19. Cameron
CAMERON
The relief I felt being back on the farm was palpable.
Our trip to Boston had been a window into Nico’s world that I was glad I had, for better or worse.
But there was truly no place like home to me.
I could wear my boots and my flannel and drink my beer like the simple man I was, and no one would look at me twice.
I pulled my Jeep into the garage below my apartment, next to the gym equipment I had set up in the second parking spot I rarely used. My hands lingered on the wheel. What would happen next? Nico was silent beside me now that the radio was off.
“I’m going to head down to Frosty’s around ten fifteen.”
Nico nodded, opening the door of my Jeep to grab his duffel from the back. “Can I ride with you? That way, I can pick up my car from Jorge when he calls.”
He was the first to say it out loud, then. Nico would be driving back to Boston tonight, and this would be over. I squeezed the steering wheel, the leather soft in my palms.
“Sure,” I said.
What else was there to say?
Nico slung his duffel over his shoulder and slammed the door. I watched through the rearview mirror as he walked away. Before he was too far to hear me, I jumped out of my seat.
“I had a nice time with you this weekend,” I said, but the words felt like not enough as I said them. I cleared my throat. “It was good to spend time together again.”
He turned over his shoulder, tossing a lopsided smile in my direction. “Same.”
“See you in twenty.” I was already ready to be close to him again.
Nico chuckled as he walked up the front steps of the farmhouse.
Up in my room, I undressed down to my underwear.
I hadn’t wanted to wear jeans for a long car ride, opting for sweats instead, but the very casually enforced uniform for Frosty’s was jeans and either a shirt or cap with our logo.
Movement outside caught my eye—the curtains being thrown back in the guest room where Nico was staying.
Because of the angle of the sun, I couldn’t see into the room.
I wondered if he could see me.
What I wanted to do was drag my cock out of the front of my underwear and jerk off in the window, staring at his open curtains, willing him to be watching.
It wasn’t worth the risk of being caught by my brother or one of the dairy employees, so I resisted.
But I still leaned myself against the sill, daydreaming about how perfect it would feel to have Nico getting ready in the room beside me.
Maybe we’d get our own little farmhouse, turn the storage space above Frosty’s into an art studio, and drive to work together every morning. I’d hear him puttering around behind me, digging through the dresser for one of my T-shirts to ruin with paint splatters.
My eyes drifted closed, and I leaned my forehead against the cool glass.
A dream too good to be true, I was sure.
A short while later, I was unlocking the back door of Frosty’s and disarming the security system.
Nico brushed my side as he passed, pecking my cheek and walking ahead to get the lights as if we did this every day.
My heart raced, and my eyes dropped to his ass in the olive coveralls he was wearing.
His chest hair peeked out from the coveralls, where he didn’t have the zipper pulled all the way up, and he’d also stolen a Frosty’s cap from storage.
I was not going to put up a fuss over inventory because he looked damn good in my name. It was worth the business deduction.
“I’m going to grab us coffee,” Nico said.
“Sure,” I said, moving automatically through my opening checklist.
Five minutes before we opened, Gwen joined me. She’d agreed to work longer hours this weekend so I could keep working on all the preparations for Creamsicle Days. Gwen was flipping on the open sign when Nico reappeared with our coffee.
“Morning,” she said, her smile wide as she accepted a snickerdoodle frappé.
I furrowed my brow as I rounded the corner to accept my peppermint mocha.
Nico’s eyes sparkled when he caught my eye. “Gwen told me her coffee order a few days ago. Gotta keep the minions happy, bossman.”
“Not you too,” I groaned dramatically.
Gwen giggled into her drink and high-fived Nico on her way to the register.
“Keep it below the counter while you’re working,” I said.
“Sure thing, bossman.”
These two were going to be the death of me.
I was just putting the next batch of blue raspberry creamsicles into the walk-in freezer when Nico’s voice filtered into the kitchen. “Hey, Cam!”
“Be right there!”
Nico was standing in front of the wall he’d been working on all week, looking proud as a rooster. He had every right to, though, because the mural was perfection.
There was a rainbow sherbet colored sky behind a forest of pastel-colored popsicles.
In the foreground, an ice cream queen covered in glittering snowflakes was the star of the show.
She was campy and perfect, with a big, whipped-cream up-do and maraschino cherry-colored lips.
It was exactly what I’d envisioned the first day I was in the space, when the wall was just an empty shell.
Frosty’s was finally everything I’d wanted it to be, and it was all thanks to Nico.
Momentarily forgetting Gwen behind the counter, I wrapped Nico in my arms and spun him around. “You are so talented.”
Gwen made a choking sound, and I set Nico down and stepped back. My cheeks felt hot, but I couldn’t totally flatten my broad smile.
“Thank you.” He looked off to the side, toying with his rings, uncharacteristically shy.
“Seriously,” I said, tilting his face back toward me and holding his gaze. “It’s everything I dreamed of.”
He swallowed roughly and opened his mouth as if to speak, but the bell over the door interrupted us.
I dropped my hand and spun in time to see Guadalupe Soto making her way to the milk cases.
She was whistling as if she hadn’t seen anything, but I couldn’t be sure.
And I knew Guadalupe was one of the biggest gossips in town.
She lived for the chisme, she always said.
“Welcome in, Mrs. Soto,” Gwen said from the register. “Can we help you find anything?”
She was clearly holding in laughter as I shot her a glare. Guadalupe made her way to the counter with a half-gallon of two percent milk.
“You don’t think an old lady like me knows where to find the same milk I buy every week in the same case where it always is?” Guadalupe said to Gwen with a wink.
“Of course, ma’am,” Gwen said, returning Guadalupe’s wink and inclining her head in my direction. “The bossman makes me say it to everyone.”
I rolled my eyes. “I am trying to teach you customer service skills.”
“And how are you, Cameron?” Guadalupe chuckled as she turned her attention to me. “I was telling your friend here that we needed to find you a nice girlfriend or boyfriend to keep you company so you’re not spending so much time at work.”
I glanced at Nico with a question in my eyes.
His eyebrow raised conspiratorially. “Guadalupe suggested I should ask one of my city friends to come seduce you.”
She tutted. “I merely suggested Cam might be lonely.”
“I appreciate your concern”—I didn’t—“but I’m managing my dating life just fine.” I wasn’t.
Guadalupe’s eyes lit up. “Is there already a special someone?”
I coughed and shook my head as I glanced at Nico. Gwen was the one who came to my rescue.
“Gossip’s not on the menu today, Mrs. Soto. Would you like to sample the soft serve instead?”
Guadalupe accepted the spoon of eggnog soft serve from Gwen, and though she kept looking at Nico and me as she paid for her milk, she didn’t ask any more questions. I wasn’t sure how or when this would come back to bite me in the ass, and I couldn’t fully relax until she was out of the store.