by Luna, David
Cade nodded. “He looked a little wrung out, but I think he’s probably showering and getting ready to come eat.”
“When did he wake up?”
“About 35-40 minutes ago. We talked for a bit and then I went out to get my bag and shower before starting coffee.”
She shook her head and started towards Braden’s bedroom. “He’s already eaten something because of the diabetes and after chatting with you and grabbing something to eat, he’s most likely run out of steam. My guess is he’s asleep again.”
“Shit, sorry. I wasn’t thinking about the diabetes. Fuck, Maya, he has to handle a lot of shit to keep his body functioning properly. It’s hard enough with the diabetes, but to add migraines to the mix, if anything gets out of whack, it must be stressful.”
They both peeked in on him. Cade strode to Braden, took the remnants of his breakfast off of the bed, and pulled the covers over his sleeping form. Maya came to his side. “Here, give me that stuff. I’ll take it to the kitchen.”
Cade crouched down next to the bed and gently brushed Braden’s hair away from his face, careful not to wake him. He leaned in to kiss him on his temple and that’s when Maya stepped back into the room.
“I think you’re gonna be good for him, Cade. I hope he lets you in. If anyone deserves to be happy, it’s Braden.”
Cade followed her out of Braden’s room. “Do I need to wake him up to make sure he checks his glucose?”
“He should be good for three to four hours or so. If he doesn’t wake up by then, wake him up and ask him what he wants to eat. If you need me to come fix something, I can. His test kit is in his bathroom. I got your number from Cooper, so I’ll text you in the next several hours to check in. Thanks for taking care of him, Cade.”
While Braden slept, Cade asked Cooper to come over. They reviewed each and every note and letter that the stalker had sent to him. The guy was all over the place, almost manic with some of his notes, which worried Cade the most. There were some love letters with sappy, sweet words, some just listing dates, times, and locations where Braden had been watched and yet others that were angry and threatening.
One missive mentioned he’d been watching Braden run in the park and had seen another man join him for part of his run. He’d gone on and on about how unacceptable Braden’s behavior was and how he was not to flirt with other men and give other men the impression that he was free. There were receipts from shops, restaurants, and bookstores on Braden’s running route.
Almost everything was focused on when he was running, most likely because that’s when he was alone and out in the open, and on a fairly regular schedule. Cade and Cooper had come up with a list of questions to ask Braden, to help clarify a few things. However, the single most important thing that was very clear was that this was a serious issue, and the person that was stalking him was becoming unhinged. Cooper left to meet with the Kensington’s to get their job started there. Cade set about making lunch for both himself and for Braden.
Cade put the lunch tray down on the nightstand beside Braden’s bed and went in search of Braden’s test kit. Once he’d found it, he sat by Braden’s side, brushed back the hair from his face and gently rubbed his thumb over the dark circles under Braden’s eyes. He didn’t know how it had happened in less than 24 hours, but he cared about Braden more than made sense. He didn’t even know the guy, not really, and yet, he felt in some inexplicable way that they were tied together.
Braden’s eyes blinked groggily open, peered up at him, and he smiled such a sweet, bewildered smile that it melted Cade’s heart. He couldn’t seem to stop touching him, so he moved his thumb over to Braden’s temple and gently rubbed there, hoping to ease any residual ache left in the migraine’s wake.
“Hey, I wanted to get you up because it’s been four hours, and you need to test your blood and eat some food. Let me help you get propped up against some pillows; I’ve got your kit right here.”
Braden still felt so exhausted and allowed Cade to help him sit up. “Thanks, Zavier,” he managed as he rubbed his face and tucked his hair behind his ears.
His movements were a bit slow, and he didn’t feel like he had much strength. He hated this part of the migraine. The hangover sometimes felt just as bad as the migraine itself and made the whole episode last so much longer. He was able to open his test kit, prick his finger, and test the blood, but after that he had to just sit for a minute. He glanced over at the nightstand to check the time and saw the lunch tray containing two plates with big sandwiches, a bowl filled with carrots and celery and another bowl of grapes. There were a couple glasses of milk and even folded napkins.
