Chapter twenty-eight
"Tyler!" Davey called out, running out to the driveway. He couldn't believe his lover was there, or had been there. He turned to look at Jessie. "What did you say to him?"
"Nothing. I just asked if I could help him. Who was that?"
"My boyfriend!"
"Oh? Shit!" He looked down at himself, and then back to Davey. "He may have gotten the wrong idea, Cuz."
"You think?" His cousin could be a real dumb shit sometimes.
Davey ran back into the house and grabbed his phone off the kitchen counter.
He tapped his screen to call Tyler, but he didn't answer, letting the call roll over to voicemail.
Davey bounced up and down waiting for the beep.
When it finally sounded, he blurted out his message as fast as the words could fall from his mouth.
"Come back, Ty. That was my freakin' cousin, baby.
Please." He hung up and sent a text saying the same thing. He started pacing the house.
"Go after him, Cuz," Jessie said.
"Fuck! This can't be happening."
"Go." He pointed toward the door.
In a minute, he barreled down the dirt road on his father's Harley. It was the quickest street legal vehicle he could get his hands on. His heart seized up, remembering how Tyler had talked about letting Davey fuck him on top of that bike. If he got him back, he'd do exactly that.
A few minutes up the road, he spotted the rental car pulled to the side. He parked the bike and went to the door.
Tyler sat in the seat, his head folded down to the steering wheel. Davey tapped on the window. Tyler's arm moved to let it down, and then he slowly looked up. Davey was crushed. Tears fell down Tyler's lovey cheeks, making his eyes the color of grass.
"No. Baby. Please. That was my cousin."
"He was naked, answering your door."
"He was not! Sheesh! He had swim trunks on. He'd wrapped up so he wouldn't drip on my floor. Damn, baby. I would never cheat on you. You're everything."
Tyler stared out at him with swollen eyes. "I can't do this."
"Please come back to the house. Let's talk."
Tyler looked away. He picked up a shirt box off the front seat and handed it to him. "Here. I'm going home now. Please leave me alone."
"Tyler, no. I didn't do anything."
"It doesn't fucking matter. I…I'm just not ready for this.
I didn't trust you. I was afraid that you had people from Princeton still there, and then this hot guy answers your door.
Fuck! It's too much. I can't, I just can't. Please.
" He cried harder, his words becoming hard to understand through his sobs.
Davey put the box on the top of the car and leaned in the window, trying to get his arms around his lover. "Baby, please. God, don't cry." Tyler's salty tears ripped a whole through Davey's chest just as sure as if each drop was a knife blade stabbing him.
Tyler pushed him away. "Just leave me alone, Davey. I…I need space." His voice cracked beneath his sobs.
Davey picked up the box and stepped back away from the car. He watched his lover drive away as his own tears spilled over his cheeks.
Davey rode back to his home, but he didn't want to be there anymore.
Every inch of the place reminded him of Tyler.
He sat down on his couch and closed his eyes, only to see visions of Tyler pinned below him, right there across the leather.
He had watched as he slid his cock inside of his lover, nice and slow.
Tyler's erection had bobbed up and down with each stroke, bliss splashed across his face.
Davey couldn't stop the tears. His life was shattered.
Once he thought Supercross was the only thing that would or could ever matter to him, but he'd found he could open his heart, but now he wished he hadn't. It hurt.
"Cuz," Jessie's voice was soft, and questioning. Davey's emotions obviously made him uncomfortable and unsure of what he should do.
"Don't worry about it." Davey pulled the box into his lap and opened it.
He flipped through the scrapbook, overwhelmed at what Tyler had put together for him.
When he got to the last few pages, he couldn't look at it: pictures of Tyler, a photocopy of his graduation certificate and mechanic certifications, a picture of him with his mom, the letter from Cole's team asking him to join, the sketch of a cam shaft he'd been drawing when they'd met at that hotel.
Davey shut the book, hugging it to his chest. He loved Tyler more than Supercross.
He picked up his phone and tapped out a text to Tyler. I would give up everything for you. I would give up racing. I love you. Please, please come back.
There was no answer. He called several times, but all the calls were going to voicemail.
He left one blubbering message that made no sense and then gave up.
He went to his room where memories of Tyler were strongest and shut the door.
Waking up every morning to his lover wrapped warmly around him had been the goddamned highlight of his life.
