“Yeah.” I move to turn the radio up louder, and I sink to my knees when I hear them say he recently broke into two houses behind mine. All the sounds I’ve heard outside my windows. The scraping and scratching. Was it him? Did he leave because he saw me awake, flipping all the lights on. I heard a car running out front more than once too and kept telling myself it was probably someone lost. That happens sometimes.
The wood creaks behind me and when I jump up, I nearly lose balance. Rafael wraps his large arms around me. “Don’t worry, Honey. You’re okay. I’m here. I won’t let anything happen to you. I won’t.” He nudges his nose into my cheek and I relax against him.
“I hope they catch him soon.”
“I’m sure they will. Looks like they got a sketch and have some strong leads.”
“Good.” my breaths even out. “And you’ll stay until they do?”
“Yeah.” He lets out a soft sigh. “I’ll stay until they do. Let me take care of the porch and you get the fireplace going.”
“Yeah.” I nod, pressing my back to his front. “Yeah, okay. I’ll see if Huey needs more water and if he wants a snack.”
“Huey always wants a snack, so you don’t ever have to worry about him turning you away when you offer.”
My lips twitch. “Does his owner want a snack too?”
His fingers slide into the back of my pants, stroking the top of my crack. “Oh, I could always use a snack when it comes from my Honey.”
My hole clenches and a whimper escapes my throat. “Hurry up out here. I’d hate for you to freeze to death.”
“Oh, is that the only reason you want me to hurry?”
“What answer will make you get done faster?”
“As long as it has to do with me getting back to you, I’ll always be in a hurry.”
***
I’m adding wood to the flames while Huey is chowing down on his apples and the front door swings open. It couldn’t have been longer than fifteen minutes since I left Rafael outside. He really is proving to mean everything he says.
“Brought the radio back.”
“No more radio for me today,” I say, rubbing my hands on my pants as I straighten my stance.
“Got a CD collection that you keep with your tapes?”
I laugh. “Yes, but they’re all at home.” I pause. “I think my dad has a case full of CDs somewhere around here, though. Maybe in the entertainment center. Or we can go back to streaming music on our phones.”
“Nah, I think I’d rather go through the extra trouble of finding them so I can hear my Honey be as happy as he sounded earlier.”
I smile. “I’m already halfway there just by having you back inside.”
“Let’s get to a hundred percent, then.” His steps drift away from me and several cabinets open and close before an “aha” slips from his lips.
“Your dad has good taste.”
“Yeah. He had his moments,” I say between laughs. “I guess he still does.”
“You guys not very close?”
I lift one shoulder. “They didn’t really approve of me moving away to be closer to Travis. They didn’t really approve of Travis. He had different reasons to my mom. I guess he was hoping I’d grow out of the gay thing.”
“Ah, one of those, huh?”
“Yeah. My mom’s been a lot more supportive, but we kind of drifted when I refused to come home after my accident. She worried about me being on my own.”
“I think you’re doing just fine.”
