Back to You (17 page)

“So when do go back to Dallas to start the process of moving?” he asked me.

“I promised Ashton that I would be here for his football game on Friday night, and then I figured Saturday we could head down to Dallas and start packing and making arrangements. I need to call Michelangelo’s and let them know first thing tomorrow and see if they’re going to need me to stick out my two weeks, and if not, I’m hoping to be back up here within a week, two at the most. It’s a good thing I don’t have that much stuff.” There was so much to do, and I started making mental lists, my mind racing through everything I could possibly have to take care of.

Donny chimed in, being the voice of reason as he tended to be. “Don’t worry. We’ll get it all done and figured out. It’s been a really long day, and I guess I’ll be going to bed if I’m not going home.”

“So, you’re really staying?” I asked him hopefully.

“Yeah, I guess,” he replied, not incredibly enthusiastically, but I’d take what I could get.

My phone chose that moment to ring. I looked down and my heart started racing when I saw Tyler’s number and answered. “Hey you!” I greeted him.

“Hey, can you come pick me up?” he asked me right away.

“Yeah, sure,” I answered as I began pulling some socks and shoes on. “Where are you?”

He gave me an address and I told him I’d be right there.

“Tyler?” Donny asked.

“Yeah. He needs a ride and we have some more things to talk about.” I grabbed my wallet off the dresser and shoved it in my back pocket and slid my phone in the front pocket. “I probably won’t be home until late.”

“You probably won’t come home at all,” he retorted. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Good-night, Donny.”

I rushed down the stairs and asked my mom if I could borrow the car in case Donny wanted to go somewhere in mine, which she easily agreed to. I thanked her then said goodbye to both my parents as I hurried out the door. I about slammed into Ashton as he was walking up the front steps. “Where are you off to in such a hurry?” he asked.

“Tyler,” I half-yelled, grinning from ear-to-ear as I swooshed past him.

That was all the answer he needed. “Go get him, Big Brother!” he called back at me and I gave him the thumbs up over my head without even looking back.

I drove quickly to the address Tyler had given me which led me to duplex, and I found him sitting on the front porch. I was kind of nervous about seeing him again because of all the drama that had occurred and thought maybe he’d changed his mind about me. He hurried over to the car and climbed in my passenger side, and the grin on his face was one of the most reassuring things I could have asked for. “Happy to see me?” I asked him.

He grabbed my hand and laced his fingers through mine. “You have no idea.”

Once we got to his house and collapsed on the couch, Tyler curled up into my side with his head on my chest and his arms wrapped around my torso. “What a day.” He sighed.

“You’re telling me,” I agreed and kissed the top of his head.

“We’ve got a lot to talk about still.” He yawned and his grip on my torso relaxed a little.

“There are a lot of people rooting against us,” I told him softly. “What are we going to do about that?”

“Prove them wrong,” he answered quietly. He was asleep just moments later, and I knew he was exhausted, so I held him close and enjoyed the warmth he offered to my body, heart, and soul. I was a lucky man.

Tyler

I woke up a few hours later still snuggled into Alex’s side. He’d pulled the blanket from the back of the couch down and thrown it over us. He was asleep in a very uncomfortable looking position, with his neck resting at an odd angle against the back of the couch.
God, I’d missed him so much.

Just looking at him, I still couldn’t believe that he was actually there. I mean, I should’ve been mad at him, right? I
was
mad at him the night before when he showed up unannounced. It felt like it had been longer than just thirty-six hours since he’d shown up and inserted himself back into my life, but it hadn’t been.

I wanted to get comfortable and be excited that he was finally back, but the reality of the situation was that he lived in Dallas and had a life, presumably a job, and everything he needed there. I couldn’t let myself get attached if he was only going to leave, but I was going to enjoy the time I did have with him.

