Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
“ A re you all right, man?”
“I’m fine, Dan. Just drive. Just drive.” He wasn’t going to be able to do this. He wasn’t going to be able to let this happen and not go see and touch and know his Sloan was okay.
“I’m serious; this is big. You’ve done a lot of work?—”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to get any less blind. I want to see him, touch him, and make sure he’s okay. I can still clean out a wound as damn near as well as anybody else.”
“I’m just sort of worried about your mental health, man.”
How had he ever thought for a second that Dan and Sloan could date?
How dumb was he? “I’m fine. I mean, am I aggravated that Sloan got shot at?
Yes. Is there any human being on earth who wouldn’t be aggravated if their lover got shot at?
No, not if they’re sane. I’m sane. See, I probably have a sticker or a button somewhere that says sane that I can’t even see.
I’m fine. I just want to see him. I want to know he’s all right. ”
“All right. What are you going to do in New Mexico when this sort of thing happens?”
“I don’t know, not exactly, but I do know that one of the things that I can do is hire help.
” Some kid whose job it would be to get him around when Sloan was at work.
“You know, I’m not stupid, man. I don’t need home health care or nursing care.
I need a student or a retired person who’s willing to drive me around when I need to go somewhere. And really, that’s it.”
He was going to go back to school. He wasn’t sure what sort of things he could do.
But he thought he could go and figure out his options.
He’d already emailed the School for the Blind in Albuquerque.
The VA was there in Santa Fe. There was a chance he could become a massage therapist. He had options, and he wasn’t sure exactly what the plan was, but he was beginning to believe there was a possible plan. It would just take a lot of figuring.
He had nothing but time, so he could figure.
“All right, if you’re sure, I’m sure.”
He nodded at Dan’s words. He was pretty certain. “How much farther do we have?”
“About five minutes. Did Sloan sound okay?”
Lance nodded again, feeling like one of those motherfucking dolls with its head on a spring. “He did. A little shaky, but that’s just adrenaline.”
“Well, don’t be surprised if he freaks out. PTSD is a real thing.”
“You think?” he chuckled softly. “I’ve got to get him a dog. The man needs a dog. Right, Abby?”
She woofed and wagged. She was all over having friends, he could tell. In fact, two dogs could fill up the entire back seat of a car. It would be perfect.
He could see Sloan with a bully, or maybe a shepherd mix, or even a big slobbery lab. As long as it wasn’t dog-aggressive.
“Here we are,” Dan said. “I’ll walk you to him. He’s sitting on the back step of an ambulance getting looked at.”
“Thanks.” He tucked his hand into Dan’s arm, and he could hear the weird clicking that ambulance and cop car lights made when they spun. When a siren was on, no one could hear it, but it was there.
“Hey, honey,” Sloan said as he got close. “You didn’t bring your kit?” Sloan sounded pretty normal, which was good.
“I didn’t. You said there was a bus on the way.”
“Lance, hey.” The voice was familiar, and he squinted, trying to get his eyes to work. “Jaymi. I volunteer with Luke a few days a week. We met when you first arrived.”
“Oh, yeah, hey. How’s it going?” Jaymi was a good paramedic who came out to work with the guys who had bad scar tissue or who needed picc lines and stuff.
“I am living the dream. This your guy?”
Dan stopped, and he groped out with one hand, which Sloan took and drew him over to sit on a hot metal bumper.
“Yeah. How is he so he can’t lie to me?” He held Sloan’s hand. He smelled like gunshot residue, stress sweat, blood, and the starch from his uniform.
And Coke.
Sticky, full-on sweet Coke.
“He’ll be fine. Mexican Coke attack. Bottle exploded. Two shards of glass in the neck. One will need a dressing change when he showers and for the next few days. One cut on his cheek. A few on his hand. Honestly, he did well for himself.”
Sloan snorted. “I just babbled at the guy until backup arrived.”
“No wild west cowboy shit?” Lance asked.
“Hell, honey, it got Western in there, but I didn’t bring it on. I just put the sun in his face to make me less of a target, then freaked him out with my conversational genius.”
“You do have a way with words.”
“Shit, this guy is hilarious, Lance,” Brittany said. “Okay, Officer Sloan. You are all fixed.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it.” The air shifted as Sloan stood. He let Lance reach out to him, then pulled him to his feet and tucked his hand in the crook of his arm. “Wanna run my siren?”
“Oh, you know it.”
“He can ride with me, Dan. And my truck is at the office.”
“You sure?”
“Yep. And the fire guys will help Leah clean up.” Sloan led him to what he assumed was the patrol car, letting him ease into the front seat. Dan brought Abby, and she jumped into the backseat with no trouble.
“Call if you need me,” Dan said.
Once the door was closed, Lance asked quietly, “How are you, really?”
