Declanrolled his eyes, getting his phone out so he could show the receptionist theirreservation.
“Youwant me to keep watching it?” Ash asked. “I have a lot of experience. I canprovide references.”
“Youwanna sleep in the car?” Declan asked in response, heading into the office. Hewould never have made Ash do that, but it was the best he could come up with.
Unfortunately,Ashknewthat he’d never do that, so he’d won this round.
Declancollected a room key—an actualkey, instead of a card, which was astrong reminder that they’d left the big city behind—and went back out to meetAsh, who was looking over at the faint outlines of the mountains on thehorizon.
Thiswas a nice place. Even in the dark, Declan could see that it was peaceful, andfull of green spaces.
Thestars were clearer here than he’d ever seen before.
He’dnever thought any of those things really mattered to him until he’d beendriving into town and marveling over all the trees.
“Sorryabout the sleeping arrangements,” Declan said as he opened the room to reveal asolitary double bed. “It’s a small town. All I could get was one room with adouble bed.”
“Iget it. It’s not like we’ve never shared a bed before.”
Declanwet his lips. Ash crashing on the other side of the huge bed Declan had was alittle different to having to share a smallish double. They’d fallen asleeptogether on the couch a bunch of times, too, but this seemeddifferent.
Atleast they wouldn’t be cold if they had to sleep that close to each other.
“Inoticed more than one rainbow flag hanging in front of businesses along themain street,” Ash said after a moment, dumping his bag on the left side of thebed.
Healways took that side, and it suddenly felt weird that they had sides, too.
“Huh.I guess it’s for pride?”
“Pride…is in summer,” Ash said. “I mean, it is a small town. Maybe it’s like leavingyour Christmas lights up all year instead of taking them down and putting themback up.”
“Yeah,maybe,” Declan said. He hadn’t noticed, but Ash didn’t have any reason to lieabout it. Ash was also more likely to see things like that.
Nowthat he thought about it, Ash was probably worried that this place wouldn’t beoverly welcoming for someone like him. It hadn’t even crossed Declan’s mindbefore now, but it should have. He’d dragged Ash out to a small town with atotally unknown attitude toward gay people.
Ifa few flags made him more comfortable, they were definitely a good thing.
“Seemslike a good sign, though,” Ash said. “I actually looked into this place a little,and everything I’ve read made it sound good. Apparently it’s a real gay tourismdestination.”
“Huh,”Declan sat down on the edge of the bed, surprised to hear that. “Well… it’spretty. Not sure how that makes it especially gay, though.”
Ashshrugged. “There’ll be a story behind it. There always is.”
“Iguess?” Declan said.
Hereally didn’t know. This was more Ash’s wheelhouse than his own.
“Soremind me why we had to physically come here, again?” Ash asked.
“Ineed to inspect the property before the trust can be formalized. Or something.I dunno. It kinda sounded like bullshit, but… I want to know why the hell greatuncle Marv would leave me a bookstore. I guess he didn’t have any kids of hisown, but…”
“Well,you are an only child,” Ash pointed out.
“Ihave cousins,” Declan said.
“Maybehe hated your cousins. You said he was the black sheep, but that you’d talkedto him. Maybe you were the only one who did. Maybe you’re all he had.”
“Wayto make me feel better about not even knowing the guy was dead,” Declan said.
