“Well …” Tom started. His mom had never had an issue with him being gay. She just said the same thing she’d have said if he were interested in a girl.Don’t get serious, Tommy. Relationships always end in heartache. They’re not worth it.She was still so bitter about her marriage to Tom’s dad. He was no longer around, having cheated on her for several years before she finally “threw his sorry ass out,” as she told it. Tom honestly didn’t know if his mom had really thrown his father out, or if he had just left of his own accord. He didn’t think it really mattered anymore.
Tom had been four at the time, and he vaguely remembered seeing his dad a few times after that, but eventually, he stoppedshowing up. When Tom got older, his mom said his dad had moved away, and good riddance to him. She did a great job raising Tom, and while they didn’t have a lot, they had each other. They made do with what they did have, and overall, life was pretty good. Sure, after high school, Tom worked for a few years before he started college—mostly to save up a little money—but he had convinced himself he needed time to figure out what he wanted to do anyway.
“Yeah, he is kinda cute, but don’t worry, Mom,” he continued. “I just want to pass this class, okay?”
As he gotinto bed that night, he thought about what his mom had said about Will. It was true that he’d been eyeing him for a while.
He remembered first seeing him last year in the student lounge. He’d been eating his lunch, just like today, while reading some textbook—Tom couldn’t remember what the subject was. It didn’t matter; he only saw Will.
Short brown hair, chocolate eyes, and just the hint of a beard. He’d been wearing a V-necked shirt of some kind, and Tom could see some dark hair peeking out from the collar. Every so often, whatever he was reading would cause a smile to light up his entire face. Yeah, Will was definitely hitting all of Tom’s buttons for sure.
Relationships never worked. He knew that not only from listening to his mom all these years, but from his own experience with Derek. Derek the Dick. He’d taught Tom more than he cared to think about regarding relationships.
Sure, it had started off nice enough. Derek had been a couple of years older than him, and in the beginning, he cared—or atleast seemed to care—for Tom. As time went on, things began to change. Derek got more demanding of Tom’s time, always expecting to him to be at Derek’s beck and call. But it wasn’t reciprocal. If Tom tried to initiate a date with Derek, the man either wouldn’t reply to a text or say he wasn’t available. He often went out with other friends and rarely included Tom in his plans. And when he did, Tom felt compelled to go, even if the time was inconvenient or the friends weren’t his favorites, lest he incur Derek’s wrath.
Looking back, Tom supposed he should have seen the warning signs, but at that point, he had just been so happy to have a boyfriend, he had ignored all the bad things that were happening. Soon, Derek grew tired of Tom and broke it off with him. Alice, of course, was unsympathetic. “What did you expect?” she asked him. “Relationships never work. Gay or straight. It’s just the way it is.”
So he guessed his mom was right. Relationships never worked out, did they? It certainly hadn’t for her. Dad had walked out and pretty much never looked back. Some days, Tom wondered if he were still alive. Probably, he figured. Mom wasn’t even fifty yet. Even if his dad were a few years older than that, he still should be alive, right? Did he have a new family somewhere? Did Tom have half brothers or sisters? Crap! Why did his brain always take him down these crazy paths? It didn’t do any good to think about what might be, or what might have been. The simple fact was that Dad was a loser.
He finally fell asleep, hoping that just once, he might find someone with whom a relationship might last for more than a month or two.
CHAPTER THREE
Will
Classes over for the day,Will walked out to his car and thought about the fact that he’dnotseen Tom at all that day.I guess our schedules don’t match up as well on the days we don’t have Calculus.As he made his way back to Hawthorne Bluff and Bradley House for his shift, he realized that he really missed seeing Tom, and that struck him as rather odd. They’d only just met and weren’t even really friends, but Will felt something was missing when their paths didn’t cross.
Ah well, they’d texted, and Tom would be coming to the B&B that evening, so they could try and learn something about the bane of their existence—calculus.
“Oh, hey, sis,” Will greeted his sister, Melissa, when he walked into Bradley House. “Why are you working today?” Melissa usually only worked weekends, so it was a surprise to see her there on a Friday.
“Kate called in sick today. Well, actually, two of her three kids have some kind of bug, so she needed to stay home with them. Clay called me to see if I could cover, so here I am.”
“Got it,” Will replied. “Has it been busy?”
“Not too bad,” Melissa said. “Two of the parties that are here for the weekend have checked in already. The third requested a late check-in, so you’ll get to deal with that whenever they arrive.”
“Not a problem. I’ve just got an evening of studying planned anyway.”
“Let me guess, calculus?”
“Yep. There’s a guy in my class who’s having trouble with it, too, so he’s gonna come over later, and we’ll see if we can conquer it together.”
“Sounds good, Billy. Well, now that you’re here, I’m off. Got some errands to do that I had originally planned to do this morning.” He shook his head. He’d already asked her to start calling him Will, but she wouldn’t agree until he had talked to their mom about it. Guess he’d better do that soon.
She gave him a quick hug and was out the door as Will called out, “Bye, Mel.”
Will settled in behind the reception desk and pulled out his English text to do some reading. The calc could wait until Tom arrived.
After Tom left,Will put his books away and thought about the evening. After discussing the concepts presented in the chapter they were working on, Will thought he might actually be understanding at leastsomeof what was covered. It seemed two heads were better than one when it came to calculus. And he might have understood even more if he hadn’t been distracted by Tom’s eyes. They were a shade of green Will couldn’t exactly describe. Darker than a yellowish spring green, but not as darkas forest green. Whatever it was called, they were dazzling.I could get lost in those verdant pools for sure. And the man has the longest lashes I’ve ever seen.
Clay had stopped at the front desk at one point and introduced himself to Tom, telling him he was welcome to come by and study whenever he wanted. It was nice that he had taken the time to do that, and once again, Will was thankful to work at Bradley House. The people he worked with definitely felt like family.
Just then, Clay poked his head out from his office and said, “You can leave now if you want, Will. I’ll cover until Jeff gets here.” Jeff Marshall was the new night manager that Clay had hired. He worked overnight and had a small room next to Clay’s office. At first, Will wasn’t sure why they needed someone to cover those hours since Clay lived in a small suite on the second floor, but then Clay had started dating Finn, and it looked like things were getting serious. Since Jeff had begun working nights, Clay now often stayed at Finn’s, and Will was sure it was only a matter of time before Finn asked Clay to move in with him.
“Thanks, Clay,” he replied. He shoved his books into his backpack and made his way out the door.
When he got home, he found his mom sitting in the kitchen. He wondered if something was wrong, as she usually wasn’t up that late. She owned The Leaf and Petal, Hawthorne Bluff’s flower-and-gift shop, and was usually up pretty early for work. His dad had been a firefighter, and when he was killed in the line of duty after an industrial fire got out of control, she took some of the settlement money and opened the shop in order to provide for her children.
