Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 127213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
When his gaze settled on the donuts, his blood sang with a new energy, and he grabbed one with black frosting and cream filling. It was enormous, and fatty, and carby, and represented everything one should avoid to stay fit and healthy, but nobody died from eating one. Ros had them and he looked like Legolas's handsomer brother. If Ezra was to take on Frank’s demons, as well as his own, he could not be afraid of something as mundane as baked goods.
When he bit in and sugar melted on his tongue, he felt full of life.
Chapter 27
Frank
Getting hot and sweaty while chopping up rotting furniture wasn’t Frank’s idea of fun, but it did help ease some of the tension he now lived with every day.
The sun was setting already, but he wouldn’t be going home until he couldn’t delay his return anymore, because his presence made Ezra nervous. While it hadn’t been Frank’s fault that Paul started hunting Ezra, all the other calamities in Ezra’s life were. The injuries to his beautiful face, the emotional scars of being lied to, and the nightmares about people being dismembered, were all the result of fate putting him in Frank’s path.
If they’d never met, maybe Ezra would be in sunny California right now, lounging by the pool and basking in the attention of someone who could make all his dreams come true. That was where he belonged, not in Frank’s well of death and dirty business. Not even on his arm during the Strongman competition that passed by while Ezra was still in hospital. Frank had forgotten about it until a fellow athlete called him to ask about his absence, but it didn’t matter.
Nothing mattered until he managed to help Ezra back on his feet.
He didn’t think much of the hum of an approaching engine, since he was right next to the main road leading across the junkyard, but when the vehicle stopped behind his back, he lowered the axe and glanced over the shoulder. Dane’s old Ford opened, spitting out Jag, who was soon followed by his boyfriend.
“Frank, Frank!”
Frank straightened up and dropped the axe, frozen to his bones. If Jag had gotten Dane to drive him, this had to be serious. “What is it? Is Ezra okay?”
“What? Yeah, he’s fine,” Dane said, approaching too.
Jag stood behind his boyfriend and got to his toes in an obvious attempt to be slightly taller as he hugged him from behind. “Ezra wants you home.”
Frank stilled and cocked his head at the two of them. “Why? What’s going on?”
Dane pointed to Jag. “Jag says it’s urgent.”
“Urgent how? I need one of you to be much more specific. I have lots of work to do here.”
Dane frowned in an expression of disapproval he rarely allowed himself, polite as he was. “Come on, Frank. He wants you to come home. Since when do you not want to see him?”
Jag smelled his hair and met Frank’s gaze. “I thought you wanted him to be your mate. Did that change?”
“What’s it matter what I want if he doesn’t think about me the same way? Sometimes you need to be a man and suck up the rejection. I’ve been very clear about what I feel for him in the past. The ship has sailed.” He shook his head and picked up the axe, ready to get back to work. His love life, or lack of it, wasn’t an emergency.
Dane stepped closer, clearly set on not giving this a rest. “Why would he insist on getting you to come home if he didn’t want to see you?”
Jag nodded. “Exactly! And I’ve seen Dex deliver him alcohol, and Ros brought groceries—”
“What’s with the spying?” Frank snapped, though the idea of Dex bringing Ezra alcohol was… concerning.
Dane cleared his throat, standing straight as if he thought he were Captain America about to give good advice to the youth. “Jag likes to check up on him, because you leave him on his own all day.”
Frank let go of the axe. Again. Because he could already see there was no way out. The two love birds would pester him until he went home. Fine. He’d just prove to them and himself just how much Ezra didn’t want him around.
“He’s not a dog, he can spend time on his own. He’s recovering from injuries, watching TV, and selling stuff on eBay, hardly torture.”
Jag growled. “If Dane asked me to come over, I would drop everything and go. If you neglect your mate like this, he’ll find someone else!”
Dane blinked and looked back at him. “I wouldn’t…”
Jag kissed him with a smile. “I know, but Frank needs to understand the seriousness of the situation.”
Frank took a deep breath and counted to ten. “Fine, I’m going home. Happy?”
Jag’s face lit up. “Yes!”
Dane nodded, most likely realizing the question was rhetorical. “He'll tell me if you disappear midway,” he said, as if Frank could be swayed by the pressure from a man almost fifteen years younger.