Chapter 22
Twenty-Two
Caleb loved the place called Beau Jo’s as soon as he walked through the door.
Well, he clumped into the door because it was easier to get in there on crutches than it was on the knee scooter, but it was really decent of Hawk to haul all of his options around in the SUV.
“Oh my God it smells good in here.” He nudged Hawk with his elbow, trying not to overbalance on his crutches. “Look at this place.”
He loved local places like this that had creaky old wood and tons of signs advertising beer and pizza and snowboarding contests and hot springs. There was a wagon full of salad. Post-COVID salad bars were, like, impossible to find and this place had a salad wagon.
Hawk chuckled, hand on the small of his back. “Yeah, I love it here. It’s weird and quirky and it’s also totally environmentally sound.”
“Oh? Tell me about that.”
“There’s solar panels, and they do all sorts of things with water initiatives and recycling.”
“Hawk, dude.” One of the local ski patrol guys he knew came over and clapped Hawk on the back on the way by. “Good to see you here, Puck. We’re at the bar if you want to come join us.”
“No. I mean…” Hawk closed his eyes, and Caleb winced for him. There was that social awkwardness popping up again for the first time in a long time, he thought. “Thanks, Beck, but I’m here with Caleb. We’re going to have some lunch.”
“Yo, you’re Caleb Lancaster. Dude, you shredded on that last halfpipe. Sucks that you got hurt though. Alan Beckett. Nice to meet you.”
He tilted his head, staring at the guy who looked familiar. “I remember you. You won the downhill in Chamonix, like a couple years ago, huh?”
Alan shrugged, his hands out to his sides “Among other things, but then I blew out my hip. Now I’m a bum here. It’s good; it’s a good life.”
“So I understand.” Caleb leaned in closer, like he was sharing a deep secret. “This place has a salad wagon.”
Alan hooted. “I know. It’s awesome, huh? Anyway, you guys have fun. Puck, if you want to hang, let me know. We’ll do a beer one night with Caleb.”
“Sure absolutely. Totally.”
Hawk was officially babbling, and Caleb didn’t think it was because people were seeing them together. He didn’t hide who he was, and he knew Hawk didn’t either, so it was weird.
“Hi! Three?” The server who was manning the host stand finally came back and she grabbed menus.
“Just two,” Hawk spat out.
“I’m headed back to the bar.” Alan waved and walked off, laughing in a merry sort of way. He didn’t seem put out at all.
“Sorry about that.” Hawk said as they followed the host to a table.
Caleb glanced at him sideways. “You are straight-up freaked out, babe. It’s because you don’t want them to know we’re together?”
“No. God, no, that’s not it. I’m just not willing to share you yet.” His gray eyes cut to him, looking a little stormy. “I feel kind of possessive. Is that weird?”
Caleb felt his cheeks stretch into a great big grin. “No, I don’t think that’s weird at all. In fact it’s kind of awesome. Uh, why does he call you Puck?” He sat down, trying not to thump because the last couple of inches were always a bitch without both legs.
Hawk rolled his eyes. “Old hocky nickname. My name is Hawk, and I played hockey. Hawk. Hockey. Hockey puck. Puck.”
“Wow, that is convoluted.”
“Hockey nicknames are.”
They got the menus and ordered drinks, waiting for the host lady to leave before they start talking again.
“So what’s this thing about pizza crust with honey?” Caleb asked. What he really wanted to ask was how Hawk felt about him, but he couldn’t do that just yet, he guessed. And certainly not in public like this.
“Oh, my god it’s so good. You’ll see. We’ll get a Colorado pie, and we’ll have honey on the crust. I want a salad wagon too.”
“I want all the things.” Caleb winked. “I mean I have to get back to working out at some point or I’ll be big as a house because I’ve never eaten as much as we have lately.
” He was mostly teasing. He had a good metabolism but still, unlike a hockey player, he couldn’t eat 5,000 calories a day.
Hawk wasn’t playing anymore, but he worked out obsessively.
It was a damn good look for him.
Hawk just snort-laughed. “Yeah, don’t worry about it. We’ll work it off.”
“So what does one have on a Colorado pizza as opposed to the New York style we had the other night?” Caleb was making small talk and he knew it, but this was I’m-learning-about-you small talk” so he didn’t think it violated the no-idle-chit-chat rule that they’d established.
“Here I like the sausage combo. It’s basically a supreme.
” Hawk’s shoulders moved easily under his henley.
They had taken their jackets off to hang them over the back of their chairs because it was warm inside the restaurant.
Caleb liked the way the slight V-neck of Hawk’s shirt showed off his strong neck and just a hint of clavicle.
