“Hey, it gets cold here. Now my feet will stay warm.”
“I’m glad that your feet will stay warm.”
Brad took a deep breath. “Patrick, did you mean it?”
There was a slight pause on the other end of the line that could have meant anything at this distance, followed by a breath Brad could hear. “Yes, I meant it. I meant every word.”
“Why did you leave?”
“Because I’m an idiot. And an asshole. I should have never left like that.”
“You just left and you never called.” Brad was horrified to hear how choked up his voice had become. Just thinking about the hole that Patrick had left when he ran away made his heart ache.
“God, Brad, I am so sorry.”
“You should be. You hurt me, Patrick.”
“I know. And I know that you have every right to want nothing to do with me ever again, but please, Brad, please; I want another chance. Can you do that? Can you give me another chance?”
“You really want to do that, Patrick? You not only want to have a relationship, but you want to have a long-distance one?”
“If it’s with you, I’ll take anything that I can get. These last three weeks have been awful.”
“It hasn’t exactly been a picnic for me, either. The first time I let a man into my life, and he takes off on me.” Brad felt some of his anger start to bubble over.
While he was happy to be talking to Patrick once again and thrilled that Patrick wanted to work on their relationship, he was still angry over the way he had been treated. In fact, he was fairly certain that if he and Patrick had been in the same room, he would have punched the other man.
“Oh, God, you’ve called to break up with me, haven’t you? I’ve actually managed to fuck this up enough that you don’t want anything to do with me.”
Patrick’s outburst reminded Brad that he wasn’t the only emotionally fragile one. With a little effort, he managed to get his anger under control. “Wow, you jump to conclusions worse than a woman.”
“Huh?”
“I’m not calling to break up with you, you moron. I want to work things out. I just need you to know that you have your work cut out for you. You hurt me, Patrick. You hurt me and you’re going to have to make it up to me.”
“I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you, if you’ll just give me a chance.”
“Don’t jump too far ahead of yourself, Patrick. Let’s just take this one day at a time and see how it goes.” Brad finally relaxed into the couch. “So, you have a pretty decent singing voice.”
“Thanks.”
“Who did you get to play the piano for you?”
“That was all me, Brad.”
“You play the piano? Why didn’t I know that?”
A soft chuckle came over the line. “It’s not exactly something that I advertise.”
“But you’re good.”
“I am.”
“And so modest,” Brad teased. The conversation was slowly losing the stilted quality that had tainted it earlier and was transforming into their normal banter.
“Hey, my grandmother wanted me to be a concert pianist. I know I’m good.”
Brad gave the phone a stunned look. “If you’re that good, why didn’t you become a concert pianist?”
“I wanted to be a cop. I went to the Julliard audition, mainly because my grandmother really wanted me to, but I wanted to be a cop.” Patrick laughed softy. “She sighed at me and made some crack about boys never doing what their elders wanted them to.”
Brad laughed. “She sounds like she was a cool lady.”
“She was. She would have loved you.”
“You think so?”
“I know so. She was smart. She would have seen how amazing you are.”
Brad flushed, momentarily glad that Patrick was still in Ontario and couldn’t see the color on his cheeks. “You think I’m amazing?”
“I do.”
“You’re not that bad yourself.”
“Even though I’m an idiot? And an asshole.”
“You do have your asshole moments, but on the whole you’re a pretty decent guy.”
“That means a lot coming from you. For the life of me, I still don’t understand how guys like you and Julian can give me a second chance.”
“You deserve a second chance, Patrick.”
“So, how are we going to do this, Brad? I know that we’re going to have to go slow so you can trust me again, but how do we do that?”
“You’re leaving that up to me?”
“Hey, I’m the one who fucked up. You get to call how I make it up to you.”
Brad took a deep breath and actually thought about the question. While he wanted nothing more than to have Patrick fly to Alberta so he could wrap the older man up in his arms, he knew that going slow was the best idea. The way Patrick made his emotions jump would be a problem face-to-face until they worked out some of their issues. “How about phone calls and e-mail?”
“Phone calls and e-mail?”
“For now. We should talk on the phone at least once a week, maybe more. You know, take the time to learn all about each other.”
“You mean that step we kind of skipped last time?”
Brad smiled. “That would be the one.”
“Sounds like a plan. Would daily phone calls be a bit too crazy-stalker?”
“Maybe a bit. I wouldn’t mind daily e-mails, though.”
“That’s right; the web-designer likes the Internet.”
“I do. You probably just use it to look up porn.”
“Mean. I can e-mail you a picture of my new dog.”
“You got a dog?”
“I did.”
“Wow, I guess we have a lot to talk about.”
“Yeah, we do.”
“So, do you have time now, sugar?” The endearment slipped past his lips before Brad could stop it.
“Yeah, Angel, I have time.”
“Good,” Brad replied. Warmth flooded through him at the sound of the treasured pet name. His stuffed giraffe in one arm, Brad twisted his body so he was sprawled comfortably across the couch. “Tell me about the dog.”
About the Authors
Between hiding from the snow in the winter and the grass in the summer, Bethany Brown ends up spending a rather absurd amount of time with her trusty laptop Desmond. Yes, she has named her laptop. She’s also named her car Blue, but that’s neither here nor there. While she hopes to one day be able to support herself by writing full time, she keeps herself fed with various customer service jobs, the most recent of which is at a tuxedo rental shop. Thankfully, spending the day fitting men with tuxedos helps to fuel the writing side of her brain. Other writing help includes: chocolate, ice cream, and movies with cute boys. On bad days, she can usually be found sitting on her couch with a stuffed penguin watching the Donald Strachey movies. She is thrilled to have found a home with Dreamspinner and plans to stick around until she runs out of ideas. Or the Earth’s sun implodes. Whichever comes first.
Visit her blog at http://bethanybrown.livejournal.com/.
Ashlyn Kane is a twenty-four-year-old supergeek who graduated cum laude from the University of Windsor with an honors degree in English language and literature and magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in education. When she’s not writing, reading, or editing, she’s keeping an eye out for any teaching jobs in the area. She is addicted to classic rock, science fiction, and TV on DVD.
She has a fiancé, a little brother, and a bitchy cat.
Don’t miss these other titles in the Lost Boys and Love Letters series:
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com
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Wild Angels Page 25
