Chapter 19
Chapter nineteen
Gavin
“What the hell are you doing here?” Johnny sounded pissed, not happy like Gavin had expected him to be.
Gavin stretched his arms out and stood up. “I want to be here for you.”
“You needed to be with your team. What the hell? You can’t show up here without telling me. You have no idea. God damn, Gavin.”
Johnny was mad about his uncle and taking it out on him. He understood that. Pilot quietly gave him the side-eye. Gavin needed to end this scene. He stepped closer and pulled Johnny to him. “There’s nothing to do until morning. You’re coming with me.”
“No, I can’t leave.”
Gavin dropped his tone an octave and growled at him in his no-nonsense tone. “Johnny, I’m taking over now. You’re coming with me. That’s final.”
Johnny paled a little but nodded his consent. Gavin shook Pilot’s hand. “Call if anything changes?”
“You got it.”
“Come on, then.” He gently pushed Johnny forward. He couldn’t let him sit in the waiting room all night. Pilot could do whatever he wanted, but Johnny was Gavin’s responsibility, and he’d be damned if he didn’t take care of his own.
“Why are you doing this?” Johnny asked as they made their way across the hospital parking lot. On short notice, the only car he could rent was a Camry, but Gavin doubted Johnny would care. He directed Johnny to sit on the passenger side, then buckled him up.
“You’re my boyfriend. I care. I’m here for you. That’s more important.”
“More important than Craige Lee’s debut with BikeMax?”
“More important than anything.” Gavin shut the door and walked around the front of the car. When he slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine, Johnny was staring at him with a funny expression. “What?”
“Boyfriend?”
“We agreed—”
“That sounds like we’re in the third grade, though. Do you want to be my boyfriend? Check the box—yes or no.” Johnny laughed a little, and that lovely, tingling sound made Gavin’s shoulders relax a little.
“What do you want to call it, then?”
Johnny scoffed. “You’re right. That’s tricky. Partner is too strong and implies we live together. Lover is too personal. I may call you that, you know, but not publicly. I guess...”
Gavin steered the car out of the lot and toward the highway that led to Johnny’s house. “You guess what?”
“I guess we’re boyfriends.” He sounded defeated.
“Johnny?”
“What?”
“I don’t care what you call us as long as there’s an us. You understand?”
He nodded and looked out the window. “Get off at forty-eight and go north on Broadway. That’s faster.”
“Okay, but you didn’t answer me.”
Johnny sighed heavily but still didn’t answer and didn’t turn his head away from the side window.
“Johnny? What is it? Don’t you want—”
“I do want. I want it all. Probably more than you do. Seeing you there...”
“At the hospital?”
“Yeah. Seeing you there scared the shit out of me.”
Gavin didn’t want Johnny to change his mind about them. Gavin had too much invested in them already. “You must not understand how much you mean to me.”
“Maybe I didn’t before. But seeing you there when you dropped everything to follow me, maybe that changed something.
” Johnny finally turned his head, and Gavin glanced at him.
His hair hung over his sexy hipster glasses on one side, and his eyes were kind of red, puffy, and tired.
It made his heart thump harder in his chest.
“You mean—damn, Johnny. I’d leave BikeMax before I’d have you hurting alone. Understand?”
“I do now. That’s what scares me.” He shoved his glasses up his nose and turned back to the window again.
Gavin wanted to reach out and run his hands through his soft, shaggy hair. He wanted to hold him, comfort him. He needed to make everything okay. “Ah...Johnny.”
“Next exit.” Johnny pointed out, and Gavin followed his directions, letting him guide the car and the conversation, but aside from directions, they didn’t talk much. Once they got closer to Johnny’s place, Gavin knew where to go, ending all conversation between them.
They pulled silently into Johnny’s driveway, and Gavin shut off the car. He sat there a moment, waiting for Johnny.
“I’m being stupid. I’m trying to focus on this with you.” Johnny waved his hand between them. “There’s nothing wrong here, Gav. I’m picking a fight or trying to.” He chuckled, but it sounded sad, remorseful.
“Not doing a good job of it.” Gavin raised his eyebrows, waiting for Johnny to continue.
“I know. I don’t want to think about—”
“I have much better ways to take your mind off what you don’t want to think about. Hmm?”
Then Johnny laughed for real. “I know you do, you kinky fucker!”
“That a complaint?”
“Hell no. Damn...who knew how kinky I am? For shit-sakes, let’s go.” He nodded to the front door of the house as he stepped out of the car.
Gavin was determined to make the rest of the night go much better. He popped the trunk to get his luggage out. He’d packed a treat for Johnny in there, and his man would need it.
Once inside, he swallowed his urge to tell Johnny to strip. When he saw him standing in the living room, staring at nothing, he figured Johnny needed some pampering, and he was going to give it to him. He dropped his luggage. “Come here, baby.”
Johnny didn’t argue. He practically fell into Gavin’s arms. He held Johnny for a moment. Kissed the side of his face. Rubbed his shoulder. “You are so tense.”
“I’m so fucking worried. I’m angry. I’m...I-I’m...” He sobbed into Gavin’s shoulder.
“That’s it. Let’s go.”
“Go? Go where?”
“It’s a surprise. Put on some more casual clothes. Jeans?”
“Do you even have a pair of jeans?”
“As a matter of fact, I do. And we’re both changing. So go now!” He shooed Johnny off to change, while he dug through his luggage to find his jeans. After putting them on with a soft t-shirt and sneakers, he grabbed his phone to set up their activity for the next hour or so.
“Hey-hey! Look at you. I’ve never seen you like this. It’s usually like suits or naked.” Johnny laughed.
“I dressed down some in Morocco.” Gavin held up his phone and directed Johnny to the door with it. “Shut up. Come on.”