Chapter 11
Mikey didn’t quite know what to make of the fact Luke had called him in the middle of the night.
He was awake, of course, because he always had trouble sleeping and, honestly, he was still stressed about Luke.
When he’d told Tricia and Damian about it, they’d acted just as he thought they would.
Tricia acted sympathetic and gently suggested it might be time to pull the plug on the whole thing, while Damian just sneered and said something very unkind about both Luke and West Virginia.
Why can’t they just…get it? He wondered for probably the thousandth time, as he lay in his bed in his hotel room and mindlessly scrolled his phone.
When it started buzzing in his hand and an unknown West Virginia number appeared on the top, he almost ignored it.
He’d learned the hard way never to answer calls from unknown numbers.
However, something told him this time would be different: he should take a chance and see just who it was who was calling him.
“Hello?” he answered.
“Hi.”
His heart almost stopped. It was Luke.
“Uh, hi!” he said, far too loudly and far too cheerfully. He knew he sounded very fake, but he couldn’t seem to find a more sincere way of answering. “What’s up?”
He was aware of the fact the two of them had parted on less than great terms after lunch, and he was unpleasantly reminded that the last thing he’d said to Luke was he was going to pull out of the concert before it even started.
Why do I always have to say the wrong thing at the wrong time? He thought.
Luke, however, went right on.
“So, uh, Brenda gave me your number, in case I wanted to coordinate with you on the concert.”
“Oh, okay. It’s fine with me. I guess we should have each other’s numbers anyway,” Mikey said, pleased Brenda had done him a favor.
“I was thinkin’...” Luke went on.
Mikey’s heart did another little stutter at hearing the unique way Luke spoke, the slow little drawl he always had, the way he still sometimes dropped the “g”s off the ends of his words.
“Oh yeah?” Mikey said, so eager to hear just what he was thinking he didn’t give Luke a chance to go on. “What were you thinkin’ about?”
He realized too late he probably sounded like he was mocking the way Luke spoke. He knew all too well how prickly Luke was about…well, about everything, and he could’ve kicked himself.
Luke, however, just kept on talking.
“Yeah. I was thinkin’ the two of us have to find a way to cooperate for the whole concert thing.
It’s not just Brenda who’s countin’ on us.
It’s the whole community. NACA’s been a good place for too long and for too many young people.
We can’t let that end just because of what’s between the two of us. ”
Mikey was sorely tempted to ask him just what he meant by the last comment, but he kept it to himself. Luke was offering him an olive branch, so he was going to take it.
“You know what? You’re right. We can’t let our egos get in the way of helping a really good organization. I’m willing to put all of it aside if you are.”
Luke didn’t say anything, and Mikey wondered what he’d said wrong this time. Finally, though, Luke spoke.
“Sounds good to me,” he said, and then went on.
“Listen, I have an idea. My friend Katrina leads music history tours of the Valley. Maybe the two of us could go on one. I know you think we should go all modern with the concert, but I want you to see a bit of the history and the heritage I see, then see if it changes your mind any.”
Mikey was starting to feel the first stirrings of something he might even call curiosity.
It couldn’t do any harm to see what this was all about, could it?
He might not change his mind about what form the concert for NACA would take–in fact, he was pretty positive he wasn’t going to change his mind no matter what Luke said or what he saw on the tour–but he could at least show Luke he was willing to entertain the idea.
I’m such a hypocrite sometimes.
“Sure, sounds like a good idea,” he said with far more enthusiasm than he felt. “What time do you want to meet?”
“Well,” Luke said, “lucky for us the tour doesn’t start until the afternoon. Be there at 1.”
“Sure!” Mikey said with what he hoped was enthusiasm.
“Okay,” Luke said. “The tours usually meet at the Centre Market in Wheeling. Do you remember where it is?”
Mikey sighed very loudly and obviously into the phone.
“I know I’m not a real local like you, and I know it’s been a long time since I was back here but yes, I do remember where Centre Market is.” He waited a beat. “Smartass.”
He couldn’t miss the sound of Luke chuffing out a reluctant laugh.
“I’m actually…looking forward to it,” Mikey said. “I hope you are, too.”
