“Mom!”
“What? It’s a valid question, honey. You two can’t keep up the long-distance relationship forever. I know a great moving company. And of course, your father and I will help, won’t we, Graham?”
His father grunted his agreement.
“I, well, we haven’t,” Daniel stammered, his face a splotchy crimson.
“I was trying to have this conversation before you two barged in, unannounced.” After half-heartedly glaring at his parents for their intrusion, Jensen turned his attention to Daniel and took his hand. It wasn’t ideal to have this conversation with an audience, but at least if Daniel broke up with him for overstepping, he’d have someone to hold him while he cried. “When you fell asleep last night, I called Larsson and a real estate agency. I’m trying to secure employment and housing in Sevier.”
“What?” Daniel and Angela asked in unison with very different inflections in their voices.
Jensen squirmed in his seat and swept his thumb across the back of Daniel’s hand. “As you all know, I’ve just completeda short consulting job with a firm in Sevier. Yesterday, I left a message with the man I was collaborating with officially expressing my desire to work for him full-time.”
Daniel gently touched Jensen’s arms with his fingertips, his expression hard to read. “I didn’t know you did that.”
“I know,” Jensen said, biting his lip. “I should have told you, but you were so tired. It’s not guaranteed or anything; I’ll have to wait until Larsson calls me back. But if that doesn’t work out, I could find something else.”
An amazed look passed in Daniel’s glassy eyes, his lips parted. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t have to. Jensen could feel how his pulse thumped steadily in his wrist. Jensen could somehow sense the waves of premature love radiating off him. Even though his parents were across from them, it felt like they were the only two people in the room, sharing this moment. To Jensen, they were the only two people in the universe.
Maybe he should have told Daniel about his intentions, but he hadn’t really thought it through before he was dialing Larsson’s number. All it had taken was seeing Daniel snuggled into his bed, his skin still a bit pale and clammy, for Jensen to decide the only future he was interested in was with Daniel at the center of it.
He could find a new house, a new job, a new everything, but he couldn’t find another Daniel. He didn’t want to. Long before it was rational, his soul had decided they were meant to be together, and Jensen wasn’t going to let geography get in the way of that. He had let too many things just happen to him and deter him from living his dreams. There was no way he was going to allow that to happen to his relationship with Daniel. It was too precious to him.
“You want to leave us?” Angela cut in, breaking the tender moment and breathing cold air into their pocket of warmth.
“You have to let the boy live his life,” Graham said, trying to placate her.
“But that’s halfway across the country. We wouldn’t even be in the same time zone. You’re going to abandon your mother?”
“Mom, I’m thirty-four years old.”
She ignored him. “We can make this work. I can get transferred to the city. There are hospitals there, right? There’s got to be. And you can retire soon, right, Graham? We could sell the house and downsize. Finally get away from that cursed garden.” Angie sat up straight and slapped a hand on her thigh. “My mother is too old to move across the country and would have to stay here. Okay, yes. This is going to be great. When are we moving?”
“You’d move for me?” Daniel’s quiet question drew Jensen’s attention back to him.
“I’m finding there’s an infinitesimally small number of things I wouldn’t do for you.”
The smile Daniel gave him could have powered every home in California for years.
16
Daniel was backat the Lillian. The green and beige swirls of the wallpaper only seemed a little like patterns used to hypnotize people into doing whatever the room wanted of them. Daniel didn’t actually mind, not after the high of spending a few days wrapped up in Jensen. He’d left California that morning, giving himself just enough time to drop his stuff at home, then make it to his monthly appointment with Kassandra. She was his favorite of all his regulars, and at this point, she was nearly a friend to Daniel. A friend that paid him to sit and talk with her once a month, that was.
He sat on the couch that smelled vaguely of cigarettes, like how his mother used to when she was back on her habit and trying to hide it, turned toward Kassandra. The crisp scent of orange bloomed in the air each time he moved the hand holding his drink, something that was happening quite a lot.
Usually, Kassandra talked about her restarted life, her children that she adored, and her ex-husband that was always doing some outrageous bullshit. And Daniel would be a good little boy and listen intently, hold her hand, and offer her praise. Kassandra never wanted sex or even to be kissed. After her horrible divorce, she just wanted someone to hear her and tellher she was doing a good job. It wasn’t difficult, and Daniel never needed to lie to her.
Tonight was different. He couldn’t keep the stupid smile off his face to save his life, and Kassandra immediately noticed he was floating higher than a stoner on a blimp. The kind of joy pumping through his veins was hard to hide, and he was thrilled to talk about it.
His client barely got a word or two in as he gushed about Jensen and every moment of the few short days they’d spent together. He was loath to return, but they both had work to get back to. And, if he was being honest with himself, each second he spent in Jensen’s house made it harder and harder to leave. He could have stayed in the eclectic house for the rest of his life, forgetting about reality and the money he owed to various institutions. So he’d put his foot down and had Jensen purchase him a flight.
Now all he wanted was to go back, which was downright pathetic. He had only been away for a few hours, and he felt like he was dying. Like his heart had leaped out of his chest at Jensen’s house and he’d forgotten to put it in his luggage before jetting away.
“I hate that I had to leave,” he said, voicing his thoughts. “Every day felt like a dream I’m dying to get back to. Except for the food poisoning, that I could do without.”
“Why did you leave?”
He gestured broadly with his drink. “I had a job to get back to.”
