Chapter Thirteen

 

 

“WHAT DO you wanna do today?” Kyle asked.

Grinning, Forrester rolled over and laid his head on Kyle’s pillow, their faces inches apart. The morning sunshine streamed in through the window, illuminating Kyle and making his blond hair shine.

“You,” Forrester answered truthfully.

Kyle laughed and play-pushed him on the shoulder. “You just did that five minutes ago.”

“No, you did me five minutes ago,” he countered, running his hand down Kyle’s bare chest. He could still feel the stretch of that perfect cock filling him over and over.

A week had passed and they’d done it sixteen times already—corny, but Forrester liked counting—and every time felt as wonderful as that first night together. But he’d yet to have a chance to top with Kyle.

Waggling his brows, he reached around and cupped Kyle’s ass. “What do you say? You ready to bend over and take this big Italian sausage?”

Kyle’s body froze and his eyes went wide enough to show the whites all around, his lashes long and dark. “Um…?”

Forrester drew his hand back, immediately regretting his joke—though he was more than anxious to do a little fucking himself. “It’s okay. I was just kidding. You know I like it when you fuck me.”

His gaze lowered, and he rested his hand on Forrester’s chest to toy with the hair. “I know, but….” He looked up in earnest. “I’ll think about it, okay?”

Puzzled, Forrester only nodded.

Kyle smiled, kissed the tip of his nose, and slid from the bed. Forrester watched him walk toward his dresser. Did he really dislike bottoming that much? He’d said it had been a while, which meant he wasn’t totally opposed to the idea, right?

Rather than pleading with those “but I’ll be gentle, baby” one-liners—he didn’t want to be pushy—he let the conversation drop.

After all, Forrester had no complaints. Kyle fucked like a damn champ.

“Listen, I, um….” Kyle hesitated and glanced over his shoulder. “I cleared out a drawer for you yesterday. If you want to leave some stuff here.”

“You did?” he said, a grin exploding on his face. The move should have felt premature, and judging by the look on Kyle’s face, Kyle worried it might be—but Forrester couldn’t be happier.

Kyle nodded. “Yeah, I did.”

“That’s awesome. Thank you.” He climbed from the bed and sidled up behind Kyle to hug him. Warm, smooth, naked man in his arms and a drawer?

Fucking heaven.

When he kissed Kyle on the neck, Kyle squirmed, laughing. “Eww, your dick’s still all cummy and wet.”

Forrester laughed but didn’t let Kyle get away. He rubbed his cock into Kyle’s lower back, nipping and kissing his neck and tightening his hold. “Since I’m sticky, maybe we should shower together. We haven’t done that yet.”

Kyle turned at the same time Forrester playfully mouthed his neck. Forrester’s nose hit something hard. They both flinched as Forrester knocked Kyle’s processor from his ear. Kyle shot out his hand and caught it just before it fell to the ground.

“I’m sorry,” Forrester cried.

Slipping it back into place, Kyle assured him, “It’s okay. Bound to happen once in a while.”

Forrester leaned close to inspect his ear. “I didn’t damage it, did I?”

He flashed a small smile. “No, it’s fine.”

Relieved, he kissed Kyle’s cheek. “No sense putting it back on, because you’ll have to take it out if you shower with me.”

A nervous smile tugged at Kyle’s lips. “You really want to shower together?”

He screwed up his face. “Heck yes I do. C’mon.”

Forrester took Kyle’s hand and dragged him down the steps to the bathroom. Kyle paused at the door and Forrester turned to kiss him, but Kyle looked very serious.

“Just showering, right?” Kyle clarified.

“Um, no?”

Moving nervously, Kyle walked over to the tub and switched on the shower. “My tub’s kinda small. We have to be careful not to get water all over the floor.”

The entire bathroom except the ceiling was tiled, so Forrester raised his brows in question. “Okay.”

Kyle gave him a tight-lipped smile and placed his processor in the dish on the counter. Then he stepped into the tub and immediately lathered up with a washcloth. Forrester joined him, grinning at Kyle. He reached for the soap so he could lather Kyle himself, but Kyle just handed him the soap and his own washcloth.

Kyle seemed rather hurried and perfunctory about the whole thing. After he rinsed off, he quickly stepped out of the tub before Forrester had a chance to initiate anything.

“Where you going?” Then he remembered Kyle couldn’t hear him. He touched Kyle’s shoulder lightly.

Kyle jumped and spun around to face him, eyes wide.

“Where are you going?” Forrester wanted to know.

His mouth opened a couple times, and then he smiled. “Jasper’s on the leash outside, remember? Gotta let him in. It’s hot out.”

“Oh, yeah. Okay.”

Apparently showering together wouldn’t include nearly as much hanky-panky as Forrester had hoped.

