Wyatt hated to leave when Sam was mad at him, but they wouldn't be able to talk now anyway. Maybe it was better if Sam cooled off a little first.
The boys were waiting for him, and Wyatt had to go home and get some work done. Damn, why did he have to put his foot in it? And just when things between them were getting good.
***
Of course it was too good to be true. In one moment Sam went from looking forward to spending time with Wyatt and the boys to feeling it all crash around him.
What Wyatt said about Rico brought back all of the times Brian called him names. Brian constantly accused him of sleeping with everyone he ever met, and never believed a word Sam said to defend himself.
Sam remembered how the barrage of accusations made him feel helpless and dirty like he had really done something wrong. He didn't think Wyatt could ever make him feel like that.
Now Sam shifted between being furious, then depressed and then wondering if he was overreacting. Maybe Wyatt didn't mean it the way it sounded, but it sure sounded like he was accusing him of having a thing for Rico. That thought made him mad all over again and the whole cycle started up again.
Anger and self-doubt warred inside him until the end of his shift. That's when he started dreading going off somewhere alone to sink even further into this wretched darkness that was swallowing him up.
Before he could leave, Mrs. Del Rio took him aside. "Such a sad face. I guess I'll have to take you home with me to cheer you up," she said.
"I'm OK," Sam assured her. He appreciated her concern, but he couldn't be cheered up and he didn't want her to waste her time.
"How about this? I want to do a little redecorating at my house. Just shift some things around to freshen up the look of the old place. I already got Rico to help out. I just need another set of hands and a strong back. You up for that, sweetheart? A bit of hard, physical labor will do you a world of good," she said taking a completely different tack.
"It will?" Sam said and he couldn't help smiling. That didn't sound so bad to him. He wouldn't have to be alone and he would be doing something useful. "OK. I'm in."
Mrs. Del Rio clapped her hands together and called Rico over to give him the good news.
"The way you rope people into doing heavy lifting," Rico said and shook his head at his grandmother.
"Did you want to do it all by your lonesome?" she asked him pointedly.
"No, thank you. I'll gladly take the help you coerced from your employee," Rico told her just as pointedly.
"I don't mind," Sam said when he finally managed to get a word in edgewise.
After work Sam and Rico went over to Mrs. Del Rio's house. As soon as they arrived, she handed them each a lemon, mint, iced tea in a tall glass clinking with ice. Then she pointed at a sofa in her front room.
"I'm sick of the view from there. Shift it over so I'm looking out that way," she told them.
The two guys downed some of the iced tea then got to work. Some of the furniture was heavy, but nothing they couldn't handle. The back and forth between Mrs. Del Rio and her grandson kept things interesting for Sam.
Then he thought about his great-grandmother, who was so quiet and unassuming, the complete opposite of Mrs. Del Rio. That made Rico the opposite of Sam, but they still got along OK.
After they were done shifting furniture, Mrs. Del Rio got caught up in a lengthy phone conversation. With nothing better to do, Sam and Rico sat on the back porch steps drinking more of that iced tea. It was tasty and refreshing after all that work.
Rico leaned back on his elbows and stared at the clouds. "It's nice of you to help out."
"It's no problem. Your grandmother has been good to me, so I don't mind," Sam told him.
"Right, but shouldn't you be busy with your guy?" Rico asked and looked at him out of the corner of his eye.
Sam looked down at his feet. He didn't really want to talk about Wyatt or what he said about Rico. It would just make things weird.
"So you had a fight?" Rico guessed.
"I wouldn't call it that," Sam said. "But... I think Wyatt might be the jealous type."
Once that was out, Sam bit his lip. He might not be used to having anyone to talk to like this, but why shouldn't he get some of it off his chest. After all, he was here to avoid his own loneliness.
Sitting on the porch steps, letting the breeze cool them off, he could pour his heart out to Rico, at least a little bit. When he pictured the mischievous, longing look in Wyatt's blue eyes turn hateful and full of blame, Sam's insides twisted sickeningly. It killed him that Wyatt would think he was that kind of guy.
