Rhys wriggled in the bed as he peeled his eyes open. He was almost used to waking up unsure of his environment.

The distinct smell of disinfectant brought all the memories of yesterday flooding back. The oil pump regulator arriving three days early. Crying as he left Hidden Creek. The worst meal of his life. Driving back to Hidden Creek just because of some Instagram likes. Finding out Mason was in the hospital.

Rhys took in his surroundings. At some point in the night, he had crawled into bed with Mason, sleeping tucked in by his side. For a moment, he worried that it would hinder Mason’s recovery, but figured that the nurses would have moved him if that was the case.

Mason was still fast asleep. Rhys couldn’t wait to tell him all the silly things he’d said when he was on morphine. His hour-long rant about the unfulfilled potential of the Transformers films would delight Rhys for years to come. He hoped those years would be filled with Mason.

A couple hours after Rhys had stormed in, Lily had stopped by, assuring Rhys and Mason that the clients had been rescheduled for next week. For the first time since opening, Mason’s Body Shop would be closed for the weekend. With good reason.

Lily had left when visitor hours had finished. It seemed like Kyle had vouched for Rhys and his right to stay because when the night shift nurses came in, none of them batted an eyelid at his presence.

Rhys pulled out his phone, having switched on to airplane mode soon after arriving at the hospital. It was almost eight in the morning, which meant it was almost seven for his parents in their Utah time zone.

He kissed Mason tenderly on the forehead. This was his first time sleeping past seven am in weeks. Rhys would let him enjoy it for as long as possible.

Rhys slipped out from under Mason, pocketing his phone as he left the room. He passed by the bed Tristan had been in last night. At some point in the night, he’d been taken away, Officer Marcus clear with Rhys he was going straight into police custody.

He made his way back through the corridors, past the receptionist desk. The same receptionist from yesterday was there, trying her best to hide her scowl as Rhys made his way past.

He followed the signs for the outpatient entrance, heading outside of the hospital to double-check any texts he might have gotten.

As he took his phone off airplane mode, his notification bar exploded.

66 unread texts. 27 missed calls.

Rhys skimmed through them, most from either his mom or dad’s cell phone.

The texts began asking about his general well-being. Looking back, the video call with his parents had probably made them more worried than he’d realized.

The last text was from six thirty that morning.

Heading to airport. Trying to get Texas highway patrol to look for you. We love you. Please just contact us. Your father.

Rhys felt his stomach drop. After calling them, he’d spent almost the rest of his time in the hospital, his phone unreachable on airplane mode.

He’d called them, upset and distant, and then didn’t contact for the whole day.

His parents must be sick with worry.

Rhys knew he had the data minutes. Seeing him alive and well should calm them down. He called his mom on video chat. His dad would insist on driving them to the airport.

Within seconds, he was on display. The phone clearly hung in a cradle as he could see both of them in the car.

“Rhys! Thank God!” his father exclaimed in relief.

“Rhys Jeremy Meadows!” his mother growled. “Where the hell have you been!?”

“I’m okay, promise!” Rhys assured them.

“I’m pulling over!” his dad informed them, looking over his shoulder before smacking on his turn signal.

“Are you at a hospital?” his mom’s eyes narrowed.

“I’m heading back to the airport!” his dad corrected himself, indicator back the other way.

“It’s Mason,” Rhys told them. “He was in an accident. He’s fine, just a couple bruised ribs.”

“Mason?” his mom looked at his dad, confused. “Who the hell is Mason?”

“The guy I was living with,” Rhys reminded her. He assumed would be living with from now on. They hadn’t actually had that chat yet.

“You saw him on the video call, in the blue coverall,” his dad further prompted her. She looked between the two men, completely at a miss.

“The one you said was a handsome young man,” Rhys said with a long-suffering sigh.

“Oh him!” his mom finally remembered. “He was in a car accident? Why are you back there?”

Rhys frowned at them. Now was as good a time as ever.