He finished soaping down and washed his hair, wondering why Kyle was being so weird this morning. First the bottoming thing, but then just showering when they were in the shower. But by the time he dried off and headed upstairs to get dressed, he’d dismissed it. Kyle had cleared out a drawer for Forrester, so what did he care if Kyle didn’t want to bottom? And hurrying out of the shower? Well, it was hot out, and Jasper was spoiled with his AC.

Kyle already had on shorts and a tight gray T-shirt when Forrester entered the bedroom.

Water from his hair trailed down Forrester’s back, dripping a little on the floor. Dang it. I left my towel downstairs. “We really need to put a second bathroom up here,” he remarked, plucking a tissue from the box and drying the wet spot.

“We?”

Forrester froze, halfway bent over, when he realized what he’d said. Straightening back up, he looked at Kyle. “Well, I mean, you do, I guess.”

Kyle sat on the bed, looking at Forrester thoughtfully. Like a rocket, Jasper shot onto the bed and into Kyle’s lap. He patted him the best he could with Jasper spinning, jumping, and licking in no particular order.

Finally, Kyle nodded. “Yeah, I do need another bathroom.” He pointed to the spacious closet on the inside wall. “I don’t want to lose too much closet space, though. I haven’t had an architect out or a contractor, but I think that spot is the only place one could go. You know, without worrying about support walls and stuff.”

Relieved Kyle didn’t seem bothered by Forrester’s presumption that they were a “we” and this was their house, he walked into the hallway, taking a good look around. He assumed the supporting walls ran parallel to the stairwell. He opened the hall closet and looked up for an entry into the attic.

“Bingo,” he said when he spied a board acting as an attic trapdoor.

“What are you doing?”

“Seeing which way the trusses go,” he explained as he easily pushed it up and over. The musty scent of insulation and old house greeted him along with a faint rain of dust. “You got a ladder?”

“What? Can’t you see up there, Shortstack?”

Forrester laughed and brushed the dust off the top layer of towels. “Sorry, might have to wash some of these.”

“That’s fine.” Kyle retrieved a small step stool from the bedroom that obviously served as a catchall junk room.

He handed Kyle the towels from the top shelf, and using the stool, Forrester was easily able to pop his head inside. It was dark, only a little light coming in from the vent at the peak of the house. “Hey you got a—?”

“Flashlight?” Kyle supplied when Forrester stepped down. He already had one in his hand.

Grinning, he took it, then studied the layout of the trusses. “You could reconfigure all these rooms any way you wanted, really. They’re not tied in to the actual frame.”

“Really?”

“Far as I can tell.” Forrester rejoined Kyle and closed the attic door.

“You know construction?”

He flushed with pride at the impressed look on Kyle’s face. “A little. My dad was a plumber, but he could fix anything. Cars, water heaters, electrical. Even fixed Ma’s sweeper once. He made sure all us boys knew how to use tools and how to fix basic stuff. I’d bet me and my brothers could tear out a couple of walls”—he gestured with the flashlight to the two spare bedrooms—“move ’em farther out here and put in another bath. Maybe just a half bath or one with a small standing-only shower. Save you a ton of money if we did it too.”

“Seriously?”

“Of course. We wouldn’t charge you. And we’re pretty good. We built a big addition off the back of Dino’s house and added a second bath at Tony’s.”

Kyle whistled and folded the step stool. “I’m impressed.”

“I’m very impressive.”

Pausing on his way to put the step stool away, Kyle turned. He opened his mouth to say something but shook his head, obviously deciding against it, and headed into the junk room.

“What?” Forrester asked. “You don’t think we could do it?”

“No, it’s not that,” he assured him.

“Then what?”

“Never mind.”

“Tell me,” he insisted.

A sad smile pursed Kyle’s lips. “It’s real nice that you guys could do that for me and not charge me, but how would you justify why to your brothers?”

“Why what?” Then it hit him. “Oh, like why we would remodel some guy’s house for free.”

Brows up, Kyle pointed at him. “Exactly.”

A hot flush of shame went through Forrester. Indeed, how would he explain it? “Hey guys, you free the next couple weekends to remodel a house for a guy I know?” “No, you don’t know him. He’s a customer of mine.” “Actually he sucks my dick, and he’s really great at it.” “I think I’m falling pretty hard for him too.”

Yeah, like any or all of that conversation would go well.

Feet like lead, Forrester followed Kyle and leaned in the doorway. “I’m really sorry. Guess I was getting carried away.”

Kyle’s smile was forced—Forrester could tell.

“It’s okay, it was nice imagining,” Kyle said. “Picturing all you guys here, tearing out walls. Maybe teaching me some things.”

