Chapter Nineteen
MAX CAME awake with a jump. Startled, he raised his head and rubbed his eyes, squinting in the dark room to find Jed staring back at him. “Was that you or me?”
Jed shook his head. “I don’t know. I was asleep.”
Max frowned. That in itself was unusual. They began every night in Jed’s bed, but Jed rarely stayed the whole night, let alone actually slept. Now, though, he seemed rattled, and before Max could speak again, he slid from the bed and ghosted out of the room.
Max let him go. Jed seemed to operate fine on sporadic, snatched daytime naps, but Max needed his sleep. Without it, his defective brain was prone to malfunction.
He woke the next morning surprised to find Jed sleeping beside him again. He took a moment to stare. They had a heavy day ahead of them, and a lot to do before it even began, but the sight of Jed so soundly asleep was too captivating to pass up. Shame it didn’t last for long.
A few minutes later, Jed opened his eyes with a snap, and though he didn’t move, Max knew he was instantly wide-awake and alert.
“What time is it?”
Max inclined his head to the window. “You tell me.”
Jed’s ability to tell time by a cursory glance at the sky was a standing joke between them. Max had yet to catch him out, and this morning was no different. “Six forty-five.”
Max didn’t bother to check. Instead, he followed Jed’s silent direction and scooted across the bed into his arms. He closed his eyes, enjoying the gentle scrape of Jed’s unshaven jaw on his own close-cropped hair. For a man who could sometimes appear aloof and distant, Jed seemed to enjoy the increasingly tactile side of their undefined relationship, and Max wasn’t about to complain.
“What time do we have to be at Kim’s?”
“Ten, I think,” Max muttered, drowsy and under the spell of Jed’s touch. “I said I’d watch the girls while she got ready. Did you buy yourself a shirt?”
“Nope. Kim got me one. It’s in the truck.”
Max raised his head and met Jed’s smirk with one of his own. “Think she figured you’d turn up in your sweatpants if she didn’t?”
“Probably.”
Max put his chin on Jed’s chest, stretching out the last few minutes they had to spare before he really had to get up. It was the day of the big Valesco family wedding, and with Nick away, Jed had promised Kim an escort—an offer Max was pretty sure was born out of some misplaced sense of guilt for Nick’s predicament, since Jed had shown little enthusiasm for the impending big day.
He had, however, found the time to help Max finish the long-neglected wedding present for Carla’s cousin. Turned out Jed had a ton of foreign poetry on his loaded bookshelves, and he’d found some ancient Spanish script to carve inside one of the dresser drawers. It was a prayer, from the days when Spain lived under Arabic rule.
Later that day, Max found himself in the irritating predicament of his sister trying to dress him. He batted Kim’s hands away from the tie she was trying to throttle him with. “Kim, it’s the Valescos. I’m not your date, Jed is. Go hassle him.”
The scowl on Kim’s face told him she’d probably already tried, and the fact that Jed was nowhere to be seen was pretty telling. No sane man would volunteer to wrangle Tess into a dress and shiny new shoes. Though, to be fair, if anyone could do it single-handed, it was Jed. A theory proved when he reappeared a little while later with a surprisingly presentable Tess in tow.
Max eyed Jed as he relinquished Tess to Kim to have her hair brushed. He was wearing jeans, boots, and a charcoal-gray shirt Kim had clearly forced him into. With his ever-growing hair and scruffy jawline, he looked….
“Max?”
“What?”
Kim poked him, hard. “Stop ogling Jed. Are you ready to go?”
She probably thought her voice was low enough to be discreet, but Jed’s suppressed smirk said otherwise. Max glared at her. “Piss off.”
Kim looked as though she might retaliate, but Jed cleared his throat. “Quit bickering, kids,” he said. “Let’s get this over with.”
They walked to the tiny Catholic church downtown. Kim led them to a pew at the back. Max knew she’d learned the hard way that it was easier to keep Tess near the exit. Jed gestured for Max to go ahead of him, and Max sat down between Jed and Belle. He leaned back in the pew, feeling a little out of sorts without Flo at his feet. With Jed, Kim, and Carla all close by, he’d given her the day off and left her at the Cooper house. He’d retrieve her later, but for now, he was on his own.
