Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
“They make a beautiful couple,” Dan murmured, watching Nina and David dancing together to a slow number, their first dance as newlyweds, beneath strings of twinkling white lights looped between the rafters of the barn.
The middle of the floor had been cleared, leaving tables at the periphery, all of them lit by tall glass vases filled with flickering candles.
The music wove through the vaulted space, mixing with the low hum of chatter.
Then it hit him. Something was wrong.
Gary was way too quiet.
Dan put down his glass of champagne and turned his chair to face Gary, who wasn’t watching Nina and David. He was on his phone, scrolling.
The temptation to take it from him was overwhelming.
“Please, tell me you’re not looking up something to do with the case,” Dan murmured, leaning closer to be heard.
Gary stirred as if emerging from a trance. “Huh? The case? No, I’m not.”
Now Dan had to see.
He glanced at the screen, and that one look was all it took to send him hurtling back in time to a tiny room, a whiteboard with faces staring back at him, including one very important face…
The face Gary was now gazing at.
As realization dawned, a wave of emotion crashed into Dan, leaving him weak and stunned.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
Gary met his gaze and shuddered out a breath. “I guess I was wrong.”
“You’re not okay, are you?” Stupid question.
He glanced in Nina’s direction. “I’m happy for them. I really am. I’m glad they decided not to wait. I’m even more glad a cancellation allowed them to have the wedding here. Ipswich is a great location.”
“But?” Dan knew there was one coming.
“But—” Gary took a drink from his glass. “—I feel cheated. Robbed. I’ve tried to fight it, because I don’t want to feel this way, not on their big day, but….”
Dan sat in silence, conscious that this was Gary’s story to tell.
Gary didn’t take his eyes off Nina. “Cory should have been here. The pair of us should have watched his sister get hitched, watched her and David glow with happiness.” Another drink.
“That fucker Ludlow robbed me of years of friendship.” He laughed, but it sounded hollow to Dan’s ears.
“Years of watching Cory go through men the same way most people go through clothes, which is pretty apt because he’d wear them a while, then toss them onto the Goodwill pile.
But I’ve been robbed too of listening to his exploits, knowing full well he made them explicit because he was trying to elicit a reaction.
I don’t think I’d ever have danced at his wedding, because he wasn’t the marrying kind. ”
“You don’t know what was in his future,” Dan said in a low voice.
“That’s true. He might have met someone.” He chuckled. “And then again, maybe not.”
Dan sighed. “I wish I’d known him. All I have is what I felt when I held the ring that had belonged to him. The rock-solid assurance that he loved you like a brother. And I will always be grateful to him.”
Gary frowned. “For what?”
“The first time Nina and David invited us for dinner, I told David something about Cory. Something I’d realized. Except now I’m thinking I should have told you too.”
Gary held himself so still. “Tell me what?”
Dan took Gary’s hand in his. “I said I was grateful to Cory because he opened you up to the idea of being with a man.” He smiled. “Cory paved the way for me, even if it was unintentional on his part. I know you’ll always love him, because he was such an important part of your life, but—”
“Yes, I loved him, but not in the same way I love you.” The words tumbled out of him.
Dan laced their fingers. “I know, okay?” There were times he fervently wished he could make Gary feel what he felt, know what he knew, that there was no one for him but Gary.
“And I’m not so sure about the unintentional part. I think he knew, deep down, that I wasn’t straight. A long time before I knew it myself.” Gary swallowed. “So many things we didn’t get to do, stuff we talked about doing all the time, but never got around to.”
“Such as?”
“Oh, crazy things like skydiving, learning to ride a horse, life-drawing classes.”
Dan had to smile at the last one. “He just wanted to be able to stare at a naked man, didn’t he?”
Gary laughed, and it was such a welcome sound. “Oh yeah.”
“Those are all things we could do together, you know.” Dan bit back a smile. “I’d even model for you, although I don’t think you’d get much drawing done.” He glanced at the dance floor, where couples had joined Nina and David in another slow dance, and his heartbeat slipped into a higher gear.
Yes. Do it.
Dan turned back to Gary. “That’s why I want us to do something you wouldn’t have done with Cory.”
Gary stared at him as Dan rose. “What?”
“Dance with me?”
Oh God, Gary’s eyes were huge. “Here?”
Dan didn’t let go of Gary’s hand. “I get it. Dancing at a wedding as a same-sex couple—it’s scary. It can also be liberating.” He gestured to the guests. “Apart from Nina, David, and her parents, who else in here knows you? Who is going to give a shit if you dance with me?”
