Chapter 23
Twenty-three
Henry
“How about chili for lunch?” I suggest, sitting on the second porch steps as I use the railing to guide me.
Plopping down beside me, he slams something onto the sidewalk in front of us and rustles what sounds like cardboard.
I took Huey out to the restroom while he went down to the basement to search for Christmas lights and more ornaments.
There are large gaps on the tree, and I didn’t bring enough Christmas stuff from home to fill them.
“Soup sounds good. It’s supposed to get really cold later.”
“It’s already really cold,” I say, tightening my scarf around my neck, and he chuckles, tugging at one of the ends.
“Yeah. You’re right, it is. But it’s not in the negatives yet.”
“Well, let me know when it is and I’ll be sure to put on another pair of pants and a second sweater.” I wiggle in place, sticking out my tongue as snow falls from the sky.
“Or we can just stay inside and cuddle in front of the fireplace while eating leftovers.”
I smile. “That’s a good plan too.”
“If it was up to me, it’d be the only plan,” he says in a low, sexy tone.
Who am I kidding, the man sounds sultry with anything he says.
He could be telling me about a car driving by and I’d probably melt at the sound of his voice.
It’s going to really suck when I can’t hear it anymore.
When he realizes what my ex did. That this isn’t what he wants.
That I’m not what he wants. I’ll do my best to enjoy it while I can, and I do, listening to him go on about how fast the snow is falling as he tosses the broken lights to the ground and hands me the good ones.
I stand up when he does and run inside to grab the radio from the kitchen while he starts punching the staples into the wood.
I walk back outside faster than I did when I walked in, setting the radio next to the door.
I feel for the outlet and shove the plug inside.
It takes a few runs of my fingers to find the power button, and one of my most listened-to radio stations is already blaring through the speakers playing Christmas music.
“You’re one of the very few people I know with a radio,” he clips, slapping his hand onto the staple gun again.
“And probably one of the very few with a Walkman too.”
“You have a Walkman?” His voice jumps.
“Yeah. I’d sometimes shove my headphones on and play a random tape I made when I was younger while I worked on an art piece.”
“You have a huge cassette collection, don’t you?”
I laugh. “Maybe.”
“I’ll take that as a yes. I want to see it sometime. I miss mine. My mother was a major purger. When I deployed my first time, she donated boxes of stuff from my closet she didn’t think I’d need anymore.”
“Yeah, I’m kind of a sentimental hoarder and my mom gave up on trying to convince me to get rid of stuff. She said some fights weren’t worth fighting.”
“Hey, if it makes you as happy as you sound, I can understand why she said that.”
“Yeah. It does. The silliest things make me happy.”
“Nothing about you is silly.” He punches his hand on the gun again. “Nothing at all.” I can hear the smile in his tone, and it has my lips stretching wider. “And I meant what I said about wanting to see your collection. Not just the tapes, but everything. Everything that makes you you.”
“I want to know everything that makes you you too.”
“Yeah . . .” His voice trails off. “I’m honestly not sure what makes me me anymore, or who me even is.”
“Well so far, what I’ve seen I like.” I move close to where I can hear him repositioning the shaking ladder. “You’re sweet, good with your hands, sexy . . .” I find the hilt of his back and run a hand up higher. “You’re a great cook and your narrating skills have promise.”
He laughs, leaning down to kiss me on the head. “You make me sound better than I remember me being.”
“I make you sound like what you’ve shown me. What you’ve been for me.”
“I want to keep being all that for you.”
“Then you will, along with whatever else comes with it.”
“Not sure about the whatever part.”
“I am.” I lock my fingers around the hem of his shirt, tugging it a little.
We converse about other random things, and I hold the lights in place when he asks me to. I take a string and wrap it around the porch railing.
“Uh-oh, Honey. I hate to tell you this, but you put the lights the wrong way.”
“What you mean?” I tug at one end.
“The plug is on the end where the outlet isn’t,” he says in a gentle tone, pressing a hand to my shoulder. “It’s okay. You can just flip it around.”
“I knew I was proud of myself too soon.” My shoulders slump.
He presses his cold lips to my cheek and my skin tingles. “You should be proud. You looped it in each opening perfectly and I probably would have done the same thing.” He chuckles. “Actually, if I’m being honest, I did the same thing. I just didn’t tell you and fixed it in silence.”
I laugh, the tightness in my chest loosening. “Did you really, or are you only telling me that to make me feel better?”
“I’d never lie to you, Honey. Not about anything.”
“Not even little white lies like when someone asks their significant other how they look in an outfit and the other says ‘good’ so they don’t hurt their feelings?”
“Not even those. And you look good in everything.”
I roll my eyes, scoffing. “Yeah, I highly doubt everything.”
“Oh, trust me, Honey, you could be wearing nothing but these lights and I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from ravishing you.”
“May have to put that to the test later,” I say lowly, pulling the lights off the railing in one tug.