“We were… more than just friends,” he confessed.

“What do you mean?” his dad asked, not taking his eyes off the road as he drove.

“More than friends? You… him…” His mom trailed off, clearly working it through.

His mom shrieked with delight, grinning at him through the screen.

“Jesus, Beth!” his dad chastised her from behind the wheel. “I’m driving here!”

“Oh, he seemed like such a nice young man!” she babbled to Rhys.

“You couldn’t remember him five minutes ago!” his dad pointed out. “We still heading to the airport?”

“No,” Rhys told them. “I’m fine. I need to help Mason recover.”

“So are he and Mason best friends now then?” his dad asked.

“They’re lovers, Toby,” his mom excitedly clarified.

“Oh! Oh, okay, that’s cool.” His dad fumbled out as he slapped his indicator back on. Rhys knew his dad loved him, but he always acted so awkward whenever talking about Rhys and his relationships with men. “Right, of course.” His dad pulled down on the wheel hard, presumably turning back toward their home. “So you’ll help him get better. Then you’ll be coming home, right?”

“No,” Rhys replied without even thinking. He grimaced. He didn’t mean to sound that harsh.

“No…” his dad repeated in shock.

“No?” his mom questioned him.

“No. I mean, not like that.” Rhys paused. He’d been thinking his situation over half the night, most of the plan formulating during Mason’s Transformers rant. “I’ve already helped Mason with his business. I have useable skills. I can build a life for myself here.”

“You’ve only just met him!” his mom pointed out.

“And how long did you know dad before you married him?” Rhys asked.

“That was completely different!” his dad argued.

“How?” Rhys asked.

There was silence from the other end.

“We were already living in the same state, for one thing,” his mom pointed out. “What about the hardware store? We’ll need you for that.”

“And I’ll help you set it up,” Rhys promised them. “I need to come home for Christmas. I can spend a couple weeks, maybe even a month helping with the opening, design the outside like you asked. But my heart isn’t in it.”

“Don’t be so childish!” his mom chastised him, clearly unhappy with his response. “You have student loans. You want to be paying them off when you’re sixty? What’s there for you in Hidden Creek?”

“Mason,” Rhys told them. “And like I said, I’ve already helped with his business. I can make my own way. I might have to bus tables for a few months or work at someone else’s store for a while.”

“We can’t keep the job open for you, waiting for you to get some sense and come back,” his dad curtly informed him.

“I know,” Rhys told them. “But I’m also an adult, and this is my decision.”

“You’re twenty-three!” his mom snapped back. “There are lots of handsome gay men in Salt Lake City. My hairdresser, Shaun, he’s lovely. You can’t just shack up with the first real boyfriend you’ve ever had.”

“Beth!” his dad bemoaned.

It was harsh, but truthfully. Rhys has never brought a boy home for Thanksgiving or Christmas. This was his first real boyfriend. But he knew that this was something more.

“Remember what you told me about your first date?” Rhys asked them. “About how different it was from all the others you’d ever had? How the plan was dinner and a movie, but you two talked for hours at dinner until it became talking under the stars on Galveston Pier?”

“Oh yeah,” his dad replied with a wicked grin. “And then talking became kissing, and then—”

“Oh, I remember!” His mom grinned seductively as his father.

“Oh my god, so gross…” Rhys knew they meant well. But he didn’t want to envision his parents hooking up on their first date.

Rhys noted that out the car windows the scenery had changed from streetlights to trees. They must have been getting closer to home.

“That’s me and Mason,” Rhys explained as he recomposed himself. “We talk like we’ve been together for years. We’ve known each other barely a week, but we’re so in sync. I’d hardly made it past Houston when I decided to drive back. Do you know what Mason was doing?” Rhys didn’t wait for a reply. “He was driving out to meet me, same time. I already know what love is because you two have shown me.”

His two parents beamed at one another. Rhys knew bringing up the comparison would work. Mainly because it was the truth.

