Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
WEBB
“I can walk on my own,” Luke protested, but once again, I ignored him. There was no way I was letting him go when this house was clearly a death trap.
I opened the back door and led him down the stairs with one hand clutching the bag of ice cream and the other locked around his arm.
We took several steps in the direction of a junk heap before I realized it wasn’t a junk heap at all. It was Death Trap Junior, a clear case of tetanus if ever I’d seen one. The old travel trailer was a collection of rusted metal parts held together with dying vines.
My heart rate reached danger levels as I reared back. “This is your perfectly fine trailer?”
“Hey! Don’t be rude. I know it’s not the prettiest, but it’s dry and mostly warm.” Luke moved around me to open the door. “And at least I don’t worry that it’s going to collapse on me… much.”
I climbed in behind him, trying my best to step lightly in case I caused a catastrophic collapse of the old tin box.
Luke scrambled to tidy up. He hung his coat on a hook by the door, turned on the heater, and moved a towering stack of books and a shoebox full of kitchen sponges from one side of the camper’s pleather dinette booth to the other before ushering me to sit.
I lifted an eyebrow and nodded at the sponges. “Planning to use those to repair the roof? Because I have a feeling they might not work.”
His cheeks went adorably pink. “No. Obviously not. They’re for an experiment to help teach the kids about hydroponics. Do you know, hydroponics can greatly increase plant yields and result in ninety percent more efficient use of water—?”
“I wouldn’t say anything is obvious right now, Luke,” I said, not meaning for it to come out as harsh as it did.
“Not after seeing that fucking house. Not after seeing that you’re living in this tiny trailer.
Not after witnessing the tarp incident.” I hesitated for a second but finally set the bag of ice cream on the kitchen counter next to his charging cell phone and hung my coat beside his.
“You didn’t witness it,” he pointed out. I could tell he was trying to keep calm. Maybe he was embarrassed by the situation. “You only caught the aftermath.”
“The aftermath was plenty bad enough,” I muttered. I wedged myself into the small spot he’d cleared and looked around at his tiny, hopefully temporary, home.
It actually didn’t look that bad inside. Even though it was packed full of his possessions—including tons of school supplies, books, and crafts—it was somehow cozy. Colorful drawings were pinned up, and soft afghans lay over the back of the dinette bench and on the foot of the bed.
Seeing his little nest felt oddly intimate and a bit intrusive. But my eyes roamed over every detail hungrily. This was a side of the man I’d never expected to see.
Luke huffed. “Look, I’m doing the best I can with the house.
And I haven’t had a lot of time or money to work on the trailer, what with school and taking care of the animals.
” His words were defensive, borderline nervous babbling.
“The best I could do was a fresh coat of paint and some accent blankets for now.”
I hated that he felt like he had to defend himself from me. Clearly he was in a bad situation. I hadn’t realized it before, but maybe I should have. Maybe I should have paid more attention to him and his situation, rather than only focusing on how it related to me.
The truth was becoming obvious. Someone—namely Ben Pond—had royally fucked this sweet man over. They’d put him in an impossibly difficult situation, and he seemed to be trying to hide it from everyone. Hell, we were his closest neighbors, yet none of us had even known he was in trouble.
I wanted to kick my own ass for being so selfish and oblivious.
“I know that,” I snapped. I raked a hand through my hair.
“I know,” I repeated more calmly. “I didn’t mean…
” I fingered one of the crocheted afghans on the back of the bench.
It was a shining example of his sunny personality.
Despite living in Ben Pond’s shithole, sweet Luke Williams had tried his best to make it a home. “It’s nice, what you’ve done to it.”
“Right,” he snorted. “I can see how thrilled you are.” A gust of wind hit the trailer and whistled through some invisible cracks, making Luke shiver again.
“Look, I need to change. So… it was nice of you to drop by. I accept your apology for this morning. And the apology you should have given me for being a jerk just now, too. Now, go forth and be a jerkface no more.” He gestured toward the door.
There was no way I was leaving yet. He was cold and… and… I just… wasn’t ready to leave yet. I cleared my throat. “Not so fast. You owe me a story, remember? A fairy tale.”
“Oh, right.” He sighed. “Fine. I’ll get changed in the, ah…” He gestured toward the bed area that was located a few inches away from where I sat. It was separated from the main area by only a curtain.
Luke’s face seemed to turn even redder as his eyes flitted around.
