34. Chapter 26
Chapter 26
" G oddamn it!" Jon's cast banged into the end table as he swiveled to sit down on the love seat. Pain radiated up his leg, and he smacked the end table with his crutch—childishly. He was already over this invalid nonsense, and it had only been a day since he'd gotten back to the farm.
It felt wrong to be here and not get up early and head out, get to work, breathe in a crisp new day, and make a lot of furry and hooved creatures happy. He appreciated his job a hell of a lot more now that he couldn't do it. He couldn't ask for more freedom—Samuel and Eddie were not micro-managers—or for better coworkers—by which he meant the animals—or for a more scenic work environment.
He missed Elijah too. He missed his little shadow.
He managed to sink his butt onto the love seat while holding his leg up. With a groan, he grabbed the prescription bottle from the table and swallowed a pain pill. It was half an hour early, but who cared.
There was a light knock on the door.
"What?" Jon growled, then thought better of it. "Sorry. Come in."
The door opened and Elijah stood there, looking uncomfortable. He had a foil-covered plate in his hand. "Jolie asked me to deliver your dinner so."
"Well, come in," Jon said impatiently.
Elijah stepped inside and closed the door tight behind him. "She said you might be bored, but I can just leave it if—"
"Where's yours?"
"Huh?"
"Did you already eat?"
"Nah, I was gonna—"
"Here." Jon held out his hands and Elijah put the plate in them. Jon forced himself to slow his roll and speak nicely. "You might as well eat with me. Go get your plate. She's right, I am bored out of my gourd. Wouldn't mind a distraction. From this." He waved a hand at his cast. Way to come up with an excuse.
Elijah's pleased smile was a fine reward for having tempered his speech. "Okay. I'll be right back."
"I'll be right here," Jon grumbled.
The smell of Jolie's gumbo wafted up from the plate as Jon waited. His stomach growled. He second-guessed himself about asking Elijah to eat with him. But then he told himself that if Elijah sat down with Jolie, she'd be grilling him about braucherei, so he was doing Elijah a favor really.
There was a rap on the door, and Elijah came in with a plate and a jug of milk. "Samuel sent this too."
"Nice. Glasses are on the cupboard to the left of the sink."
Elijah poured two glasses as Jon moved gingerly from the love seat to his little, two-seater kitchen table. There was a candle on the table that Jon liked to burn, and he hesitated, thinking it might send the wrong message. He decided to light it. Why not? It was just something pretty. And Elijah's big dark eyes would look particularly good in candlelight, Jon guessed. A man could look.
Elijah sat down and they dug into the gumbo. It was spiced just as Jon remembered, though it was missing the sausage Jolie normally added. Elijah froze after his first bite, clearly not used to the taste.
Jon smiled. "I grew up on this stuff. Mother's milk."
"Mmm." Elijah chewed and swallowed. "It's a little hot."
"This? This is nothing, mon cher. Jolie normally makes it a lot hotter. She clearly had pity on you northerners."
Elijah took a long slug of milk.
"So what's goin' on on the farm? I'm sorry to stick you with all the work."
"Samuel's helpin' me," Elijah said, his voice raspy. "You don't need to worry about anythin'. We're good."
Jon didn't like that he wasn't needed. But that was selfish. Of course he didn't want the farm to fail or for animals to go hungry or untended.
"That reminds me. I was so bored today—you know, sittin' around starin' at my thumbs—I went online. You know Eddie does social media for the farm, right? Facebook, Instagram, Threads."
Elijah looked blank.
Jon chuckled. "Yeah, you're not missin' much. Anyway, I don't normally look at that stuff, but today, I looked back at the photos and comments, and…." He laughed and shook his head.
"What?"
"Just saw somethin' funny. Eddie posts pictures from the farm. And sometimes I'm in them, and sometimes you're in them, and sometimes both of us."
"Eddie asked me if it was okay. I said it was." Elijah didn't look too happy about it.
"Don't worry. He mostly gets us from a distance. Anyway, there were a few pictures of us together. One in particular from the night of the Thanksgiving banquet? Remember?"
"Ja," Elijah said uneasily.
