I put my arm around his shoulders and drew him close, muttering under my breath about disrespecting one’s elders. We teased each other all the way back to the hotel room where I immediately pushed him face-first onto the desk, yanked his pants and underwear down to his ankles, and proceeded to show him with my tongue, my fingers, and finally my hard dick that some things did indeed get better with age.
15
Teo
I was in heaven.
Sure, I’d emergency landed in the middle of nowhere Canada, but I’d stumbled into a sex-fueled dream I never wanted to wake up from.
Except my ass hurt, and I had beard burn on my inner thighs that stung like a bitch.
“No more,” I muttered, tossing the half-empty bag of baby carrots onto the coffee table. “I liked the candy better. This healthy shit is for the birds.”
Jack nudged my thigh with his foot from his spot at the other end of the small sofa. “Need I remind you, getting the healthy shit was your idea?”
“Because candy and chips—not to mention festival food—were going to lead us to an early death.” I winced at the memory of Grandpa Banks and his heart attack. “I’m going to call Chris and see how Gordon is doing.”
When I got him on the phone, Chris sounded happy and much more grounded than before. “How is he?” I asked.
“Much better. His color is better than I’ve seen him in a while. I still don’t understand how his cardiologist missed this if he was in that bad of shape.”
“His last visit with a cardiologist was a year ago. He was scheduled next month for a full workup. Even his regular checkup with the GP was probably ten months ago.” I’d asked him for all of his medical records when I’d started keeping a closer eye on him at the office. “The only doctor he’d seen recently was the endocrinologist. Not exactly the best person to catch heart disease.”
Chris’s voice softened. “You were right, Tee. I should have been there when he landed. I feel awful. I should have let Dad handle the meeting on his own.”
It was nice to hear him sound more like himself, but I wondered what had caused the change. “What makes you say that now?”
“I’ve been spending some time with him, and it just brings up a lot of good memories. Dad and I were asking him questions about how he started the business originally, and it was fascinating.”
I remembered one of my lunchtime walks with Gordon when the winter weather had finally started tapering off. “His dad wanted him to become a doctor like himself.”
“Yeah. I never knew that. And he was too squeamish. That’s hilarious. He said the closest he ever came to becoming a doctor was—”
“Marrying a nurse,” I finished with a laugh. “Medicine was a big deal in your grandmother’s family.”
There was an odd silence, and I felt bad for interrupting him.
“How did you know those things?” he asked. “Sometimes, I feel like you know my family better than I do.”
“Sorry,” I said automatically. “I don’t know… I guess I just ask too many questions. I’m nosy like that. You know this about me.” I tried to make a joke of it, but the truth was, I listened to what Gordon and Hattie said. Over the years of working with elderly patients, I’d learned just how common it was for people to tune them out. It was similar to the way some people were with children. A lack of patience maybe. The words didn’t come as quickly and clearly anymore, so you had to be patient and learn to slow down. That wasn’t Chris’s strong suit, nor had it ever been.
“You have a big heart, Tee,” he said softly. “I don’t deserve you.”
His words touched me, but there was also something new there. A little sliver of awareness I’d never had before that this was a common occurrence between us. Just when I was at my most disappointed or angry in Chris, he’d turn into the perfect, thoughtful best friend. He’d say things that made me feel appreciated and adored. It was just enough to reel me back in again.
I pushed the thoughts away, because they made me feel nervous and scared. If my subconscious thought there was a chance Chris was being deliberately manipulative, I didn’t want to hear about it or face it.
I closed my eyes and shook my head, hoping to clear it of any more unhelpful revelations. A warm hand clasped the back of my neck and squeezed. I opened my eyes to see Jack’s concern in the divot between his eyebrows. Without thinking, I crawled over into his lap and curled against his chest.
“I gotta go, Chris,” I said. “We’re, um… I mean I… I’m meeting the pilot and his wife for dinner.”
It was a total lie. My face flooded with heat, and I tried like hell to ignore Jack’s body tensing beneath mine.
“Yeah, no problem. I’m heading out to meet Hannah and Jay for a beer. Will you still be home tomorrow? I miss you.”
That was the second time he’d said such a thing to me recently. I felt like I was in an alternate universe where I was suddenly having sex and Chris was now showing affection and interest in me. The phrase Absence makes the heart grow fonder kept spinning through my head on a loop. Was that what this was?
“That’s the plan.” My voice sounded weird and squeaky, but then again, I always freaked out a little when thinking of getting on that plane again. Okay, a lot.
“Let me know when you get in.”
When the call ended, I realized he’d never said a single word about my fear of flying or asked me if I was scared about the return flight after everything that had happened. That was disappointing, mostly because my fear of flying had been a strong presence between us growing up. In middle school, Chris had once invited me to join his family for a trip to the beach in Florida, and I’d said no because it required a plane flight. In college, he’d invited me to join his friends for a trip to Mexico. Again, I’d declined because of the flights required. I was a chickenshit, and it was embarrassing. But now I’d finally, finally done it. I’d gotten on a plane, for him, for the company, and it had lost a damned engine and had to emergency land in a tiny town on the coast of Canada. And he hadn’t acknowledged any of it.
“Whatever,” I muttered, putting my phone on the coffee table and nestling back against Jack’s chest. “Hey, do we still have any of that rum?”
Jack’s hands moved into my hair and began working their magic. He didn’t answer my question about the rum, but he used his fingers to distract me.
“Do you want to talk about it?” His deep voice rumbled through his chest, making me want to beg him for more. I didn’t care what he said as long as it rumbled against me in that sexy as hell way.
“No.” I sounded like a child, but then again, I felt like a child. When would I be old enough and wise enough to stop having unrealistic expectations of people?
Jack continued playing with my hair until I was half in love with him. I’d always craved physical affection, and having it for the first time was one of the most eye-opening realizations about what I’d been missing by not allowing myself to connect with other people romantically this whole time.
“That feels so good. Please don’t stop.” Don’t ever stop is what I wanted to say, but I at least still had enough self-control not to blurt out all of my thoughts.