“But… here.” He set a bowl and spoon from the dish rack on the table along with one pint of the ice cream before putting the second container in the freezer section of the minifridge. “Help yourself to a snack. I’ll just…” He motioned at the curtain again.
“Okay.” I nodded.
“Okay,” he whispered back. Then he disappeared behind the curtain to change out of his wet clothes.
My heart was still thumping erratically for some reason, and my eyes remained glued to the curtain. The rustle of clothes and hiss of a zipper made me blink and squint as if that would somehow give me X-ray vision.
Why did I care? I didn’t. But, well… I needed him to get dry and warm. Obviously.
You don’t need to watch a curtain in order for that to happen.
I quickly scrambled up to spoon out the ice cream. Luke Williams was a grown man. He could get warm and dry on his own. It had nothing to do with me.
Except, of course, that I could hear every movement of fabric and body parts. I swallowed and focused on the ice cream, determinedly putting my eyes elsewhere in the room…
Which was when I saw the calendar.
What was it he’d babbled about the night before?
Me carrying his sheep? I hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but there was an entire calendar of images just like that tacked to one of the cabinets.
I darted a look at the closed curtain and leafed through the calendar quickly.
One half-naked, oily-chested man after another posed with adorable baby cows, and tiny chicks, and puppies, and pygmy goats, and… oh, fuck. Sheep.
Damn if Mr. May didn’t look like a buffer, shinier, muscly-er… me.
Had Luke thought about…?
I mean, it wasn’t possible he’d ever…
I adjusted my pants, squeezing my dick a little harder than necessary in warning, and kept my eyes on my ice cream bowl so I wouldn’t think about Luke and any potential sexy thoughts.
That’s when he started babbling again.
“Probably seems silly to spend so much time working on a place like this, but why be miserable if you don’t have to?
Might be a long while before the roof gets fixed.
You’ve gotta take joy where you can get it, right?
Oh, and speaking of the roof, do you know anyone who does slate?
It’s gonna be a while before I can afford it, but it’ll be good to know how much that’ll run me. ”
My eyes had snuck back to the moving lumps behind the curtain when Luke’s phone squawked from the counter next to my elbow.
Luke poked his head out of the gap in the curtains and caught me spooning a clump of ice cream into my mouth.
“Shoot! I forgot my mom was supposed to call. You can ignore that.”
“No, it’s fine,” I said, reaching for the phone and noticing it was a video call from his mom. I was grateful for the distraction. “I’ll grab it.”
“Wait—” Luke started to say, but I’d already slid my finger to accept.
“Oh my gosh, Lukey! FaceTime actually worked! And you… Oh. You’re not Luke.”
“No, ma’am,” I agreed, smiling at her kind face. She had Luke’s eyes and the same little crease Luke had on his nose that deepened when he got flustered.
“But you are a tall drink of gorgeous,” she said with a grin. “What might your name be?”
“Er. I’m…” I glanced over at Luke to see what he wanted me to say, when I noticed he had the bottom of the curtain wrapped around his groin and absolutely nothing else on.
Suddenly, it was broiling hot in the tiny trailer.
I blinked at him, forgetting for a long, embarrassing moment that his mother was waiting for my answer. When she cleared her throat, I snapped back to attention. “I’m…Webb Sunday?” I said, squeaking it out like a question. “Webb Sunday. Luke’s neighbor.”
“Oh, yes! Webb! I’m so excited that I finally get to meet one of you boys! I’ve heard so much about you and your brothers.”
I glanced over at Luke in surprise. He’d mentioned me to his mom? Me?
Luke groaned and ducked back behind the curtain to put some clothes on. When he emerged again, I noticed he hadn’t bothered with a shirt.
As in, he was shirtless. He didn’t have a shirt on. And also… I could see his bare chest… complete with nipple rings.
Who the fuck would’ve thought that Luke Williams would be hiding piercings under his baggy sweater vests? Not me. But now I was having a hard time thinking of anything else.
Maybe he’d turned the heat on too high when we’d first come in, or maybe Ben Pond’s stupid trailer’s stupid heat was stupid broken. Either way, I was sweating.
Luke grabbed the phone out of my hand. “Mom! Hey!” he said breathlessly. “How are—”
His mom’s voice snapped me out of my eyeballs’ obsession with his bare skin.
“Luke Guilford Williams. Are you naked?”