I tried to sit up but Alex’s grip on me tightened, pulling me closer to him. Even in his sleep he didn’t want to let me go and I wasn’t complaining. “Hey,” I said gently as I leaned up and placed a small kiss on the corner of his mouth. “Let’s go to the bedroom. I’m not sleeping on the couch another night.”

He grunted, barely awake, but I was used to that. He loosened his hold on me enough that I could sit upright and throw my leg over his lap to straddle him. I kissed him in the hollow of his throat and lightly dragged my tongue up his neck, leaving teasing little kisses along the way until I reached his ear and sucked his earlobe into my mouth. He wasn’t grunting any longer but I could feel him responding through his jeans. “C’mon, Alex, it’s bedtime…”

I slid off his lap and pulled him up off the couch. “Ugh, my neck hurts,” he complained as we headed toward the stairs.

“I don’t doubt it with the way you were sleeping,” I told him. “If you’re nice, I might massage it for you when we get upstairs.” That got his attention and he slapped my ass as he passed me going up the stairs. When he headed straight for my bedroom, it almost caught me off guard until I remembered that, duh, it used to be his bedroom too.

He stopped at the door before entering and waited for me. “It feels disrespectful to enter before you,” he told me sadly and drew me into a tight hug in front of the door. Then, to my shock, he got down on both knees and took my hands in his. He looked up at me with such sorrow in his eyes and began speaking. “Tyler, I’m so sorry for the amount of pain and heartache I caused you the last time we were in there together. I made a mistake, even if I did think it was the best thing for us at the time. I’ll never stop trying to make that up to you if you’ll let me. I know we have a lot to work through, but I want to do just that, work through this and be the us that I know we can be. I love you so much and there isn’t anyone else I’d rather be with.”

I choked up as he spoke to me with such sincere regret and sorrow. I could tell that he meant every single word he said to me. “I want that very much too,” I promised him. “You’re all I’ve ever wanted.” I pulled him up off the floor. “Now, let’s go to bed. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”

He opened the door for me and when I felt his hand on the small of my back, it sent butterflies fluttering through my stomach. It felt like the first time we entered my bedroom together, so many years ago, all over again. I turned to watch him as he entered the room and looked around in awe.

“Everything is the same,” he whispered quietly.

“I always hoped you’d come back,” I replied, unable to keep my voice from quivering.

“I’m sorry I left,” he apologized again and I needed him to stop doing that. I needed him to know that I understood.

“Alex…” I walked over to him and put my hands on either side of his face to make him look at me. “I accept your apology, okay? I may not have understood it then but I understand it now. I wish we hadn’t let it get to that point, but we were both so young and I think immaturity on both of our parts played a huge role in what happened. You thought you were doing what was best for both of us, and I respect that you had enough courage to do what I never could have done. Yes, I was devastated for so long and I let my pain cloud my thinking, but I’m seeing things more clearly now. I don’t want you to apologize anymore.”

He didn’t say anything to me, just stripped his shirt up over his head and tossed it on the floor then slowly undid each button on my dress shirt until it was on the floor next to his. I unbuttoned my pants and slid them off leaving them with the rest of the discarded clothing. He took his wallet out of his back pocket and placed it on the table next to me. I was surprised to see that it was the same one I’d given him for his birthday before he left, but it made me really happy to see he’d still had a piece of me with him while he was gone.

I climbed into bed and Alex scooted in right behind me. “Why do you still have your jeans on?” I asked him.

“Because if I take them off, I’ll end up having sex with you tonight, and as much as I want that to happen, tonight is not the right night. I want us to have talked everything out, and I don’t want it to happen the night before Grammy’s funeral. I want it to be perfect for you, Tyler.” He wrapped his arm around my waist and tugged me closer to him.

I rolled over in his direction until we were face to face. “Tell me about Donny,” I asked him. He looked at me as though I’d lost my damn mind but I was being genuine. “I’m serious,” I responded. “He obviously means a lot to you and I want to know about him. Tell me how you met.”