Luke didn’t say anything and then, so softly Mikey almost missed it, he said, “Yeah, I am.”
They sat there in silence for a few more seconds, until Luke said, “Well, I’m gonna go. See you tomorrow.”
The line went dead before Mikey could say anything.
For several minutes he just sat there in his bed, not quite sure what’d just happened.
He hadn’t heard that particular tone in Luke’s voice for…
well, for about ten years, ever since they’d been together.
He strongly suspected few other people had, either.
Luke might have had a soft heart, and he might be a lot more sensitive than he was willing to let on with other people, but he’d had a lot of practice putting on a show for others, making sure everyone saw him as just another good ole boy.
And you helped turn him into that person, didn’t you? He thought. You could’ve done things differently. You could’ve chosen him instead of your career, could’ve chosen to tell your parents to get bent, could’ve reached out to him when he got outed. But you didn’t do those things, did you?
Sighing, Mikey got off the bed and walked over to the window.
They weren’t staying in one of the nicest hotels in the Valley.
In fact, they were just staying at the regular old Holiday Inn & Suites in Moundsville.
He wasn’t sure how they’d managed it, but the team had successfully kept the reporters at bay, and so he could just relax and look out the window without having to worry about someone snapping a candid photo of him.
Now that he’d finished his conversation with Luke, he found himself wondering what tomorrow was going to hold.
Was this going to be a bonding moment between the two of them, or was Luke going to be the same cold and distant person he’d been so far?
His fantasy of the two of them reconnecting and rekindling their teenage love… well, it seemed further away than ever.
He sighed and leaned his head against the glass, taking some comfort in the coolness. Nothing was ever simple where Luke Carter was concerned, and it never had been. He wasn’t sure why he’d thought things would be different now.
Mikey stood there at the window for several more minutes and then, deciding it was way past time he should get some sleep, he crawled under the covers. He might have been hovering on the edge of exhaustion, but it still took him far too long to get to sleep.
Mikey woke up the next morning feeling like he’d been run over by a truck.
The feeling only got worse when he looked over at his phone and realized it was now 12:45.
He definitely wasn’t going to make it to the Wheeling Centre Market in just fifteen minutes, which meant he was going to start out the day being on Luke’s bad side.
When he sent a text to Luke–desperately telling him he’d be there as soon as possible, that he was so sorry he was late–he got a very curt message back, which told him yes, he was indeed on the shit list.
After throwing on a plain blue T-shirt, a pair of distressed jeans, and a pair of his less flashy sneakers, Mikey gave his team a hurried explanation of just what was going to happen today.
Tricia was, of course, very much on-board and gave him all sorts of inappropriate advice about how he could go about getting Luke in the sack, while Damian just told him, without saying a word, he thought it was a terrible mistake.
Having done that, he rushed out to the car.
He floored it, racing up Route 2 as fast as he possibly could.
It normally would’ve taken him close to half an hour to get to Wheeling but, thanks to some creative interpretations of the speed limit, he managed to get there in just about fifteen.
Somehow, he managed to avoid getting a ticket, but he had a feeling it was a near thing.
By the time he finally found parking and got up to the Centre Market he was a sweaty mess, but he was there, and he was going to do this whole tour thing, even if he thought it was a waste of time.
Luke was, of course, standing with the rest of the group who’d gathered for the tour, a glower on his face.
Mikey hated to admit it, but it actually made him look even handsomer than usual, and he found himself thinking about what it would take to get the elusive smile to come back.
He also thought about what it would be like to strip Luke out of that tight black shirt and those even tighter jeans, what it would feel like to have his scruff rub against his neck…
Behave yourself, he thought. You’re here to learn, not just to flirt with your old boyfriend.
As he walked up to Luke, however, Mikey felt those old stirrings, the same sense of magic which had drawn him to the other man in the first place.
They might both be older, and there might be a huge gulf separating who they were from who they had been, but it was still there, a shining thread between the two of them.
The question was: did Luke feel it too?
At the moment, he didn’t seem to be feeling much other than severe annoyance, and when Mikey tried to say something in greeting he just waved at him and tried to shush him.