AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Can you do tactile sign?” Caleb asked.
Bodhi nodded. “Jori’s been teaching me.”
Caleb gave him a swift peck, then rolled onto his back. “I’m going to turn off the light.”
Bodhi wanted to ask for a nightlight, but he could survive a single sleep without one. Especially when he’d have Caleb’s arms around him. His body went a little tense when darkness flooded the room, but it didn’t take long for his eyes to adjust to a sliver of moonlight coming in through the blinds. It illuminated them just enough for him to see a glint in Caleb’s eyes.
He settled back as Caleb brushed a touch over his collarbone, then took Bodhi’s hands over his. “Goodnight,” he signed very slowly.
Bodhi felt the signs against his palms, then repeated them to the man he thought he’d never have. The man who was with him in ways he never thought he’d get. “Goodnight.”
He was then rolled over and his back was tucked against Caleb’s chest, the grip better than any weighted blanket he’d ever used. He wasn’t sure he’d sleep, but the feeling was enough to lull him into a soft comfort that he hoped to any god listening he’d be allowed to keep.
Chapter11
Caleb woke alone.
He’d expected to, of course. He’d gone to sleep damn sure Bodhi would panic and disappear at some point before morning. He just hadn’t anticipated how much it was going to hurt to roll over and feel the cold side of the bed, then to walk through his place and not find a single trace of what had happened the night before.
Bodhi had even taken his soiled clothes.
He stared at his espresso machine, but even the very thought of putting more coffee into his body made him feel sick, so he started his kettle, then dropped into a chair at the kitchen table and stared at his phone. There weren’t any messages waiting, but he told himself that wasn’t an indication of anything.
Bodhi was different from anyone else he’d ever known.
Cameron had been straight forward right from the beginning. He was a take what he wanted kind of guy. He’d been brave in ways that Caleb never had been—never could be. Like Luke, he was Deaf legacy, a family full of either Deafies or CODA who were so entrenched in the community, they didn’t really know how to live around hearing people.
Cameron was so unapologetic and so damn happy about it, but on a fundamental level, Caleb had never been able to understand him.
He could be a cheerful guy, of course. He wasn’t miserable all the time despite current circumstances. He liked hugging and he adored his friends and there was a lot that made him laugh. He’d taken to Peyton like they’d been best friends most of their lives.
But he also lived with an undercurrent of anger that had built up as a child, and festered until it exploded like an ugly, toxic, acid rain.
He’d almost ruined Bodhi with it.
He’d been wondering lately if that was why, in the end, Cameron had been such a shitty boyfriend. Maybe Caleb had driven him to it.
Passing a hand down his face, he barely missed the steam pouring out of the kettle. He rose, grabbing a mug from the cabinet and a little sachet of English Breakfast from the metal tin Luke had gifted him last Christmas. He watched brown tendrils seep from the off-white mesh, and he was half-mesmerized for way too long.
He needed to do something about his situation.
Walking back to the table, he picked up his phone and pulled up Jori’s text thread.
Caleb: You home?
Jori: When I’m not?
Caleb: Baby?
Jori: Khai’s mom in town. Took her for afternoon.
Caleb: BRT.
He drummed his fingers on the table before shooting a text to Wren asking how the shop was doing. He got the patented,stop bothering me, old man, I’ve got this, text. It was Wren’s subtle way of telling him toactuallytake a day off.
It felt wrong, but Caleb knew he needed it. His last string of days off had been forced by the tornado of his emotions and the upheaval of his business. The next two days were supposed to be for him.
He’d made plans to just…be. Of course, he hadn’t anticipated being called to rescue a drunk, scared Bodhi from an alley. And he sure as shit hadn’t expected the kissing, and the sleeping in each other’s arms, and all the feelings that came with the morning after.
