Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 103918 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 520(@200wpm)___ 416(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103918 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 520(@200wpm)___ 416(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
“We’re here,” Gideon said a couple minutes later.
“Oh,” I murmured. The truck shifted slightly as Gideon got out and a handful of seconds later, my door was being opened. Gideon’s fingers closed gently around my upper arm and I reluctantly got out of the truck.
Instead of him leading me to the cabin, we ended up standing there. I was caged in by the truck and Gideon, but that just made me feel oddly safe. I could smell that intoxicating clean scent on him. I found myself breathing it in.
“I’ll make sure you get inside okay,” I heard Gideon say after a long pause that had felt strangely charged.
I nodded. “Thanks for the ride, Gideon.”
“You’re welcome,” the man before me responded, then he was weaving my hand around his arm so I would have something to hang on to. I hated knowing that I had just moments left with him. I tried to think of something to say in the short amount of time it took for him to get me into the cabin.
“You have my number, right? Call me.”
My heart leaped at the knowledge that he wanted to talk to me again, but it plummeted just as quickly when he said, “In case you have any problems with the cabin.”
“Oh, yeah, right,” I said.
“Okay, unless you need something else—”
There was no missing the impatience in Gideon’s voice as he spoke, so I quickly said, “No, I’m good. Thanks.”
A beat of silence followed, then Gideon murmured, “Alright, see you later, then.”
“See you,” I managed to say as lightly as I could. “Oh, and Gideon?” I called because I’d heard him take a few steps and knew he had to be near the door.
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for taking the long way home.”
Chapter Ten
Gideon
I didn't hear from him for a whole week. One week of not knowing whether he was okay or not. One week of driving myself crazy imagining him lying unconscious on the floor of his cabin because he'd taken too much insulin or because the cuts on his feet had gotten infected. The only thing that had kept me from banging on his door had been seeing the little wisps of smoke coming up from his chimney, as well as the footprints in the snow by the log pile in front of the cabin. I'd checked up on him daily from afar and while I hadn't seen him, there'd been enough proof that he was alive and well, so I hadn't had an excuse to go see him.
That wasn't to say I didn't help him out a little bit. Like making sure the small pile of logs in front of the cabin near the door was always full so he wouldn't have to try and figure out where the larger pile of chopped wood behind the house was. We’d also had another power outage after a rough storm, so as soon as I'd realized the electricity was out, I’d hurried over to his cabin to get the generator started and I’d turned it back off as soon as the power had returned. Beyond that, there hadn't been much I could do. I’d found myself wanting to call him several times via the cabin's landline, but I'd resisted each time. I'd chalked up the conversation we’d had in my truck to us both having vulnerable moments and nothing more. I was also more than a little bit bothered by the fact that I’d come so close to leaning in and kissing him.
As hard as I tried not to think about what any of it meant, it was almost always at the forefront of my mind. I still couldn't believe that I'd missed the obvious signs of my sexuality when I'd been younger, but in all fairness, I hadn't been a particularly busy guy when it had come to sex.
So when the phone rang and I saw the number for the cabin on my caller ID, I nearly sprained my thumb trying to answer the damn thing fast enough.
"Hello, Lex? Is everything okay?" I asked.
"Hi. Yeah, everything's good," Lex responded. He sounded really good. He sounded light. The fact that I was even recognizing when the man sounded light versus when he sounded dark was pretty telling. I really needed to get a grip.
"Good, good," I said.
Smooth, Gideon. Real smooth.
"Is there something you need?" I asked, injecting a bit more formality into my voice.
There was a beat of silence on the other end of the phone.
"Lex?"
"Yeah, I'm here. Sorry. I, um… you know what, never mind. I'm sorry to have bothered you." Just like that, the lightness in his voice was gone and I wondered what the hell had happened.
"Wait, what's up? It's okay, you can tell me."
Lex seemed to hesitate a moment before he said, “My driver is having some car trouble, so he won't be able to get to the store for me and I'm running a bit low on food. Is there any way—"