Chapter Six
Sam’s words ran through his head, over and over, making less sense each time. Sam was gay. And Matt. They were two close friends of Logan’s, people Logan trusted with his life.
“Logan isn’t…” He had to ask, feeling like a fish out of water.
Sam choked on a mouthful of beer and took a minute to recover enough to speak. “No. Logan is as straight as they come. He and Haley have been together like what, four years now?”
Drew just shrugged. He knew about Haley of course but she was nothing more than a name written on a card or an email.
“Why would you think that about your brother, that he’d be that kind of person?”
It was on the tip of Drew’s tongue to say, ‘you don’t know him like I do’, but the reality was, of the two of them, Sam knew Logan better now. Possibly better than Drew ever had.
“Things were never easy at home.” The words escaped him and he forgot to even try to censor himself. “My dad and I never saw eye to eye and after our mom died, it just got worse. I think maybe Dad suspected. He never said it outright but whenever the subject came up, whether it was someone on tv or someone we knew, he and Logan would take them to pieces. It was almost a competition to see who could—” He stopped, the memories flooding him. “I knew they’d never accept me for who I was, so I got out of there as soon as I could.”
He stared at his hands, twisted together in his lap, seeing the bright light of the game flashing on the screen out of the corner of his eye.
“Damn, I… I’m sorry. It’s just that’s so far from the Logan I know, we could be talking about two different people.”
Drew shrugged. “Maybe he is a different person now.” People changed, they grew up. He certainly had.
“So you and Matt?” He neatly changed the subject, not wanting to dwell any longer on his painful teenage years.
Sam laughed at his question. “No, there’s no me and Matt. Or me and anyone right now. We’re friends. Matt was… there was someone else and they’re gone. It’s part of why he is the way he is right now.”
“That can’t have been easy. The military, I mean, they’re not exactly au fait with the whole gay thing.”
Sam made a face. “They’re getting better but yeah, we lived under ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ It wasn’t the worst. I got what I wanted from the experience, got the kind of training some people can only dream of. Saw places I never thought I would.”
Sam smiled over at him, and Drew’s heart fluttered. Just his luck that his roommate would be both hot and available. He wasn’t in any position to be starting something. Sam’s smile faded and Drew worried it was something he’d done or not done.
“We’re back talking about me again. You were telling me about what you worked as before.” It would have been so easy to give in to Sam’s open, encouraging expression and talk until his voice got hoarse. But the more he talked, the bigger the chance he’d mess up again and let something slip that would really make trouble for him.
“The reptile shop was really the height of it.” Three years working as an IT security consultant made that the baldest lie he’d told so far and he caught the slight narrowing of Sam’s eyes that told him the other man wasn’t buying it.
“Alright, if you don’t want to talk about the past, we’ll stick to the present.”
Drew wasn’t sure that was all that much better. For him, the present was a minefield.
“Game is almost over,” he commented, gesturing to the screen.
“It’s been over since the sixth minute. We’ve just been watching the death throes. But that’s not what I mean. I was hoping you had reconsidered.”
“Reconsidered what?” If he couldn’t dissuade Sam by directing both their attention elsewhere, he’d have to do the opposite. Pay Sam more attention, enough that he forgot whatever it was he wanted to know. If only if was that simple.
“Reporting your assault.”
He shrugged, not quite hiding the wince that the movement provoked.
“Like I said yesterday. I don’t know them and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t recognize them.” That was a mistake. Hadn’t he told Sam he’d gambled with them? Hard to do that without seeing their faces. Damn, he was batting a thousand.
“All the more reason to report it. The local precinct can check CCTV, canvas for witnesses. It’s not a quiet spot, people see things.”
“It was an alleyway. No one was around and who’d pay for cameras to watch an alleyway? Besides, I’m sure it was more of a misunderstanding than anything else.”
“What the hell did they misunderstand?” Sam was incredulous, turning to face him, his arm across the back of the couch, close enough to touch Drew.
“It doesn’t matter. It happened, it’s over, and I want to move on. I came here for a fresh start.”
The heat in Sam’s voice cooled. “It goes against my nature as a cop, and I don’t get it, but it is your choice, I can’t make you report it. But you need to know what you’re going to do if they come back.”
Drew shuddered at the thought. One beating was enough. He’d be feeling it for days, if not weeks. And now he had bruises over bruises.
“Was it another gambling debt?”
Sam kept jumping from topic to topic, and Drew felt like he was trailing behind, trapped in slow motion.
“What?”
“The older bruises Matt found. He said they were about a week old, which would mean they happened right before you got here. What happened there?”
“Hard to have a fresh start when you keep bringing up the past,” he complained, turning sideways, and tucking his legs up under him. Leaning forward, he said quietly, “Surely we can think of something more interesting to talk about. I’m guessing you have some great stories, being a soldier and all. Not to mention a cop.”
Sam looked chagrined at first, but his frown faded to a smile. “Lots of stories. Would you prefer to hear about saving babies, rescuing cats from trees, or marching through the desert in the blistering heat.”
“Did you do a lot of hand to hand combat?” Drew asked, eyeing the muscles of Sam’s arms. “Wrestling matches?”
A slow grin settled on Sam’s face. “Not the kind of wrestling you’re thinking of, I’m guessing.”
He met Sam's dark eyes and licked his lips, wetting them. “I like all kinds of wrestling. Maybe you could show me some moves.” As he spoke, he let one hand touch Sam, his fingers just resting on the cool skin of his hand. When Sam didn’t react, he slowly pushed upward, across the back of Sam’s hand, along his wrist, and up his arm towards his elbow, feeling the hard muscles under his fingers.
Sam’s free hand caught his before he’d even got halfway, gently pulling his hand away and holding it between them.
“Nice try, Drew. If you don’t want to talk, we won’t talk.”
“I was thinking there were more fun things we could do.”
Sam’s warm steady gaze held his, his firm grip on Drew’s hand not letting up.
“Oh, there are. But not if it’s just a smokescreen to stop me looking deeper. Fooling around with someone who won’t tell me the first real thing about themselves, that’s not what I’m looking for.”
He held Drew’s hand in his for a moment longer, powerful fingers tense against Drew’s skin. When he released him, Drew stayed frozen, hand in midair, feeling the loss of Sam’s touch.