“What Mason and I share, this is real,” Rhys told them, the sun starting to bear down on him, just beginning to rise. “And like I said, I’ll see you guys soon for Christmas and setting up the new store. But then I’m coming back here to spend the rest of the life with the man I love.”

“Love?” a voice behind him asked.

Rhys felt his insides drop. He turned around to see Mason standing behind him.

“Hello again!” his mom called out, chipper, from his phone screen.

“Good to see you again, young man!” his dad awkwardly chimed in.

“Gotta go. Talk later. Love you two!” Rhys blurted out, hanging up the call before his parents could say anything further.

“What are you doing here?” Mason asked, looking amazed at Rhys. “Did Lily call you after the accident?”

“I was already on my way back,” Rhys proudly told him. “I saw you’d liked my Instagram post. So I thought I had a chance. A chance with you is worth anything.”

All nerves were gone from Rhys. Mason always talked about ‘going big or going home.’ This was Rhys going big.

“Did you just say you love me?” Mason asked again.

Rhys took in a deep breath. “Yes. I love you. And if that’s too much or too scary, then I understand, but I had to say it. And you don’t have to say anything back. I’m not gonna pressure you to—”

“When you left, it was like the light from my life was gone,” Mason told him, wincing before clutching his bruised ribs (the other side from where Rhys was snuggled up). Rhys felt the drop in his stomach lifting, the worry bubbling into something warmer. “I couldn’t see a future without you. Still can’t. I know you have a job waiting for you back in Utah—”

“Utah doesn’t have you,” Rhys pointed out.

“Then I think I love you too,” Mason told him, clutching his jacket he’d thrown on tightly. “No. I know I love you too.”

Rhys smiled up at Mason, leaning in closer.

The two men kissed, Rhys tenderly hugging Mason, hoping he was avoiding the bruised ribs, as Mason wrapped his big muscular arms around him.

Rhys still had his concerns.

Would it be okay for him to move right in with Mason, or would he have to get his own place?

What exactly would he be doing for a living?

Could they even keep Mason’s business alive? Now that Tristan had destroyed Mason’s Chevrolet, he’d wiped out half of their wedding car rental business.

But for now, he was safe in Mason’s arms, and that was all that mattered.

At two o’clock, Mason was discharged from Hidden Creek Memorial. They’d given him some pain medication, thankfully nothing as strong as the morphine, and instructions for healing. Mainly rest over the weekend and then light duties. Rhys knew Lily would be up to any mechanical challenge, and Mason could guide her through any procedures she wasn’t familiar with.

Rhys pulled his red Impala up beside Mason’s Body Shop. The outside looked startlingly peculiar to Rhys, closed for once in the daytime.

Mason locked the doors to the outside world behind them, the two standing in the vast empty garage. Rhys could feel Mason tensing up as he looked at all the empty space.

“So the Chevrolet,” Rhys began his question with hesitation. “I assume it’s…”

“Totaled,” Mason answered. “The front is, anyway. Ripped apart.”

“We’ll figure it out.” Rhys sounded a lot more confident than he felt. “First things first. Stairs.”

It was a struggle. Each step up made Mason stop and wince in pain before carrying on.

Eventually, they made it to the top of the summit, where Mason carefully unlocked the door.

“Meow!” Rhys knew what kind of meow that was. ‘I’m still hungry, human!’

Sure enough, as they entered, Rhys noted Socket’s empty feeding bowl, even though he knew Lily had stopped by to give Socket some wet food for lunch earlier that day.

The cat went completely still on the kitchen counter, her wide eyes looking Rhys up and down.

“Meow?” Rhys chuckled at her question. ‘You made my big human sad. Are you back now?’

“She raises a good point,” Rhys said. Mason frowned as he closed the door behind him. Rhys opened the cupboard, taking out more dry food to pour into Socket’s bowl.