“I don’t wanna just imagine it,” Forrester all but whined, stepping closer and hugging Kyle tight. “But I just….”

Just what? Want something you might not be able to have?

Kyle returned the embrace, looking up at him, his smile more genuine this time. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We can figure out that stuff as it happens, okay?”

He let out a nasal breath. “I’m sorry. If I was out….”

Kyle shook his head. “No, you gotta do it on your timeline. I mean we just started… this.”

“Relationship,” Forrester corrected, feeling suddenly panicked by Kyle’s vague use of the word this.

His smile widened. “Relationship.”

“I’m serious about you, even if I’m not out. I hope you know that.” They hadn’t really labeled anything yet, but it felt like time to define things, especially after Kyle gave him a drawer. “Kyle, I wasn’t kidding when I said I wanted a boyfriend. Like the settle-down-with kind of boyfriend, not a fling. I’m willing to give this a real honest go. You just say the word and I’m all in.”

His eyes twinkled. “The word.”

The relief that swept through Forrester was like the removal of a physical weight, and he wanted to laugh. “Okay, then. I’m glad that’s settled. It’s the Kyle and Forrester Show from now on.”

“I’ll have to set my DVR so I never miss an episode.”

“I think our show might be too hot for HBO,” Forrester joked, squeezing his boyfriend. “Lots of full-frontal.”

Kyle threw back his head with a laugh, slapping Forrester’s naked butt. “With the way you don’t bother to get dressed, I’d have to agree.”

Ecstatic, Forrester kissed Kyle, then hurried into the bedroom to get dressed. No, he wasn’t ready to tell his family about Kyle—hell, it had only been eight days—but he did not want to treat their relationship lightly. Kyle meant something to Forrester.

He meant a lot, actually.

“You never did answer my question about what you wanted to do today,” Kyle said. “You only have one more week until you go to summer hours at the bookstore.”

Forrester groaned. “Don’t remind me.”

“You’re the boss, so you have no one to blame but yourself.”

“Yeah, well the boss didn’t have a boyfriend when he chose his hours.”

“I like the sound of that. Boyfriend.”

“Me too.” He grinned at Kyle. “I like my drawer too.”

“I’m glad.”

Forrester yanked up his cargo shorts. “What do you want to do?”

“Well,” Kyle began, dragging out the word and looking like he had something up his sleeve.

“Obviously you have an idea,” he said with a smile.

Chewing his lip in the cutest way, Kyle rolled up on the balls of his feet. “Yesterday I noticed someone set up a little farmer’s market in that empty parking lot beside Mama Rosie’s.”

“Lemme guess. They’re selling flowers.”

“Really?” He feigned shock, eyes wide. “I hadn’t noticed.”

Forrester laughed.

Kyle loved flowers. Since the weather had warmed up, he’d been cleaning out the various flower beds around his house in the evening. He’d planted annuals in between the perennials popping up, and he spread fresh mulch yesterday when Forrester had been at work.

“You really want more flowers?” Forrester clarified. “Everything you already planted looks great.”

“Thank you. But the front porch will look better with hanging baskets, don’t you think? And they had hot pink wave petunias.”

Kyle’s enthusiasm was contagious. “Okay, okay.” Forrester laughed. “We’ll go get hanging baskets. You got hooks to hang them from?”

“Not yet.”

“We’ll get those too, then.” Pulling on his T-shirt, he added, “I can put them up for you.”

“That would be great,” he gushed, obviously excited. “I can’t wait to get started on the backyard. There’s quite a bit I plan to do.”

“Is this going to involve any manual labor on my part?”

Kyle pecked Forrester on the lips. “Weren’t you just the one offering to remodel my house?”

Forrester pulled him into a gentle headlock, careful of his processor. He smooched him right on top of the head. “You know I’ll do whatever you want. I don’t have the superpowers to tell you no.”

Beaming up at him, Kyle said, “Great, it’s decided, then. We’ll take your truck, in case I find something more than four hanging baskets.”

“Four? But you only have the two openings above the porch rails.”

Kyle stepped away, shaking his head like Forrester was the one being silly. “Yeah, but you gotta hang some on the sides too.”

“Oh, how could I have forgotten?” he teased. “Should we take Jasper?”

Kyle studied his little pooch, now contentedly curled up on the end of the bed. “Sure. I’ll just have to get his seat belt out of my car.”

“Oh my God, he has a seat belt? That’s so cute.”

“More safe than cute.”

“True.” He gave Jasper a soft caress so he didn’t rile him back up. “You wanna go buy flowers, little buddy?”

Jasper snorted as if bored.

