Chapter 2
TWO
Mav had to admit that for a solo weekend where he did a lot of work in his hotel room, the Grand Springs Hotel and the hot springs pool next door were pretty damn cool.
Even with a snowstorm which dumped twenty-four inches of snow in something like six hours, once the hotel and the hot springs pool shoveled out a walkway in between the two buildings and offered shuttle service for anybody who might be elderly or disabled, things went swimmingly, so to speak.
He really liked the hot springs pool, and he liked that they had private hot tub rooms that fed hot springs water into them that were clothing optional.
He and Jaden, the asshole who’d stood him up, had booked one of those pools to be private, so he had gotten to just get naked and wade in there and wallow around in the hot water, relaxing all of his tense muscles.
Mav also had to admit that the hotel had exceptional service, and that he shouldn’t have been mean to that kid.
What was his name? Graham. Oh, he’d apologized to Graham, but he still felt bad about it.
He’d caught glimpses of the man at the concierge desk as he went back and forth, but he figured Graham was avoiding him.
So he thought maybe he would do something he hoped was nice and invite the kid to dinner on his last night in town.
There was this place called Fuel everybody had told him about which was like a supper club, kind of a pop-up, kind of a regular thing.
Apparently the “pop-up” part was that it had started out that way.
And also it changed menus pretty much weekly with what was seasonal.
At the risk of Mav sounding like an ass, he’d noticed Graham had a certain amount of roundness to his form that spoke of a fondness for food. A lot of folks would think Mav wouldn’t, but he actually had a real weakness for that kind of body type. To have something to hold onto.
He headed down around three o’clock in the afternoon because he thought Graham usually got off right before dinner, and he snuck up on the kid at the concierge desk.
“Hey.” He strode rather than snuck up to the desk for the last few feet and Graham jumped looking up at him with wide eyes.
“Mr. Grainger, have you been enjoying your stay? Is there anything I can do for you?”
“I have to tell you, Graham, I really had a wonderful time here this weekend, despite how badly it started. And I wanted to apologize to you for how grumpy I was.”
Graham smiled at him, and now it was his turn to blink. That was an amazing smile transforming Graham’s face completely, turning him from sort of quietly attractive to stunning, really.
“Wonderful. I’m so glad to hear it. I know I was out of line when you first came in, and I apologize as well. If there’s anything else I can do to make the last night of your stay more enjoyable, just let me know.”
“Well, I was wondering if I could take you to supper. You usually get off around three, right?”
Those eyes, which were a fascinating hazel, mostly gold with generous flecks of green, widened. “I—Oh. Well, um…” He just stammered.
Mav was going to take that as a good sign.
“I’d really like it if you’d come have a meal with me. You’re the only person I know here, and I’m just so tickled that I would get to give Fuel a try.” He winked, trying to get Graham to say yes. “No strings, no big deal, I just wanted to enjoy supper together.”
Graham stared at him, looked down, then met his eyes and grinned. “I get off in half an hour. Only if you really want to, I don’t want you to feel obligated.”
Excellent, that meant yes. “I don’t feel obligated; I feel eager. I’d love to have supper together.”
Graham shook his head and smiled. “I’ll make some reservations. Is six too late?”
“It’s fine with me. Shall I pick you up here?”
He was surprised when Graham shook his head. “Oh no, I live right there at Fuel. I’m literally in the same building. I’ll just walk down. There are apartments up there.”
“Really? That’s cool. There is parking up there though, right?”
“Oh absolutely, both in front of the building and behind it. I don’t imagine, though…
Well, the parking lot will be taken with the weather as bad as it is, so I would try to park in front if I were you.
” Graham’s words ran together just a tiny bit, as if he was babbling, maybe a little nervous, but that was okay.
He liked the idea that Graham was excited about going out with him.
“Sounds good. I’ll meet you there just a little bit before six then.” That way he’d get to meet Graham for dinner and get to see a little bit of the town before he left.
“I’ll be there. I’ll be the big guy in the red coat.”
“I won’t miss you. Don’t worry.” In fact, he thought there was no way he could do that. There was something about Graham that did it for him. As aggravated as he’d been the day that they met, he was intrigued.
And a little more than intrigued. Maybe he was even excited.
Graham nodded to him, and Mav went upstairs to try to figure out what to do with the next three hours. He could take a long shower, he supposed, or he could head down to the hot springs…
He looked out the window, looked down over the parking lot, and saw Graham heading toward a car that had obviously seen better days.
