Chapter 5 Barbecue Rules #2
Mason pretended not to understand.
Connor pretended not to notice.
Their friendship occasionally resembled psychological warfare.
Eventually Adrian began gathering his things.
Several people stopped him before he reached the driveway.
Goodbyes.
Thank-yous.
Promises to see him at work.
The interaction felt natural.
Easy.
Like he had been part of the group for years instead of weeks.
Mason found himself smiling.
Then immediately stopped.
Because Connor noticed.
Again.
The man was exhausting.
By the time Adrian finally reached the driveway, most of the guests had already left.
Only a handful remained.
The sky had darkened into deep shades of blue and gold.
Streetlights flickered on.
The neighborhood settled into evening quiet.
Adrian unlocked his SUV.
Then glanced up.
Finding Mason unexpectedly standing nearby.
For a brief moment, surprise crossed his face.
"Leaving already?"
Mason immediately regretted the question.
It sounded suspiciously disappointed.
Adrian either didn't notice or chose mercy.
"Early surgery tomorrow."
"That sounds like a terrible life choice."
The surgeon looked amused.
"Aren't you working tomorrow too?"
"Unfortunately."
"Then we're making similar life choices."
"Mine are cooler."
Adrian shook his head.
The familiar gesture somehow felt warmer than usual.
Less dismissive.
More comfortable.
A dangerous development.
The silence that followed wasn't awkward.
Just quiet.
The kind that sometimes happened when neither person felt rushed to fill it.
The sounds of the neighborhood drifted around them.
Distant traffic.
Crickets.
Someone laughing inside Connor's house.
Simple things.
Normal things.
Mason leaned against the side of the vehicle.
"You survived."
Adrian looked confused.
"The barbecue."
Understanding appeared immediately.
"Barely."
Mason laughed.
"I knew it."
"I wasn't expecting that many people."
The admission sounded honest.
More honest than Adrian usually allowed himself to be.
Mason found himself paying closer attention.
"You looked like you wanted to escape for the first hour."
The surgeon sighed.
"I probably did."
"Why stay?"
The question slipped out before Mason could stop it.
Adrian's expression shifted slightly.
Thoughtful.
Reflective.
The answer took a moment.
"Because they were nice."
The simplicity caught Mason off guard.
No sarcasm.
No deflection.
Just honesty.
Adrian looked toward Connor's house.
The lights glowed warmly through the windows.
People moved inside.
Talking.
Laughing.
Living.
"They care about each other."
Something deeper existed beneath the statement.
Mason heard it immediately.
The longing.
The observation of someone standing outside something he wasn't sure belonged to him.
"You make it sound unusual."
Adrian was quiet for several seconds.
Then shrugged lightly.
"Maybe it is."
The response felt heavier than intended.
Mason studied him carefully.
The surgeon stared toward the house.
Not avoiding the conversation.
Simply choosing his words.
A habit Mason was beginning to recognize.
"You don't have many people, do you?"
The question arrived gently.
Without judgment.
Without pressure.
Adrian looked back at him.
The expression in his eyes surprised him.
Not anger.
Not annoyance.
Sadness.
Brief but unmistakable.
"No."
The answer came quietly.
Mason's chest tightened unexpectedly.
He knew loneliness.
Far better than most people realized.
The difference was that Mason hid his behind jokes.
Adrian hid his behind walls.
Different methods.
Same problem.
"What about your family?"
A faint smile appeared.
Small.
Tired.
"My parents passed away years ago."
Mason immediately regretted asking.
Yet Adrian continued.
"I have a younger sister."
The pause that followed spoke volumes.
"We don't talk much."
Another piece of the puzzle.
Another glimpse beneath the armor.
Mason nodded slowly.
The silence returned.
Comfortable.
Thoughtful.
The kind that seemed to settle naturally between them lately.
Eventually Adrian spoke again.
"My marriage didn't help."
The words surprised Mason.
Mostly because Adrian had never voluntarily mentioned the subject.
Not once.
"You were married a long time?"
The surgeon stared toward the darkening street.
"Eleven years."
The answer landed heavily.
Eleven years wasn't a relationship.
It was a life.
"What happened?"
Adrian laughed softly.
Not humor.
Memory.
"That's a complicated question."
Mason waited.
The surgeon seemed to appreciate that.
No pressure.
No demands.
Just patience.
Finally Adrian sighed.
"I spent years overseas."
The military.
The deployments.
The combat zones.
The ghosts.
Mason understood enough to connect the pieces.
"When I came home," Adrian continued quietly, "I wasn't the same person."
Pain flickered briefly across his face.
Gone almost immediately.
Not fast enough.
Mason saw it.
The hurt.
The regret.
The lingering wound that hadn't healed properly.
"She tried."
The admission sounded sincere.
"She really did."
Mason suddenly felt something inside him crack a little.
Not because of the story itself.
Because of how alone Adrian sounded telling it.
The surgeon carried guilt.
A tremendous amount of it.
Years' worth.
"You still blame yourself."
Adrian looked startled.
The reaction confirmed everything.
For a moment neither spoke.
The evening air felt cooler now.
The distance between them seemed smaller somehow.
Not physically.
Emotionally.
Dangerously emotionally.
"You ever think about trying again?"
The question emerged before Mason could reconsider.
Adrian looked at him.
Really looked at him.
The intensity caught him off guard.
A long moment passed.
Then another.
"I don't know."
The answer came quietly.
Honest.
Unprotected.
Mason swallowed.
Something shifted.
The conversation.
The atmosphere.
Maybe both.
Because suddenly he became acutely aware of how close they were standing.
How quiet the world had become.
How Adrian's gaze hadn't moved away.
Neither had his.
The space between them felt charged.
Heavy.
The kind of moment people remembered afterward.
The kind of moment that changed things.
Adrian's eyes dropped briefly.
To Mason's mouth.
Then back again.
The movement lasted less than a second.
Mason noticed anyway.
His heartbeat immediately betrayed him.
Neither spoke.
Neither stepped back.
For one impossible moment, the rest of the world disappeared.
No hospital.
No trauma patients.
No responsibilities.
Just two men standing beside a parked SUV beneath the fading evening sky.
Close enough.
Far too close.
Mason wasn't entirely sure who moved first.
Maybe neither of them.
Maybe both.
The distance seemed to shrink.
Gradually.
Naturally.
Until reality finally caught up.
Adrian stepped back.
The movement wasn't dramatic.
Just enough.
Enough to restore the space.
Enough to break whatever spell had settled between them.
Mason released a slow breath.
The surgeon looked away first.
Again.
The expression on his face carried equal parts disappointment and relief.
Mason suspected his own looked similar.
Neither acknowledged what almost happened.
Neither needed to.
The moment existed.
That was enough.
Adrian opened the driver's door.
"I should go."
Mason nodded.
"Yeah."
The answer sounded rougher than intended.
For a second, neither moved.
Then Adrian offered a small smile.
The genuine kind.
Rare.
Dangerous.
"Goodnight, Mason."
Mason smiled back.
Unable to stop himself.
"Goodnight, Adrian."
The surgeon climbed into the vehicle.
Moments later, the SUV disappeared down the street.
Mason remained standing in the driveway long after the taillights vanished.
Staring into the darkness.
Thinking about loneliness.
Second chances.
And a near kiss that neither of them seemed capable of forgetting.
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