64. Chapter Sixty-Three
Chapter Sixty-Three
Jake
“Anywhere in the world?”
“Yep. Anywhere.”
Jake lowered himself to sit on the large rock at the half-mile point on their morning walk, the early summer sun warming his back as he looked out at the sparkling ocean and contemplated Rye’s question. Rye stepped up behind him, his hands sliding up Jake’s back, and Jake closed his eyes and hummed with contentment.
“Mmm, right here, wherever you are,” Jake said, tilting his head back and to the side. He felt Rye laugh, then lips pressed against his cheek.
“That’s not what I meant. Say I’m with you , and we’re on a vacation. Together . Anywhere in the world. Where would it be?”
“Hmm.”
Rye continued distracting Jake, peppering little kisses along his cheek and jaw, and Jake sighed with pleasure. Only after Rye pulled back and straightened up was Jake able to actually think about his answer. And it really wasn’t too hard to decide.
“Queensland.”
“Queensland?”
“Australia. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I have a friend there, she’s a university professor, and she studies symbiotic relationships of different species that live on the Great Barrier Reef. She works at a research station on a small island on the reef. That’s where I’d want to go. And then, um”—Jake paused and opened his eyes to gaze at the ocean—“out onto the reef, in the water. I want to... see it.”
Even as he said the last words out loud, Jake knew it wouldn’t happen. He’d overcome his fear of going down the stairs to his beach months back, thanks to Rye helping him through it. But being on a boat again wasn’t something he expected to be able to handle, ever .
Yet when Rye’s arms looped around his midsection and Rye breathed another kiss on his cheek as he said, “That sounds incredible,” Jake had to wonder if he was wrong. Again.
“Mmm. And what about you?” Jake asked, leaning back against his boyfriend.
Rye was quiet for a few minutes, and then Jake felt him breathe in and out a long, slow breath. “I actually don’t know,” he admitted, and he let his arms drop from around Jake, then moved to sit on the rock. Jake slipped his arm up around Rye’s shoulders as Rye leaned into him. After a moment, Rye continued. “It’s so perfect right here, you know?”
Warmth spread up into Jake’s cheeks, and he turned and buried his face into Rye’s hair, breathing in deeply. “Mmm, you wouldn’t let me get away with that answer. I’m gonna need more than that,” he teased.
Rye straightened and tilted his head back, looking up at Jake with a silly half-smile. Jake’s heart stuttered, and he bent down slowly, touching his lips to Rye’s in a gentle kiss. When he pulled back, Rye’s eyes were closed, and he was still smiling.
“So, where is your dream vacation taking us?” Jake asked softly, but before Rye could answer, Jake lowered his head again and fluttered a series of light kisses along Rye’s jawline. With a quiet “mmm,” Rye’s hand settled on Jake’s thigh, and Jake paused and sucked in a breath as heat flushed through him.
“Maybe... maybe Paris?” Rye said, though he didn’t seem terribly invested in the idea. His hand crept up a little higher. “Yeah, maybe. Paris for the arts and culture. Or maybe Rome. Or Milan. Oh, and Scotland. But then there’s also closer places that I want to see. Yellowstone, Alaska, the Grand Canyon.”
“Mmm, yeah,” Jake agreed, still quite distracted by the pressure of Rye’s hand on his thigh.
“Have you been?”
“Hmm? Where?”
Rye laughed. “To any of those places, silly.” He then pushed away from Jake and took his hand, tugging gently. “Come on, we should head back so I’m not late for work.”
“Ah, yeah, sorry.” Jake stood, glad when his leg didn’t complain, and started back along the beach, Rye walking next to him at exactly the right pace. He let his gaze lift up toward the water, not surprised to see a group of kayakers out some ways from the shore, the summer season in full swing.
“So, you didn’t answer my question,” Rye said as they skirted the water’s edge.
“Ah, yeah, hmm. Of those places, I’ve only been to Yellowstone. My dad took me and Kris there when I was maybe six. I don’t really remember it much. But I did travel a little before my accident. All up and down the West Coast. I also went to New York and Boston. And Vancouver. Oh, and I went to Ecuador with Steve and a bunch of other students one summer when we were in undergrad. It was a university-sponsored trip. We got to travel out to the Galapagos Islands. That was incredible.”
