And what can I do to make him feel better?
His mind blanked, and he stood at the basement door for an awkwardly long time. Finally, he cleared his throat and jerked his head in the direction of the basement. “I better, uh, go see what’s happening down there.”
“Do you… Should I come with you?”
John stopped with his hand on the knob. What was the right answer? He didn’t want Lukas to feel like John didn’t want him tagging along, but he also didn’t want him to feel like he had to. Like he wasn’t “man enough” if he didn’t learn how to fix the problem, so if there was a next time, he could take care of it himself without calling John for help.
Plus, he kind of liked when Lukas called him for help.
He cursed himself for admitting that much—even if it was just to himself.
He shrugged. “Only if you want to. I don’t mind going down solo.”
Lukas’s face did something weird at his words—a sort of twisting to his mouth—then he pasted on a smile that didn’t fool John for a second. “I guess I’ll stay up here. Holler if you need me to hold a flashlight or anything.”
Considering the electricity was working just fine, John didn’t anticipate that being necessary, so he just smiled and nodded before hurrying through the door and down the tight steps, maneuvering his toolbox in front of him.
It only took him a minute to slosh through the water on the floor and shut off the main line. To be fair to Lukas, he worked in basements and crawl spaces for a living and was already familiar with Lukas’s pipes specifically.
He found the problem, and it was just as he’d suspected. Getting to work pulling out the necessary tools, he focused on the work and definitely not on how it had seemed like Lukas wasn’t wearing underwear under his gray sweatpants or how his creamy white skin had stood out against his black T-shirt and dark hair.
Sure, John had noticed a handsome man once or twice before, but it was always just a passing thought. And besides, he absolutely hadn’t noticed how attractive Lukas was because Dave would kill him if he ever found out John had checked out his son’s ass.
Which he hadn’t.
He lost his grip on his crimper and whacked his knuckles. “Fuck!”
Sighing, he hung his head for a minute.
He was a fucking terrible friend.
Lukas loitered around the basement door for a few minutes, debating following John down anyway, but decided against forcing his company on him. He’d offered to accompany him, and John had literally shrugged at him. It didn’t matter that Lukas could spend hours just staring at John or listening to him talk—he’d spent years making sure he didn’t make the man uncomfortable, and he wouldn’t stop now.
“Whatever. It’s fine. At least he came to help,” he murmured as he went to find Ruby, his poor baby having run to hide as soon as Lukas started freaking out.
When he’d discovered the issue—and realized he couldn’t call his dad to come and help him—he’d hesitated to call John. It was eight o’clock on a Tuesday, and he knew John worked late on Tuesdays and had probably only been home about an hour. Plus, he’d heard John complain about “friends” calling him at all hours to come and help with plumbing emergencies, and then get pissed when he invoiced them. He didn’t want to become another hassle for John.
But when he’d called his sort-of boyfriend, Hank, to ask if he could come and help him, Hank had literally laughed at him, like, really loudly. Lukas had stood there stunned, phone pressed to his ear, as Hank had finally gotten control of himself and told Lukas he wasn’t his dad. When Lukas had said that he knew that and he was just looking for help, he had practically been able to hear Hank shrugging as he said Lukas needed to learn to take care of things like this on his own.
As if just saying that would magically help Lukas know what the fuck to do.
He was glad he hadn’t gotten too serious with Hank—breaking up with him would be easy and save them from wasting any more time on each other. The sex might have been awesome—dear god, the man’s beard was sinful—but Lukas would never stay with someone who spoke to him like that. It was an attitude he’d run into before when he’d dated older men, and he was sure he’d find it again.
How hard was it to find someone who saw him as competent and mature but would also help him with things he wasn’t good at? Wasn’t that what a real partnership was supposed to be like? Maybe his parents had given him unreal expectations… Though, he bet if John went for men—and miraculously returned Lukas’s feelings—he’d treat his partner with respect and not laugh at them. Hell, he’d been on his way over to help Lukas before he’d even called him back. And he was just the son of John’s friend.
Entering his bedroom, he immediately got on his hands and knees next to his bed and peered beneath it. “Hey, sweetie pie. It’s okay. Come on out.”
Ruby eyed him for a long moment, visibly trembling, then started crawling toward his outstretched hand. He slowly moved back after giving her snout a rub to make room for her. A moment later, his lap was full of seventy pounds of pit bull mix wiggles as she licked at his face and softly whined.
“I know. You don’t like it when Daddy yells. I’m sorry.” He wrapped his arms around her and held her for a while, then pressed a few kisses to her face, dodged her tongue, and stood. “Let’s go get you some food, huh? It’s way past your dinnertime.”
She bounded away, her terror already forgotten, and he smiled. She’d lived with him for a year and had made dramatic strides in trusting him, but when he got upset or raised his voice, she still hid like she had the day he’d brought her home from work. Of course, that day she’d had a hard time getting under his bed since she’d still been wearing a cone to stop her from messing with the couple of stitches on her ear and lip. She’d been brought into the veterinary office he worked at by someone who claimed to have found her on the side of the road, but they took off before anyone had been able to get any more details.
Despite what had probably been a very traumatic beginning of her life, she’d been so sweet to everyone at the office, and Lukas had fallen in love right away. They’d put a notice on their Facebook page about a lost dog being brought in, but when no one came to claim her, he’d gotten to keep her.
When he arrived back downstairs in the kitchen, he chuckled at the sight of Ruby and Leeloo both waiting for him in the kitchen. Leeloo had been a raggedy, underfed kitten when he’d adopted her six years ago, after she was fished out of a dumpster. By John. He shook his head, refusing to get sucked into thinking about how sweet John had been that day.
After living with Lukas for so long, Leeloo weighed in at over ten pounds, and her coat was as sleek as any cat around. Pitch-black, except for her one white paw, she was a funny juxtaposition to Ruby’s mostly white fur. Ruby had a few black splotches on her body and head—one of which looked like a heart, a feature Lukas pointed out to everyone Ruby met. He couldn’t help it. He was a proud papa.
Leeloo waited patiently on the opposite side of the small kitchen from Ruby, her tail twitching a little as she sat and stared at Lukas in a way that said very clearly, Feed me now, human.