Trusting. Not just that he trusted Will to make him feel good, but that he trusted him to see him exposed. Vulnerable. It was a heady level of power that Will wasn’t used to.
Watch yourself, boy. You can put boots in the oven, but that don’t make ‘em biscuits.
Just because they were working well together right now didn’t change Cole’s true nature, the parts of him that came out when he was pushed to the brink. The only time Will had ever seen Cole on the edge, he’d had to escape him by diving off a damn balcony.
If Cole stopped to think, if he stopped to consider all his options he’d surely come up with a way to get himself back into Alders’ good graces on his own. They ran with the same crowd; hell, Alders had invited Cole’smotherto his fancy “look at my shit” party. Say what you would about Lucille Dalton, and you could say a lot about her, but she wasn’t a pushover and neither was her son.
Will shoved the potential for fallout to the back of his mind. Cole was going to do what he did. Will was going to enjoy him while he had him. He wasn’t the type of man who worked to get his hooks into someone for the sake of it; he wasn’t like Marcus. Will was at least confident now that if Cole figured out a way out of this conundrum on his own, he wouldn’t sell Will out to do it.
That was really all one could ask for in their social circles. So what if the thought hurt a little? Pain was inevitable in life, and regret was for suckers who let themselves hope for things they couldn’t guarantee. Will got to have Cole last night; he might get to have him today. If all he could look ahead was twenty-four hours, he’d take it and not think about the possibility of more.
The last person he’d wanted more with was Marcus, and look how fucking well that had worked out.
The gas station was a ten-minute ride from the house, long enough to warm Will’s muscles up and work the kinks out of his back that sleeping on that awful mattress had given him. Not as good as the bed at The Sugar Shack, not even close. Shit, how good would the beds in Cole’s vacation house have been? Probably would have felt like sleeping on clouds.
Will parked the bike outside and entered the gas station to the chime of a bell above the door.
“Morning,” a girl in full Goth makeup droned from the checkout.
“Good morning to you too,” Will replied, smile back in perfect position. “It’s a beautiful day, don’t you think?”
“Sure.” She stared at him with no expression. “If you like that kind of thing.”
Hard to argue with that. “Do you have phones, Miss…” He glanced at her name tag and carefully refrained from bursting into laughter. “Candy?”
“Counter by the bathrooms.” She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t try to steal one. I’ve got a can of bear mace back here, and I’ll use it.” She sounded eager to do so, in fact.
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Will went and picked out the best of the shitty pre-paid phones on offer, a few packages of delicious processed breakfast foods that Cole would probably turn his pretty nose up at, and a small can of Folgers that he could brew back at the house. He surveyed the somewhat pathetic offering of condoms and lube on offer and made sure to check the expiration dates before carrying it all up to the front desk and grabbing cash out of his back pocket.
Candy began to ring his purchases up. “No wonder you’re so perky,” she muttered.
“If you could see him, you wouldn’t blame me,” Will said.
That got a smile out of her. “I get it. I have a girlfriend who’s pretty great. But she doesn’t get up before noon.”
“Livin’ the life.” Will accepted the bag from her, then headed outside and put the phone together. There was taking safety precautions, and then there was leaving Baby Boy hanging, and he wasn’t going to do that any longer than he had to. Luckily it was pretty early there, and Davey screened his calls, so he’d probably go straight to voicemail.
“’Lo?”
Will almost dropped the phone. “Ellie?”
“Uncle Will?”
His palms began to sweat. “What are you doin’ with your daddy’s phone, honey?” How did she evenanswerhis phone; didn’t his brother use the most rudimentary security features?
“He left it on the table. He an’ Mommy are sleeping, but I’m hungry.”
“Oh yeah?” Will began to relax a bit. “What’re you going to have for a snack, buttercup?”
“Um. Cereal?”
“No, baby, that’s on the top shelf of the cupboard, you know Mommy doesn’t like it when you climb in there. What about your yogurt snacks?”
“They’re in a bag,” she whined. “I can’t open it!”
“What about…” What kind of fruit did they keep this time of year? “What about grapes, buttercup?” There was a sucking sound over the speaker. “Mnn, thumb out of your mouth, honey.”
“Okay, grapes,” Ellie said with a sigh. He heard her shuffle around for a moment, and then he heard the crisp, juicy crunch of a little mouth chewing. She mumbled something with her mouth full, and for a second Will imagined his niece sporting makeup like Candy’s and rolling her eyes at him.
