable with the sudden speculative gleam in her eyes. “Don’t go getting any ideas.”
“You’re the first Empath to serve on the Council in fifty years. And now you’ll be the first Empath Council Delegate with a same-sex soulmate.” Rose sat up straight, and Theo could see her mind racing. “We could do an announcement. You can back that LGBTQ rights initiative that’s been languishing in the Senate for the past three years. I mean, everyone knows you’re gay, but this is even better. You could have a voice, Theo.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Rose,” Theo said, cutting her off before she could run further down that path. He’d known she was going to be like this, and he needed to short-circuit her before she stuck her hand in a socket and set everything on fire. “Guy and I haven’t even been on a date yet. And he was married for decades. He hasn’t even come to terms yet with being bisexual.”
She snorted. “If he’s really your soulmate, you don’t need to date.” She snapped her fingers. “My aunt and uncle met on a Tuesday, and the next day they’d shacked up together. Forty years later they’re still sickeningly sweet. Of course, that was back when soulmates were more common. No one thought anything of it.” She made a face. “Please tell me you’re not going to be all mushy with this guy. I don’t think I could stand watching you slobber all over him like that. My aunt and uncle still can’t be in the same room without holding hands. It’s disturbing.”
Theo rolled his eyes. “Rose, stop.” He thought about Guy’s mouth, and the shocked look in his eyes when he’d seen the reshaped tree. No, nothing about this was going to be easy. “I need to do this slowly. I don’t want to scare him off.”
She blinked. “You? Scare him off? Theo, you have guys slipping you their numbers every time we go out. I have guys slipping me their numbers to give to you, which is extremely annoying, I’ll have you know, because I’d like to have a date sometime this year, too, and my pockets are full of useless numbers.” She made a face. “I highly doubt that this dude will run away from you. You’re, like, the gay version of a supermodel.�
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What? Where does she get these ideas? Theo wondered, not for the first time. He flushed. “I’m not a supermodel. I’m just a regular guy.”
Rose looked him up and down, and he fought the urge to cover his junk with his hands. His erection was already hidden under his desk.
“Uh huh. Whatever you say, Theo.” Rose leaned down and scooped up her laptop bag and the papers she’d dropped. “You forget, I’ve been your bestie since high school. I watched men and women throw themselves at you for years.” She unzipped the bag and stuffed the papers inside. “You’re a babe, babe.”
Theo desperately wished they were not having this conversation, but if he didn’t tell Rose about Guy and the soulmate thing, all hell would break loose later when she found out. She was his best friend, his personal assistant, and sanity saver. Before he’d met Guy, she was the most soothing person he knew. His empathic senses relaxed around her, simply because he’d known her longer than anyone except the family he’d grown up with.
And it’s not like they were ever soothing, he thought, suddenly annoyed. And it wasn’t as if he could hang out with his family. Even his younger sister had stopped talking to him, which if he was being honest with himself, hurt more than his parents’ hostile silence after he’d told them he was gay. He took a deep breath and pushed the memories down. “I’m going to his place for lunch on Friday. That’s it. I need to take this slowly. He’s a grieving widower, for God’s sake.”
“Don’t forget condoms,” Rose said unrepentantly as she stood and headed for the door. “And lube.” She winked at him before Theo could yell at her. “I’ll take care of these papers for you. You should go home and take a very cold shower.”
Theo dropped his head into his palm. “Yes, mother.” He absolutely refused to look up until he heard the snick of the door.
