by J. D. Light
"Spectacular?" she asked, frowning. Shaking her head, she blinked, refocusing. "Ain't you goin' with him?"
I sighed, turning sideways to look at my profile in the mirror. "I'm leaving Monday, but if I scare him off before then, he might take back his invitation." My reflection was definitely an improvement on what that jacket had done to me, but I still felt far too chubby to be going to a party where pretty much everyone there was fit and beautiful.
And then there was my hair. I'd managed to tame it somewhat, putting a little product in it to make my naturally curly black hair far less frizzy, and was actually surprised to see that it didn't look horrible, though it was still naturally curly hair. It was far from domesticated.
"Deck," my sister said in exasperation when I sucked my gut in, seriously considering going on another one of those stupid diets I was never able to stick to for more than a couple of days before I got hungry enough to binge eat an entire pizza… alone. Like I'm going to be forever if I don't get my shit together. "He's seen your closet of Blake Sunday and he didn't go nowhere."
I turned to look at my sister in sheer disappointment, shaking my head before turning back to the mirror, already attempting to get my tie to cooperate. "Seriously, you know that's a double negative, don't you?"
How bad would it be to put my cupcake clip-on on? I glanced at it out of the corner of my eye, giving it serious thought, especially since what was currently taking residence at the base of my throat looked a lot more like a wad of silky deep red material, not at all what I was going for. I'd have to get rid of my sister first, because she was a judgmental asshole.
She scream-growled directly into my face and I stumbled backward, blinking at the crazy woman.
"You are negatively impacting my happiness right now! Give me that fuckin' bowtie." She reached out, jerking the material out from around my throat, and for a brief moment, I was a little worried she was about to strangle me, until the worthless knot I’d made finally gave. Jensen can tie one of these better than you can."
I wasn't going to argue with that. Of course, Jensen was better at tying bowties than me. He went through a phase when he was four where he only ever wanted to wear bowties and sweater vests and Aunt Nadine about lost her mind when he showed up to dinner one day in a clip on.
Strangely enough, she never said anything to me about mine, and I chose to think that she just hadn't realized it wasn't real, rather than believe she just hadn't seen any reason to correct me since I was already a lost cause.
"Wow," Blake said from the door, just as my sister punched me in the stomach, effectively forcing me to stop sucking in while I looked in the mirror, and my gut came out full force. "You look stunning."
I licked my lips, completely blown away by the gorgeous man standing in my bedroom doorway. That was how a suit jacket was meant to look on a person. Why the hell was he taking me again?
"Is stunning better than amazin'?" My sister asked as she walked by him, sliding her hand down his chest, definitely copping a feel of his thick pec. "You shoulda went with spectacular."
He took his eyes off of me for a short moment to frown after my sister as she left the room, but quickly returned them to me. "What?"
I shrugged, walking toward him as he walked toward me, meeting him in the middle of the room and immediately wrapping my arms around him. "I don't know. The woman uses double negatives and words that aren't words. She left him in the Gulf over five years ago. How does she still have that fucking accent?"
He lowered his head, smiling softly, but jerked it back when his lips almost touched mine.
"So, I have to ask," he said hesitantly. "Did she really kill her husband?"
The look on his face. I started laughing, shaking my head, and then laughing a little harder when he raised an eyebrow.
I wiped a tear and sighed. "No, he's still alive. And he wasn't her husband. They went on a cruise that left out of Galveston about five years ago, while they were out at sea, he fucked some crew member, and Emma held him out over the railing by the back of his shirt while he screamed. Then when it was time to leave, she wouldn't give him a ride back home, so he had to stick around. It just so happened he was fucking the crew manager, so she gave him a job on the ship, and he's been out in the Gulf ever since. We've perverted the truth a little, because it makes her happy and everyone around us leery. One of the ladies at church actually called the police one day, and they had to call down there and make sure the asshole was still alive."
He blinked at me with wide eyes and raised eyebrows, still looking nervous. "She held a grown man out over the railing of a cruise ship?"
"She gets like superhuman strength when she's pissed."
The party was spectacularly decorated for Christmas, and I was completely enamored with everything, wishing I could take pictures but not sure if that would be tacky. In the end, Blake snatched my phone and took a million pictures for me, probably knowing how much I wanted them, and then he handed the phone off to Granger and kissed me under the mistletoe in front of one of the most beautifully decorated trees I'd ever seen.
As always, the kiss swept us up into our own little world, and by the time we finally pulled apart, Granger was playing a game on my phone, and the people who'd been standing around waiting for their turn for a picture must have given up and wandered off.
By the end of the night I was exhausted, but fighting hard not to let it show. In about eight hours, he'd be on his way back to Vancouver, and I'd be smack dab in the middle of a breakfast rush. I'd be leaving two days behind him, but I'd gotten used to him staying at my house for the last week. He'd even moved his stuff out of the hotel room and was just staying with me until he left.
He must have seen the way I was fading, because just before twelve-thirty, Blake hauled me up out of the seat I'd found in the corner of the room and took me home.
