Chapter Seventeen #2
I shrugged and shoved a bite of steak into my mouth. An involuntary moan escaped as I chewed.
Fuck, it was almost better than sex!
Losing my resolve a bit, I stuffed two more pieces in my mouth at the same time and poked my fork into the mac and cheese as I chewed.
“So, I imagine you’ll be skipping work tomorrow?” he asked.
I shook my head. “There are a few things you learn in prison. One of the biggest things is to never run from a fight. People see you cower one time, and it’s over.
David is no different than any of the other thugs I encountered in lockup.
If we flinch now, we’ll never be free. I don't want us living our lives always looking over our shoulders for David’s eventual revenge. We deserve peace.”
“What if we went somewhere far away? Where no one could find us. We could just start over in New York, or San Francisco. I-I have some money saved up…”
“Is that what you want, Avery? To disappear?"
His lips turned into a small line as he considered everything. “Honest, I just want to be with you. I don’t have anything holding me here, but I know you have Jack, Jenna and Lindsey. Your mom, too.”
I shook my head. “Nah. My mom doesn’t want anything to do with me. It was always my dad I was closer to growing up, and, once I went to prison, they both pretty much completely cut me off.”
Avery sucked a deep breath. “She knows, James.”
I chuckled and took a swig of Coke. “She knows what?”
He set his fork down. “She knows it was Jack that knocked off that gas station, and that you took the fall to protect Jenna and Lindsey.”
I looked down, and then out at the rest of the restaurant, trying to process what he’d just said. “Avery, I…” I cleared my throat. “Avery, what are you talking about?”
“Jenna told her… told us.”
“You were with my mother?”
He nodded. “Jenna and I took Lindsey over there this morning after you’d left.
She introduced us and then told your mom that she wasn’t going to raise her children around a homophobe so she better get her shit together, because I wasn’t going anywhere.
Then she told her that it was Jack she should be mad at and that you sacrificed yourself for your family. ”
I groaned and found myself unconsciously rubbing my temples. “I wish she hadn't done that.”
“You never… why didn't you ever tell me?”
“I didn’t tell you for the same reason I didn’t say how I wanted to see how far my tongue could go into your ass.
Those letters are monitored, and I couldn’t risk anyone finding out the truth, or it would all have been for nothing.
They could have released me and gone after Jack.
I couldn’t risk that happening. I didn’t mean to lie to you, Avery.
But I figured that, what's done is done. And it didn’t matter because, for some bonkers-ass reason, you were still writing to me.
You were still filling me with hope. You never needed redemption for me; you loved me in spite of everything. I—”
Avery interrupted by reaching across the table and putting his hand on mine. “I love you, James. I think you are probably the best man I’ve ever met. And you’re right; it didn't matter. I think I was supposed to fall in love with you, no matter what you’d done.”
“And I would have robbed a thousand gas stations to meet you,” I agreed. I cut off another hunk of steak to shove into my mouth. So fucking good!
“So what now?” he asked.
“We see what happens tomorrow. There’s nothing in the shop for David to find.
He can turn the place upside down if he wants to, I guess.
I had an idea, but I don’t think it worked.
So, we just have to take it as it comes, and know that we’ll get through it together.
New York is very tempting, though. Surprising, but tempting.
I used to picture you as a small-town woodsy kinda guy with a little cottage. ”
“Mmm, that sounds nice too,” he agreed. “I go back and forth. Sometimes I want a new city adventure, and, other times, I imagine myself living entirely away from civilization. Like a forest hermit or something.”
“How do you feel about small, western towns?” I asked.
Avery raised an eyebrow. “Never been to one.”
“My cousin owns a weed farm in Caloosa Springs, Colorado. Could always check out small-town living. I’ve always heard the people there are very friendly and welcoming.”
I ordered a slice of cheesecake for us to share as the waitress cleared our plates.
“You don’t even smoke weed,” Avery countered.
“Neither do you.”
Avery smiled coyly and looked away.
I gasped in faux horror. “My sweet little angel is a stoner?"
“Stoner might not be the right term, but sometimes it’s nice to have a head-change.”
I paid the bill, which ended up being way more expensive than I had anticipated, but worth every penny. Just as we were getting up to leave, I heard a female voice exclaim: “Avery!”
We turned around to see a thin woman, dressed in cowboy boots and some kind of slutty cowgirl costume I’d have expected to see in an adult store's windows.
Behind her was a round man, maybe a decade or so older than the woman.
He was a bit shorter and wearing jeans, work boots, and a large white cowboy hat. Both of them looked ridiculous.
I could see Avery tense up as he laid eyes on the pair and forced a smile. “Michelle! What a surprise.”
As if noticing me for the first time, the woman looked me over. “Where’s David?”
“Oh, he’s working,” Avery said.
I had no idea who these people were, but they were obviously making Avery very uncomfortable. They must be friends with David.
Avery bit his lip and glanced over at me. I just remained silent, trying not to let it bother me that he’d simply said he’s at work, and not David’s a complete bastard who's abusive and has the worst fucking pit stains on any human ever.
“Actually, Michelle,” he said awkwardly, “David and I aren’t together anymore. This is my boyfriend, James.”
It was like Avery had just read my mind, and it was a little freaky.
I reached my hand out, but she didn’t take it.
“Hmm… that’s too bad,” she said. “You guys were so good together.”
Avery’s demeanor changed as he stood up a little taller. “Yeah, Michelle… we were just the perfect match.” As he spoke, he lifted his shirt to display the yellowing bruises down the side of his ribcage.
The woman’s mouth dropped open. The man behind her spoke for the first time. “That’s a pretty serious accusation to level against a police officer, young man.”
“Don’t you mean that it’s a pretty serious crime for a police officer to engage in domestic violence, Larry?
Or does it just come with the job, as I’ve been told?
” Avery wheeled back on the woman. “What do you think, Michelle? I know Larry’s been behind a desk since his spine surgery last year, so it may not be the same.
But does he come home and lay hands on you after a hard day? ”
“That’s enough,” the man said shortly as he put his palm on the woman’s back and led her away.
Once I got Avery outside and to the car: “I can’t believe you did that! Who were those people?”
Avery put his forehead against my chest, and I wrapped him up in my arms. “That was Larry and Michelle Watts. Larry works on the force with David and my dad. Michelle is his gold-digging wife he met on a singles cruise to Bermuda a while back. I had to attend their stupid wedding last year. I’m sorry if I embarrassed you.
I just got so angry at the way Michelle looked at you and blew you off. Who the fuck does she think she is?”
I ran my fingers through the back of Avery’s hair and held him close. “Thank you.”
Avery wiggled a bit, and I loosened my grip so he could lean back and look up at me. “For what?”
“For being my person.”
Avery smiled. “Can we go home and have sex now?”
“Say less, baby boy. I’ll have us home in 10.”