Chapter Seventeen
Blake hadn’t wanted to say anything about the flowers, but ten minutes into arranging them, his eyes were starting to water and his head was starting to hurt.
He didn’t want to complain, but it was getting to him.
Megan passed him another brightly-colored bouquet in a beautiful vase, directing him to a table over in the corner, and as he opened his mouth to say okay, he sneezed instead.
Then he sneezed again.
And again.
Megan was staring at him as though he’d just said the most disgusting thing she could imagine. Blake set the flowers down, hiding his face in his elbow as he sneezed again, tears leaking from his eyes as he reacted to the pollen.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured, walking away without another word as a wave of dizziness hit him, sitting down as far away from the flowers as he could.
Of course he was allergic to these specific flowers. He wasn’t allergic to all of them, and since he’d moved away from Hope Springs he’d barely needed antihistamines, but it was just his luck that these particular flowers happened to set his allergies off.
As he rubbed at his eyes, Blake heard someone approach him. He looked up, squinting, to see that it was Rusty.
He hated the thought of Rusty seeing him like this.
“You okay?” Rusty asked, grabbing one of the folding chairs to sit down in front of him, straddling it backwards.
“Allergies,” Blake explained. “It’s the flowers.”
He wiped at his eyes and nose with his shirt sleeve, making a soft, miserable groan as he did so.
The next thing he knew, Rusty’s hand was on his forehead, brushing his hair back. Blake closed his eyes, letting Rusty stroke his hair to soothe him.
He didn’t understand why Rusty was being so nice, but he wasn’t about to discourage it. He needed someone to be nice to him right about now.
“Do you have something to take?” Rusty asked.
Blake shook his head. “I didn’t think I’d need anything in February.”
Rusty made a soft, sympathetic sound.
“There’s a chemist in town, yeah?” he asked.
“Chemist?” Blake frowned.
“Pharmacy? Or, umm… fuck, a drug store? Is that what they’re called?”
“It’s a pharmacy,” Blake said. “And yeah, next to the grocery store.”
“I’ll go get you something. Is there a brand, or…?”
“Whatever’s on sale,” Blake said. “I don’t think it matters all that much, but you really don’t have to go.”
“What’s the point of having a gorgeous, charming, sexy husband if he can’t look after you when you’re sick?” Rusty asked.
Blake couldn’t argue with that. No one else was volunteering, so he wasn’t in a position to refuse his help.
Not that he would have, anyway. He was grateful that Rusty was there for him.
“Thank you,” Blake said, wiping his nose again.
“Go take a hot shower to clear your sinuses.” Rusty stood, putting the chair away. “I’ll be back soon.”
To Blake’s surprise, he bent down and pecked him on the lips. Just the lightest brush of contact, but enough to make Blake’s heart skip.
“I can’t believe you kissed me when I’m all gross,” Blake said, trying to deflect how much it meant to him.
Simple affection had been hard to come by for a while. It was nice to have it, even if he wasn’t entirely sure what it meant.
“You looked like you could use it,” Rusty said. “Now go. I’ll be back by the time you’re out of the shower.”
Blake stood, taking Rusty’s hand and squeezing it on the way past. “You’re a good husband,” he murmured.
“I know,” Rusty enthused, grinning like the oversized, enthusiastic puppy he was.
Blake rolled his eyes, but headed inside and up the stairs to get into the shower like Rusty had told him. If nothing else, it’d get any pollen out of his hair and off his skin.
He’d need to change his clothes, probably. There’d be pollen all over them, too.
It was just as well it was a late wedding, or he would have ended up missing it.
The warm spray of the shower instantly helped with his headache, clean water soothing his red, puffy eyes as soon as it started running down over his head.
He wasn’t sure what he’d done to deserve Rusty’s surprising kindness—he wasn’t that good in bed—but it was nice to have it, all the same.
Rusty was nice to be around. Whenever Blake remembered that he was going home after the wedding, his stomach knotted up.
It was stupid. Stupid to be so attached to someone he’d known for so little time. And yet.
He’d known Rusty was trouble the first time he’d sat down next to Blake on a tour bus and told him he’d have to translate for him. All charming smile and cocky posture, clearly aware of how attractive he was.
They’d spent the whole day trip to Death Valley talking, the sprawling planes forever linked in Blake’s mind to Rusty’s smile, the low rumble of his voice. They’d hung out together by the bar when they got back, taken a midnight stroll to see the sights.
And then Rusty had kissed him under the bright neon lights of a marquee, and Blake’s heart had nearly exploded.
But the best part? The best part had been when Rusty had bid him good night, and they’d gone their separate ways that evening. He’d never pushed.
All he’d done was tell Blake where he was staying if he wanted to follow it up. Simple as that.
Blake had never been more desperate for a second date in his entire life. He’d turned up at eight o’clock the next morning to catch Rusty at breakfast, and hadn’t left his side until he watched him get into a cab to go to the airport three days later.
Somewhere in the haze of their whirlwind vacation romance, they’d gotten married. It hadn’t seemed serious at the time, but it had seemed sweet.
Blake had never quite stopped thinking about him. No matter how many times he told himself that Rusty was gone, that it’d been fun for a little while, but it would never have lasted, Rusty kept popping back into his head.
He’d set Blake’s standard for men, and none of them had quite met it.
No one else had ever looked after him when he was sick. Not even long-term boyfriends. They just told him to get well soon and call them when he felt better.
Rusty had come to his aid without even being asked.
That meant a lot.
It was a shame he couldn’t keep Rusty. Memories were nice, but having a second taste of what it was like to be with him—really with him—made Blake’s heart hurt at the thought that he was leaving soon.
He wasn’t sure he could handle waving goodbye again, even though he knew he had to.
Blake sighed, shutting off the shower and wiping his face with a clean towel. He looked a little better, but he was still red and puffy around the eyes, his cheeks visibly swollen from the way his sinuses were irritated.
And Rusty had kissed him anyway.
How the hell was he supposed to say goodbye to a man like that?