Chapter Nine
Daire spent his Saturday visiting various working sites, checking on progress, conferring with managers, and arbitrating disagreements with suppliers when needed. The silver bell he’d found on the truck seat now hung from his rearview mirror.
The trinket caught his eye whenever he got in or out of his truck, bringing back memories of the night before. Maybe Jim didn’t want him to forget. Not much chance of forgetting the best night of Daire’s life.
One or two people stared at his neck, then quickly flicked their gazes away. Yeah, looked like he’d gone a few rounds with a vampire. Badge of honor. Folks who’d turned away at the sight of his scars were finding out not everyone felt disgusted by someone else’s misery.
Jim hadn’t commented; he’d merely stroked his fingers all over Daire’s body. In the end he’d left, but Daire couldn’t blame him or imagine his departure due to the scars, since Jim had always been forthcoming with the need to move on.
Where was he? What was he doing now? Where did he call home? What court did he belong to? Well, probably none since he now resided in the human world.
Daire needed no others. He’d do his best to regain his fighting form, even if he might never fly again. That included a gym regimen, swimming, and running. He practiced with a sword in one of the cabin’s outbuildings, specially equipped for the exercise.
He went by Shirley’s Diner for soup and sandwiches on his way to Doc’s house and pulled into the driveway at noon. The grass needed cutting, as well as the hedges. If it hadn’t rained last night and most of the morning, Daire would’ve started the job after seeing to Doc.
Doc’s pride and joy, his summer flower garden, had withered in the late September heat. Cooler temperatures would soon end grass cutting for the year. The condition of his yard might break Doc’s heart, or prompt him to attempt the job himself when physical labor no longer suited him.
Daire didn’t knock, being as familiar with this house as his own, and not wanting to wake the man if he was resting. Cancer. Doc taking chemo. Please let the therapy work.
The sounds of laughter from a TV made him smile. He strolled down the hallway and into the living room, where Doc slept in a reclining chair.
Daire placed the offerings on the coffee table, pulled the fallen blanket over Doc’s thin frame, and then retreated with his packages to the kitchen.
He divided Doc’s portion into two parts, refrigerating one half and reheating the soup of the other.
Bringing smaller amounts might encourage Doc to eat more while providing him with a snack later.
Larger portions made Doc immediately say, “I can’t eat all that,” and not try.
More than anything, he needed to.
Daire placed the warmed bowl on a tray with half a sandwich, balanced the tray in one hand, and brought Doc’s cup of sweet tea with the other. He settled everything on the table by the chair, then cleared his throat.
Doc’s eyes popped open, closing again when he’d spotted Daire. “Something smells good.” He let out a yawn.
“Shirley cooked vegetable beef soup today. I got you a roast beef sandwich, too. She said to say hello.”
Actually, she’d said, “You tell Doc he’d better get his ass in here to see me.
” She’d patted Daire’s cheek, the one without the scars.
Most people tended to think they still hurt even after three years and wouldn’t touch them.
“Not that I don’t like seeing you, Griff, but he’s done gone and made himself a stranger. ”
“I know she had more to say than that,” Doc replied, then clutched his chest, letting out a wracking cough.
That didn’t sound good. “How’re you feeling?”
"I feel like a semi ran over me, then the asshole reversed and ran over me again."
At least he didn’t say, “Worse than three-day-old roadkill,” like he had last time Daire asked. “Think you can eat?”
“Maybe a bite or two.” Doc opened his eyes, blinking several times. “Where’s yours?”
“In the kitchen. I’ll go get it.” Most of the men on Daire’s work crew probably thought he had a lover he ran off to see during lunch break when he declined going to a diner with them.
He simply visited Doc. Besides, the longer he stayed in the cabin, the more he learned about his accidental benefactor.
True to his promise to the real Griff, Daire honored both grandfather and grandson whenever possible, even calling a man he never met “Grandpa Nate.”
Now he treated Doc as a grandfather too, especially since Doc had no living family to help him out during his time of need.
Occasionally someone who’d known Doc from the hospital dropped by, and hospice checked in on him, but Daire wouldn’t let someone who’d been so kind to him idle away his last days alone.