“Mmm, and you would most definitely be way better to unwrap than any present under the tree.” His lips meet mine, his warm tongue heating me up inside as he slides a cold hand up my shirt. I shiver, my cock twitching in my pants from the mixture of the two sensations.
“Let’s finish up here so we can warm up by the fire a little earlier than planned.”
“Sounds good to me. Skin to skin is the best way to warm up.” I wink and he laughs.
“I like the way you think.” He playfully slaps my butt, but both of our laughter dies when a report on the radio mentions a local robber going around houses he finds to be easy targets.
“That’s . . . that’s here,” I say and go still with my heart racing when the guy the name of the gas station only a few miles away.
“Sounds like they haven’t caught the guy yet either.” His tone tightens. “Good thing I’m staying.”
“Yeah.” I move to turn the radio up louder, and I sink to my knees when I hear them say he recently broke into two houses behind mine.
All the sounds I’ve heard outside my windows.
The scraping and scratching. Was it him?
Did he leave because he saw me awake, flipping all the lights on.
I heard a car running out front more than once too and kept telling myself it was probably someone lost. That happens sometimes.
The wood creaks behind me and when I jump up, I nearly lose balance. Rafael wraps his large arms around me. “Don’t worry, Honey. You’re okay. I’m here. I won’t let anything happen to you. I won’t.” He nudges his nose into my cheek and I relax against him.
“I hope they catch him soon.”
“I’m sure they will. Looks like they got a sketch and have some strong leads.”
“Good.” my breaths even out. “And you’ll stay until they do?”
“Yeah.” He lets out a soft sigh. “I’ll stay until they do. Let me take care of the porch and you get the fireplace going.”
“Yeah.” I nod, pressing my back to his front. “Yeah, okay. I’ll see if Huey needs more water and if he wants a snack.”
“Huey always wants a snack, so you don’t ever have to worry about him turning you away when you offer.”
My lips twitch. “Does his owner want a snack too?”
His fingers slide into the back of my pants, stroking the top of my crack. “Oh, I could always use a snack when it comes from my Honey.”
My hole clenches and a whimper escapes my throat. “Hurry up out here. I’d hate for you to freeze to death.”
“Oh, is that the only reason you want me to hurry?”
“What answer will make you get done faster?”
“As long as it has to do with me getting back to you, I’ll always be in a hurry.”
***
I’m adding wood to the flames while Huey is chowing down on his apples and the front door swings open. It couldn’t have been longer than fifteen minutes since I left Rafael outside. He really is proving to mean everything he says.
“Brought the radio back.”
“No more radio for me today,” I say, rubbing my hands on my pants as I straighten my stance.
“Got a CD collection that you keep with your tapes?”
I laugh. “Yes, but they’re all at home.” I pause. “I think my dad has a case full of CDs somewhere around here, though. Maybe in the entertainment center. Or we can go back to streaming music on our phones.”
“Nah, I think I’d rather go through the extra trouble of finding them so I can hear my Honey be as happy as he sounded earlier.”
I smile. “I’m already halfway there just by having you back inside.”
“Let’s get to a hundred percent, then.” His steps drift away from me and several cabinets open and close before an “aha” slips from his lips.
“Your dad has good taste.”
“Yeah. He had his moments,” I say between laughs. “I guess he still does.”
“You guys not very close?”
I lift one shoulder. “They didn’t really approve of me moving away to be closer to Travis. They didn’t really approve of Travis. He had different reasons to my mom. I guess he was hoping I’d grow out of the gay thing.”
“Ah, one of those, huh?”
“Yeah. My mom’s been a lot more supportive, but we kind of drifted when I refused to come home after my accident. She worried about me being on my own.”
“I think you’re doing just fine.”
“Yeah, with lots of help. It’s not like I’ve fully been on my own.”
“No one ever is. Everyone needs someone sometimes.”
“And who have you needed lately?” I lift a brow.
“The person I’m about to dance with to the Eagles best hits.”
My lips stretch, my breaths catching, and he tugs me to him, causing butterflies to take flight in my stomach.
“You don’t need me.”
“Yes, I do. I really, really do.”
“What exactly do I do for you?”
“Everything I couldn’t get before meeting you. Something that makes me happy to hoard.”
I laugh, and minutes later “Hotel California” plays.
Taking me by the hand he spins me around the living room, and the more time passes with him being here, the more reasons I want to have to keep him even longer.
After all, he does want to see everything I collect.
What better opportunity to do that than when I’m adding him as a new addition.
There’s a reason he’s so convinced he can sleep well here.
It’s because I made sure he would. So I guess he really does need me, and if he sleeps soundly all the other days he’s here, maybe he’ll think that’s enough to always want to stay.
I was worried at first that I was doing it for selfish reasons, but he needs it.
He needs me. Travis only left because he didn’t, so I just have to make sure I continue benefiting Rafael as much as he does me.