by Athena Blaez
Ryder held his hands up, indicating he didn’t want trouble. Something about the way the man pushed off the building and kept walking didn’t set right with Ryder. He turned to watch the man as he continued to lurch down the sidewalk.
He stopped in front of Sean’s shop, staring through the window. He must have sensed Ryder was watching him. After a glance over his shoulder, their eyes met for a brief moment before the man continued on and disappeared around the corner.
That didn’t sit well with Ryder.
Chapter 5
The last thing Sean expected was to get an invitation to dinner. He had barely said more than a half a dozen sentences to Ryder. Was he seriously going to consider it?
It was tempting. The Ryder in his dream had been unimaginably hot. Even now, the feelings that rose to the surface thinking back on it, flushed his body with heat and desire. The Ryder in person wasn’t any less hot.
He tucked the card away to make the decision later and put it out of his mind.
As if that would actually work.
The door burst open as the bell violently jingled. “Holy shit, dude,” Jeremy said as he breathlessly rushed the counter. “What the hell was that?”
The sudden rush of energy shocked Sean back to the present. Jeremy’s explosive entrance startled him with an overdose of adrenaline. He put his hand on his heart. “You have got to stop doing that.”
“You first, Sean.” Jeremy flopped onto the stool and picked up the scratch pad to fan himself.
“It was a mistake opening your shop next to mine.”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time. I wasn’t counting on you broadcasting your teenage horny energy like this.”
“So it’s my fault?” Sean frowned. “And I’m not teenage horny.”
Duh, Jeremy’s expression said plainly. “So what did Mister Hot Dream want? I saw him leave just now.”
Sean’s frowned deepened. It wasn’t like he could hide this from his friend. Jeremy was too ‘plugged in’, as he referred to it, to not know something was going on. “He asked me out to dinner.”
“A date?” Jeremy swayed on the stool, dramatically holding on to the counter. “Wow!”
“God, stop it.” Sean threw a pen at him and found something to do, namely acting like he was searching for something beneath the register. “It’s not a date.”
“Going out to dinner is not a date? Then what is it?”
“It’s going out to dinner.”
“Uh-huh.” Jeremy stood up on the stool rungs to peer over the counter. “Is that what they call it these days.”
“Stop it,” Sean repeated. “I’m not going to go.”
“What?” Jeremy’s voice tipped the sound register to screeching. “Why not?”
“It’ll be too weird.”
“How on earth would going to dinner with a totally hot guy like Ryder Cole be weird?”
Sean straightened. “You know his last name? How do you know his last name?”
“I looked him up online. He has a Facebook he hasn’t used in over a year. And I think he owns a business outside of town. He runs that touristy gold mining thing just outside of town. Gives tours of the closed mine museum, lets people learn to pan for gold, all that chintzy stuff tourists love.”
“I thought that had been sold when Harry Chatham died last year.”
“It did and that was three years ago. Apparently, your dream lover bought it.”
“He’s not my…just forget it. I’m not going.” Sean was resolved now more than ever to simply not go. The adult part of him tried to be reasonable and not punish Ryder for Jeremy’s annoying attempt at being a matchmaker. The stubborn part didn’t need this extra drama.
The dream was bad enough, but when he looked into Ryder’s eyes, he knew deep down in his soul that the man remembered the dream, too. It was ballooning into this really uncomfortable thing and they had barely exchanged a dozen sentences.
“Whatever,” Jeremy said, settling back on the stool. “It’s your loss. He’s a hell of a catch, if you ask me.”
“I didn’t, but since you apparently know all about him, why don’t you go out with him?” Sean pulled the card from his pocket and thrust it at Jeremy.
Jeremy’s eyes grew wide as he regarded the card. “First, he didn’t ask me. Second, the cards said he’s not for me—”
“Oh my God, you’ve done a reading on him?”
Gently, Jeremy pushed the hand holding the card back towards Sean. “On you. As your friend, it’s my duty to keep a metaphysical eye on you and I believe that he’s the one who keeps popping up in the spreads I do for you, which, by the way, you’ve given me explicit permission to do at any time. So don’t go acting like I’m doing this behind your back.”
Jeremy plucked the card out of Sean’s grasp, turned it so he could easily read the number and placed it down on the counter. “Call him and go out to dinner. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. If anything, you could actually gain a friend who doesn’t intrude in your business all the time. He could be good for that, and for you.”
With a heavy sigh, Sean picked up the card. “You know what annoys me more when you get all wrapped up in my business? When you actually make sense. Fine. I’ll go. If it turns out to be a disaster, I’ll spread the word that you’re a fraud.”
A triumphant grin spread across Jeremy’s face. “Deal.”
“You sound confident.”
“Tell me when I’ve been wrong and I’ll concede.”
“There was this time in third grade—”
“Tell me when I’ve been wrong since we graduated high school.”
“Get out of here,” Sean groused. He went to his shop phone and picked up the receiver. “I have a call to make and I’d like at least the semblance of privacy.”
Jeremy slid from the stool. “And tell him not to keep secrets. Those are death to a relationship. Especially one like his.”
Sean paused in the middle of dialing. “What?”
