Chapter 9 #2
“I got Cupcake after moving here. Cruz suggested it—I think he just worried I needed something to do besides staring at the wall.” He tipped his water bottle to his lips.
“She was a rescue, and then my roommates kind of became her other owners. Then when Cruz got Gus a few months later and was out here on leave, we got them playing together. Cup wanted nothing to do with a puppy, but Gus eventually wore her down.” The two were rolling in the grass together, nipping and jumping at each other as fireflies dotted the yard.
I’d been wary of watching Gus along with the house for Cruz. I’d never taken care of a dog, but having the gentle beast with me in the house was nice. It was a little like having a bodyguard for a roommate. “He’s kind of hard to resist,” I said.
“It’s one thing that we have in common.” Deacon crossed one leg over the other on the patio chair and motioned brushing off his shoulder.
Gus dropped a tennis ball at my feet, and I threw it toward Cupcake, watching them chase after it together. “Do you also sniff the crotches of strangers?”
He froze, obviously taken by surprise at the question, but shrugged one shoulder. “Sometimes you have to explore to be certain about someone.”
I rolled my eyes and laughed. “I should have known. Cruz warned me about you.”
“I bet.” He tipped the water bottle to his lips again. “I’m gonna fill this up in the kitchen. You want anything?”
I nodded. “Water would be great,” I said, bending to retrieve another tennis ball delivered by my nephew to my feet.
This time Cupcake blocked his path and got the ball first, though, lumbering back toward me by the time Deacon returned with two water bottles in hand.
“I could drink gallons after last night.”
“Agreed.” He guzzled the water. “Getting to the gym to work out this morning was rough, but hoping to get back tonight for a run.”
“Cruz mentioned you’d hurt your back.” I’d known he’d been in the hospital and injured badly enough to be medically discharged, but he moved so smoothly and athletically it was hard to remember that an injury had sent him home. “Has that changed your workout routine a lot?”
I wondered what it was like to see him work out, to lift weights and push himself physically. A warmth crept up my neck at the image in my head, but he was busy throwing tennis balls himself now and didn’t notice. When he finally spoke, his voice was light again. “It set me back for a while.”
We took turns throwing the ball for the dogs, adding a red rubber bone of Cupcake’s to the rotation.
I didn’t want to pry about his injury. I probably shouldn’t have asked at all, but when he spoke again, he seemed at ease.
“I was in physical therapy for a long time, but I’m getting my strength back.
” He flexed one of his biceps as if to show me, and I brushed my fingers over the soft skin stretched across the hard muscle.
“Gotta be ready to show up your brother during training drills again.”
He hurled the ball to the back of the yard, sending Gus off in a sprint while I tossed the bone to Cupcake, who lay on the grass panting after her marathon play session with Gus. “Will you go back to drills? Cruz mentioned you’d retired.”
He shrugged one shoulder and bent to scratch Gus behind the ears. “Medical discharge.” His demeanor stiffened, and I pulled my lip between my teeth, worried I’d misspoken.
“So, your list.” He tapped the table to put brackets around the abrupt topic change. “Now that you’re sober, are you still dead set on this?”
I nodded. “I am,” I said. “But you don’t have to help me. I think I kind of bullied you into it.”
“Do I look like the kind of man to be bullied by a woman?”
“I don’t know. I get the sense you might be into that.”
His laugh boomed across the yard, spilling out of him and punctuated by Gus letting out a quick bark to get him to throw the ball.
“That wasn’t bad, Low.” Deacon punched my shoulder with a gentle tap. “But what’s up next? Obviously, your second first slow dance was epic, so the bar is set high.”
“Well,” I said, glancing over my shoulder toward the house. “I added a new look, so that’s done. Next, I think painting.”
“And you need me to pose for you nude? Perhaps with a tastefully placed palm frond to cover myself?”
“No!” I laughed at the idea. “And isn’t it supposed to be a fig leaf?”
He motioned to his crotch. “C’mon. For this?”
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help smiling at his ridiculous bravado. “Painting a room. Cruz told me to add some color while he was gone. He’s done a great job renovating the place, but it’s pretty beige still.”
Deacon eyed me but returned to throwing the ball for the dogs.
I toyed with my thumbnail. “Spencer’s parents bought a house near campus that they agreed to let us live in if we did some fixing up. They said it was in an investment, but they gave it to him for graduation.”
Deacon whistled. “They gifted him a house for graduating college? Damn.”
“Yeah.” I’d thought the same thing, but after ten years with him, I’d grown a little more used to his family and the way they lived.
It was so different from my family, and the money had made me uncomfortable sometimes, but the house was beautiful.
“It didn’t need anything major, but painting was first on the list, and I was in love with this deep red color for the kitchen.
We both liked it, and I was so excited to make the space ours.
” At the time, I’d imagined the fun we’d have together, the way we’d make mistakes and laugh and build a home.
It seemed like a picture-perfect start to what would come next—marriage and kids and making traditions together.
Deacon nodded and tossed the ball for Gus again. “Did you end up making out while covered in red paint? That sounds less romantic and more horror movie, but…”
I laughed at the idea, trying to imagine that scene playing out. “No. He actually talked me into a pale gray color in the end. It was nice, I guess. He wanted something neutral.”
Deacon’s brow arched. “But you didn’t like it?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t love it.”
“And I’m guessing no making out covered in gray paint?”
I laughed and snagged the ball from Gus before Deacon could swipe it.
The ball didn’t fly anywhere near as far as when Deacon threw it, and I swear the dog gave me a disappointed look before running off to retrieve it.
“No making out. We barely talked, honestly. I taped, he edged while listening to some classical music.” A wave of rekindled disappointment from that day washed over me.
I thought I was compromising, but in retrospect, there was nothing about me in that room, when it was done or while I was standing there.
“So, I thought I’d start there. Painting.
I know it would be painting Cruz’s place and not mine, but I want a re-do on my first time making a space my own, even if just a guest room.
It’s really satisfying to see the transformation. ”
Deacon nodded, and he seemed to get my rambling explanation. “Want help?”
“I think I can do it alone,” I said, unsure that was true. The room I was staying in had high ceilings, and I wasn’t sure how I’d reach them, even with the ladder. But I didn’t want to pull Deacon away from his life any more than I already had.
He stood and hurled the ball to the back of the yard.
Gus had boundless energy even after playing and our walk there.
I’d have to start running soon just to get him tired out.
Deacon’s hair blew in the breeze, and I watched the muscles of his back while he threw the ball for the dog, wondering why he’d shut down the conversation about his discharge so quickly.
I didn’t want to push too hard, though. He obviously didn’t want to bare his soul to me, even if I already had shared so much with him.
He seemed like someone who had things together.
He probably had all kinds of plans for what was next.