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Wasthatlove?
The prospect of starting over was more terrifying than adjusting to being alone, but he was pretty sure relationships should run a lot deeper than just having someone around to fill the silences.
His head snapped up when the door swung open and Wren poked his head in. His brother looked almost sheepish, and Caleb was afraid to ask. Instead, his gaze flickered down to Wren’s hand to check for bloody knuckles because Wren’s solutions tended to come at the end of his fists.
“Is he gone?” Caleb asked, closing his eyes in a long blink.
“Yeah, he’s gone. He won’t be back.” Wren dragged an industrial sack of flour over to the edge of Caleb’s desk and sat down on it like it was a bean bag chair.
Caleb nodded, then felt a hot rush of emotion clawing at the back of his throat and with some horror, he realized he was about to cry. He bit the inside of his cheek. Hard. “Can I stay at your place tonight?”
Wren frowned. “Are you sure?”
Caleb’s finger hovered near his chest. “I…”
And then the fucking dam broke. He felt hot tears coursing down his cheeks and the tightness in his throat as he tried to force breath out. Wren was on his feet instantly, grabbing Caleb round the back of the neck and holding him tight. He could feel the sobs rippling at the back of his throat, and he didn’t give a shit how loud he was. Let all the customers hear. They’d already seen the worst part of that night, anyway.
He felt shaky all over again, and wrung out like a used dish cloth. All he wanted to do was curl up under his covers and lay there until these feelings passed. But he also knew it didn’t work like that. Once he was under control, he pulled back and swiped his hands over his face.
“Sorry…” he started once he’d pulled back enough to give them both signing space.
“Don’t,” Wren snapped. “He’s lucky I didn’t beat his fucking face unrecognizable.”
Caleb rolled his eyes, but he felt the barest smile touch his lips because he loved his brother so much. He’d spent a lot of years resenting his brother, and while he’d done everything in his power to make up for it, he wasn’t sure he’d have been as forgiving as Wren was.
But he was profoundly grateful for it now.
“He said he’s moving out tonight, but I don’t know if I can be in that condo right now. Or ever,” he added.
Wren’s brows lifted. “You want to move? Youloveyour place,” he said, using afist-kissfor emphasis. “You can’t let that ugly piece of shit take your home from you.”
Caleb bit his lip, then let out a long sigh becausetrue biz, he did love his condo as much as he loved his café. Cameron hadn’t given a single fuck where they lived so Caleb had been the one to do all the real estate hunting, paying every dime and keeping it all in his name because Cameron didn’t want the stress of ownership. He’d also taken care of all the decorating, turning the place from house to home.
For Caleb, it had been his sanctuary—hard fought, hard won.
For Cameron, it had been a place to lay his head and occasionally fuck Caleb when he was bored or horny.
So yeah, Wren was right. He didn’t need a new place. He just needed to purge it of all the things that reminded Caleb of what had once been.
He looked up when Wren touched his wrist. “You can stay with me as long as you want. Mousey will be happy to have his uncle there.”
Caleb wanted to cry all over again at the thought of being able to cuddle with Wren’s German Shephard. Mouse was Wren’s hearing dog, and he was massive. He’d just turned seven, so he was out of the puppy phase and happy to cuddle more than he wanted to tear-ass around the yard and destroy things when he wasn’t on duty.
And Caleb loved him more than most of the people Wren brought around.
“Would you mind closing up tonight? I think I need to get out of here. There were people filming…”
“I know,” Wren signed, his fingers giving an angry tap against his temple. His face was drawn with fury. “I tried to take care of that, too. A couple of them were the girls from the nail shop next door, so I’m going to be talking to Mindy tomorrow.”
“Just leave it,” Caleb told him as he pushed to stand. He didn’t have the energy for that kind of fight. He was no stranger to being filmed by randos in public since the advent of live streaming and phones with professional-level cameras in them.
As he steadied himself, his body felt a little weak and his head was foggy, but he was more stable than before. So long as Cameron really was gone and he could get to his car in peace, he’d be fine. “I’m going to go out the back door so I don’t have to talk to anyone. I don’t think I can handle explaining what happened to everyone else.”
Wren nodded, tapping his Y-hand in the air.Peh-peh. “I think they get it. We all hated Cameron anyway, and we kind of saw this coming.”
Caleb’s brows flew up, and a small part of him wanted to demand to know why the fuck none of them had said anything before now, but he also knew he probably wouldn’t have believed them if they’d tried. He would have picked a fight and it would have ended badly, and ahhell, had he become that boss everyone was trying to avoid?
One of the perks of being in the Deaf community was trusting the blunt honesty of the people around him, so what did that say about him that no one was willing to be truthful?