“What’s that?” Mason asked at a loss.

“Is it okay if I stay here for a while?” Rhys asked. “I could go back on the couch if need be.”

“What?” Mason asked incredulously. Rhys’s eyes widened in horror.

Their kiss outside the hospital, their drive home, had he somehow misread Mason?

“Of course you’re staying here!” Mason made clear. “I assumed that was the plan. Here until you get sick of me.”

“Never.” Rhys sighed with relief as he filled up Socket’s bowl. The cat leaped down from the counter, scarfing down the food as fast as humanly— cat-tingly —possible.

“Then I guess we’re stuck with each other,” Mason said as Rhys stood up.

“Darn tootin’,” Rhys replied in his best Texan accent. Mason’s scoff soon turned into a chuckle.

“Please stop with the accent,” Mason mock-pleaded.

“Make me,” Rhys commanded, looking up at Mason, hunger in his eyes.

They’d been through a lot in barely thirty-six hours. Rhys felt the need to make his claim on Mason.

“I’m injured,” Mason ruefully pointed out.

“They told me to take care of you,” Rhys explained, prowling toward Mason. “Let me take care of you, babe.”

“Babe?” Mason grimaced at the word, shaking his head. Rhys was standing right in front of him.

“Honey?” Rhys asked, and Mason shook his head. Rhys pecked him on the neck before taking him by the hand toward the bedroom. “Sugarplum? Fuck puppy? Cupcake? The one with the sexy muscles?”

“Stop it!” Mason mock-pleaded once more. Rhys gently sat him down on the bed before Mason leaned back, his feet still planted on the floor as he lay on the bed.

Rhys undid his belt, sliding off his underwear and jeans. He knelt on the jeans, grabbing Mason’s soft, meaty cock.

“Adonis?” Rhys carried on, trying to find the perfect pet name for his lover. “Sex beast? Baby? Daddy? Cock Goblin?”

“Cock Goblin!? Abso-fucking-lutely,” Mason jokingly affirmed as Rhys stroked his ever-hardening cock.

“Oh, Mason,” Rhys growled as the member in his hand grew semi-hard.

“Love it when you say my name,” Mason gasped, his cock twitching even harder. It was almost up to full hardness.

“Mason it is, then,” Rhys agreed, leaning up and playfully licking Mason’s tip.

Mason moaned deeply. Rhys noticed him grasping the sheets around him. Rhys carried on with his playful licks, each touch of his tongue making Mason even harder.

After gently making him more desperate for a good few minutes, Rhys took as much of Mason into his mouth as he could. He would choke if he tried to get his mouth down to Mason’s base.

For a moment, he fantasized about the same cock plowing into him, rubbing into his prostate. Maybe sometime soon in the future?

If Rhys could find a stable job, help save Mason’s business, and find a life-fulfilling vocation for himself in Hidden Creek.

He pushed his worries of the future aside, letting his baser instincts take over as he bobbed his head up and down. Each time he rose up to the tip, he flicked his tongue over.

“Oh fuck me, that feels good!” Mason gasped.

Rhys pulled his mouth fully off of Mason’s rock-hard cock. “When you’re feeling one hundred percent, I’ll fuck you silly, Mason.”

Before he could respond, Rhys was already back to work, spreading Mason’s dripping precum all over his member.

“Rhys — I… blehthyhmm…” Mason trailed off, unable to form coherent words.

Within seconds, Rhys felt Mason’s hot cum spewing into his mouth. Rhys lapped it all up, holding it in place, swallowing it all in one salty mouthful.

He then crawled up the bed, snuggling into Mason on his good side.

“Let’s never leave each other again, promise?” Rhys asked.

Mason wearily nodded, unable to open his eyes.

Rhys wiggled his way back into Mason’s good side, Mason wrapping his arms around him.

Out of all the beds, sofas, and cars he’d slept in the past couple weeks, Rhys felt the safest in Mason’s arms.