"Well, we have a ship now."
"A ship?"
"A ship is…." Jon hesitated, realizing that Elijah might not find it so amusing. "Well, er, I think it's short for relationship. When fans want to see two people get together, like two characters in a movie or something, they say they ship them. It's silly."
"Get together?" The pinking of Elijah's cheeks said he had a good idea what it meant.
Jon couldn't resist teasing him. "You know. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. Get it on. Attack each other in the feeding aisle." Okay, so that last one was a little too close to his dreams.
Elijah took a big bite of gumbo and choked on it. He hacked so violently, Jon was afraid he'd pass out. He pushed up to one leg, so he could pound Elijah on the back, and told him to take a drink of milk. After a minute, Elijah got it under control. "Sorry."
Jon sat back down. "Damn, man, don't die on me. Samuel and Eddie would really be hosed if we were both out."
"I'm fine."
"Sorry if that was outta line. I just thought you might get a kick out of it."
"No, I…." Elijah gave a confused smile. "This gumbo's a bit hot, is all. But are you sayin' true? There're really people out there, strangers, who have an opinion about you and… and me?"
"Oh yeah."
"And they just… say it? Or write it? Where Eddie talks about the farm?"
"I know, right? It's weird. Welcome to the world of social media."
Elijah looked highly skeptical, like he thought Jon was taking the piss. So Jon woke up his phone and went to the Facebook post with the photo of him and Elijah talking the night of the Thanksgiving banquet. They were standing very close, and Jon had his hand on Elijah's arm. He couldn't even remember why. But, after all, it had been loud in the room and hard to hear each other talk.
He showed it to Elijah. "Scroll down like this to read all the comments."
Elijah sat reading while Jon ate more gumbo. Jolie had put a big hunk of cornbread on the side, and that was amazing. He longed for some of Samuel's blueberry jam to go with it. He had some in the fridge, but he didn't want to disturb Elijah's reading by hobbling over there to get it.
At last, Elijah put down the phone, his cheeks pinker than before. "English people sure are strange. They just write whatever comes into their heads. Why do they care so much about what other people do? Don't they have their own lives?"
"A question for the ages." Jon took back his phone. "Anyway, I thought it was cute."
"Ja. Real funny," Elijah said softly and, Jon thought, a little sadly. He was quiet and wouldn't meet Jon's gaze as he focused on his food.
Jon felt like he'd stuck his foot in it, but he wasn't sure why. Elijah had admitted he was gay, so surely, he didn't take offense at the mere idea. Maybe he was uncomfortable being the subject of gossip. Or was it being linked to Jon in particular that didn't sit right?
"How's Priscilla doin'?" Jon asked, changing the subject. "And Joy?"
Elijah's smile returned and his eyes warmed. "Priscilla is doin' great. She's been bossy with Lilith, but Lilith needed a bit of a set down. You know how she's always pushing the littler pigs out of the way. Joy's good. I've been givin' her the remedy every day, and she's definitely feelin' better. Today, she spent all mornin' out in the pasture, grazing through the snow. Which is mostly melted on the west side, where it's sunnier…."
As Elijah spoke with such detail and affection of every animal and every aspect of life on Pig Bottom Farm, Jon's heart ached. It was a simple life, but he loved it so much. Somewhere along the way, it had gone from being a paycheck, three hots and a cot, to being a part of him. The animals. The land. Samuel and Eddie. And Elijah was entwined with all that now. It was hard to remember what it had been like before he'd come.
No, Jon did remember. He'd hardly said two words to anyone; alone and angry. And how or why that had changed, Jon couldn't say. But he was sure glad it had.
Also, Elijah's big, dark eyes were amazing in candlelight. They danced with so much life.
Jon rubbed his chest absently as Elijah spoke. When he realized what he was doing, it occurred to him that it wasn't just his libido that was shaking off the dark cloud Elijah had seen. Maybe his heart wasn't quite so dead anymore either.
That should have terrified him. Or, at least, made him feel guilty for feeling anything at all again after what had happened to Trish. But he'd stared death in the face himself just recently, so he could only feel grateful to be alive and to feel anything at all.