Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
S loan thought he might fall over dead right there. Man expires from happiness.
Boom.
He squeezed Lance’s hand. “Of course you can, honey. I would love that.” He loved it so much he could hardly breathe.
“Cool.” Lance said it so casual, but he had a death grip on Sloan’s hand. It had cost Lance to ask, but he was so damn glad the man had gone out on that limb.
“Uh-huh.” He breathed in deep, then let it out. In. Out. Okay. This was a step in the right direction. “Did I tell you we have pie for dessert?”
“You did. Cherry, right?”
“They have to go with the spots on our shirts. All red—wine, sauce, pie.” He rolled his eyes, but really, Lance had done a pretty good job.
“Cool. I really like the pasta. It was super good.” Lance’s fingers rubbed his, sensitizing his skin.
Sloan didn’t quite know what to do. He was so excited and nervous and tickled—all of the words, all of the things. He just wanted to do this, to be here.
Lance tilted his head. “Are you off tomorrow?”
Sloan nodded, then shook his head at himself and squeezed Lance’s hand instead. “I am. I’m not on call this weekend. Do you want to do anything tomorrow?”
“I don’t know. I really don’t. I mean. I wanna go do something, but I don’t know what to do.” Lance pinked, shoulders climbing up toward his ears. “The things I used to like to do, I can’t do. So I don’t know what to do. I guess I’m going to have to find new things to like, and that’s really hard.”
“It is. No question. I mean, I don’t even know what to tell you.
We could go camping. That’s something you can do, but I don’t know if you’d like to do it.
” Shit, so much of life was about looking at things.
“We could go…uh…” Come on, man. Think. “We could see if there’s a concert to go to, or maybe a symphony. ”
Lance’s lips quirked. “I’m not sure if I’m ready for a concert. That seems like a lot of people.”
Dammit. Okay… “What about like a bar that has a band? Surely we can find a bar that’s having a little band—just a local thing. I can look it up.”
“I think that sounds like fun. Especially if you know, we stay away from the biker bars and stuff.”
“Well, the nice thing is—” Sloan chuckled at himself, but he still had to tease.
“I sort of know these cops. And so I sort of know where all the bad bars are, and I will never take you to one of those because I don’t need you throwing down and kicking a bunch of biker butts and getting me in trouble at work. ”
“Yeah, yeah—just because you get into one fight at the grocery store in front of another cop, all of a sudden all there is is hassle from you guys. ”
They cracked up, both of them laughing like they were about to bust.
It felt good. Normal.
Best of all, Lance was talking to him, letting him in, letting him be a partner.
“So we have a plan. We chill out tomorrow during the day, we get dressed, we go have a nice supper, and we go listen to a band and have a beer. I’ll be the designated driver.”
Lance grinned, the expression pure naughty. “I mean I could be.”
“That’s okay. I’ll let you drink. It’ll avoid the problems.”
“We could let Abby drive.” Lance was in rare form.
He stood and started putting the dishes in the sink. “I don’t think that Abby will be the appropriate driver, although she’s coming.”
Sloan personally thought that would keep a lot of trouble from happening if he could keep Abby visible. Just so everyone knew Lance was blind.
Bars could be fun spots, but when alcohol was involved, there was always a variable or two that no one could control.
“Do you want some help?” Lance asked.
He shook his head, then stopped himself. He needed to let Lance help. “Want to help load the dishwasher?”
“I live for it.”
“I bet.” He laughed. “So, there are no knives in the sink.”
“Good deal.” Lance rose, feeling his way along a little. Sloan was tickled that he didn’t have to have Abby help him anymore, but he did push a chair in that Lance might not know was out. Just to keep it fair.
“Tonight we get to cuddle and shit, right?” Lance asked.
Sloan almost dropped a knife on his foot. “Uh. Yeah.” That came out super loud, and a slight smile slid across Lance’s mouth.
“You okay? ”
“Honey, I am so okay you don’t even know.” He was hard as a rock, his face red as a beet, he would bet, every inch of his skin hot. Lance couldn’t see that, though, so yay.
“Good. I’m not trying to freak you out.”
“I’m not freaked out, Lance. I’m just tickled as a pig in shit, that’s all.” He went to put the knives away, because he’d washed them earlier, then pressed a quick kiss to Lance’s cheek.
“Not a sexy image.”
“No? No oinkers in manure for you?”
“Nope. Nopitty nope.” Lance got the water going to rinse some of the dishes. Abby whined, so Sloan went to let her out. She’d already eaten, and she’d had a few plain noodles, so it was time to go out and sniff the yard, he thought.
They cleaned up, then Lance took his arm for the trip to the bathroom, then the couch. Sloan let Abby back in, giving her a dental chew before moving to sit with Lance. “Music or a movie?”
“I think a movie tonight. Something I saw before all of this so I can work on my visualization.”
He knew Lance was trying hard to remember what colors looked like. What people looked like. Keeping his sight memory alive. It had to suck so hard. But he was totally willing to help.
“What about Shanghai Noon?” He remembered laughing with Lance when they’d discovered they both loved Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson in that silly movie.
“Oh, good choice.”
Sloan agreed. It had some gunfire, but nothing as violent as say, Gladiator , which was from about the same era of their lives. They had to weigh shit like that now.
The movie went fast, and Lance sagged against him by the end, so he took Abby out for her last potty of the evening, checked the dishwasher, then got Lance up and moving to the bedroom. The go bag was there, and he grinned. “You need a shower?” Sloan asked.
“Nah. In the morning. We rinsed off at therapy, right?”
“You know it.” Sloan vibrated, he was so thrilled about this. But he wasn’t going to push for anything but sleeping. Maybe holding. That was it.
Both in their sleep gear, they crawled into bed, Lance taking the right, him the left, like they always had. Abby seemed to have no issues with curling up at the foot of the bed, but he had a floor pad for her too, in case she wanted her own space.
“You good?” Lance asked after inching over to lean on his shoulder.
“I am perfect, honey. So damn perfect.”
“Kiss me?” Lance lifted his head, offering up his mouth, and Sloan gave a long, slow, happy kiss, making them both sigh with pleasure.
“Night, babe,” Lance told him as they settled on the pillows.
“Night, honey. I love you.” And he held Lance until he fell asleep, smiling at the ceiling for a long time after the lights went out.