He smiled shyly over at Cade and joked, “Maybe I need to keep you around, to help every time I have a migraine. I get door to door transportation, personal nursing through the night, and now meal service. That’s not even taking into account the personal protection detail to come, along with an investigation. I’m gonna be indebted to you, big time.”
Instead of laughing, as Braden had intended, Cade looked at him as if he was carefully weighing his words. “You want to keep me around, Braden? You say the words, and consider it done. But understand this, you’re not, and never will be, indebted to me. Understand?”
Braden’s mouth dropped open slightly and his eyes widened. “I understand. I didn’t mean to upset you. I appreciate all you’ve done, I really do. I wish I was meeting you at a time when things were normal for me. Having you swoop in to save the day when I get myself in a bind with some crazy stalker, and then manage to give myself a migraine is a little unsettling.”
“Stop blaming yourself for shit that is out of your control. Now, eat your lunch.”
He tried to hide his smile, because good lord, grumpy Cade was really cute. He nodded his head but bent over his kit again. He mustered up the energy to measure out the correct amount of insulin and looked at Cade. “If this is going to bother you, you can look away.”
“Do you mind if I watch?”
Braden blushed a little, and felt as if the act of giving himself insulin with this virile man watching was somehow very intimate, but he shrugged. “No, I don’t mind.”
He proceeded to lift his shirt and inject himself in the stomach. He lowered his shirt and rubbed at the spot a little and was surprised when Cade scooted closer and covered his hand, caressing it gently. Braden shivered at the contact, Cade’s large roughened hands felt foreign, yet soothing. His eyes flitted up to Cade’s, and his breath caught in his throat. They stared at each other for several long moments, until Cade smiled devastatingly and Braden had to blink several times to break whatever spell he’d cast.
Cade let go of Braden’s hand, and placed the tray of food on the bed, within easy reach of Braden, his voice gruff. “Maya stopped by several times today while you were sleeping. She’s worried about you, but happy that I’m here to help. Now, eat, please. I pulled all of this from your own supplies, so I’m assuming it’s all OK for you to eat right now, but if it’s not right, tell me, and I’ll make you something else.”
Braden touched Cade’s knee. His voice caught in his throat so that it came out as a whisper. “It’s perfect. Thank you. Tell Maya, if I miss her again when she stops in, that I love her.”
Cade agreed, and they ate the meal in companionable silence. After Braden had eaten what he needed to keep his levels healthy, he set the plate aside, reclined back, and thanked Cade again. He watched in amused silence as Cade picked up the remains of his food and demolished it.
Cade grinned, his voice sheepish. “I’m pretty much a bottomless pit. I even had another sandwich while I was making yours. And, I found a stash of chocolate candy, which surprised me. I ate some of that, too.”
Braden’s burst of laughter surprised Cade. “Uh, Zavier, that was sugar free candy that I get from a local chocolatier, for when I need something sweet, but don’t want to mess with my glucose levels or bake myself something. If you’re not used to the stuff, your tummy might not be too happy with you.”<
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“Well, shit.”
“Yes, precisely.”
They both looked at each other and laughed. Cade didn’t care how much that damned candy messed with his stomach, as long as he got to see Braden laughing, it was well worth it. He loaded everything back up on the tray and leaned in and kissed Braden on the temple before he could talk himself out of it. “You look like you’re about to keel over. Rest some more. If I need to wake you for dinner, I will.”
Braden couldn’t remember a time in his adult life when he’d been so thoroughly taken care of by another man. For the life of him he couldn’t figure out why he was letting Cade help him in the first place. It was completely uncharacteristic and that didn’t even take into account the fact that he’d just met the man. Not only was he allowing himself to be helped, he was allowing Cade to take control and tell him what to do.