The victorious grin was still present when Jeremy strolled out of the shop.
Waiting for the door to shut and holding his breath that a customer didn’t come back in, Sean dialed the number. It went to Ryder’s voice mail. Funnily enough, that took some of the pressure off. If Ryder had actually answered, Sean’s tongue would have twisted and he’d have sounded like a moron.
At least with voice mail he stood a chance of sounding a little more suave.
“Hey, it’s Sean. Dinner at eight sounds good. You’ll have to come get me at the shop since I don’t drive. I’ll uh…see you then.”
Once he killed the call, Sean focused on his breathing. Even listening to the man’s gruff and deep voice mail sped up his pulse in anticipation. Good God, he needed to get that under control or Jeremy would never let him live this down.
Chapter 6
Ryder didn’t think too hard on the fact that there was a chance that Sean might not have called. It was a gut thing, and Ryder had lived too close to the bone to trust anything other than his instincts.
The attraction was there. Ryder felt it deep in his body, through to his feet, two or four. They had a connection. He wasn’t about to give that up.
When he got the voice mail, Ryder walked a foot off the ground the rest of the evening, until it came time for him to go pick Sean up. He’d already called ahead to the restaurant to make sure a table was open for them.
Sean was just closing up his shop when Ryder parked on the curb. He got out, jogged around to help Sean pull the grating down over the front of the shop. Out of his peripheral vision, he saw a dark shape lurking close. When he looked, there was no one on the corner of the street. Nothing. His hackles rose and he lifted his nose to the air to see if he could scent anyone.
Nothing but the usual smells of the street. It was a fairly busy block anyway so it could have been anyone. With a deep breath, he reminded himself to stay focused.
“You look nice,” Sean said. He glanced down at his own clothing.
“I feel like I’m underdressed. I think I have something in the office—”
Ryder caught Sean before he could unlock the grating, holding warmly to the other man’s hand. “You look fine. I wanted to change after I closed up my shop for the day. But you’re fine.”
“I had heard that you bought out Harry’s business. How is that going?”
He held the truck door for Sean to get in, then trotted around the front to climb in behind the wheel. The feeling like someone was watching crept along his neck with icy fingers but there was no one on the street that Ryder could see. His truck roared to life and he pulled away from the curb.
“I did,” Ryder finally said to answer Sean’s question. “It’s dirty work. But the soil around the mine area has a lot of gold flakes in it, even decades after the mine closed. It serves its purpose of keeping the tourists happy. They like the experience of learning to pan for gold like the old-timers used to do it.”
“I never even thought to try to do that. I just deal with gold jewelry.” Having Sean in his truck, Ryder was giddy. He could smell his scent. Floating just beneath the layer of a dusty smell, no doubt a hazard of his job in dealing with items for resale, was a soft scent of coffee. Ryder remembered there being a coffee aroma in the store when he was there. A fellow coffeeholic.
The romantic in him wanted to consider that a sign.
“There’s a skill to that, too. Knowing what comes into your shop that has resale value versus what is just crap.” Ryder drummed his fingers on the steering wheel as they stopped at one of the downtown red lights. He caught himself and closed his hands over the wheel. “Do you get a lot of people who come in trying to convince yourself that their broken shit actually has value?”
Sean laughed and the sound was warm. It tickled Ryder down through the center of his core.
If he wasn’t careful, he’d lapse into the nerves of a newly dating high school kid. And he had been out of high school for a long time.
“All the time. They can be a little persistent when I reject their own attempts at determining the value of their items. Many hold this belief that even broken and rusted and dented, or missing some parts, or mass marketed tourist crap, should have value and it’s not true. I have to base the value on whether I can resell it or not. If it takes up room in my shop but doesn’t move, it’s not of use to me. Luckily, I deal in small items for pawn these days. The rest of my shop has antique items I pick up from estate sales.”
“So the name of your shop is a little misleading. You’re not really a pawnshop?” Ryder asked.
“Not really. Not anymore. My mother taught me about how to gauge whether something’s an antique. From there, I read.” Sean laughed and rolled his head to look at Ryder. “A lot. A hell of a lot. But you pick stuff up.”
He covered his face with his hand and laughed more. “Wow, I must be the most boring person on the planet. God, this is the most I’ve said to anyone in years.”
“I’m not complaining,” Ryder said. “I like learning about stuff, too. I never finished college. After high school, I realized I could learn more about the world by living in it than in sitting in some classroom.”
“I made it through college with a degree I couldn’t find a use for. Wow, this place is a lot closer to my shop than I realized. We could have walked.”
Ryder pulled into the parking lot behind the restaurant. “Your shop is really located in a good spot in town. It’s within walking distance of most everything. Aurora, I’ve discovered, isn’t as big as I believed. The tourist business here is booming.”
“I lived here for a while. My mother’s people are from Aurora.” Sean slid out of the truck and met Ryder at the front to walk towards the restaurant entrance. “I’ve only been back about five years. It really hasn’t changed much.”
The restaurant was packed when they got to the hostess podium. Ryder thanked his foresight to call and reserve a table. The host seated them, took their drink orders, and left menus.
