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“Here,” Hawke said as he came around the corner and held out a bottle of water.
“Thanks,” I said.
“I don’t have much to eat, but I can take something out of the freezer-”
“No,” I responded quickly. “I ate at the airport.”
Hawke nodded and I felt a shiver crawl up my spine as his eyes swept my entire body. If I’d known for a fact that he was gay, my insides would have been doing a happy dance at his obvious interest. I knew it was possible he was bisexual, but I didn’t want to risk pissing him off if I was wrong and did or said something that set him off.
“Let me show you around,” he finally said. He didn’t speak as he gave me the tour of the lower floor so I focused my attention on the small details I managed to pick up as we strode through the house at an almost unnaturally fast clip.
The furniture, what little of it there was, looked brand new, though the décor, like the wallpaper and fixtures, looked like they were from the seventies. The bigger pieces of furniture were still wrapped in plastic except for one chair. There also weren’t any pictures save a small one, right above the fireplace in the middle of the mantel. I couldn’t make out much from the picture other than to tell the guy was Hawke and he had his arms wrapped around a pretty blonde woman, presumably his wife.
The kitchen was devoid of any kind of appliances on the counter expect for a small coffee machine and the mismatched larger appliances also looked like they were decades old. There was no table in the small nook that likely would have served as an eating area.
“The bedroom’s upstairs if you want to crash for a while.”
Hawke’s voice caught me off guard because he’d been so quiet the rest of the time. “Um, yeah, I’d love to get a couple hours sleep.”
“Is your bag in your car?”
I nodded and before I knew it, he was handing me his bottle of water. We were back by the front door and as I waited for him to return, I glanced back at the picture on the mantle in the living room. There was a TV in the room but the single armchair that wasn’t wrapped in plastic wasn’t pointed at the TV. It was facing the fireplace and the picture above it.
I ripped my eyes from the curious arrangement when I heard the screen door open. Hawke barely looked at me as he carried my bag past me and up the stairs. I followed him to the second floor, but he didn’t give me a tour. There were several closed doors that we passed until we reached the room at the end of the hallway. “It’s the only one with a big mattress,” Hawke murmured as he led me inside the sparsely furnished room.
There was a bed but no headboard and the bedding included a simple comforter and two pillows. A dresser and nightstand were the only other pieces of furniture in the room.
“Is this your room?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Hawke said as he went to put my bag on the bed. “I wasn’t expecting company,” he said as he tried to straighten the comforter.
“It’s fine,” I said quickly, though the idea of sleeping in the man’s bed sent a ridiculous thrill through me. “But I can’t just take your bed,” I added.
“I don’t need it tonight,” Hawke responded and then he was brushing past me, grabbing his water as he went.
“Where will you sleep?”
“I’ll be in the living room,” was all he said.
“Hawke,” I called before he completely left the room.
He stilled but didn’t respond. It was like he didn’t even want to look at me. I definitely hadn’t been right about him looking at me the same way I looked at him.
“You won’t leave, right?” I asked.
He didn’t answer me right away, but when he did, he finally turned my way. “No, I won’t leave. Get some sleep, Tate. We have a long drive ahead of us.”
Hawke closed the door and I took a deep breath and looked around the empty room. I went to grab my bag so I could search out my toothbrush, but when I saw the pillows lying at the head of the bed, I let my fingers trail over one of them before picking it up and putting it to my nose. It smelled like Hawke.
Fucking perfect.
* * *
“Tate, wake up.”
I’d never exactly been a morning guy, but having a heavy hand shaking me awake brought back a slew of memories, and I jerked away from Hawke and threw up my arm to protect my head before I could stop myself. Humiliation flooded through me as I realized what I’d done and I slowly lowered my arm to see that Hawke was watching me with an unreadable expression.