He felt a pull towards Cade that he couldn’t explain, and while a part of him wanted to push back and tell him to back off and mind his own business, he had to admit another part of him, a part that obviously edged out the other, was telling him to do what Cade asked of him, because so far, Cade was taking better care of him than he had been of himself. He let that boggle his mind for quite a while, flipped it over and over in his head, tried to dissect it or prove himself wrong, before he gave up and felt himself let it all go. Just as he fell asleep, he thought once again, how much trouble he was in with this man.
Braden found himself being woken up a second time that day by Cade, bearing dinner and his testing kit. He felt somewhat better, but still a little out of it. What he did know was that being woken up by a gentle hand caressing his forehead and into his hair felt really nice. He felt a bit off kilter every time he was near Cade. He needed to get a grip.
“We gotta quit meeting like this, Zavier.”
Cade chuckled and helped him sit up. “You’ve been out for another four hours. It’s time for some dinner and a blood test. How are you feeling?”
Wiggling his hand back and forth, he grumbled, “meh,” while he reached for the kit. He tested his blood, got his dose ready, and injected it into his tummy, rubbing the area afterwards. “I usually don’t feel 100 percent for several days after a migraine, but I’m a bit better than I was at lunch. Thanks for waking me.”
“Do you need to eat and sleep again right away or do you want to be up for a bit?”
“I feel like I could sleep again right now, but I’d probably be up at 3 a.m. and not be able to fall back to sleep, so I think I’ll try to stay up a bit after we eat.”
“You want company or would you prefer to be alone?” Cade gave Braden his most charming, yet hopeful, smile.
Braden chuckled and shook his head. “You don’t fight fair, do you?”
“What? I don’t know what you’re insinuating.”
“Yes, you do. You, with that innocent look on your face; I’m hip to your games,” Braden teased.
Cade’s smile faded. “I’ll tease you and joke around with you, Braden; that you can be sure of. I get the feeling you don’t get much of that, so I’m looking forward to it. However, one thing I won’t do is play games with you. That’s a promise, OK?”
Braden looked down at his hands still holding his testing kit and glanced back up at Cade and shrugged. “OK.”
“In that vein, I’ll just say I find myself in a situation I’ve never been in before. I’m crazy attracted to you. I’ve had a lot of time to think today. The fact that I needed to take care of you last night when you were sick, held you all night when I’d basically just met you, and will do just about anything to get to know you, tells me that I need to just keep doing what I’m doing, which is going with my gut. I’ve always been very good at listening to my own instincts. They’ve saved my life more than a time or two. So, I guess that leaves me at your mercy, Braden. I’m an extremely private person, and I usually don’t talk about myself if I can help it, but I find myself wanting to share things with you, so that you can get to know me. I guess the real question is, will you allow me to get to know you?”
Braden blushed and smiled. “At my mercy? Hmmm….” He bit his lip then opened his mouth and looked like he was going to say something and then thought better of it and closed it again. Cade waited him out, patiently, with a gentle smile on his face. Braden looked down at his hands again, then looked up with a shy smile. “How about we eat dinner together, and we’ll see how things go? Why don’t we take the food back to the table and eat there?”
“That’s a start. I baked some chicken and steamed some veggies. Made a bit of quinoa and cut up some apples.”
“You made it yourself? It smells really good, and I’m actually pretty hungry. You didn’t have to do all this, but thank you.”
“I don’t mind cooking. Mom and Dad, once we were teens, made us each take a day a week to cook meals for the family, so we all got rather proficient at cooking.”
Cade picked up the dinner tray and led Braden out to the dining table. Braden asked how many siblings Cade had and learned he had an older brother, two younger brothers and a younger sister.
After dinner, Cade led them out to Braden’s living room so that they could continue getting to know each other. He regaled Braden with lots of stories about his siblings. They talked for a couple hours, learned a lot about each other’s childhoods and teenage years.