Sean wrinkled his nose and looked over the menu. “This place is new to me. I guess I should get out more.”
That would be just fine with Ryder if it was him that Sean got out more with. “They haven’t been open long. The owners are friends of mine.”
“So that’s how you managed to get us in the door. Judging by the line at the front, I knew you had to have an in.”
Ryder laughed and threw up his hands. “Guilty as charged. I called in a favor. But their food is really worth the wait, which is why people are still standing out there an hour before they close.”
“I seem to recall a promise of my hat ending up in the creek.” Sean peeked over the top of the menu and smiled. “I intend to hold you to that.”
“Oof. No pressure.”
They lapsed into silence as Sean settled on what he’d order. Ryder already knew what he wanted and sat his menu to the side while their waiter came out with their drinks.
Small talk filled the space between them as they chatted with the waiter, a local kid who was working until the start of the new semester at the local community college. Ryder settled in with his beer when the waiter left them, watching Sean as he played with the stem of his wineglass. “Thanks for coming tonight. I would have been disappointed if you said no.”
“I almost did say no.” Sean didn’t meet Ryder’s gaze at first, opting to avoid it by taking another drink.
“That’s disappointing but I’m glad you didn’t.”
Sean finally lifted his gaze to meet Ryder’s. The smoldering intensity was like a punch to the gut. A good punch, but it left him breathless and light-headed.
“What changed your mind?”
“Altruism.” Sean hid his smile behind another drink. “My good friend threatened to call you and go in my place but I can’t inflict Jeremy on anyone, much less on you.”
“Then I should thank Jeremy for convincing you to come instead.” When Ryder stretched his legs beneath the table, he brushed against Sean’s calf. It sent a jolt through him, that pleasant realization they were touching and how it felt so natural.
Sean set his wine to the side and rested his elbows on the table. “Why have I never seen you around town before?”
“Could be because I don’t spend much time in town.” Ryder leaned forward to mirror Sean’s pose.
“Like you said in the truck, Aurora’s not that big. In the five years I’ve been here, I really don’t remember even seeing you cross the street.”
Ryder cocked his head to the side. Where was this leading? It was a bit of an odd line of discussion. “I have a cabin in the woods north of Aurora. Off season, I don’t spend a lot of time in town. When at the height of tourists crawling all over us, I stay holed up at the mine, plus dealing with—” Ryder almost said ‘pack business’ but thankfully was able to catch himself. “Family business.” That was a much more neutral term.
“Ah.” Sean leaned back and took another sip.
“So now you have me curious. Why would you bring that up?”
Sean lifted a shoulder. “I think we both know why. It’s the huge-ass elephant sitting in the middle of the table.”
The dream. “I have to confess it has me a little stumped. I thought at first it was a subconscious thing. That maybe I had seen you in town in passing but it didn’t register,” and Ryder pointed to his head. “You know? Like I was attracted to you when I saw you but was busy and had other things and it slipped out of my mind but stayed lodged in my subconscious?”
“I don’t know if I should be comforted by that. Am I that unforgettable?”
The tension at the table had taken a strange turn and Ryder pursed his lips, watching Sean thoughtfully. “Not hardly, which is why I’m confused why that dream seemed so real to me. I mean…having real life results, real.”
Sean shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah.”
“So that leads me to think that there’s something more going on here than meets the eye. Do you know something about it? Was this like some magic thing the busi
ness next door did on you?”
“Do you believe in magic?”
Ryder smile wryly. “I’ve seen a lot in this world before settling in Aurora. Some, a lot, can’t be explained by normal means. The supernatural is the only way it makes sense.”
“You seem awfully calm about something as intimately supernatural as sharing sex in a dream.”
“Maybe I just think it’s the universe’s way of telling me that we share a connection.”
Sean’s shoulders rose and fell. “I’m not so sure about a connection. It’s…hard to explain.”
“I’m a fairly smart guy. Try.”
“Sometimes I have trouble controlling it. Entering someone else’s dream.”
“Were you in control the other night?”
Sean winced. “Not really. I am sorry, by the way. Dreamwalking is invasive.”
Ryder held his hands up. “Don’t apologize. I mean, it was weird how real it felt. Almost as if I really wasn’t asleep.”
“So what about you?”
Ryder tilted his head.
Sean lifted his chin. “I distinctly remember you shifting from a huge wolf.”
“Maybe that was your subconscious trying to put me into a form you could relate to.”
“That totally doesn’t hold water, Ryder.” Sean’s finger tapped against his wineglass. They were interrupted with the arrival of their food. Glad for the interruption and the subject being dropped, their conversation shifted to the good food, Sean’s mother loving to cook before her third battle with cancer ravaged her body. Sean dropped his entire life to care for his mother. Taking over her dream for an antique shop, keeping her dream alive when she could no longer do it.
They finished dinner as the dining area slowly started to lose its patronages. Ryder paid the bill and they crawled back into his truck. He started it and flicked on the heater to knock off the slight chill in the air. “Too bad Aurora rolls up its sidewalks at 9 p.m.,” Ryder said. “The only bar available in a fifty-mile radius is west of here and not exactly a place to go for an intimate, after-dinner drink.”