“I can go with that. Should we get an app?”
“Trust me once you see the salad wagon up close, you won’t need an appetizer. Although the honey cheese bread is really good; maybe we should get an order to take home.”
Caleb studied Hawk, noticing how much more at home he felt here. It was as if getting out of the city made him less tense, made all his muscles relax, and made him smile more. He liked this version of Hawk a lot.
“Sounds great.” He nudged Hawk with his good foot under the table. His other one was stretched out so that he could keep it from getting whacked. Warmth traveled up from where they pressed together, and he had to take a deep breath to center himself so he didn’t get too bouncy about it.
It was just a leg against his leg.
“You guys ready to order?”
Hawk handed the menus to the server. “Yeah, we’d love a sausage combo and two salad wagons please.”
She nodded. “You got it. I’ll get that out to you as soon as I can, and you can start on your salad any time.”
It was a comedy of errors getting Caleb a salad, but Hawk held his plate for him while he filled it with all sorts of vegetables and fruits and weird things like macaroni salad and dressing and then hauled it over to the table for him before heading back to get his own.
It felt good. It felt easy and yet somehow strangely domestic.
“Montineau!” Another guy came by the table, clapping Hawk on the shoulder. “Alan said you were here, man. How you doing?” This guy had the same look as the skier. Caleb knew the type really well because he was one: Colorado mountain guys who did extreme sports.
“Good, good. How are you doing, Jake?” Hawk glanced at Caleb. “Caleb, this is Jake Cranston. He’s a cross-country skiing guide up here. Jake, this is my boyfriend Caleb.”
“Hey, nice to meet you.” Caleb held out a hand to shake, and he did not, he hoped, show that he was freaking out on the inside. In a good way. Hawk had just introduced him as his boyfriend.
“Dude, you shredded at the Olympics, man.” Jake pumped his hand. “It’s good to meet you. Hawk, you need to bring him by for a beer one night. I’ll leave you two alone, but I just wanted to stop and say hi.”
“We’re here for a couple of weeks, but right now we’re together, you know?”
“Yeah, you lucky dog. You’re a lucky guy too, Caleb. Have you seen this man’s ass?”
Caleb let out a weird hoot of laughter that made his cheeks heat up with embarrassment. “Hockey player ass, am I right?”
“Fuckin’ A!” Jake clapped Hawk on the shoulder. “I’ll talk to you later.”
“Sure. Bye.”
Caleb paused, trying to sort out what to talk about first. He chose something easy. “You know a lot of people here, huh?”
“Oh you know, all of us winter sports guys tend to gravitate together. I bet you do it in Vail, too.” Hawk was tracing patterns on the table with his fingers.
“I do. I mean I hang out with the same guys. Travis. Miko. Jamie. You know, snowboarders, but I get it.”
Those gray eyes cut to his sideways, sort of like little slices of silver. “Is it okay that I introduced you as my boyfriend?”
He reached over to grab Hawk’s hand, squeezing because he wanted to make sure Hawk was paying attention to him. This was serious. “Fuck, yes. It is more than okay. It makes me want to take you home and do very bad things to you. I was gonna ask you today about what we planned to call this.”
“And this is a good thing to call it?”
Caleb nodded, squeezing again. “Is this what you want?”
“Yeah, baby, it’s what I want.”
“Then I’m all in.” Caleb let go and picked up his fork. “Now let’s work on this salad thing.”
The sound of a text tone woke him up and Hawk reached across his body to slap at the nightstand, trying to grab his phone and silence it to make sure it didn’t bother Caleb. When he grabbed it and glanced at the screen, though, it wasn’t his phone going off.
Caleb moaned, one arm flung across his eyes, the other groping for his phone. “What the fuck?”
“Ugh.” Hawk grunted, rubbing his belly where Caleb had dug in with an elbow for a second before he managed to figure out which direction he was going. “I’m going to make some coffee.”
“Mm-hmm.” Caleb opened his phone screen and started scrolling. Hawk padded naked to the kitchen to put one of those Nespresso pods in and fill the water in the machine.
While he waited for the first cup to brew, he went to turn the heater up, because damn he should’ve put on his robe.
In fact, he would go do that now, and he headed to the bedroom to grab it. Peering at Caleb, “Hey, baby, do you want Columbia or Kona this morning?”
Caleb was scowling at his phone, and Hawk had never seen him do that before. So he went and tapped the toes of Caleb’s good foot. “What’s up?”
Caleb tossed his phone aside. “My parents want to come to visit me in Vail.”
Hawk raised his eyebrows. “I thought you didn’t get see much of each other really.”