“Who’s in here? Oh hi, Randy.” Gage Taylor stuck his head inside. “What’re you doing here?”
Brandon switched his easygoing persona back on.Never let them see how scared you are, how frightened that in an instant, your entire world could go up in flames.
“I forgot my laptop and decided to wait out the rain.” Brandon zipped up his backpack and headed toward the door. “I think it’s stopped. I’ll walk out with you.”
He shut off the lights and the door behind him. They walked down the stairs, and as Brandon had predicted, the rain had ceased. Peeks of blue sky appeared from between the heavy clouds. He stood at the corner waiting for the light to change, and surveyed the glistening, wet streets.
“Well, see you tomorrow.” Brandon stepped off the curb.
“Wait. What are you doing tonight?” Gage put a restraining hand on Brandon’s arm, and Brandon froze at his touch. Though Gage had been his mentor teacher at the school, Brandon hadn’t encouraged the friendship he knew Gage tried to build.
Without noticing Brandon’s reaction, Gage continued to speak. “The reason I ask is I’m going to this meeting at a clinic in Red Hook. They have programs where adults help kids. Mentor them, if they need help in school or an ear to listen to their problems. I was wondering if you’d want to come with me tonight. The doctor who runs it is pretty cool.” Gage dropped his hand, and they faced each other.
Brandon shifted his backpack to the other shoulder. “Why me? Not that it isn’t flattering, but we’ve hardly spoken to each other this school year.”
Gage’s dark eyes pierced Brandon with an intense look. “I wanted you to have your own space and not think I was intruding on your ability to run your own classroom. But I see how you feel about these kids. It’s personal with you, like you understand them. You really want to help, like they mean something to you.”
“Yes, yes, they do.” Brandon swallowed against the rising lump in his throat.
“These kids need a champion, someone like you who wants to help, judgment-free. If you were in trouble and needed help, wouldn’t you want someone there to stop you from falling, or catch you to prevent you from getting hurt?”
Maybe if Brandon had had someone to talk to, he wouldn’t have needed to run away. At the very least he could have talked to his foster mom and explained. Impossible to know what might have been. Perhaps Ash and Luke had been forced to do similar things. He hoped not, because no one should live with the taste of fear forever on their lips.
“Sure. I’ll be there. Give me the information.” Brandon took down the address and agreed to meet Gage there at seven that night. As he sat in the swaying subway car going home, Brandon smiled to himself. He’d finally made it—a dream job and another purpose now, with this mentoring program. As for the aching loneliness? Well, it was a small price to pay for what he’d done, no matter how well deserved.
Brandon had spent years debating his decision, and it did no good. Life stuck you with the choices you made and the consequences that were born from them. And sometimes, you had no choice at all.
Chapter Two
He missed sex. Dr. Sebastian Weber, “Tash” to his family and friends, came to that startling revelation as he surreptitiously watched the good-looking male waiter approach his table. And not simply sex for the sake of getting off. That he could find anywhere, with anyone, himself included. No, what he missed was hot, sweaty, screaming-down-the-walls sex with a lover who knew better than anyone else what you wanted and needed to feel loved.
He hadn’t had that in years.
Refusing to think about that now, he glanced into the dark eyes of the patient man who stood by his table waiting to take his order. “Sorry. I’ll have the French toast and scrambled eggs. You can leave the menu. I have someone joining me soon.”
The young man smiled. “Certainly, sir. Do you want your coffee now?”
“Yes, please.”
The waiter poured and left. Tash stirred in his milk, staring unseeingly into the swirling caramel depths of the coffee mug.
The diner was practically empty. It was off-peak for breakfast, around ten thirty on a Monday morning, and he was meeting his sister for a late breakfast. Her boss’s boyfriend had surprised him with a weeklong vacation to Paris, and subsequently, she had unexpected time off from her job as his personal assistant. She and Tash tried to see each other at least once a week, but with her long hours and his spur-of-the-moment appointments with patients, their plans often got pushed off to once a month.
But that was as far as he’d let it go. Now that their parents were no longer snowbirds and had moved to Florida, he and Val were each other’s only family left in New York. And while Val had an active social life that included dates, parties, and a stream of admirers, Tash was a loner. Aside from his two cats, there had been no one to share his evenings with for years. Val was the only person he wanted in his life.
To give her credit, Val refused to allow him to wallow in his self-imposed solitude, forcing him to come with her to events he’d rather miss and dinners he’d prefer not to eat. It was at the opening of a local community center that Tash met her boss, Luke Conover and his lover, Jordan Peterson. When he later agreed to treat Jordan for a Xanax dependency, he never imagined he’d be inheriting a new social circle instead of a solitary patient undergoing treatment. Jordan came with a group of overprotective, highly involved friends, all of whom had taken Tash on as not only their colleague but as a friend and, he suspected, a group project.
So, against his better judgment and desire to isolate himself from well-meaning people, their laughter, conversation, and happiness, Tash became swept up and into their lives and love affairs. He found himself invited to Friday night dinners, Saturday night movie watching, and Sunday afternoon brunches, complete with subtle and not so subtle offers to set him up.
Highly involved was ostensibly also a code word for nosy and intrusive.
Tash drank his coffee and checked his watch.
“I’m on time, big brother. You’re always early; that’s the problem.” Valerie slid into the seat across the booth from him. Immediately the waiter reappeared and gave her a big smile and greeting.
Val turned on her lovely smile. “Just eggs and toast, please. No butter. And milk for the coffee.”
The waiter hurried off to do her bidding. Anyone who became caught up in the glow of Val’s big brown eyes immediately fell under her spell. Her coffee appeared instantaneously, as well as a small bowl of fruit “on the house for the pretty lady.”