Braden loved hearing Cade talk. He had a deep voice that Braden found so sexy he could listen to him read the phone book and he wouldn’t care, as long as he kept talking. He also learned that Cade had a really great sense of humor and an enormous love for his large family. When he spoke of them, his face lit up, and his laugh was infectious. One story, in particular, regarding his siblings playing a prank on their mother had Braden laughing harder than he could remember laughing in quite some time. He felt tears form at the corners of his eyes and wiped them away. “Did she kill you? How long was her hair purple?”
Cade chuckled. “Not long, it was only Kool-Aid, but yeah, she was pissed when she thought it was permanent. I also came out to them when I was 16 with a prank.”
“What? How did you do that?”
Cade went on to tell him how he’d come up with this whole story, using his female best friend at the time, as an accomplice. They’d sat his parents down, told them they were pregnant, even copied an ultrasound picture, from a book in the library. They told them they planned to get married, but needed their parents’ signatures to marry at their age. They had printed out a marriage license and had everything there for his parents. He said both of his parents started yelling at them, telling them they were too young to get married, and there was no way in hell they would sign anything.
Apparently after more yelling and his mother crying, he finally confessed. “Mom and Dad, I’m just kidding. Jen isn’t pregnant, and we’re not getting married. I’m gay.”
His mother’s crying had slowly diminished, as she looked at them both, bewildered. After several beats of complete silence, she began to laugh and then more tears came and she’d yelled, “Dammit, Zavier! Oh thank god!”
His dad, after rubbing his face and yanking on his hair in exasperation, shook his head, took a deep breath and growled. “Zavier, don’t scare your mother like that! Shit son, we don’t care who you’re boffing, just use a damned condom! Jen, honey, you staying for dinner?” And that was that.
That story prompted Braden’s telling of his coming out story. How he grew up with his grandparents and finally got up the courage to tell his Nana when he was 14. He sat her down and told her that he had a crush on someone. Just as he was about to take the plunge and tell her, she smiled. “What’s his name?” He’d been so scared and stressed to say it, he just stared at her shocked, and then started crying, and then they were both crying, and she told him she had known for some time and was just waiting for him to come to her.
“She sounds great. Are your grandparents still alive?”
A sad smile flitted across Braden’s face. “Papa passed my senio
r year of high school. That was a tough year for us. Nana is still alive. She’s quite the character. Lives in a retirement home, and I swear she has half the men there following her around. She’s a flirt, and she has more dates than a single woman half her age.”
Cade grinned. “She sounds like a kick in the pants.”
Braden nodded. “She’s the best.”
Cade sat silently for a couple minutes, watching Braden closely. They sat together on the sofa, near enough to touch. Braden felt shy and blushed a little at the attention, but the silence felt comfortable. Cade leaned forward and tucked a silky thread of Braden’s hair behind his ear. “Braden, you look tired. Are you ready to go back to sleep?”
Braden blinked. “Sorry, yeah, still feeling a bit off. I think I’d like to take a shower before getting back in bed, since I didn’t have the energy this morning.”
“Don’t apologize.” Cade gave Braden a patient smile, eyebrows raised. “Are you sure you have the energy now?”
“I’ll take a really quick one, but I think it will make me feel better.”
Cade stood and helped Braden to his feet. “OK, I’ll clean up the mess from dinner, you go take your shower, and I’ll come and check on you in bit.”
“I’ll be fine, you don’t have to...”
Cade gave Braden’s hand a gently squeeze. “I want to.”
Braden ducked his head shyly and went back to his bedroom. Once in his bathroom, with a fresh change of clothes, he looked at himself in the mirror and was surprised to see that he had a smile on his face. Once he was out of the shower, had his teeth brushed and his insulin injected, he headed back into his bedroom where he got himself back under the covers. He sat for a few minutes, thinking about the man that was now sharing his living space for the foreseeable future.