He saw him slide into the car, and then a puff of black smoke appeared.
From under the hood.
While he watched, Graham got back out of the car and opened the hood, standing there staring down into the engine. So, now Mav knew what he was going to do for the next three hours. He grabbed his coat, warm scarf, and gloves and headed down to see if he could help.
Mav actually knew a few things about old cars. So, while this wasn’t a classic or anything, it looked like it was simple enough to not have all the bells and whistles that a new computer-driven car had.
He made his way out to what was probably the employee lot and walked up to Graham, trying not to smile at the dejected slump of those shoulders. “Hey, I saw from my window. I thought I had come to offer to help.”
Graham sighed, his expression a study in misery. “This was the last thing I needed today. Honestly, it’s too far to walk back to my apartment in this weather, and—”
“Hey, it’s okay. We’ll figure it out. Is there a mechanic anywhere nearby?”
“Yes, there’s a garage right next to Senor Dragon’s on the side of town.”
“We’ll go there if I can’t figure out what’s wrong with it and have them come get it. Then we’ll proceed from there. I can drive you back to your apartment, regardless, and then we can go to Fuel.”
“That’s really kind. I mean seriously.” Graham sighed and rubbed his forehead. “I know I need to get a new car, but it’s a big investment and—” He shrugged and shook his head. “I’m pretty new in town. I don’t have any family here, just the people that I work with.”
“Where did you come from?”
“I was over in Utah, and I wanted to get out and see new things. I made it this far, but I ran out of money and didn’t have a lot to start with. It was pretty easy to just find a job. It’s a tourist town. When I got here, and I started working, I found that I really liked it.”
“That’s pretty cool.” Mav poked around the engine, looking to see what he could see. “I’m from up over near Denver. Boulder actually.”
“Oh, it’s beautiful over there. Genuinely. I’ve seen a lot of amazing pictures.”
He nodded. “I have a house up there, and I absolutely love it. It’s kind of nestled into the mountains and it’s a ski-out kind of place.”
“Oh, that’s too cool. One day I’ll have to get out that direction and see. Possibly not with this car…”
“Possibly not. It feels as if maybe this is a bridge too far.” He winced as he looked at the engine. It was going to need some work; it was beyond what he could do. “Let’s call that mechanic and get you taken care of. Then I’ll drive you home, and we can go have supper together.”
“Are you sure you still want to?” Graham winced. “I’ve kind of moved from the concierge at the hotel to the idiot with a piece of shit car.”
“You stop it right now. You’re not an idiot. And we’ve all had pieces of shit cars at one point or another.”
And they still had time to have a date, even if the car was a piece of shit.
Graham searched his face, those pretty hazel eyes worried, but finally it seemed as though Graham was going to accept what he said at face value because he nodded, chin firming up.
“Okay, that sounds good. Let’s get somebody to come tow her off, and then you can take me back to my place.
Can I clean up before dinner? We have time, right? ”
“Let’s do this. We can deal with the car and they can come get it.
You just need to make sure you have your keys with you to give to them.
” Mav had no idea why it was important to him to take Graham out on a date, but something was urging him to do it.
His mom would always tell him not to argue with his gut when it came to people, especially.
And he knew she was right because his gut had told him not to come on some kind of Valentine’s weekend trip with that asshole what’s-his-name, but now it was telling him he was glad he had stayed because he’d met Graham.
He got Graham into his truck and followed directions to the garage, where the mechanic, whose name was Ephraim gave them a smile and nodded at Graham. “Hey, kiddo, what’s up? Did it break down again?”
Graham flushed a dark pink. “It did. Can I leave you the keys? It’s in the hotel lot. I don’t think it’s going to move.”
Ephraim just grinned, his smile wide and white in his tanned face. “You bet, kiddo. I’ll take care of ya.”
“You know how it is. You’ll have to call me before you do any work.”
“I do.” Ephraim waved a red hand that had an oily rag in it. “Don’t you worry about it,” he said. “We’ll fix you up.”
Taking a deep breath, Graham handed over his keys.
It was only a few minutes later that they were pulling up at the Merchante building, which was some kind of old bank or mercantile building.
Graham looked a little concerned about asking him up, so Mav said, “I can stay down here if you want. I can look at the tattoo shop for a while.”
“No! No, that’s fine. Come on up.” Graham opened the door with some sort of old-looking key, then took him upstairs.