Jed nudged him. “Okay?” He said it out of the corner of his mouth, keeping his eyes on Tess, who was fidgeting in his lap.
Max nudged him back in answer, attributing the shockwave of sensation to the crackle of sexual tension between them.
It had been a few weeks since their alfresco dalliance at the top of the mountain trail, and even longer since the early January night Jed came home from Phoenix, and though they’d spent every night of the past month together, entangled in a snake pit of arms and legs, kissing until Max fell asleep, Jed had subtly put the brakes on their physical relationship. Max didn’t mind—not often, at least, but that didn’t make Jed’s close proximity any easier to bear. Each and every day, he found himself speculating if this would be the day Jed broke the unspoken embargo.
The church organ cut through the quiet chatter of the guests, signaling the start of the ceremony. Max nudged Jed again, caught his eye, and grinned. Jed grinned back and snuck a hand out to squeeze his arm, albeit briefly. Max stood with the rest of the congregation, suppressing another pleasurable shudder, and turned his attention to the bridal procession beginning to filter up the aisle of the church.
Maybe today was the day after all.
MAX TOOK a long pull of a cold Corona. It was his third, and with midnight fast approaching, he felt more than a little tipsy. Lucky he had Flo back with him, really, considering Jed was preoccupied with an overtired, overstimulated Tess.
“Yo, dude.”
Dan dropped down beside him, carrying a sleepy-looking Belle. Max wanted to take her and let her burrow into him, but he didn’t trust himself after a long day topped off with a few beers. Instead, he held out his hand and let her twine her fingers in his.
“Coop still stuck?” Dan asked.
Max inclined his head across the decorated high school gym to where Jed sat with a wriggling Tess and Anna Valesco. “Yep. Your mum won’t let him go.”
Dan laughed, making Belle giggle too. “She’s always been like that with him. There were days when we were kids when she would’ve quite happily traded me for him. My aunties were all the same. Everyone loves Jed. The dude don’t even have to try.”
Max could believe that. When his mood was right, Jed possessed an irrepressible charm. He glanced Max’s way and caught him staring. His eyes twinkled in the low light of the room. Max swallowed and looked away. It was nice to see Jed relaxed again. There’d been a brief moment in the church, a moment Max thought he’d imagined until Jed had abruptly taken Tess outside. The storm had passed by the time Max found them after the service, but it had stuck with him all the same. He hadn’t noticed Tess becoming particularly fractious.
“Want another beer?”
Max accepted the fresh bottle from Dan with a rueful sigh. “Sure.”
A little while later, he jumped into Jed’s truck for the short drive home. It was late, far later than he usually stayed up, and, like Tess, he felt a little hyper.
Jed slid into the driver’s seat. “Are you drunk?”
“Maybe.”
“I knew I shouldn’t have left you with Dan.”
Max rolled his eyes and laughed, though the joke wasn’t all that funny. “It’s not his fault I’m a lightweight.”
“Hey, I’m not judging you. You’ve seen the state of me after a couple of tramadol.”
That was true. It hadn’t gone unnoticed that both times Jed had truly opened up to him, he’d been under the influence of heavy narcotics.
The truck’s engine rumbled to life. Flo clambered over Max and stuck her head out the open window. The wind was cold. Max shivered, but didn’t have the heart to close it. Instead, he scooted closer to Jed… close enough to absorb the warmth from his body without touching him.
“What happened to your tie?”
“Huh?”
“Your tie,” Jed repeated, amused. “You had it, like, a half hour ago. What did you do with it?”
Max looked down, noting that he had indeed lost his tie. Damn. Kim was actually going to kill him—a thought he found hilarious.
Jed shook his head, but he couldn’t hide his grin as Max broke into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. “You’re going to feel this tomorrow. What the hell did you drink? You weren’t this funny last time you hit the beer.”
“Yeah, well, look what happened then.”
“You left me hanging, that’s what happened.”
Max coughed and tried to get a hold of himself. It was the first time either of them had mentioned the night he’d first kissed Jed. So much had happened in between, it felt like a lifetime ago. “Um, yeah, that’s the one. Hanging, eh? What would you have done if I’d stayed?”
