Chapter Twenty-Nine
After lunch, we follow Elliot’s father out to the field, where he’s still working on the irrigation system.
Elliot walks next to him, talking, while I trail along behind with the detail.
I can see from the way Elliot’s shoulders have sagged ever since lunch that his father’s reaction isn’t what Elliot was hoping for.
Whether it’s because he was looking for approval, or hoping for his parents to ask him not to run, I won’t know until after I can debrief him once we’re alone.
Out in the field, his father is replacing a section of buried pipe on a subsurface drip irrigation system pump. The security detail and I stop about fifteen feet away while Elliot steps in, grabs the shovel, and starts digging up the section of pipe for his father while they talk.
I…
I want to laugh, because Elliot’s Secret Service codename is Plumber. Leo picked it for him.
Not because of laying this kind of pipe.
Obviously.
About an hour later, I’m holding Elliot’s hoodie for him, he’s helped his dad make the repairs, and I’m hornier than hell from watching Elliot at work.
I mean, he’s got the sleeves of the Henley shoved up to his elbows and he looks haawwwt.
I donotwant to share this man with the rest of the fucking world.
Hell, at this rate, I don’t even want to share him withLeo.
I can tell you what some of the memes will be, because they’re bad enough already, and they don’t involve pictures of him in jeans that make his gorgeous ass look even better, and a form-fitting Henley I want to rip off him so I can lick his abs.
I get jealous enough as it is over the one circulating of him from when he was in the military, stationed in the Middle East, with the beard and sunglasses and everything. I want to tell all the women drooling over him to step back frommyman.
Annnd I can’t, of course.
At least if he had a ring on his finger from Leo, I could take some small comfort in knowing those women would be disappointed.
We end up staying for dinner. Norah Woodley lets me help and at least I can make biscuits from scratch without needing a recipe. I think it surprises her and hopefully endears me to her in some small way.
By the way, I’m fucking your son. Nice ass on him. Plus, he canreallysuck a cock.
No, I don’t say it. Geez. Give me a little credit, huh?
If Leo was here, though, I guarantee you he’d be thinking the same thing, or chuckling with me over that thought.
The sun is setting when Elliot hugs his parents good-bye, I shake with them, and we once again climb into the motorcade to return to Offutt.
He hasn’t donned the hoodie, which makes for a great view for me, but I know he’s hurting.
I reach across the seat and rest my hand on his thigh. He doesn’t look away from the window, but he lays his hand on top of mine and curls his fingers around it.
One benefit of having my parents, I suppose, is I know where I stand with them. I don’t have to pretend to be someone I’m not, because they’re going to hate me regardless.
Sitting there, I debate my options and finally decide to push him a little. “The closet is making you miserable.”
He nods. I realize I’m not telling him anything he doesn’t already know, but maybe he needs to hear me say it out loud.
“You realize people vote for gay politicians all the time, don’t you?”
He nods.
