Chapter 11
EVAN
Normally, as soon as the door closed behind us, my nerves would begin to unspool.
Normally, Perry was right on top of it—and me—to help get the jitters left over from Out There under control.
Today was different. The jitters were bigger and badder than usual, and Perry was in no shape to help me with them.
Then there was Alan Channing.
I watched him calmly place our brooms in the umbrella stand by the door that we kept there for exactly that purpose. That was usually my job. I glanced to Perry, unsure what to do next, but he had lowered himself to a chair at the table we never used and sat with his eyes closed.
I hesitated, my coming home pattern skewed, and for a second, completely lost in the uncertainty of broken routine.
“Evan.” Channing’s quiet tone drew my attention. “Do you have ice packs? Tylenol?”
“Y-yes.” I blinked at him.
“Fetch them, please.”
“Yeah. Yes. Right. One sec.” I hurried for the bathroom cabinet where we kept the pills.
“Don’t tell him what to do,” I heard Perry say.
I didn’t mind, though. I’d drawn a blank there for a sec, and it was nice to have a task.
“He wants to help you. He simply needed a nudge.”
“Well, don’t nudge him.”
“That’s your job?” Channing’s tone sounded teasing and it made my stomach flip.
I stopped at the bathroom door, pill bottle in hand, to hear what Perry would say. Because honestly, that usually was how Perry handled me and that was fine with me, even if he would never admit it.
“It’s not yours,” he said in the voice I almost recognized as his growly one, except it was too soft to be very convincing.
I don’t know why those three little words made my stomach drop. It wasn’t like I wanted Channing telling me what to do. Or Perry, for that matter. I’d just needed ten seconds to think, then Channing had handed me a simple task to get me moving. It was fine. Wasn’t it?
“Not currently,” Channing said.
The sound of a chair scraping over the floor grated through the apartment. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Sit down,” Channing said, his voice as calm as ever. “It means nothing. Until it does.”
I could understand why Perry would be losing his mind over what Channing was saying. It was riddles, nonsense, and he hated that. But it was also vaguely promising things Perry wouldn’t love to think about. Until he would.
I shook my head and hurried back to the main room, placing the bottle on the table, and a hand on Perry’s shoulder. “Sit,” I whispered. “He’s okay.” I kissed his not-hurt cheek. “We’re okay.” Then I passed him to the fridge and fetched him an ice pack.
“He’s not in charge of you,” Perry grumbled as he took the pack.
“No. But he’s taking charge right now, and that’s okay. We can talk about what it is later. When you’re less hurt and tired.”
He sighed and sat down, accepting a glass of water I handed him.
After a few attempts at opening the bottle, Channing took it from him and opened it, tipping two of the pills into his palm.
“Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome.”
“You don’t have to hang around.”
Instead of leaving, Channing took the chair across from him. “We don’t have to play tomorrow. My team is happy to concede the tournament on the grounds of poor sportsmanship. No one would think anything of it.”
“I would. You and the others didn’t do anything wrong. You kicked those who did off the team. Which, by the way, I approve of.”
Channing snorted softly. “Thank you for your approval.”
“Not that you need it, but I agree with whoever it was at the club. We don’t need guys like that representing us on the national stage. Jason’s main beef with us was that if we won it would make your team look bad. He did that all on his own.”
“Agreed.”
“And personally, I don’t want anyone thinking that’s how a Canadian curler acts, win or lose.”
“Agreed.”
“So no, you won’t be conceding. We’ll play and see what happens.”
“Agreed.” Channing held out a hand and Perry shook with him.
“Is that why you came up here?”
Channing looked from him to me and back again. “Only partially. A very small part. Mostly, I wanted to be sure you both settled in alright.”
“Why do you care?”
He tilted his head at my boyfriend and even I had to huff, which drew Perry’s attention to me.
“We’re not really going to pretend we haven’t all noticed each other, right?” I asked Perry. “You noticed me at a party and told me to cut out being a slut and leave with you.”
“I never called you a slut.”
I couldn’t help a grin. “Not in so many words. But you didn’t like what I was doing, and you wanted me to stop it. To follow you. You said what you wanted, and I did what I wanted in return. Simple. No games.”
“No games,” he agreed.
“No games,” Channing said.
“I don’t know what it means, though,” Perry said.
