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“Don’t do that. Talk to me. This isn’t a trauma competition. I’m not keeping score.”
“It’s nothing,” he said. “When they dragged you away from me—”
“You wouldn’t let me go,” I said, trying to force a smile. “You held onto me.”
He nodded. “Tommy was trying to get me to let go of you, but I knew if I did, I’d never see you again. I tried, baby. I promise, I tried to get them to let you go.”
“I know you did,” I said, stroking his cheek. His eyes were fixed on my chest like he was too ashamed to even look me in the eyes. I didn’t want to start a relationship with that still hanging over our heads, so I leaned in, pressing my forehead against his. “Tell me. Please?”
“There’s not much to tell,” he said, finally risking a glance at me. “Tommy kicked me pretty hard when he was trying to get me to let go of you. I’ve had trouble with my knee ever since. It’s not too bad most days, just aches sometimes. Pops a lot when I try to stand up too quickly.”
“Maybe I should be carrying you instead,” I said, forcing a chuckle.
“Think I’d rather take my chances on the bum knee. You’re beautiful, Kent, but you’re not really a heavy lifting kind of guy.”
I scoffed at him, and then I sighed. He had a point. Hell, I had a hard enough time slinging twenty-pound bags of dog food onto the line on truck day. I’d be absolutely useless at attempting much more.
“Well, I think a nap will do us a world of good. I can give you a knee massage if it’ll help. I mean, I’m not sure knee massages are actually a thing, but I’m willing to try.”
He shook his head before carting me over to the stairs. “Nurse-man wouldn’t dream of it. It’s your turn to be pampered.”
Once upstairs, he lowered me to the bed. I slid underneath my blanket and held it up, inviting him in. He nestled in next to me, and I pulled the blanket over our heads, cocooning us in. Underneath, our only light source was his phone screen, displaying a picture of us he’d taken at the lake. As he stroked my cheek, he brushed against the bruise under my eye, making me wince.
“Sorry,” he said, his nostrils flaring. “When I find Kyle, I’ll kill him. No one touches you. Never again. You hear me? I’ll tear his dang head off his body.”
“Fuck,” I breathed. His words were like audible porn, sending rushes of blood into places it had no business flowing. Apparently, I had a vengeance fetish. “Nurse-man is seriously sexy.”
“I’m not joking. He ever touches you again, he’ll be needing a lot more than Nurse-man to heal him. I already got Tommy back for what he did to you. I’m not gonna …” He closed his eyes, mouthingdang.
What?
“Gray?”
Gray’s eyes widened, nervously darting left to right, looking everywhere but at me. He opened his mouth, singing,“abide with me,”as he stroked my cheek. “Just for you, Kent. Remember?”
I put my hand over his mouth. “Oh, no you don’t. You’re not going to‘just for you, Kent’your way out of this one. Spill it. What happened with Tommy?” He blushed, trying to look away, but I wasn’t having it. I pulled the cover back and sat up, crossing my legs in front of me. “Come on. Tell me.”
He rolled on his back and stared up at the ceiling. “Fine. But we’re not making a big deal out of it.” He closed his eyes and sighed. “It was that day you called to come and pick you up at the lake. When you told me everything that happened that night. After I dropped you off at home, I went to the store and got our picture from my desk. Everything that happened in my bedroom that night just kept playing on a loop in my head. The way Trevor was beating on you. How Tommy kept calling you a—” He ground his teeth together, his jaw more tense than I’d ever seen it. “How he kept calling you a faggot. He kept saying it, and you just sat there crying. They broke you. I watched you break right in front of me. I thought that if I could just see your face in that picture, it would take away some of that anger.” He shook his head. “It didn’t work.”
“What did you do?”
“The more I stared at the picture, the angrier I got. Tommy lives in a trailer park on the outskirts of town. We used to go over there and witness as part of the church’s outreach. Lots of meth users out that way. Tommy’s one of them.” Gray glanced down at his hand and smirked. “You remember when I came into work the next day?”
I nodded. “You brought me cookies.”
“And …?”
“And what?” I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about. The day after our talk at the lake, everything had been the same as it always was. He’d given me cookies, he’d taken me to his office, our knees unnecessarily brushed against each other several times, I kissed his scabby knuckles—
I gaped at him.
Gray said, “I might have roughed him up a little.”
“You punched him? And, what? You just turned around and walked away? What if he comes after you? Oh my God, Gray.” I shook my head frantically. Gray Collins was strong enough, but the last time I’d seen Tommy, he was twice Gray’s size. What if he attacked him? What if I had to watchhimbeing dragged away from me this time?
“Whatever you’re worrying about, I want you to stop,” he said. “You don’t have anything to be scared of.”
“He could kill you.”
