“And my dad? Big John was legendary. He was huge—six feet five inches tall and two hundred and eighty-five pounds of muscle, with a little extra weight around the middle because he loved Mom’s cooking. If there was ever a scarier man to tell you were gayer than an Easter Parade, I have not seen him. But we were at the dinner table, where all truths were told, and he looked at me and smiled.”
“What’d he say?” Spencer asked, obviously sucked in.
“Well, first he asked if I’d come out to my classmates yet. I had not. Then he told me that when I did, if I did, I needed to remember all the things he’d taught me about throwing a punch and that he’d back me with the teachers if I needed it.”
Spencer gave a strained chuckle. “And that right there is where you got your practicality, I can see.”
Theo nodded, smiling fondly. His father had been such a good man. “It is. And then—I’ll never forget this—he said, ‘We only had one kid because I didn’t want your mother’s health to suffer, so we packed all our love into you, Theodore. That’s not going to turn off like a spigot. Not in life, not in death, most certainly not over this. There’s so many more important things about people than this. Just remember that. You’re not going to lose us because you’d rather crush on the quarterback than the cheerleaders.’ And that was it. And that’s what I’ve got for you right now. This thing between us, it’s bigger than… than all the sex things you think I’m not getting.”
Spencer let loose with an absolutely filthy laugh, and Theo smacked him on the arm. “That’s not what I meant, but yes, your cock is huge if that makes you feel better.”
He got a shy smile and Spencer’s flushed cheeks in return for that, and soldiered on. “Look, it’s not that I don’t want to try some more things, and it’s not even that I don’t think you’re ready for them now. It’s… what’s been building between us… I don’t know about you, but it truly feels so much bigger than bells and whistles.”
“I… I want you to feel like you’re mine,” Spencer said, and finally, finally, he looked at Theo, and his face—his heart—was so naked, Theo’s throat swelled.
“Look,” he managed thickly. “I know you’re stuck on the virgin thing, and what makes me a virgin or doesn’t, but I’ll tell you right now, I don’t feel like a virgin. I don’t feel like the same guy who got up the morning you fell out of the sky. I feel like a man who’s got a man in his life. I feel like someone who knows what lovemaking is. Yeah, we can go for some of the more advanced Stage 2 and 3 items in the sex parade, and they’ll be fun, I’m sure. But they’re not going to change how I feel about you, Spencer. Do you need me to spell it out?”
Spencer opened his mouth, and Theo couldn’t be sure if it was a yes or a no on the way, but at that moment, Elsie strode through the hangar, that amazing ground-eating, shoulder-swinging pilot’s strut no less intimidating on her than it was on any of the guys.
“We will resume this when we get home,” Theo said with dignity, and Spencer caught his hand.
For a moment, he searched Theo’s face with his eyes, maybe looking for Theo’s veracity, the truth he was trying to tell.
And then, regardless of Elsie looking on, he captured Theo’s chin with his fingers and leaned forward, pulling Theo into a deep, sweet kiss that left him breathless.
Spencer pulled away and struggled to his feet, using the desk and the chair and finally one of his crutches to get upright.
“You sure you can spare Theo?” he asked gruffly.
“Yeah,” she said, “but we’re going to need him tomorrow while you keep your surly ass home and heal, you understand?”
Spencer nodded, unusually compliant. “Yeah, Elsie. Tell Glen that’s understood.”
HE was quiet on the way back to the property, but Theo could tell by the clench to his jaw and the tightness around his eyes that he was battling the aftereffects of his collision with the tram. He stayed in the truck while Theo went grocery shopping and was fast asleep in the front when Theo came out.
Theo dropped him off at the trailer with two bags of groceries before running the rest of the supplies to Oscar and Belinda at the big house and going to get Colonel, who, when they weren’t home, stayed with Preston and Preacher or sometimes was kenneled when Preston was working with other dogs. When he got back, the groceries had been put away, and Spencer was lying on top of the sheets, fully clothed, fast asleep, with Stupid curled up against his neck because that’s where the dumbass cat liked to sleep when Spencer wasn’t awake enough to protest.
Spencer was not even close enough to being able to protest, and to prove it, Colonel peeked over the edge of the bed and licked his nose. Nope. No reaction.
Pain was exhausting, Theo thought, his heart in a vise. It was easy to forget, but it was so true. That included emotional pain, and Spencer had obviously been holding on to his depression about his injuries without talking to another soul for far too long.
Theo took off Spencer’s boots, tugging gently, and then, enjoying the blessing of familiarity, stripped off Spencer’s jeans too and checked his bandages.
They were still clean after Glen’s job earlier, and he left the leg alone. Curiously, as he was pulling the sheets out from under Spencer and wrapping them around his shoulders, he checked the bandage at Spencer’s side and found only a large Band-Aid in place, probably guarding the last of the healing from the stitches and the shunt they’d put in.
It was nearly completely healed, and Theo rubbed Spencer’s stomach softly in celebration.
Spencer hummed in his sleep, taking the corner of the blanket and gathering it around him as he rolled over, and Theo bent down and kissed his forehead.
“I’ll wake you before dinner,” he said.
“Okay.”
“Love you, you irritating bastard.” He froze for a minute, wondering if Spencer had heard, and if he had heard, would it startle him awake and send him screaming for parts unknown? But Spencer just huddled down closer into the blankets, protecting his vulnerable parts, keeping his heart warm.
“Love you, Woodchuck,” he mumbled, and then he was fast asleep.
Catch a Falling Pilot
THEO woke Spencer once to give him a pain med with a prune-juice chaser, which Spencer took obediently before falling back asleep. When he woke up later that afternoon, his shades had been pulled open and the sun was burning brazenly through his bedroom window. He glared at it irritably and tried to recall what had awakened him.
And then he felt Theo—it had to be Theo—kissing sweetly at the nape of his neck.
“Mm?”
“Uh-huh,” Theo replied, and he scooted forward so his entire body was mashed up against Spencer’s back.
His naked body.
“Wha…?” Spencer struggled to sit up, but Theo put a heavy hand on his shoulder and whispered into his ear.
“Now I’ve put a little bit of preparation into what’s about to go down, big guy. You can wreck all that by going all inside your head and getting weird, or you can let me touch you and enjoy myself thoroughly. What’s it going to be?”