“May you die alone” had been a curse in his world.
He settled Doc with his meal, then trotted back to the kitchen for his own. This was their lunch ritual: Doc in one chair, Daire in the other, eating takeout and mindlessly watching game shows.
Sometimes they talked, sometimes they didn’t. Whatever Doc needed. He wore out so easily these days.
“You don’t have to come over every day,” Doc said, same as most days.
“What else would I do with my time if not visit you?”
“Find someone more interesting. A little more alive.” Doc snickered. “I saw your neck, and this is a small town. I already know you left Joe’s last night in an all-fired hurry with a good-looking man. You’re the talk of the town.”
“Who talked?”
“Janie. A nurse I used to work with. She stopped by to see me earlier. Knows everything about everybody, that one. I just told her it’s about damned time.” Doc tutted and shook his bald head. “You broke the cousins’ collective hearts, I hope you know. They’d already placed bets on who’d get him.”
Daire latched onto the cousins to keep from addressing taking a man home. “Nice little perk there. Their overblown egos could do with not getting everything they want.”
“So, you found yourself a man.” Doc wouldn’t let the “taking home a man” part go.
“A biker. Just passing through.” Why did heat race up Daire’s cheeks?
“Gonna see him again?” Doc prodded.
“I barely got his first name, if it’s even his real first name.” Daire wouldn’t mention the bell he’d found in the truck, but he would say, “Another dragon.”
Not just another dragon, Daire’s dragon conveyed.
Doc’s mouth dropped open. “Another dragon? Here?”
Daire shrugged. “I walked into the bar, and there he was.” An image flashed through his mind, bringing the squirmy feelings of last night’s meeting back in full force. Had Daire’s dragon induced the memory?
“You could’ve left. No one said you had to stay.”
Daire joked, “I did leave! With him!”
Doc stared at Daire with too-perceptive eyes. “You miss your own kind, don’t you? Nate never stopped missing his court, though he seldom spoke of them. Sometimes I’d catch him staring out at nothing and know. Then he’d tell me how much he loved me.”
Daire avoided Doc’s gaze, staring mindlessly at the TV. “I miss flying more.” Being around dragons meant admitting the truth: he’d never be airborne again.
“I still think you could. You just need to keep stretching your muscles in dragon form.”
Daire lifted a hand to quell Doc’s protests. “That’s not all you need to fly. I’ve accepted my fate, like I’ve accepted that Sakaris isn’t coming back for me. I’m in the human world now.”
“You’ve made a good living for yourself, taking over Nate’s construction business.”
Another thing to feel guilty about. “I’m not even his true grandson. That should’ve gone to someone else.”
“He had no other family. If he’d stopped being hardheaded and married me legal-like, it would’ve been mine, without the grandson, and I’d still gladly leave everything to you. You took a small business and made it big.”
“I couldn’t have done it without you and a half-dozen truly talented people Nate hired. They make the business run so seamlessly no one knows I hadn’t set foot on a construction site until three years ago."
“Well, you’re the grandson I never had. I’m glad to have known you.” Doc’s dark eyes glistened. Little remained of his beard; the sparse remaining hair had turned mostly gray.
“Oh, Doc.” Daire tried to lighten the mood. “Don’t you go getting’ all mushy on me.”
Doc met his gaze. “Daire, I’m dying. I don’t have much time left.”
Daire sobered. “Shh…don’t talk like that. You’ve got years left.”
Doc reached over, placing his hand on Daire’s, where it rested on the chair arm. “No, I don’t. I want you to do something for me.”
“Anything.” All this talk of dying brought reality crashing down. Daire would rather live in a fantasy world of a healthy Doc.
“When Nate died, I had his body cremated and sprinkled his ashes by the river. Will you do the same for me? I’ve got instructions written in my final wishes.”
“Doc, I’ll do anything you ask me to. But you don’t need to worry about dying right now. You’ve got years left.”
“I don’t have much else to do but sit around, thinking about the end.”
Daire gently squeezed Doc’s age-spotted hand. “I will when the time comes, if you’ll try your best to make sure that day’s a long way away.”