We made love sweetly and gently, like we might never see each other again, even though I had a plane ticket already printed off and sitting on my desk for Monday. I literally only had to spend two nights without him, since I was usually busy during the days anyway, so that wouldn't even seem abnormal, but two nights seemed like two months if I let myself think about sleeping alone again.
By the time we both finally fell asleep staring into each other's eyes, we only had two hours before we had to get up and around. He had a driver picking him up at my house at three thirty, and I had to leave for the shop basically at the same time.
The driver was patient as we kissed and kissed and kissed some more, before he finally had to get in the car right then or he'd possibly miss his flight.
My heart twisted painfully as they drove away, and I clutched at my chest, desperately trying to remind myself that it was two nights. I could make it through two nights. Hell, I was probably going to fall into bed as soon as I got home anyway. I'd had a serious lack of sleep with Blake around. Not that I'd minded in the least.
Saturday went fairly smoothly with the only incident being me dropping my phone from the top of the damn ladder while replacing some lights from my twinklers. Normally, I'd have had my phone behind the counter, but I'd been waiting for Blake to call me as soon as he touched down, so it had been in my back pocket. Unfortunately, when I turned my hip into the ladder to brace myself, only to have to take another step because I wasn't quite tall enough, my phone got hooked on the bottom of the top rung and was jerked right out of my pocket where it fell all the way down to the concrete below.
Shattered was probably a good word to describe the condition, but I used a lot of other, very colorful words four days before Jesus's birthday––or at least the day we all celebrated it on––and got scolded by the preacher's wife.
To be fair, she was probably still pretty pissed about that coffee in the boobs incident, and when she was done griping at me about my language, she did tell me she hoped my cute little movie star came back to visit soon, and I'd told her to pray for me.
What? Jesus knows how I am. He doesn't expect any
thing else from me! Praying for my boyfriend to come back was not even close to the most selfish thing I'd prayed for.
I had paid the insurance on my phone, but the mail didn't run on Sundays, so it wouldn't be until after I was gone that a new phone would be coming in, so I'd had to take it to the cell phone repair store on my lunch break, but didn't make it out of the shop before they closed on Saturday, so I was going to have to wait until my lunch break on Sunday to go pick it up.
Like I'd expected, I fell straight into bed Saturday, still fully clothed and in my shoes which of course meant I completely forgot to set an alarm because my phone had a permanent alarm set, so I never had to worry about it, but thankfully, I woke up at about three fifteen with a full bladder, and managed to change my clothes and get out the door in time, but I didn't get a shower.
Things went okay at the shop, a lot of people seemed cranky, and the resident crazy nearly jerked me across the counter by my hair, but at that point, I was actually kind of expecting something to go wrong, so when I'd finally unwound her fingers from my hair, ushered her over to a seat in the corner with some hot chocolate and a cookie and called her sister to come get her, I managed to actually have a pretty good laugh at the whole thing.
Of course, that was about the time the call came into the shop from my sister who was frantically screaming into the phone that she was taking Jensen to the hospital because he was in a lot of pain, and she was worried it was his appendix.
Logan had offered to watch the shop and by the time I got my frazzled self to the hospital, he was already in surgery, and my sister was a terrified, sobbing mess in the waiting room.
Needless to say, I forgot all about my phone, and when we found out that Jensen's appendix had actually burst before they got it out, and he had a really bad infection, I also missed my flight.
By Monday afternoon I still didn't have my phone, and had no idea what Blake's number was, since nobody memorized numbers anymore, and a churning feeling in my stomach that I was never going to see him again.
I finally managed to leave the hospital and go home and shower on Tuesday, and I made sure to swing by the repair store on the way to grab my phone. Logan had assured me that he had everything handled at the shop, and we had recruited some people to help since I was supposed to be in Vancouver at that time, so at least he wasn't doing everything on his own.
As soon as my phone powered back on, I tried calling Blake, but he didn't answer. I sat in my car in the parking lot of the hospital and cried, knowing he was probably never going to speak to me again. When I got my shit together, I decided to send him a text trying to explain everything, but even as I sent it, I knew it was too late. Though everything in that message had been true, I wasn't stupid enough to not see how much it all looked like a bunch of excuses not to go see him, and I cried some more.
By the time I walked back into the hospital, I had no doubt I looked like absolute shit, because that was exactly what I felt like.
I was reaching for the door handle, to Jensen's room when it swung open, and I froze when Blake Sunday very nearly ran me over.
"Declan," he said, sounding relieved and I whimpered like an idiot, throwing myself into his arms and holding on for dear life, sobbing into his chest and practically trying to climb inside his body.
"Oh, baby," he whispered, kissing my head. "It's okay. I have you sweetheart."
"I dropped my phone, and Jensen got sick, and I missed my flight, and I didn't have your number memorized, and I missed you so much. I thought you'd never forgive me, and I'd never see you again."
He pulled back, cupping my head and looking down into my eyes. "I wouldn't give up on us that easy. I knew your phone was either dead, or something was going on, because it just kept going to voicemail, and then when you didn't get in on your flight, I finally looked up the number to your shop and called there. Logan told me what was going on, and I got on the next flight here.
