“I think that’s amazing,” I said, pulling him closer against me and pressing a kiss to the side of his face.
“My dad hated it. It was the closest he ever came to acting homophobic toward me. Comments about being flamboyant and how a town like Durango would never go for a drag queen library hour. It wasn’t drag. It was Clifford the Big Red Dog and Winnie the Pooh, for heaven’s sake. So I hid my costumes from him. And when I moved here, I spent an entire weekend cleaning out the goat shed so my costume collection had its very own home on my very own property. It was freeing.”
His words hammered home just how painful it must have been seeing someone he trusted throwing his beloved costumes in the trash.
“I’m sorry he did that. And I’m sorry your dad wasn’t more understanding.”
Truman was quiet for another moment. I enjoyed the feel of his warm body against mine. Providing physical comfort wasn’t much, but I had a feeling it was more than he was used to.
“I promised myself when I moved here I would remember my promise to Aunt Berry. That I wouldn’t let anyone try to turn down my sunshine.”
I wasn’t sure exactly what he meant by that, but I had an idea. Truman continued.
“She taught me how important it was for people to feed each other’s growth. That we are all affected by the energy around us, and we thrive or languish based on that energy. I want to be the sunlight for others.”
I turned him toward me and met his eyes. “You are. You are the brightest light I’ve ever known. And that’s saying a lot because I’m friends with Mikey Vining.”
Truman’s face flushed, and his eyelashes fluttered a little as he lowered his eyes to stare at my chest. “Thanks.”
“Why does Barney think you have enemies in town?”
His eyes widened. If it was possible, he looked even younger without his glasses on. “Because I do,” he said. “The Stanners.”
“But he made it sound like there were more than that. Who else still makes you feel bad for what happened all those years ago?”
He opened his mouth to respond but then closed it with a click. “Um…”
I brought a hand up and ran a finger along the side of his face. He was so beautiful. “Is it possible Barney exaggerates the fear to keep you close? He seems to like being protective of you.”
“No. That’s not about him. He’s protective because it’s justified. Anyway, can we not talk about this right now?”
“Mpfh.”
Truman laughed. “I kind of like it when you’re grumpy and vengeful.”
“That man treats you like a wayward child. It’s rude.”
He held his arms out to the sides, and I noticed he was wearing a Rigby General Contracting T-shirt. It swam on him. How had I not noticed it before? “Maybe he was annoyed because I was wearing this,” he teased.
Holy fuck did he look good in my shirt.
“Where did you get that?” I asked with a chuckle.
“You left it here last night after our dinner date. When you grabbed your clothes, you must have only taken the button-up shirt you had on over it. I hope it’s okay I stole it.” He gave me a cheeky grin that invited me right back into his bed.
“Hell yes,” I said before leaning in and nipping at the side of this throat. He threw his arms around my neck and pulled me down on top of him. We kissed for a long time—slow, searching kisses and faster, hotter ones. I ran my hands underneath the shirt to the warm smooth skin of his slender body. Every time he sucked in a breath, I learned more about what he liked and vowed to repeat it.
Who knows how long we would have continued on like this if it hadn’t been for the buzz of his gate alarm. I’d completely forgotten about the fire investigator’s visit, so we had to scramble to make ourselves presentable. When Truman invited Dirk Bromley and one of his coworkers into the kitchen for coffee, I quietly asked if he wanted me to stay or leave.
For some reason this made him smile. “Stay, please.”
I cleaned up the mess from earlier while he put on a fresh pot of coffee and got the two of them settled at the kitchen table.
Dirk gestured to the woman he’d brought with him. “Gail Brown is a member of my team. As you know, fire is a serious threat here in Colorado, so we do our best to understand the circumstances of every fire instance in order to better prevent them in the future.”
“I appreciate it,” Truman said. “I was shocked last night. I’ve never experienced any kind of house fire or fire at my business before.”
Dirk nodded. “Well, I’m sorry to say, we did end up discovering signs of arson.” I noticed he watched Truman’s reaction to the news carefully.
Truman’s face fell. “I was afraid of that.”
Dirk glanced at me before looking back at Truman. “Do you have any idea who would want to set fire to your building, Mr. Sweet?”
Truman’s hand reached for mine under the table, and I held it firmly. “Um. Well, it’s kind of a long story, but…” He swallowed. “There is a man who’s made threats to me before. His name is Patrick Stanner. He and his brother, Craig, have harassed me for a couple of years now. Most recently I was a witness to Patrick’s deliberate destruction of property—Sam’s motorcycle—and he threatened me against pressing charges.”
I hadn’t had time to tell Truman that I’d already told the investigator some of this, but Dirk handled it professionally. “Your friend Sam here said there was a note? Do you have that, and may I see it?”
Truman stood up and found the note. He put it on the table in front of Dirk, who gestured to his coworker to gather it into an evidence bag.
“Can you tell me other instances of this harassment?”
What happened over the next few minutes shocked me. Truman told Dirk about instances of physical intimidation around town, times when Craig and Patrick barred Truman from his own shop, the grocery store, and the diner. He explained about a time his tires were slashed, a night they barged into his shop and threw his inventory around, and a winter when they’d somehow had his road removed from the snowplow service route.
As he spoke, my heart started beating wildly like a caged, feral thing. I stood up to pace. I couldn’t sit still and think about all the times this man was mistreated and left to fend for himself without any kind of support and no ability to rely on local law enforcement.
How the hell had he stayed?
Thankfully, Truman ignored my restless wander around the kitchen as he continued to tell them calmly about the time the brothers had cornered him behind his shop one night after closing.
He blinked over at me before continuing. “They, um, they told me their dad had been taken to the hospital for a heart attack and it was my fault because of the stress of everything from when he’d lost his job at the ski resort.” He swallowed. “They punched me and stuff. This wasn’t long before Mikey’s, um…” He glanced up at the investigators before looking back at me. “Accident.”
I could not bear this.
“They beat you up?” I asked, my voice almost breaking at the end. “Tru?” I returned to where he was sitting and squatted down in front of him. “They hurt you?”
I reached up to brush the tumble of curls back from his eyes so I could see them as he answered. He simply nodded. I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed my face into his chest.