Chapter Fourteen
Hunter
I tapped my phone screen again, checking to see if there’d been any updates from Aiden in the twenty seconds since I’d last looked. I’d already known the answer. My eyes hadn’t left the screen since we’d sat down in the canteen.
But that didn’t stop me from checking anyway.
Bailey nudged the bowl of porridge in front of me, gently reminding me that I had to eat. I didn’t really want to because I was too stressed and it tasted like nothing in my mouth, but I couldn’t bear to make Bailey worry. Not on top of everything else.
Last night had ended on such a high and I’d hoped today would be the same. Then I’d opened my phone and seen the messages from Aiden about his kitchen. And while I was relieved he hadn’t been hurt, I hated being unable to do anything except send support from afar.
He’d done so much for Bailey and me, and we couldn’t return the favour. That was the thing that grated the most.
“Do you think Jonny’s there yet?” I asked under my breath. I didn’t want to draw any attention to our quiet anxiety. As much as I loved our teammates, they were the nosiest motherfuckers in existence and none of them knew when to stop digging.
“Should be,” Bailey said, glancing up at the clock on the canteen wall.
“Would it be worth… He’ll keep Devon up to date, right? Think we could ask Devon if he’s heard anything?”
“Could do, but…” He trailed off and prodded his porridge with his spoon. He’d gotten us exactly the same breakfast, which was what he always did when he thought I wouldn’t eat. That way I could mirror everything he did without really thinking about it. “Does Devon know?”
“About us? No idea.” I looked over to where Devon was sat by the window chatting to West and Mason, an empty chair beside him where Jonny would usually be. Was it too much to expect that neither of them knew? There were some oblivious blokes on the team, but I didn’t think Devon was one of them.
He saw me looking, his mouth falling into a set line. He said something to West and Mason then stood, chair scraping on the floor.
“I think we’re about to find out,” I muttered to Bailey, shoving porridge in my mouth. It still didn’t taste of anything.
“Why—shit, act natural,” Bailey said. He plastered a smile on his face that looked so fucking fake it almost made me laugh.
“Good morning,” Devon said as he pulled out the chair next to Bailey and sat down. “You two look stressed this morning.”
“Why would we be stressed?” Bailey asked.
“Seems like a bit of a reach,” I added, grabbing the bowl of fruit and yoghurt next to my now empty porridge bowl.
Devon smiled. If he was trying to play innocent, it wasn’t working.
There was a surreptitious glee to it, like a kid desperately trying and failing to keep a secret.
He definitely knew something. The question was how long he could hold on to it.
“Oh, you know, just because Aiden had three feet of water running through his kitchen this morning. But if I’ve somehow got the wrong idea and I wasn’t distracting Jonny last weekend so he could come to yours, then I’ll go… ”
He went to stand up, putting his hands on the table like he was going to push away from it dramatically. Until Bailey put his hand on Devon’s shoulder, making him curse as he wobbled slightly. Then he laughed. “I knew it!”
“Yeah, fine, we’re fucking, whatever,” Bailey said. He still hadn’t taken his hand off Devon’s shoulder. “Did you get an update from Jonny?”
Devon let out an interested hum as he nodded and looked between us.
I didn’t think he’d been expecting Bailey to admit it.
“Yeah, I did. He’s in Leicester and they’re still waiting to get into the building.
It’s not looking good to be honest. I think Aiden’s pretty convinced everything will have to be binned, including the equipment. ”
“Shit,” I said. It was barely adequate to describe how I felt, but it was all I could manage.
“Do they know what happened?” Bailey asked.
“I don’t know if they’ve got an actual answer yet, but when Aiden rang this morning, he said it looked like a water main had burst. And there was a chance it flooded the sewage system as well. I’ve not heard anything since.” Devon chewed his lip for a second. “Did Aiden say anything to you?”
“Not much. I think he was trying to play it off. Like a funny thing that’d happened,” I said with a sigh. “I don’t think he wanted us to worry. It’s not like we’re close.”
Devon hummed again, like he didn’t believe that. Then he said, “Don’t take it personally. Aiden’s always been like that. He can be pretty closed off, and he acts like he doesn’t need anyone. But he does—everyone does. You just have to get him to open up to you.”
“Should you be telling us that?” Bailey asked with a slightly raised eyebrow.
Devon shrugged. “Why? Don’t you want to know? You can tell him I said it. He’ll probably curse me out, but he wouldn’t accuse me of lying. Well, maybe he’d say he doesn’t need anyone, but he would.”
“Is this where you tell us to, I don’t know, be good to him?” I asked and grinned when Devon snorted.
“God no! If anything, I’m more worried about you two.” He looked between us. “He’s going to eat you alive.”
“Maybe it’s him you should be giving the speech to.”
“I might have to. But you’re all consenting adults. It’s not really any of my business what you do.”
“What does Jonny think?” Bailey asked, sipping his glass of orange juice. The look he shot across the table told me we were thinking the same thing; as nice as it was to have Devon onside, Jonny was the overprotective one.
“Right now Jonny is choosing to live in ignorance. I did tell him back in June I thought something was going on, but he’s convinced it’s only a casual thing.
I don’t think he knows it’s still happening.
” Devon smiled softly, leaning his forearms on the table with his hands together.
“He only wants what’s best for Aiden, always has.
I don’t think there’s anything he wouldn’t do for him.
” He shook his head, as if he had revealed too much.
Then he laughed quietly. “Don’t worry about Jonny.
If he has a problem, Aiden will let him know where he stands.
It might not be pretty, but Aiden’s never liked being told what to do.
