Grabbingthe remote to the stereo system, Ethan clicked the power button, filling thecavernous space with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’White Walls. At leastthere’d be some noise to fill the empty space. Something that wasn’t going tomake him feel pathetic and lonely.
Liketalking to himself didn’t already do a good enough job.
Afterdropping the wrecker’s keys that he’d ended up taking home onto his toolbox,Ethan headed over to his office to plug in his phone. Two days in a row he’dbeen too distracted to even charge the damn thing.
Beforehe went back to the truck he had been working on the day before, Ethan set upand then clicked on the coffee maker, waiting impatiently for that first dosethat would help him clear his head. Minutes later, he poured a cup, not evenwaiting for it to cool before he sipped anxiously.
Afew minutes later, after downing one full cup and now armed with his oversizedmug, he surveyed the truck that had taken up a considerable amount of his timethis last week. As it turned out, the twins were hard on their vehicles, andthat usually meant one or both of their trucks were sitting in the shop thesedays. This week it was Brendon’s.
Beforehe could muster up the strength to get to work, the song on the radio changedtoEnd of My Ropeby Trapt and Ethan suddenly felt every single hour ofsleep he had missed over the course of the last month. Including last night.
Consideringhe’d been nice and buzzed, he had expected to pass out easily. No such luck.With his brain on overload from the incident with Beau in the truck, Ethan hadbeen hard pressed to sleep for more than just a few minutes at a time. Dragginghis ass out of bed that morning was nearly impossible, as was getting his bodymoving.
Forthe first time in a long time, he didn’t want to immerse himself in an engine,he wanted to take a break. A lengthy one. Embracing the exhaustion for thefirst time in months, Ethan moved over to the old dilapidated desk that wasused to hold spare tools and after making enough room, he took a seat on itsscarred surface, his legs hanging over the edge, his feet still touching thefloor.
Outof habit, he had propped open the main door when he came in, and it wasn’t longbefore he heard tires crunching on gravel.Please don’t let it be Blake.Ethan wasn’t sure he could handle another confrontation with the guy. Not yet.Hell, he hoped not ever.
Sippinghis coffee, he waited patiently for whoever his visitor was to make theirappearance. He didn’t have to wait long, and the moment Beau stepped throughthe door, Ethan’s breath lodged in his chest. If he didn’t get over thisattraction, Ethan feared he was going to need some respiratory equipment justto stay alive. He had been robbed of breath more times than he could count inrecent days just from the mere sight of Beau.
Thistime was no different from any of the others.
“Mornin’.”Beau stared at him and then back out the door before turning back. Ethan justcontinued to look at him. The memories of last night, the drugging kisses hehad shared with the sexy man standing just a few yards away… it was more thanhis over processed brain could handle at the moment.
“Yougot the keys to the wrecker?” Beau asked, stopping only a couple of steps intothe shop.
Ethanregarded him for a moment and then blurted out the first thing that came to hismind, “Want a cup of coffee?”
Coffee?What the fuck was wrong with him? The better answer would’ve been a simple“yes” and nothing more.
Asexy smile tipped the corners of Beau’s mouth and a shudder coursed downEthan’s spine.
“Sure,”he said, nodding his head toward the office. “Is it made?”
“Iprobably oughtta make another pot,” Ethan said, not bothering to get up. He wastoo tired to move. Never mind the fact that he didn’t want to get closer toBeau. Not any closer than he would have to. Because at this point, he couldn’tbe held responsible for his own actions.
Itwasn’t enough that his brain was on overload, but now his body was as well. Ontop of that, just coming up with enough energy to maintain a safe emotionaldistance from the man was more than he was up for right now. It felt like he’dbeen doing it for months.
Nowthat he thought about it, Ethan realized he had been trying to stay away fromBeau for months. No wonder he was tired. The guy wasn’t all that easy toresist.
Ethanwatched Beau slip into the office, disappearing from view for a couple ofminutes. To pass the time, he stared down at his hands, flipping them overrepeatedly, hardly seeing the work roughened skin or his short, clippedfingernails.
“Iknow it seems like I’m always asking you this, but are you all right?” Beauasked when he joined him once again, a cup of coffee in one hand, the othertucked into the pocket of his jeans.
Ethanlooked at Beau. Actually looked at him, unable to say anything in response tohis question. It seemed odd that Beau was always asking him that; however, itwas even stranger that he seemed to be the only one. It was almost as thoughEthan had successfully isolated himself from the rest of society to the pointpeople didn’t even bother to see how he was doing anymore.
Hehad to wonder why Beau hadn’t taken the hint the way everyone else had.
“I’vebeen better,” he said honestly, never breaking eye contact. He could only blamethe need to give in for a minute or two on the exhaustion that had suddenlyoverwhelmed him. It was hard to keep up his defenses all the time, to never lethis guard down, but right at that moment, his guard didn’t even exist.
Atleast not with Beau.
“Needsome help around here?” Beau asked, glancing across the open space, his gazereturning to meet his moments later.
Ethanwanted to tell him no, but the truth was, he actually did need help. As much ofa burden as Blake had been, at least the guy could pump out work when he diddecide to show up. And now that Blake was no longer part of his day to day, theonly thing Ethan had to look forward to were hours of time spent by himself andtons of work backing up in the meantime.
Ethanchuckled and glanced down at his hands again. What was he going to say? Yes.That definitely wasn’t going to help this situation any.
“Youdon’t want to say yes, do you?” Beau asked, moving closer.