Gary’s chest rose and fell, but before he could say a word, warmth flowed through Dan, a warmth that came from Gary, carried along on a wave of…
Love.
Gary stood. “I’d love to dance with you.”
Dan led him onto the dance floor, and there was a chorus of soft awws. From somewhere toward the rear of the barn came a brief smattering of applause. Dan shook his head.
“You know, I long for the day when two guys take to the dance floor and no one bats an eyelid.”
Gary’s smile was tinged with sadness. “I think you have a long wait.”
This was not the time for such words. Dan put his hands on Gary’s shoulders, felt the warmth of Gary’s hands on his waist, and they moved together, a little awkwardly at first, with Gary glancing at his feet.
“You’re not a dancer, are you?”
Gary flushed. “It shows, huh?”
Dan lifted Gary’s chin with his fingers. “Look at me,” he said in a firm voice. “I won’t steer you wrong.”
Gary’s face glowed. “I know.”
Dan had no idea what music was playing. He couldn’t have described any of the guests who danced around them.
He only had eyes for Gary.
They moved over the floor, and to Dan it seemed as though their bodies weren’t touching because Gary was trying to keep a little distance between them.
But dancing is intimate. Dancing was making love while remaining upright and fully clothed.
And then again….
“I think we should add an activity to that list,” he suggested.
Gary’s eyes sparkled. “Dancing lessons?”
Dan nodded. “Naked tango,” he said with a straight face.
“Where do I sign up?” Gary quipped. He pulled Dan closer, and suddenly there was more heat radiating through Gary’s pale blue shirt, and lower down there was hardness that sent a ripple of anticipation through him.
“We could start tonight, in our hotel room.” Dan was thankful Gary had let him choose their accommodation. The Inn at Castle Hill was a stone’s throw from the barn, but that wasn’t what had clinched it.
It was the wide bed, the dormer windows looking out at the ocean, the window seat Dan planned on putting to good use.
Gary’s lips brushed his ear, and the intimate contact sent a spark of electricity shooting through him. “Do you think Nina and David would notice if we left now? I mean, we were there for the legal part, right? And we did see them cut the cake.”
Dan glanced at the newlyweds with a smile. “I don’t think they’d notice if the roof caved in.”
“Then take me away from this so we can”—Gary’s pupils enlarged—“dance.”
The dance began the way it usually did, with a whole lot of kissing, touching, sucking, and licking, until Gary’s need was white-hot, and he ached for Dan to fucking take him.
Thank God Dan was on the same wavelength.
Except what followed was somehow more than the joining of their bodies, more than Dan driving his shaft all the way home, again and again.
Gary clutching Dan’s back until he swore he’d left nail prints in the skin.
Both of them were covered in sweat, neither of them were quiet, and Gary didn’t want it to end.
And when Dan came inside him, holding Gary so fucking close that he could feel Dan’s heartbeat, it was time for something new.
Gary flipped Dan onto his front, tugged his hips higher, and lubed up.
He entered him in one long, hot glide of flesh into tight flesh, loving Dan’s low cry of ecstasy, the way Dan rocked back onto his cock, fucking himself, gathering speed, until Gary too was crying out, unable to stave off the orgasm that would not be contained a second longer.
His heart pounding, Gary collapsed on top of Dan, his dick imprisoned in the warm cage of Dan’s body, and Dan turned his head in an obvious demand. Their lips met, and in that exchange of sated kisses, Gary saw the truth, and it was like a sucker punch to the chest, stealing his breath.
Dan rolled onto his back, his hands on Gary’s face. “Are you okay?”
It took him a moment to find his voice.
“It… it was always meant to be you and me, wasn’t it?” He’d acknowledged a while ago that he’d stayed single because subconsciously he was waiting for Dan, but those were merely words.
This was fucking knowledge that bore into him, lifted him up, and sent him soaring.
Tears welled in Dan’s eyes. “Yes, love.”
They held each other without words, and that was okay; their lips were doing all the talking. And in the ensuing silence, lying in a bed so comfortable Gary wanted to sneak it into his overnight bag and take it home, he swore he caught Cory’s soft laughter.
About fucking time, honey.
Wednesday, October 10, 2018
“So it’s official?” Dan asked.
Gary nodded. The forensic report on the car crash was in, and while its contents weren’t a surprise, it was still a shock to have their suspicions confirmed: The forensic team had found traces of explosives.
Samantha Phillips’s death was no accident.
“Then who wanted her dead?”
Gary huffed. “That’s the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question.” He leaned back, staring at the monitor.
“You still think my theory is far-fetched?”