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“And what’s that?”
“I know I want to spend those years with you.” He looked over at his lover as he spoke, observing the flush that had pinkened his skin. Could he be any clearer?
After another weighty pause, Noah said, “Ah! So, you knowwhoyou want to do, just notwhat, huh?”
His deadpan tone and facial expression matched perfectly. Jax burst out laughing, and after a second, Noah joined him, the sounds of their amusement filling the cab of the truck.
“Asshole!” Jax answered, still giggling like aschoolboy.
“Sucker!” Noahretorted.
They both burst into laughter again. Jax’s heart swelled with warmth and contentment. For the first time in a very long time, he was happy. God, he was so happy, his joy was likely to spill right out of him in bursts of light and heat. He felt giddy with the feeling.
His cellphone pinged a new message notification and he looked down to see that it was from Dr. Mann. He read it aloud when he saw what she’d said.
“Hey, listento this.”
“Who’s it from?” Noah asked.
“My new boss. It’s about the team building retreat. I asked her where and when it will be.” He cleared his throat to repeat the message. “It’ll be at Mayfair House, the university’s guest house on the lake on the weekend before the semesterbegins.”
“When’s that?” Noah asked, glancing at him.
“Semester begins August 29. So that’s August26 to 28.”
“That’s two weeks from now,” Noahsupplied.
Jax nodded and continued reading. “Check in will be on Friday afternoon at four and checkout will be Sunday at noon. Please RSVP immediately so I can give accurate numbers to the guest services concierge. And feel free to bring a plus one, though he or she will need to fend for themselves while we’reworking.”
Noah gasped. “Is sheserious?”
Jax understood his shock. He hadn’t expected that, either. In none of the places that he had worked before had there been any attempt to build a team in quite the way that Dr. Mann and her colleagues planned. Part of him was excited at the prospect of getting to know his peers outside of the stresses of their jobs, and part of him was apprehensive at the thought of coming out, yet again, especially if he took Noah along. And he found he wanted—no, needed—to take Noah along, to prove to him that he was committed to them sharing a future togetherpublicly.
“As a heart attack, apparently,” he answered his lover’s question. Then he turned to look at him. “Are you interested in joining me?”
He might want Noah with him, but Noah might still want to remain withdrawn from the world, and no doubt some, if not most, of the music faculty would immediately recognize him. Was he ready for a return to the kind of limelight he’d been avoiding since his accident? Did Jax have the right to ask that of him?
Chapter 19
Noah
Honestly, he wasn’t bitter … any longer.
They ate at a little restaurant right on the boardwalk after the regatta ended, both tired and now full of good food. Noah hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Jax’s invitation to join him at his department retreat. He’d asked about what the agenda was like, but Jax didn’t know, although he’d sent a message to ask his boss. She hadn’t gotten back to him yet, but Noah didn’t mind. He had other things to consider, more important than what Jax and his colleagues would be doing for a team-building weekend at the end ofthe month.
He had a lot to think about, like whether or not he wanted to come out of hiding, because yes, that was what he’d been doing for these last six months. True, he’d also been in physical therapy, but there was no reason to not keep up with his social media or to ghost his friends, whom he hardly spoke to because he was embarrassed and bitter that they’d been busy preparing for the tour he wouldn’t begoing on.
And then there was the relationship with Jax. Was he ready to be quite so public with his love life? Neither he nor Jax was unknown in the music world, and while Jax had not played the concert circuit nearly as often as he had, he was an established and distinguished musician in his own right. What would people say about the sudden appearance of a plus one at his side, after an entire career with no one? How would they explain what they had without raking overthe past?
No doubt there would be those wanting to make assumptions about their relationship before Jax broke them apart while Noah was a junior in college. And though their speculations would most likely be true, did he want to bring that kind of notoriety to Jax now, at the start of his new job? Was it fair to him to expect that? Not that he did, because Jax might only be asking if Noah wanted to go with him out of courtesy. If he refused, they were both spared a load of stressand fuss.
He declined another beer and waited while Jax paid the bill. He hadn’t been able to dissuade him, though they would need to talk about sharing expenses going forward. He wasn’t destitute, and it wasn’t right that Jax should be the one paying allthe time.
“Penny for them?” Jax murmured as they stepped out into the coolingnight air.
“What?” He was totally distracted and hadn’t heard Jax’squestion.
“What are you thinking so hard about? I’m asking you to share thethoughts.”
