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What the hell had just happened?
And how the hell did I feel about it?
24
Jack
I was nervous. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d been so nervous. Once I’d made the decision to drop in on him, I’d only stopped long enough to grab his favorite chocolate.
When I got to the building, two women were just leaving and held the door open for me. Maybe I looked trustworthy or something, but I was grateful nonetheless.
I knocked on Teo’s apartment door and waited.
A minute later, Chris Banks answered wearing nothing but a towel. I blinked at him.
“Ah… hi… Chris. I’m so sorry to hear about your grandfather,” I began. “I only met him twice, but he was very kind both times. I hope your parents are doing all right.”
Why was he only wearing a towel? Why was he at Teo’s apartment at ten o’clock at night?
Chris gave me a cursory smile. “Thanks. I appreciate that. They’re hanging in there.”
Awkward silence filled the space between us. I tried glancing past Chris into the apartment in hopes of spotting Teo, but there was no sign of him. Waffles, on the other hand, had shot out of the apartment and reached her front claws up my legs in a full-body stretch.
“Shit,” I blurted, reaching down to extract him carefully. “Waffles, Christ, those talons are sharp.”
I picked her up and cradled her, scratching the side of her face the way she liked. When Chris didn’t call for Teo or invite me in, I glanced past him again. “Is Teo around?”
“He’s in the shower. I was just about to join him. Do you want me to give him a message?”
My stomach dropped. I might have thought he was joking if I hadn’t heard the shower running and seen the man standing there in nothing but a towel.
“Yeah, uh…” I pulled the box of Milk Duds out of my pocket and handed them to him. “Give him these?”
Chris’s eyebrows dipped in confusion as he took the box from me. “Okay… was he expecting you or something?”
“No. Not at all. I just wanted to let him know I was thinking about him. I know he cared about your grandfather quite a bit.” I swallowed and leaned past him just enough to set Waffles down in the kitchen. Socrates stared at me from the center of Teo’s bed. An unmade bed Chris’s clothes were currently piled on. “So, anyway. Take care.”
I turned and fled like the floor was a thin layer of ice over a raging river and a crack had just started at Teo’s door. My feet barely touched the ground until I was outside. It was a good thing I’d worn shorts and running shoes because I shot down his street and ran. I didn’t slow down until I saw signs for Pershing Road, and even then, I only stopped long enough to make sure it was the same Pershing that ran by my neighborhood. Once I turned left, I ran the final three miles at a slower pace. It was a warm enough evening that I was drenched in sweat by the time I approached my apartment building. My legs felt like jelly, and it reminded me of how much less I’d been running lately since starting my new job.
The good news was, as soon as I took another shower—this time a quick cool one—I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep where, for seven solid hours I didn’t have to imagine Chris Banks’s hands on my sweet Teo’s naked body.
And when I woke up the next day, ready to fly to Springfield, Missouri, to pick up several members of the extended Banks family in the Gulfstream with Nate, I tried my best to shut Teo completely out of my mind. I had a job to do. Besides, Teo had never been anything but completely honest with me about his feelings for Chris. He’d been in love with the man for years, and they had so much shared history, it wasn’t something I could have ever competed with anyway.
In fact, I should have been happy for Tee, but I wasn’t that good of a person.
I kept my head down during the trip, speaking to Nate only when necessary. I was sure he knew something was up with me, but I didn’t have the emotional energy to even make up an excuse. By the time we landed back in Chicago, I’d sent a message to my dispatcher to confirm I was still able to fly Rourke to Newark first thing in the morning. I hadn’t heard back from Teo after dropping by his place, so I was fairly sure there was no reason for me to think he’d want or need me at the funeral.
It made sense that a death in the family had finally brought them together. Stressful times often made people realize that life was too short to play silly games. Hopefully, that’s what had happened with Chris. Maybe losing his grandfather had reminded him what was really important.
