Jamie nodded against Spencer’s shoulder, tears soaking into the fabric. He didn’t have to explain. Spencer seemed to understand with no need of the real story.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Spencer asked.
Jamie didn’t say anything. He couldn’t. But for the first time since Daddy Tom drove away, he let himself believe it might be true. That maybe, just maybe, he had been abandoned, but not completely. Not if someone like Spencer was willing to sit with him in the quiet and hold him through the storm.
Chapter Four
Spencer
Spencer carried Jamie to the bed, careful not to jostle him too much. The poor guy was a wreck—his shoulders shaking every few breaths, eyes red and glassy from crying. There was only one bed in the cabin, but that didn’t matter. Spencer wasn’t about to make him sleep on the couch after the night he’d had. The poor thing could have frozen to death.
He pulled the blanket up over Jamie, tucking it around him like he was trying to patch the pieces back together.
Jamie looked up. “Will you stay with me?”
Spencer hesitated. “You want me to?”
“I just… I need to feel close to someone,” Jamie said, eyes glimmering in the low light. “I don’t think I can be alone tonight.”
That hit Spencer right in the chest. He nodded. “Yeah. Of course.”
He stripped down to his T-shirt and boxers, then slid under the covers beside him. The sheets were cool at first, but Jamie was warm, trembling, but warm. Without thinking too hard about it, Spencer wrapped an arm around him, pulling himclose. Jamie melted against him, like maybe, for a second, he believed he was safe.
“I’m a good listener if you want to talk.”
“I should’ve seen it coming,” Jamie murmured. “There were signs, you know? Daddy Tom stopped touching me. Stopped looking at me like I mattered. I just kept pretending everything was fine because… I wanted him to love me.” His voice cracked. “And now I’ve got nothing.”
Spencer swallowed hard, brushing a thumb over the back of Jamie’s hand. “You’ve got you,” he whispered. “That’s not nothing.”
He wondered if this Tom guy had done something to hurt Jamie. His story about the thugs jumping him didn’t ring true.
But inside, he was thinking about how wrong it was that anyone could make Jamie feel disposable. Jamie was the kind of guy Spencer wanted to take home to Montana—the kind who’d look good in flannel, who’d sit on the porch and laugh at his terrible coffee. But not like this. Not when Jamie’s heart was cracked open and bleeding.
Spencer held him tighter, breathing in the faint scent of snow and heartbreak in his hair. He’d take Jamie to the mixer, let him meet people, flirt, and smile again. He’d let him choose what or who he wanted.
Because Spencer wanted him too. Just… not like this. Not out of need. Out of want.
“Tell me more about him. What does he look like?”
“Daddy Tom is a big man with bright red hair and a matching beard that can be rough against my face when he kisses me. He has hazel eyes that used to look at me like he loved me, and I mattered.” Jamie turned away, and Spencer heard muffled sobs as more tears were shed.
He gently turned Jamie to face him, his gaze drawn to the depths of Jamie’s deep blue eyes. “When I look at you, I see all ofyou inside and out. And when I look into your beautiful piercing blue eyes, I can feel what you feel. They tell me everything about you.” He kissed the top of his head, his lips brushing his hair.
“Right now, I feel lost. What am I going to do?”
“Don’t worry, I’m going to help you. Tomorrow, we’ll get you some clothes and boots. Where are all your belongings?”
“I was living with Daddy Tom in Brentwood. I had a key, but—”
“I promise I’ll get everything that is yours.” Spencer, always a man of his word, took his promises seriously.
“Are you planning to go to the party too?” Jamie asked.
“That’s why I’m here—to find a boy.”
“Why did you come all the way from Montana to find a California boy?” Jamie asked.
“My friend invited me because he knows I’m looking for a little, and the pickings in Montana are slim.”
