Chapter Six
Rusty jerked awake, his mind racing as he tried to work out why his bed seemed different before remembering where he was. Right, Blake. He was in Blake’s house, in his room, in his bed.
He breathed a sigh of relief, taking in the warmth of Blake’s body beside him. This was okay. Not the worst place he’d ever woken up.
Rusty sat up, glancing over at Blake’s alarm clock to see that it was two minutes past six.
Jet lag. Great.
At least he wasn’t wide awake at four in the morning. That would have been a lot less convenient.
His gaze fell on Blake as he started to really wake up, eyes roaming over the lines of his shoulders, a smile tugging at his lips as he spotted a handful of freckles on his back. The urge to reach out and touch them made him move his hand, fingers hovering over Blake’s warm skin…
A buzzing sound surprised him into moving his hand away. It took Rusty a handful of seconds to realize that it was his phone, vibrating on the nightstand beside the bed.
He reached over to grab it, wincing at the brightness as he unlocked the screen.
“It’s six a.m., piss off,” he murmured to himself, fumbling to turn the brightness down so he could look at who was calling.
Shit.
His dad.
He had to answer it, six a.m. or not.
“Dad?” he asked, holding the phone up to his ear. He climbed out of the bed as carefully as he could, not wanting to disturb Blake this early in the morning.
“Where the hell are you?” he asked. “You’ve been missing for three days.”
Rusty frowned. His dad knew where he was… didn’t he? He’d sent him here.
“I’m in the states,” he said softly. “Your lawyer ordered me to go.”
“To sort out this marriage thing,” his dad said, apparently putting the pieces together for himself. “I didn’t know you’d left yet. You could’ve come to see your old man while you were in town.”
Rusty sighed. “Yeah, well… Larry made it sound urgent.”
“Fuck Larry,” his father said. “Meddling bastard.”
He didn’t mean that. They were friends, and Larry was looking out for his best interests.
He just hated to be left out of the loop, and he had been.
“He’s trying to help you out,” Rusty said, not that he needed to defend anyone in this situation. It was what it was.
“I need you here,” his father hissed. “I’m about to put in my notice to run. I want you and your mother there.”
“So you can get a nice family portrait in the paper,” Rusty said. He knew what was going on.
“Because it would be nice to have some support,” his father responded.
Rusty wasn’t about to fall for that. He’d had enough guilt trips for one lifetime.
All the same, he wasn’t about to argue.
“I’m handling it,” Rusty said. “Just gimme a few more days. It’s complicated.”
“How is it complicated? He signs the papers, you hand him the money, everyone’s happy.”
Rusty swallowed. His dad had a funny idea of what made everyone happy.
What he meant was that it would make him happy, and everyone else could go to hell. Like it’d always been.
“He doesn’t want money,” Rusty said. That had been a surprise, but he should have known that Blake wouldn’t have wanted to be bought off.
Rusty had been drawn to him in the first place because he was different. Different in every possible way.
“Then what does he want?” Rusty’s dad asked, his voice getting sharp.
Rusty could practically feel the impatience crackling out of his phone speaker, but he wasn’t going to fall for that, either. This would take as long as it took.
Besides, he hadn’t had a break since the last time he was with Blake. He deserved to take a few days to himself.
“I’m giving it to him,” Rusty said, aware as the words left his lips exactly how that sounded.
Too bad. His dad could handle the fact that he was gay, even if he didn’t like it. He’d just have to get used to it.
“I don’t want to hear about it,” his dad said.
Maybe he couldn’t handle it, but at least Rusty’s phrasing was having the effect of ending this conversation.
“Good. I’ll call you when I get back,” he responded, hanging up before his father could say anything else.
His hand trembled as he set the phone back down on the nightstand, legs shaking underneath him.
After all these years, he still got shaky after asserting himself to his father.
He’d seen the way Blake looked at him yesterday. Like of the two of them, he was the one who had his life sorted out.
Blake didn’t need to know that wasn’t true, but… it would have been nice to have someone to understand. Someone who could see what his life was really like, underneath it all.
Blake wasn’t that person. Couldn’t be. Rusty was here to say a permanent goodbye. He couldn’t afford to get attached all over again.
“Are you okay?” Blake asked, his voice soft and sleepy.
Rusty glanced over at him, a smile turning up the corner of his lip at Blake’s tousled hair and sleep-heavy eyes.
“I’m fine. My dad called. And I guess I’m a little jet lagged. Go back to sleep.”
Blake shook his head. “I’m normally awake around this time anyway. Aren’t you cold?”
As soon as Blake asked, Rusty shivered. He was cold, but he hadn’t noticed while he’d been arguing with his father. That had taken all of his mental energy.
“Yeah, a bit,” he said.
“Well, since you’re up, the thermostat’s in the hall. You could turn the heating on,” Blake said, giving Rusty his best, softest puppy eyes.
Rusty chuckled at that. “I guess I could, yeah.”
“You’re a good husband.” Blake beamed at him.
A tiny bubble of joy swelled up in Rusty’s chest at hearing that. He turned away, not sure he should be having that feeling, and headed out into the even colder hall to switch the heating on.
All he wanted was to have someone who was on his side. To stand by him, be his friend, be in his corner. There was no one like that in his life.
Pretending Blake was that person was turning out to be more emotional than he’d imagined. It was nice to be loved, even if it was only acting.
The fan for the heater roared to life the moment Rusty touched the dial. He squinted at the temperature display, unsure what 70 Fahrenheit was in normal measurements.
Well, if it was set at that, it was probably safest to leave it.
He headed back to the bedroom, wondering if he could convince Blake to make him breakfast.