Jed leaned back in his seat and slung an arm round Max’s shoulders. “Guess you’ll never know, will you?”
Max rolled his eyes, resisting the urge to sink into the casual embrace. He didn’t want to lose his buzz and get sleepy so close to home. Instead, he pondered Jed’s playful answer. Embarrassment aside, he was relieved he’d bailed from Jed’s room that night. From what he’d seen since, he was almost sure that if he’d jumped Jed then, he wouldn’t be here now.
Timing was everything.
Besides, there were days when he woke up surprised to find Jed’s boots by the door, and his things neatly ordered in his room. Despite the growing connection between them, he knew Jed was troubled… that on some level, he was deeply unhappy. No amount of sex could fix that.
“Max, we’re home.”
Max lifted his head. Despite his best intentions, he’d dozed off on Jed’s shoulder. “Hmm?”
In answer, Jed slid out of the open driver door. Flo was already long gone. Then the passenger door opened and Jed held out his hand. “Do I have to carry you?”
Max raised his middle finger, ignored Jed’s outstretched hand, and slithered out of the truck. “Very funny. You want to put me over your shoulder like a fucking caveman, you’ll have to catch me first.”
Jed shut the truck door with a bang. “Ask me again in a few months.”
Intentionally or not, the words were loaded. Max paused in the action of stretching his arms over his head. “You’ll still be here then?”
“Where else would I be?”
Jed sounded closer. Max could feel his warmth again and smell his clean, fresh smell. “You smell like trees.”
Jed laughed. “You’ve said that to me before.”
“I have?”
“Yeah. After you had those seizures in bed.”
Oh. “It must be true, then. I always let things slip when I’m in that attractive, postseizure, dribbling stage.”
Jed took Max’s face in his hands, surprising him with a firm kiss. “Shut your mouth.”
“Excuse me?”
“Don’t do that. Don’t put yourself down.”
Max resisted the urge to be flippant. “I’m not. I’m stating a fact.”
“Stop it.”
“Make me.”
Max’s back hit the truck door with a dull thud. He put up no resistance as Jed caged him in his arms and kissed him senseless.
It wasn’t always like this between them. Sometimes they could kiss all night, and though the desire to go further was there, Max could ignore it. But sometimes, things exploded between them, exploded in a way he couldn’t control, and on those occasions, it fell to Jed to pull away. And pull away he did, almost every time, but not this time. This time, he pressed Max hard against the truck and kissed him with more force and intensity then he ever had before.
Max let him have his way, enjoying the contrast of the icy-cold truck against his back and Jed’s warm body beneath his roaming hands. Jed made him forget himself, forget they were outside in the freezing, wet, muddy yard, forget everything, except….
An unwelcome thought flashed into his mind, breaking through the haze of Jed’s scratchy chin and hard, unyielding muscle. “The boat shed.”
Jed released him and raised an eyebrow. “You want to go in there?”
Max laughed. “Not at this time of year. I don’t know if I locked it.”
Jed stared at him for a moment, then stepped back. “Go inside. I’ll check.”
Max watched him go, unmoving. “Hey, Jed?”
Jed turned and walked backward. “Yeah?”
“Can you see if I left the cordless phone in there? I think I’ve left it somewhere really stupid this time.”
Max left Jed’s infectious laughter behind and let himself into the cabin. It was dark and cold, but he left the lights off and made his way to the kitchen, tipped food into Flo’s bowl, then put the kettle on the stove for the morning. He expected Jed to reappear any minute. When he didn’t, Max got impatient and stamped back into his boots to go looking for him.
He picked his way across the yard, taking a detour to check he’d shut the chickens away. He had, obviously, or else Jed had come along and done it for him.
Jed.
That’s what he was doing. Where the hell was he?
The light of the boat shed was still on. Max crossed the yard with Flo at his side and pushed open the door. “Hey, did you find….”
His voice fell away. Jed stood by the old shelving unit at the back of the shed, an open box in front of him, an old photograph clutched in each hand, and his face deadened with a cold hard fury that shook Max’s bones.
“What the fuck is this?”