“Thank you. I’m leaving you everything.” Doc dropped an important piece of information as though he were merely speaking of idle things.
“What?” Leave Daire everything?
“I don’t have anyone else, and I damn sure don’t want the state to get what I’ve worked hard for.
I know how much you love the cabin, like Nate did, so don’t hang onto this old house on account of me.
It’s in an excellent location to sell quickly.
Besides, with five bedrooms, this old place should have a family. ”
Daire shook his head. They were not having this conversation. His denial could only stand so much reality. “We don’t have to talk about this now.”
Doc lost his temper, shouting as much as his frailty allowed. “If not now, when? We both know the treatment won’t stop the disease. It’s a last-ditch effort. Hell, the whole town knows. They’re probably taking bets down at Joe’s of when I’ll go.”
Rage built in Daire’s mind at the thought. “Never.”
“Look, what I’m really trying to say is I don’t want you to be alone.
I had Nate, and once he passed, I didn’t want anyone else.
He said that happened with dragon couples sometimes.
Nate still lives on in here.” Doc patted his bony chest. “You’ve never been in a relationship like ours.
I want all-consuming love for you someday. ”
Daire tried for humor again. All this talk of love made him skittish. “Not all folks are as lucky as you. I mean, there you were, out for an evening stroll, and a naked dragon fell from the sky.”
Doc snorted. “He didn’t fall. He was lying in the woods.
Yes, he was naked, but in human form. Lord, what a sight to behold.
” The gentle smile on his lips said he’d visited a happy memory.
“He didn’t tell me how he got there at first. Passed it off as a night of drunken revelry followed by skinny-dipping in the river.
Only he didn’t smell of alcohol, and we never found clothes.
I figured he’d tell me when he wanted to. One night, he sprouted claws.”
“See! You found a naked man in the woods. How many of us are lucky enough to do that?”
Doc smirked, snapping out of whatever thoughts he’d disappeared into. “If memory serves, someone found you naked in the woods, too.”
Daire lifted his nose comically into the air.
Joking. He’d rather joke with Doc than talk about serious problems he’d like to go away.
He’d long ago made peace with the wreck that turned him into Griffin Hodges.
Mostly by pushing the bad parts from his mind.
“The paramedic wasn’t my type.” He might have been under other circumstances, but not with Daire so injured and trying to explain why the crash made his clothes fall off. Not one of his finer moments.
When in doubt, he claimed amnesia until someone else provided a plausible explanation. A cop offered, “Maybe he stripped them off ’cause they were on fire.”
“You could’ve at least tried to make a connection," Doc said. "The paramedic stopped by your room every day to check on you. I don’t think he made personal visits to every patient he brought in.”
Probably not, but what could Daire say? “I couldn’t inflict myself on a human?
” He cleared his throat. Time to change the subject.
“I’ve got to go down to Biloxi for a few days.
Shirley is coming by at noon to bring you lunch while I’m gone, and the home health nurse comes on Tuesday and Thursday.
I’ll be back Friday evening. One of my guys will take you to chemo Friday morning if you want.
You’ve got Mike’s phone number, right? You call me if you need anything, okay?
” Maybe Daire shouldn’t make this trip. Unease roiled his gut at the thought of leaving.
“I’ll try not to need anything.” Doc managed a tired smile. “Go on. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”
Daire took away the lunch tray. Doc only managed a few spoonfuls of soup and a couple of bites of sandwich. Maybe the attendant Daire hired to stay nights would have better luck. “Reggie will be here after classes to spend the night.”
He cleaned the kitchen, putting the uneaten food away, then returned to the living room. “I gotta go. You sure you’re gonna be okay?” The temptation to stay ate at Daire, but he needed to be elsewhere, and besides, he wouldn’t be gone long.
Doc emitted a snore.
Daire pulled the blanket tighter around Doc and planted a kiss on his head. He stood there, looking down, and whispered, “You better be here when I get back, ya hear?” The thought of losing this man nearly brought him to his knees.
Sheer force of will allowed him to walk away, closing the door behind him.