He kept talking as they reached the stairs and headed up, one step at a time, telling Rye all about the places he’d visited. Rye walked behind him, his hand on Jake’s back, as always. And at the top, Jake stopped and turned around and wrapped his arms around his boyfriend.
“Don’t say it today,” Rye chastised, hugging Jake back.
Jake groaned. “But—”
“Nope.”
“But if I don’t say thank you ”—Jake paused to emphasize the words, and Rye sighed and rolled his eyes—“then how will you know how much I appreciate you?”
“You don’t need me to go down the stairs anymore,” Rye argued, but Jake shook his head.
“It’s still better with you here. And since you don’t have to be here...”
Rye’s eyes showed his skepticism, but he shook his head and then stretched up. Jake met him halfway in another of those short, light kisses that was all warmth and love. And god, he did love it.
Too soon, Rye pulled back and stepped away, slipping his hand into Jake’s. He started toward the back door, Jake following. When he paused at the slider, he glanced back at Jake, frowning a little. “I probably should have told my mom I’m staying here the whole time she’s gone. Remind me to text her later? I think their ship will be at sea until the day after tomorrow, and then they’ll spend a day in Juneau. I don’t want her to worry if she calls home and I’m not there.”
Jake nodded. “Yeah, good point. I’m glad she’s taking this trip.”
“Me too.” Rye smiled again, but his smile faded as he reached ahead of them to open the slider door. “She, um... she admitted to me that she never went anywhere while I was gone. She didn’t want to be out of town in case I came back. That... that whole time. She never went anywhere.”
Jake’s stomach clenched as he followed Rye inside and then shut the door behind them. When he turned back to Rye, Rye’s eyes had dropped to the ground, and his free hand was shoved deep into the pocket of his joggers, his shoulder hunched with the deep tinge of shame.
He shook his head lightly, though he was pretty sure Rye didn’t see, and he gently tugged on Rye’s hand, bringing Rye closer to him. Then he wrapped his boyfriend up in another warm hug and pressed a kiss into his hair .
“It’s not your fault,” he whispered, repeating words he’d had to say so many times before. Rye tensed, but nodded, and Jake knew he was fighting with himself over it, as he sometimes did. “And she’s going to have the time of her life with Jon and Tanya. A week and a half on a cruise ship. I bet Alaska is just gorgeous this time of year.”
“Yeah. She said it’s something she’d always wanted to do. I think she wanted me to come, but then, uh, I think she was also a little relieved when I chose not to.” There was no sadness in Rye’s voice at the last words, and Jake was thankful for that.
He didn’t ask for clarification—maybe Shirley had been relieved or maybe not—and instead, he just kissed Rye’s hair again. “We should get to town, yeah?”
Rye pulled back and then glanced behind him at the clock on the wall with a grimace. “Ah, yeah. Give me a couple minutes to get changed.”
After one more light kiss on the cheek, Jake watched Rye head off to the extra bedroom, where he was staying for the week. He disappeared inside, though he didn’t shut the door. Jake limped over into the kitchen and made himself a quick cup of coffee, which he poured into a thermos to take on the road with them. By the time he was finished, Rye was on his way back down the hallway, now dressed in a pair of dark-gray jeans and a stylish black V-neck sweater with the sleeves rolled up to just below his elbows. His hair had been pulled back into a neat low bun, and he shouldered his messenger bag, a gift from his uncle Jon for his birthday back in February.
God.
Jake’s heart leapt in his chest, and when Rye looked up at him, his eyes sparkling, Jake gripped his thermos tighter. Oh, wow, he was much too handsome.
“Ready?” Rye asked, stopping at the end of the hallway, oblivious to the tightness growing in Jake’s chest.
Jake swallowed hard and nodded, though he couldn’t stop himself from staring at Rye another moment longer.
Rye’s eyebrows arched, and he tipped his head toward the front door. “Come on, slowpoke. Or I’ll be late.”