“He’s my best friend, Tyler, and one of the most amazing people I know. I met him at the restaurant I work at, Michelangelo’s. He let me stay with him for a few weeks before I could get into an apartment of my own and we’ve been really close ever since. We had the friends with benefits relationship down.” He stopped suddenly like he thought maybe he shouldn’t have said that to me, and to be honest, I felt a sharp stabbing pain in my heart for a moment knowing that he’d indeed been with Donny in that way, but I couldn’t hold it against him. We weren’t together at the time.

“It’s okay, Alex. Go on,” I urged him.

“Okay, if you’re sure.” I nodded and he continued. “He got me in contact with a great therapist who tried to help me work my way through things, but I spiraled into a depression and Donny’s the one who helped me through that. He was always there for me, and I guess at some point I realized that he’d fallen in love with me. He was this really great guy, and I wanted to be the person who put the huge smiles on his face. I wanted to love him the way he deserves to be loved, but in the end, I couldn’t do it. I made him miserable more often than I made him happy because I just couldn’t get over you. With a little help from my mother, I realized that it wasn’t about what I wanted at all. It was about what he deserved and even though I hurt him, he deserves to be free to fall in love with someone who can love him back because of the amazing person he is.”

It was really hard for me to lie there and listen to him singing praises about Donny, and as much as I wanted to hate the guy, I really couldn’t. I understood Alex’s charm, and how anyone could resist him was beyond me, so I certainly couldn’t blame him for falling for Alex. Plus, if I listened really carefully to his words, what he was saying was that he loved me and I was the most important person to him.

“The most important thing I learned from all of that was that if I couldn’t do for Donny, someone who means the world to me, then nobody else but you stood a chance with me.”

I couldn’t hold it in anymore, I leaned in to kiss him and I let it all out. Every ounce of emotion that I was feeling for him, the love, sorrow, diminished anger, hurt, comfort, and jealousy. I wrapped my arms around his torso, slid my fingers into his hair and held him in place. His mouth opened for me and I delved inside, my tongue searching out his, tangling with it in a dance of passion. I could feel his heart beating in his chest as it pressed against mine, and almost immediately, my heart skipped a beat synchronizing with his as our legs entwined together. Every inch of our bodies that could touch were connected in some way, and I’d never felt safer or more loved in my life.

Alex’s hand drifted lightly up and down my spine causing goose bumps to erupt my all over my bare skin. I was so hard and I needed him so badly but he knew, he always knew. Our lips never stopped touching as he fumbled with the button on his jeans and quickly had both of our cocks wrapped in his hand, jacking us together. I thrust into his fist several times and couldn’t hold back any longer. “Oh, fucking Christ,” I called out as I exploded all over his stomach and our hands which caused him to let out a strangled moan as he kissed me so damn hard while he came apart in my arms.

“So fucking good,” I mumbled, incredibly sleepy after the mutual orgasm.

He kissed me on the forehead and I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. He slipped quietly out of bed, but I could hear his jeans swooshing as he walked to the bathroom, the water running as he washed up. When he came back to bed, he had a warm washcloth and cleaned me up lovingly before he discarded the cloth and dragged me back into his arms. I slept like a baby.

Alex

There’s nothing weirder than telling the man you love about the guy who’s spent the last two years in your bed. It was a shock that Tyler asked about Donny, but I took it as a good sign. I didn’t want any animosity between the two of them, and I figured I wasn’t about to keep any secrets from either one of them. Tyler deserved to know what I’d done and with whom.

I woke up realizing that I never told Tyler the most important thing that I needed him to know. I rolled over to talk to him but he was still asleep. I just lay there and watched him, breathing in and out and looking more peaceful than I’d seen him since this whole craptastic week had begun. His mouth was slightly open, and I could hear his breaths as well as feel the warms puffs of air against my arm. I’d have given anything to be able to make him look that peaceful while he was awake, but I was pretty sure that the day of Grammy’s funeral probably wouldn’t be the day that happened.