“You can see he’s thrilled,” Kyle joked. “I’ll get his seat belt and we’ll head over there.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

After Kyle got Jasper’s seat belt—basically a harness that attached to the shoulder strap—they piled into Forrester’s pickup and drove over to the farmer’s stand. Jasper panted and pulled on the harness, bouncing around in the tiny backseat. Forrester parked beside the four wooden tables set up in the empty lot. He stepped out of the truck and popped on some shades.

Kyle secured Jasper’s leash, then wrapped one arm around his middle. Only then did he unfasten the seat belt. Otherwise, Jasper The Wild would’ve leapt right out of the backseat and probably hurt himself.

After a few snorts and flails from Jasper, the trio walked over to study the wares—flats of colorful flowers, pots ready to go with multiple flowers and greenery, and the hooks laden with the hanging baskets that Kyle had been talking about. There were hothouse tomatoes, strawberries, and some other produce for sale too, along with the actual vegetable plants.

“Hey, look. Tomato plants,” Forrester said. He’d ordered six self-watering tomato planters for the bookstore patio, and if he was going to buy plants, he might as well buy local.

“Weren’t you going to get some from Phin, though?” Kyle asked, his arm jerking a bit as Jasper pulled on the leash, eager to explore.

“You must mean Phineas Robertson,” a pleasant-faced woman remarked from a lawn chair tucked behind the hanging baskets. Obviously the proprietor, she sat beside the open tailgate of her pickup, which displayed even more flowers.

“Yes, that’s him all right,” Kyle said. “Hi, I’m Kyle Benson, and this is Forrester Giordano. I’m new to town, and he owns the bookstore.”

“Karen,” she said, standing and giving them each a handshake with well-worked hands. “How do you know Phin?”

“His husband did a reading at Forrester’s bookstore.”

“Ah,” she said with a nod. “Been meaning to stop by your bookstore. But during springtime, I’m so busy getting my greenhouse plants going, there’s just not enough hours in the day.”

“We’re open late, starting next week,” Forrester offered.

“Maybe I’ll come by for a latte.”

“You have a greenhouse?” Kyle said, looking intrigued.

As Kyle and Karen began to chat, Forrester took Jasper’s leash so Kyle could free up his hands to examine the hanging baskets.

“C’mon, you,” Forrester said to the dog, leading him around the tables and letting him sniff to his heart’s content. Behind the lot, the muddy Shiloh was still running high after all the rain. A few kayakers paddled below the dam and the sun was shining, already heating up what the weatherman had promised would be a hotter than usual day for mid-May.

He wondered if Kyle would enjoy kayaking. Though Forrester spent a lot of time in Gilead, he hadn’t been out on the river in years. Was the last time fishing with Dad and Joey?

Guilt flushed his skin at another unexpected memory. Dad had wanted to go fishing before he died, but Forrester had said no. He hadn’t wanted the stress of being alone with Dad.

Forrester pushed family drama from his mind. He had the day off and was spending it with his new boyfriend. Like Kyle said, they’d figure out stuff with his family as it came up.

Hopefully Kyle would remain patient with Forrester.

“Jasper, no!” Kyle cried, startling Forrester.

He looked down, and to his shock, Jasper had his paws on one of the milk crates displaying produce, face buried in a pint of strawberries.

“Jasper,” Forrester scolded, pulling him back with the leash.

“Bad dog.” Kyle pointed at the less than penitent pooch, the white on his muzzle stained bright red. Jasper licked his chops, and Kyle gave Karen an apologetic look. “I’ll pay for whatever he ate.”

Karen laughed. “No problem, but don’t be too hard on him. Those berries are delicious. And I did put them right at puppy eye level.”

Shaking his head, Forrester frowned at Jasper. “You’re a naughty boy,” he said in a gruff voice. “But you’re very funny. No wonder everyone loves you on Instagram.”

Jasper cowered at his tone, and Karen and Kyle laughed.

“I suppose this would be funny for your followers,” Kyle said, slipping out his phone and snapping a pic. Forrester still couldn’t believe Jasper had over two thousand followers.

But then again, he was totally cute.

While Kyle posted the pic, Karen came around and gave Jasper a good scratch. Then she plucked up the pint of berries Jasper had been snacking on. “But you did your daddies a favor, little guy. Now they get to have fresh strawberries with lunch.”

Forrester and Kyle shot each other a look. Had she just said…?

“Daddies?” Forrester mouthed.

Looking both pleased and perplexed, Kyle just shrugged and went back to posting his pic.

Forrester’s body flushed. How had she known they were a couple? They hadn’t been holding hands or anything when they arrived. Maybe it was just the way they acted or looked at each other. Maybe it was because they knew Scott and Phin.

Whatever had clued her in, he was just glad she wasn’t a homophobe. And he was damn proud of himself for not deflecting or denying what Karen thought of them.

In fact, he loved the idea of him and Kyle being Jasper’s daddies.