I shook my head, even as tears still poured down my face. "Why would you go to all that trouble? We've only been dating for, like, a week and a half."
He chuckled, holding my head still to lean down and steal a kiss, humming happily against my lips. "Probably for the same reason you were so upset by the idea of it being over between us, Deck," he whispered, gently brushing his lips back and forth over mine. "Because I love you."
I gasped, blinking up at him in shock, and he chuckled, sealing his mouth to mine and slipping his tongue inside.
My body finally relaxed, fully accepting what my brain was failing to process, and I let myself be swept up in a kiss that only Blake Sunday could deliver.
"Um… excuse me, sirs?" Somebody said to my left, and we pulled our mouths apart, turning to see who was interrupting us. It was two nurses, trying to hide their amusement, and a bed with a hugely grinning old woman in it. She flashed us a thumbs up, and I blushed, hiding my face against Blake's chest as he steered us out of the way, letting the trio by.
"I'm so sorry you had to come all this way," I whispered, leaning my head back to look at him as he kept me wrapped securely in his arms. I know you had a lot to do, that's why you couldn't wait for me."
"Well, the good news is, I managed to get almost everything done that I needed to as far as the paperwork goes, and I was able to hire a moving company to bring all my stuff, so really all I need to do now is go back and pack, but I'm a bit of a minimalist, so there really won't be much that needs to go, and I'm selling the furniture with the house."
I blinked up at him, shaking my head slowly. "You're moving? Where to?"
Was it closer or further away than Vancouver? Not that it would really matter unless it was across an ocean. A plane ride was a plane ride, but I wasn't sure I had the balls to fly over the ocean.
Was it for a new job? How long would this one be, and would I be able to go see him… as long as he wasn't over yonder across the pond.
"Hidden Springs," he said simply, like the information he'd just laid on me wasn't fucking amazing, spectacular even. Like it wasn't going to turn me into a blubbering idiot.
"Are you serious?" I whispered, my face already doing that very unattractive scrunching thing that signaled a new round of tears, and he cupped my jaw sweetly, nodding with his forehead against mine.
"Very. I'm still looking for a place, because I want something fairly close to town, so I'll be in the hotel still for a while, but I have a feeling I'll be at my boyfriend's house most of the time anyway."
"I love you, Blake. I love you so fucking much," I whispered, emotion making my voice tight as I painfully tried to push my words through.
"I love you too, Deck. I've been waiting for this for years. Hell, I'd already decided to stop taking roles and disappear into a small town somewhere, but you gave me the final reason to settle down."
"Have you booked a hotel yet," I asked, unabashedly wiping my tears on his chest, wetting his shirt and not even feeling bad about it.
He shook his head, reaching back to pull his phone from his back pocket. "Oh shit. It's still on airplane mode."
When he switched it over and all his notifications popped up, I laughed, seeing my missed call and my message among the mess. That sad, terrified message had been written less than thirty minutes before, but it felt like a lifetime. That man had been broken and devastated, and the man standing here with his arms around his boyfriend, was whole and happy… and about to ask his boyfriend to move in with him.
"So," I said, my heart racing frantically. "Since you'll probably be spending most of your time with me, there really isn't any reason for you to get a hotel room while you look for a house. You should just go ahead and stay with me." I batted my eyes at him, nodding my head as his smile got bigger. "I mean, now that you're not working, you're going to need to save your money, especially if you're going to get a house close to this town."
I pursed my lips, raising my nose in the air. "I don't know if you heard or not, but they just got done filming a movie here. This place is prime real es
tate these days."
"Well, first of all, I'll still be working, but it will actually be an online acting class, and of course I'll still be making money off of all my movies, and this one doesn't even release until next year, plus I have a lot invested. I can probably afford to pay the monthly rent on a hotel room for a little bit."
I narrowed my eyes, licking my teeth. "Alright Mr. Big Head, I get it. You have a bunch of money, and you're only making more. Do you want to move in with me or not?"
He blinked innocently, giving me a sweet smile. "Until I get a house?"
"Sure," I said dryly. "And if that takes forever, then that's okay too."
He smiled, kissing me again, and I sighed, so fucking happy to have him with me.
"Can we keep the Blake Sunday room?" he asked, making me groan.
"Only if we tell everyone it's yours."
"Deal."
Chapter Ten
It had taken us nearly two months to get to Canada, but we finally made it. I'd told him, I had a couple more things that I needed to wrap up, but in actuality, it had been for this moment. It had been the plan when I'd asked him to come with me for those two weeks before, even though it was just going to be a sweet gesture at that time, and maybe a good way to announce that I would be moving closer to him, but the timing was right this time for something a little… more, and a far better reason for dragging him even further north, out in the middle of nowhere on a Saturday afternoon.
The breeze was blessedly light as we climbed out of the car at the shallow end of a lake I had been assured was plenty frozen for what I had in mind, and I sighed in relief that we would possibly get to keep all of our extremities today.
"It's colder than a well digger's ass," Declan grumbled, his eyes wide as he took in the wide expanse of ice, snow and pine trees.
"Why is a well digger's ass any colder than mine?" I questioned with a frown. "I feel offended. My ass is pretty cold."