And he hates Jonny sticking his nose into things. ”
“Yeah, I got that impression,” Bailey said. “Pretty sure my brother feels the same about me. But I’m still gonna do it.”
“You wouldn’t do it to Rachel,” I said, pulling a face as I thought about how Bailey’s sister would react to his meddling.
“I might. But only if she was away for work. Otherwise, she’d yell at me.”
“There you go.”
My screen flashed and I immediately glanced down to see three new messages from Aiden. I unlocked the screen and opened the messages, angling my phone slightly so Bailey could see them. One of them was a picture of Aiden’s kitchen with large puddles of water all over the linoleum floor.
Aiden
RIP my kitchen. They’ve drained most of the water and apparently stopped the pipe for now so we’re surveying the damage. It’s a fucking mess. Doesn’t look like any sewage leaked, which is something. It just fucking stinks. And we have no water because they’ve had to shut it all off. Fuck my life
Aiden
Now I get the joy of calling my insurance and explaining this shit to them. And I have to figure out refunds for my orders and all that shit. Bacon said I could use the pub kitchen to make them but I have no fucking ingredients or packaging. This is a fucking nightmare
“Not good?” Devon asked, watching us but making no attempt to read my screen.
I shook my head. “Nope. Kitchen’s a shitshow, they’ve got no water, and I’m pretty sure everything is ruined.
Although, it doesn’t look like any sewage leaked, which I suppose is something, but it doesn’t change the fact that the whole thing’s a mess.
” I groaned and scrubbed my face as frustration sat heavily on my shoulders, tightening my muscles and making anger bubble under my skin.
I hated that we were stuck here, unable to do anything but sit and wait for updates.
We had no reason to be there. We were nothing more than Aiden’s hookups. But I still wanted to be there with him, doing whatever I could to make his life easier. And I knew Bailey felt the same.
“This is bollocks,” Bailey said with a low growl of frustration.
“It is, but it’ll be okay,” Devon said. “We won’t let Aiden struggle. And if it’s that bad, I’m sure Jonny will suggest he comes to stay for a few days for some emotional support.”
“Really?” I asked.
Devon shrugged. “He might. Especially if I suggest it. I don’t know if Aiden’ll take him up on it, but maybe you two can persuade him.
” He stood up and smiled at both of us. “He won’t ask for help or support, but that doesn’t mean you can’t offer it.
And considering how worried you two are, I think that’s something you’re going to do. ”
It wasn’t a direct accusation of us being more to each other than we let on, more like a casual suggestion that we stop pretending because we weren’t fooling him.
“We’re just… we’re not…” Bailey said, struggling to find the words to voice what the two of us were thinking. “There’s nothing serious going on.”
“If you say so,” Devon said. He clearly wasn’t convinced. He turned away and walked back to his original table, leaving Bailey and me stewing in our seats.
I looked at Bailey as he stabbed a piece of strawberry with his fork, glowering at the table like he was trying to melt a hole in the plastic surface. “He doesn’t believe us.”
“Of course not,” Bailey said.
“But there isn’t anything going on… is there?
” We’d fucked a few times, sexted a lot, sent random messages about our days, sent pictures of silly shit we’d seen.
And nice things too. Shirtless pics. Dick pics.
Voice notes and videos, with everything from bad jokes to Aiden telling us how he wanted to get off.
Then there was last night. The way I’d leant on him when Bailey was crumbling and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to make him listen to me. He’d taken care of us. Checked in throughout the evening to make sure we were doing okay.
He didn’t have to do that. And from what Devon had said, it sounded like a rare and beautiful thing. If Aiden was as closed off as he’d said, then Aiden should have run screaming when I begged for help, told me he was busy and couldn’t help or to find someone else.
But he hadn’t.
That had to mean something. Didn’t it? Even if none of us knew what it was.
“I don’t know.” Bailey looked as unconvinced as I felt.
There was the scraping of chairs around us as people started to get up and put their trays away, clearing up from breakfast to get ready for our team briefing.
Our time to think about this or talk about it had run out.
Unless we wanted everyone else getting involved and giving their opinions.
And I’d rather wax my balls than do that.
“Come on,” Bailey said, looking pointedly at my half-eaten bowl of fruit and yoghurt. “I’ll message Aiden while you finish eating. We don’t want him to worry about us, and if we don’t want everyone else to know we’re stressed, we have to train as normal.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
He took my phone and began to tap out a message while I finished my breakfast, my eyes watching his fingers as I chewed. When he’d written something, he turned it around for me to read before he hit send.
Hunter
Shit that sucks! Let us know if there’s anything we can do to help. We can come and move boxes or put shit in a skip or whatever you need. And we’re not just saying that. We really want to help. And if you need an escape for a day or two you’re always welcome here
“Sounds good,” I said.
“You don’t think it’s too pushy?” Bailey asked, chewing his lip absent-mindedly.
“I don’t think so. We might need to be pushy to get him to accept help. Or so he knows we actually want to help, not just suck his dick and call it a day.”
“I mean, we could do that too. He’ll need some stress relief.”
“That’s true.”
“Okay.” He nodded, then tapped the screen. “Sent. Now we have to hope he listens.”
“If not, we have a car,” I said with a casual shrug. “And Leicester isn’t far.”
“Do you know where he lives? Where the kitchen is?”
“No, but that doesn’t matter. We can figure it out when we get there.
” I meant it too. If we needed to get in the car and drive to Leicester to prove to Aiden we were serious, then I’d do it in a heartbeat.
Bailey might tell me it was ridiculous, but he’d be in the car before I’d even finished the question.
None of us knew what we were to each other, and none of us seemed to want to start that conversation, but if Aiden needed us, then we’d be there.
And maybe that was the answer we were looking for.