“You said you were thirteen?”
He tugs on his shirt. “Thirteen when we first shifted, but we weren’t stuck on the property then. That didn’t happen until we were eighteen. On our birthdays, wepopped up here.” He opens his arms wide, then slides his hands down his chest. “The clothes grow with us.”
“Weird… Come on.”
Gus follows me into the bathroom, and I show him how to turn it on, because it’s an old faucet with different knobs, where the soap is, and the towels too.
“Let me know if you need anything,” I say.
He gives me a mischievous look. My cheeks heat, and I hurry out of the bathroom and drop onto the couch. I don’t want to go far in case he needs something. There is a TV, but no cable or internet. Old movies it is…
I don’t know what’s in the DVD player, but I put it on and don’t pay much attention to it because my head keeps going back to the fact that there is a very attractive man—naked in my shower.
After some time, the back door opening pulls my attention.
Rhett walks in.
“Hi,” I say with a smile.
He smiles back.
“Is it still okay if I shower?”
“Of course.” I pat the couch. “Sit while you wait. Gus is still in there.”
Rhett sits beside me, resting his hands on his lap. He doesn’t seem uncomfortable, just like he wants to be left alone.
But I’m not giving up. So, I look at him and say, “I really want to help you, you know.”
He just stares at the TV.
“I’m sure it’s hard to believe, but I have no skin in this game. I didn’t even know anything about it until you told me. In fact, it would make me happy if we could figure this out, and I could set you free. I mean, that’d be pretty cool, right?”
“Right. Cool,” he says.
It’s quiet for a few awkward moments, and I have to break it because this is stressing me out.
“So, uh… how old are you?”
He sighs, rubbing his forehead. “I’m twenty-four. They’re twenty-five.”
“So, you’ve been here…”
“Seven years for them. Six for me.”
That is a long time to be stuck somewhere. I understood their frustration before, but even more so now that I can put a timeframe to it.
“And you, uh… age like normal?”
“Yep.” He’s getting impatient. “That’s how our dads and granddads died.”
The bathroom door opens, pulling my attention again. And my jaw drops to the floor.
Gus is leaning out the door, the white towel wrapped around his waist. He has one of those really sexy V-things, with a toned stomach and a defined chest with not much hair.
“Hey, I can’t figure out the shower…” He huffs a small laugh.
“Shower…” I stare at his chest.