“Well, that bottle exploding was like being stung by a dozen bees. And I never like having a gun pointed at me. But I’m all right so far.” Sloan chuckled, reaching over to squeeze his hand. “How are you?”
“Pissed off that someone shot at you.”
“Yeah. Me too.” Sloan got them moving. The cruiser was not near as nice as Dan’s van. And it smelled a lot like sausage biscuits. He knew what Sloan had eaten for brunch, he guessed.
Abby was busy snuffling through wrappers in the back, from the sound of it.
“No, Abby. Don’t eat that,” Sloan said. “Anyway, I had really hoped he would just surrender. He seemed afraid of the cops, you know?”
“Guess he needed his meth more, huh?” Lance sighed, rolling his head on his neck. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“Me too. I hate that I’m making us late for our audiobook date.”
“Well, and now we have to stop at another store on the way home and get snacks,” he teased .
“Yeah. I’ll call first and make sure there’s no robbers in the Circle K.”
“I would appreciate that. I would hate to have to do a beatdown on someone who shot at you again.” Lance kept his tone light because that was obviously what Sloan wanted to do. “Nice thing about audiobooks is they can start wherever you turn them on.”
“True that. I can’t believe it’s already the end of September. I can’t believe how damn hot it is here for September.” Sloan sounded like he was jittering.
Lance nodded. It wasn’t just hot. It was hot and humid as all get-out.
“Yeah, things are starting to cool off in Santa Fe, I bet.” Lance shot him a glance.
“You know that, if you want to go home, I won’t be pissed off.
I mean, I still have to be here for a bit longer and figure some stuff out, but I’ve been working at it. ”
“Working at what?”
“Getting you a dog that Abby likes too. Talking to the School for the Blind in New Mexico and the VA there in Santa Fe. I need to make sure that when I come up there to, you know…I mean…” That was what Sloan wanted, right?
That was the endgame. Sloan hadn’t come to move here forever, and to be honest, this wasn’t their vibe.
He wasn’t sure what their vibe was, but he was certain it wasn’t this.
“I know that’s what I want. You’re who I want.
” Sloan offered him a laugh that sounded a little caught up.
“I want you to come home with me to New Mexico. I want to see Abby playing the snow. I want to eat green chile enchiladas together. I want you to hang out with my sister and be Uncle Lance with the kids.” Sloan sounded shocked, to be honest. “What about you? Are you sure? I mean, you’ve really talked to the School for the Blind in Albuquerque? ”
His shoulders were crawling up around his ears, and he forced them to drop.
“Yeah, I really did. I looked it up on the laptop. I heard all about it. I called them, and I talked to them about what my options were. I did the same with the VA. I mean, I know that somebody’s going to have to drive me around, and I know I’m going to need help, but I can hire someone to drive me while you’re at work. ”
“Shit, I have family. I have lots of family. I have an enormous amount of family. Cousins coming out literally of my wazoo.”
He didn’t want to know where Sloan’s wazoo was.
“Well, like I said, I have a few more things to accomplish, and I want to make sure I’m not a burden for you.
I don’t mean that in any kind of whiny bullshit I don’t-want-to-be-a-burden kind of way.
I mean in an actual practical sort of way.
I want to be able to stand on my own two feet with you.
I want to keep up with my therapy. But it’s coming.
I don’t think I’m a permanent hang-out-at-the-house type. ”
“You could stay at my house, you know,” Sloan offered. “Kind of permanently now, I mean here. Like a trial run for Santa Fe.”
A trial run, huh? That might work for him. Rather try it here and need help and have some. “Let me talk to Luke and make sure that that doesn’t screw up any grant monies and stuff, but yeah. I would try it. Especially if the guys could still help me get around.”
He heard Sloan swallow convulsively. “Okay, so this has been kind of a momentous day, and I hope we get to the office soon, because I think I’m going to barf.”
Lance didn’t grin. “I’m not going to take that personally.”
“Please don’t. It’s not you, it’s adrenaline.”
“Sloan. How long have I known you?” Lance had been Sloan’s medic before they were lovers. “I’ve seen you puke all over the world. You’re sort of like the master of it. Adrenaline? Barf. Pain? Barf. Big pain? Big barf. Big noises? Barf. ”
“Would you stop it?”
There was no way. None. This was too much fucking fun. “Too much electric guitar? Barf. Stung by a bee? Too much vodka-infused watermelon? The smell of banana chips? The sight of lizard innards? Baaaaarf.”
“I’m going to kick your ass. It’s just a reaction to my adrenals dumping. You taught me that!”
Lance started chuckling. Yeah, but Sloan wasn’t going to barf anymore, was he?
Mission accomplished.
And Sloan had just officially asked him to move in with him.
That was pretty momentous for him, as well.
No barfing required.