“Yeah, yeah, uh—” Jake coughed to clear his throat and pushed himself away from the counter. “Sorry, just, um...” His eyes wandered to Rye’s lips, and he suddenly wanted another of those soft kisses. Or maybe one that wasn’t quite as soft. He shook his head and stepped around the kitchen island toward Rye, who reached out his hand with a smile.
“You’re not staying, are you?” Rye asked as their hands clasped together. “You don’t have to, I think. I was okay after you left yesterday since I’m mostly staying in the back office. Janice says she’s had a lot more customers than last summer, so she’s glad to have me there to help with the bookkeeping and everything. Plus her online shop is doing well, and so there’s a lot for me to do helping with that.”
Rye seemed completely confident, which just made Jake want to kiss him even more, and he kept talking as they headed out the door and to Jake’s car. Before they parted at the end of the walkway, Jake stopped and gently pulled Rye toward him. Rye came willingly, bringing one hand up to rest on Jake’s chest.
“You’re beautiful,” Jake murmured, lowering his head to rest against the top of Rye’s.
Rye laughed. “You say that all the time.”
“Because it’s true.”
He felt Rye shake his head, but Jake wasn’t having it. He brought his hand up to cup Rye’s cheek, and then tilted Rye’s head back, ever so gently. Their eyes met, and Jake felt a flutter of desire low in his belly. He breathed deeply to steady himself. “You are beautiful, Ryan Davis.” His thumb smoothed along Rye’s cheekbone. “May I kiss you again?”
“Yeah.”
The whispered word sent another ripple of heat and desire through Jake. He tempered it with a small smile and then bent down as Rye stretched up. They met in a soft kiss that deepened quickly. Rye took the lead, his lips caressing Jake’s with a deliciously silky warmth, which turned almost demanding as both of Rye’s hands settled on Jake’s chest and started to inch upward. His hands stopped on either side of Jake’s neck, and Jake groaned, suddenly wishing for something he knew both of them weren’t ready for yet.
Rye seemed to maybe be thinking the same thing, because he also made some sound deep in his throat and then pressed himself up against Jake, clasping his hands at the back of Jake’s neck to hold him in the kiss. Then his tongue darted out, running along Jake’s bottom lip, and Jake eagerly met him. It was bold, the kind of kiss they’d only shared a few times now, and there was something more to it this time, too. Like an urgent sort of want that maybe Rye wasn’t hiding or holding back anymore. Or maybe he was just feeling for the first time.
Jake felt the now unmistakable pulse of his own arousal, something still relatively new to him as well. He groaned again and then pulled back, shaking his head as he huffed a breathless laugh. Rye hummed and stretched up to steal another kiss, this one short and light. Then Rye backed away a step, his hands sliding back down to Jake’s chest.
And god, the sight of him—his lips swollen and red from kissing, his cheeks flushed, his eyes bright—sent another jolt through Jake, and he swallowed hard and tried to catch his breath .
“You’re going to make me late, kissing me like that,” Rye teased, pressing both of his hands into Jake again.
“Sorry.”
“No, you’re not.”
“No, I’m not,” Jake agreed. And he chuckled and then reached up to brush his fingers along Rye’s cheek. Rye smiled and leaned into the touch, and Jake bent down one last time and placed a gentle kiss on Rye’s forehead. “But maybe I should drive,” he said when he pulled back, “or you really will be late.”
Rye laughed and nodded. “Yeah, after last week, I have to say I agree.”
“I did tell you that it would be better if—”
“I thought we agreed not to mention that again. Ever ,” Rye cut in firmly, though he was still smiling. He stepped away from Jake and started around to the passenger’s side of Jake’s car.
“We didn’t agree. You dictated,” Jake countered.
“Same thing. Now come on, or I’ll be late even if you are driving.”
With another laugh, Jake gave in, heading around to the driver’s side and then climbing into the car. As soon as he’d settled and fastened his seat belt, Rye’s hand found his thigh, and while that didn’t really help his racing heart to slow, he loved it all the same.