“It doesn’t have to mean anything tonight.” Channing got up. “Or tomorrow. Or ever. But Evan is right. I find you both very intriguing.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, for now, that I’m glad we will be playing tomorrow, if for no other reason than it gives me more time to observe you both.”
“Like a bug under a microscope,” Perry muttered.
“Pere,” I said. “Not like that.”
“Not like that,” Channing agreed, cupping Perry’s face and lifting his chin. “Not like that at all.”
Perry swallowed so hard his Adam’s apple bobbed and I saw something in his gaze as he stared up at Channing that I rarely saw. Or, rather, that he hardly ever let me see. He looked anxious. Worried. Searching.
My gut twisted because I knew, down in my bones, the things that made him anxious, I couldn’t help him with. Maybe Channing could. I could steady him out in the world, when people got to be too much. But here, in our home, when he faltered, I didn’t know how to fix that.
What worried him was what became of us when he got overwhelmed and I got stuck, just like I had when I’d walked through our door tonight and couldn’t think what to do next.
Not that I wouldn’t have figured it out eventually, because I’m not stupid. But Perry had needed care, painkillers, and an ice pack, and I couldn’t even think to kick off my boots right in that moment.
One night, at a party, he’d needed a guy he liked to listen to him and follow him home just because he’d said so. Now, he needed someone who could take the lead while he recovered, and make sure that guy who had followed him home didn’t unravel.
Channing had taken charge, got me moving, got Perry breathing, and that had been good for both of us. I liked that: good for both of us. The kind of guy we could maybe agree on.
I stepped up and wrapped fingers around Channing’s wrist. “Give it a minute, Chann—”
“Alan.” He turned his devastating gaze on me, though he didn’t remove his hand from Perry’s face, or my hand from his.
“Alan. After we play tomorrow, at least.”
He nodded, looked back to Perry, and for one, heart-stopping second, I thought he might lean down to kiss him but he just smiled. “There will be a lot to discuss after we play tomorrow.”
“Sure,” Perry said, pulling his face out of his grip. “If you say so.”
“I do.”
“Okay, then.” He nodded, as if he’d finally convinced himself this was not a trick. “Okay.”
“Okay.” Alan turned to me, cupping his own hand over mine, still on his wrist. “Make sure he showers, takes his pills, and applies ice one more time before you take him to bed.”
“That’s about enough instructions,” Perry said, his voice truly growly this time but not mad, as far as I could tell.
Alan chuckled. “Fair enough.” He licked his lips and studied my boyfriend. “I’ll see you both tomorrow.” He stroked fingers down the side of Perry’s face. “You keep him on track, he’ll take care of you.”
Then he turned to me, and his gaze nailed me to the floor. “Get some rest. You’ll need it. We won’t go easy on you.”
“We—” I gulped and cleared my throat, because that word came out a naked scratch of sound. “We wouldn’t expect you to.”
“Very good.” He stared at me a moment longer and I had the same overwhelming sensation that he was holding back, keeping his distance, as when I’d thought he was about to kiss Perry.
My throat went dry.
Then Channing huffed and straightened, stumping towards the welcome mat where he stopped and looked back. “Sleep well. Both of you.”
We didn’t reply as we watched him walk out and close the door gently behind him.
I paused, but of course he wasn’t coming back. When I returned my attention to Perry, he was frowning. I touched his face where Alan had.
“What?” Perry asked, blinking up at me.
“Nothing to worry about right now.” I leaned in and kissed him like Alan had maybe wanted to, but hadn’t.
It was soft and quick, then I straightened.
I had my instructions, which had eased my paralysis and I could do the things despite my jitters still vibrating under my skin.
“Come on. Take the pills while I get the shower going.”
It was calming to step into the shower with Perry, get him good and sudsy and carefully rinse him off again. It wasn’t a sexy thing. We’d spent two days throwing more rocks than we usually threw in a month, and we were both tired.
Perry was in pain and I just wanted to be touching him without causing more pain.
Once he was clean, I sent him out to dry off and apply ice while I got clean. When I made it to the bedroom, he was lying in bed, the ice pack set aside, his eyes closed.
“You’re on my side,” I mentioned as I dropped my towel on top of the hamper.
“So I can spoon you without lying on my bruises, obviously.”
I grinned. “Obviously.” I clambered into bed on his side and snuck my bare ass back against his pajama-clad crotch. I fell asleep to the feel of his palm stroking along my hip and thigh, secure, finally, in his arms.