I couldn’t believe I’d agreed to that, but how could I have said no? He wasn’t asking for much. Just the comfort of knowing someone was within arm’s reach.
It was probably better if there was someone there to watch him, just in case his symptoms got worse.
“Hey, I appreciateyou,” Reggie said. “You get to Marmot Falls or whatever okay?”
“Otter Bay,” I corrected. “And yeah, got here okay.”
Reggie didn’t have to know about me running over an old friend. He might never let me drive one of the company cars again.
“Hey, uh, listen, I uh…,” I continued, not wanting this conversation to turn into a forty-five minute meeting. “I’ve got company.”
“… lady company?” Reggie asked after a pause.
“I’m gay, Reg,” I said.
Another pause.
“The gay equivalent of lady company?” Reggie tried, clearly struggling more with finding a word than the concept itself.
“Something like that.”
Technically, that wasn’t a lie. It wassomethinglike that, in that it was gay company.
“How did I not know this? I’ve been introducing you to all the wrong people the whole time,” Reggie said. “Remind me, I’ll set you up with my cousin some time. Nice guy, got a whole collection of women’s heels.”
I opened my mouth to say something, but my brain couldn’t come up with a response. “Uh. Thanks? I think?”
Reggie’s cousin was probably perfectly nice, but I knew better than to go on even one date with him. No one wanted a boyfriend who’d only be in town for a handful of weeks at a time, who they might occasionally see for a few days between jobs.
My lifestyle was incompatible with making someone else happy. I didn’t get to have relationships.
Which was mostly fine. I wasn’t looking anyway.
“Anytime, pal,” Reggie said. “Enjoy your night.”
“Will do,” I promised, hanging up before I could get dragged further into a conversation.
Reggie sure was an experience.
I headed back into the cabin, getting a pair of sweatpants and an old t-shirt out of my suitcase, hesitating, and then stripping off in the living area, since Iggy would’ve been curled up in bed by now.
A low whistle startled me as I dropped my jeans, and I nearly tripped over my own feet turning around.
“You filled out nice,” Iggy said, grinning at me from the bedroom doorway.
“I thought you were going to sleep,” I said, jeans caught around my ankles and sweats in hand, standing there in nothing but my underwear.
“I was, wondered where you’d gotten to.” Iggy shrugged.
One look at the slump of his shoulders stopped me from saying I’d only been gone a maximum of five minutes. I had, but that wasn’t the point.
He was in pain, and he’d had a hard day, and he didn’t want to be alone. It was myfaulthe was in pain and had a hard day, so the least I owed him was not to make it any worse.
I stepped out of my jeans and pulled the sweats on, trying not to feel self-conscious about Iggy watching me. It wasn’t as though we’d never changed in front of each other before.
Just that we’d been teenagers the last time.
“Work call,” I said, tugging down on the hem of my shirt.