He reached under his pillow and pulled out the T-shirt Tyler had worn that last day. It didn't smell like him anymore, but he held it to his face anyway. He missed seeing Tyler in his shirts. It made him feel like they could surely fly together. The soft fabric caught the tears as he sobbed.
Sometime the next day Stewart came. He pounded on Davey's door, but Davey wasn't getting up unless Tyler was back.
"You have to eat, man. Or Brad will be here beating both of us half to death."
"Fuck off."
Stewart left him alone for a while. How could he not understand?
Jessie had gone home. He lived on the south side of Gallup and had come to The Ranch to keep Davey company.
Davey had invited him, knowing that going a week without a full house and no Tyler would be hard.
He wasn't all that close with his cousin, though.
He figured Jessie had called Stewart and left once he thought Davey was in good hands, but Davey only wanted to be alone.
He stayed in his room the rest of the day, refusing to come out for dinner.
He just wanted to lay there where he could remember his lover, wishing he was still there in his arms.
The next morning, Stewart pounded on his door again. "Okay. I've had about enough of this, Davey," Stewart yelled.
"I don't want to talk about it. Leave me alone."
"Fuck, Davey. You can't do this. You can't stop your training in the fucking middle of Goddamned everything."
With his voice breaking and holding back tears he had thought he was out of he said, "I can do whatever I want."
It was quiet for a long time. Davey thought he might have fallen asleep, so he wasn't sure how long it had been before Stewart was at his door again. "Okay, Davey. I've got two plane tickets to Denver. We need to go take care of this issue with Tyler and get back on track."
"What?" Davey jumped out of the bed and opened the door. A wave of dizziness fell over him. He wasn't sure if it was euphoria or lack of food.
"First, we eat." Stewart must have sensed it was the lack of food, or he just wanted to feed himself again. Either way, Davey wasn't going to question it; he was starving.
Late that night, they pulled up in front of Tyler's apartment complex, Davey eyeballing the GPS to make sure they had the right place. "This is it," he said, looking over at Stewart.
"Go. Go on. I'll wait here. Text me if you're not coming back, and I'll go find a hotel."
"Thanks, Stewart."
"Don't thank me yet."
Davey got out of the car, and leaned in to pick up the roses he had bought on the way over. He seriously wanted to work things out with Tyler. He knocked on the door.
A slim woman opened the door. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail. "Janie?" he asked.
Her eyes opened wide. She looked over her shoulder, then opened the door.
"Davey, right?" she asked. He nodded. Her eyes checked him out, top to bottom and then lingered on the roses, making him feel unsure if they had been too much or too feminine.
She let him step into the apartment but stopped him just inside.
"Look. He's barely come out of his room.
He's miserable. You better be here to fix this. "
He held up the roses.
"Good. Come on." She steered him by his shoulders through the sparse living room and down a dark hallway. She reached around him, opened the door, and shoved him in.
Tyler looked up from where he sat at his desk, his eyes wide. "Davey?"
He held out the roses, and Tyler took them, staring down at them. He stole a quick glance up at Davey, then stared down at the flowers again.
"Tyler, please, please can we just talk?"
"You came a long way."
"Yeah."
Davey leaned against the edge of the desk and held out his hand. Tyler took it reluctantly. He pulled it up to his mouth and kissed Tyler's knuckles. "Baby, I miss you. I love you. Please don't end this."
Tyler slowly stood up. In a second they were in each other's arms. A girly squeal peeled from the hallway. Tyler leaned over and shut the door. "Privacy, Janie." He was smiling. "What took you so long?"
"Had to spend a few days bawling like a baby before Stewart kicked my ass. Oh! Can I let him go? He's waiting in the car."
"Yep. I think this is going to take a while."
Davey texted Stewart that he'd stay with Tyler. He quickly added, Thank you! hoping he'd know just how much Davey meant it. Then, he pulled Tyler back into his arms. "I don't ever want to be without you, Ty. I don't know how to make this work, but I can't, won't live without you."
Tyler looked up and kissed him, softly. "I don't. I'm sorry. I should have trusted you. It scared the hell out of me."
"I probably would have freaked out too. Jessie is kind of hot."
"Your cousin?" Tyler asked, giving him high eyebrows.
"Yeah, my straight cousin. Very straight cousin."
Tyler put his head against Davey's shoulder. "Okay. I'm sorry. What now?"
"Now, I make love to you, because I can't stand not to anymore."