By Any Other Name (9 page)

“Okay, just nap if you feel like it, and I’ll wake you up around noon if you fall asleep. That’s when I usually take a little break for lunch,” Dru explained and got a distracted nod in response. Great, another man in the house who could get lost in his reading in three seconds flat. Perfect.

Dru turned to check his e-mail and start the working day, which would consist of checking on some web pages he had coded and built from scratch and making adjustments where needed. He had all kinds of clients, from families to clubs and businesses. Everyone liked his hands-on way of running the sites. He was always on call, and naturally he knew the sites like the backs of his hands.

After a while he got lost in work and the gentle sound of pages being turned on the couch not far from where he was sitting. He really forgot that he had company, and when he got up in his usual abrupt way, the gasp from the couch made him frown.

“Sorry, sorry. Forgot you were there.”

Skye looked annoyed at himself and didn’t say a thing.

“Skye? We need to figure this out. Somehow. I’m open to suggestions, or else we just have to sort of learn to live with it over time. The first days will be tough in any case.”

“Yeah.” Skye exhaled. “I really hope you’re right. I’m sick of being like this.”

“I was just going to get coffee, and I’ll be right back,” Dru said, wanting to give the other man some more space.

He went down the stairs and leaned on the counter for a moment, trying to wrap his head around how to be more considerate or how to make Skye get used to them faster. It was only day one, and he felt extremely guilty already. What would it be like when Thom came home? It wasn’t like they could hide the fact that they touched each other constantly; if they touched Skye in passing, or they made fast movements or something.

Absentmindedly, he made himself a double espresso with the fancy machine Thom had gotten him for Christmas, and smiled a little. Thom would figure things out if they couldn’t. Dru had come to rely on his lover to be more mature and know more about things. It bothered him that Thom thought of their age gap as something negative. It was nothing like that. Sadly Dru also knew that it had been Thom’s mom, Cindy, who had put the idea into her son’s head back when they had begun to date more seriously.

Dru did love Thom’s parents; hell, he cared for them way more than he did for his own sad excuses for parents, and the Williams family had really adopted him. It was Thom’s doing. He couldn’t understand how someone went through life without a “proper family,” so he had decided to include Dru in his. Naturally they had their own family, but there were Thom’s siblings and parents now too.

Someone had once said that you could make your own family, that you weren’t born into one, you chose one for yourself. That had always been true for Dru. Skye had been his family from the moment he had stepped into Dru’s life over a decade ago. Now he was back, and somehow Dru felt better. Something had been missing, but already, merely by being there in their house, Skye had changed something within Dru more than an unlikely reunion with his parents could.

While carrying his cup up the stairs, Dru thought about his chosen family. It wasn’t much: Thom and Kara, Thom’s best friend, Oscar. Thom’s family, especially his sister, Laura, and her three-year-old son, Jacob Thomas, or JT, as he went by. It had been enough. More than Dru had thought he’d ever have after he lost Skye. And again his mind came to the same strangely fulfilling thought: he had Skye back.

Smiling, he sat in his chair and ignored his friend for the time being, just to give him space, if nothing else. In half an hour more, he heard a bit of a snore and turned to see that Skye had fallen asleep with the book on his chest and the blanket mostly covering his feet. He looked peaceful and much younger than he was, even though there was nothing boyish about Skye anymore. He was all man, and Dru had to admire that. Look but not touch, that was his personal rule. Thom wasn’t jealous, but his self-esteem was low enough for Dru to pay attention. Why would he make the man he loved feel bad when it could be avoided easily by keeping his paws to himself? It might prove to be tricky—after all, he did touch his closest friends often and without thinking—but Skye wasn’t just any friend, now was he?

He turned back to the screen and began to go through his newest assignment, a website for a gay bar in the city. He had told the owner he did pages and that theirs sucked—and not in a good way. The guy had been offended but had called the number on the business card Dru had slipped him. Now Axel was his new client, and not only did it mean that Dru could get into the club for free, but he could get more clients of the club scene, and maybe, if he played his cards right, there would be some GLBT charities he could work for and get the publicity. He hoped he could hire someone to help with the websites; technically, he could do that already, but he wanted to be absolutely sure he could pay someone who was a professional a suitable salary.

Around noon the doorbell rang, and he got up, glancing at Skye, who twitched in his sleep but didn’t wake up. Dru moved quietly down the stairs and to the door.

“Kara, hi,” he said in a whisper, and Kara raised her brows.

“Hi, bad timing?” she asked, and Dru shook his head.

“Not at all. Skye’s sleeping in the loft. Was just about to make some lunch anyway. Want some?” he asked, and Kara nodded. They closed the door quietly and walked into the kitchen.

Kara went to turn on the radio on the counter and turned the sound down a bit. Dru realized he hadn’t put on any music, which he usually needed to be able to concentrate. It had probably been the fact that Skye had been there, breathing and turning pages and then lightly snoring to fill the silence. Dru smiled a bit at the thought.

“What are we eating?” Kara asked, walking to the fridge like it was her own.
The way their little circle used time in the kitchen, usually eating takeout but occasionally doing some basic cooking or sandwiches, it might as well have been.

“Paninis. Can you take out what we need and I’ll pop the bread in the oven?”

She did as asked, and they worked side by side for a while, chatting quietly and moving around each other like they so often did. They were just laughing at something when there was a cough from the stairs and they turned to look at the man descending.

“Skye, sleep well?” Dru asked and smiled, getting a slightly nervous nod in return.

“Yeah, I think the company helped,” Skye said, his eyes darting around a bit, his movements somehow awkward, like he didn’t know where to put his hands.

“This is Kara, our neighbor whose house we passed on the way here. Kara, this is Skye, my friend from ages ago.” Dru nodded, and Kara stepped forward only to stop and give Skye a little wave.

“Hi.” She smiled even though there was a bit of hesitation in her eyes.

“Hello,” Skye replied and moved to lean his hip on the edge of the island. That way he was between Kara and Dru. It was clear to Dru that he was already making Skye feel safe.

Dru leaned over to take the bread from the oven and left it to cool down a bit.

“Lunchtime.” Dru grinned, and Skye smiled a little. All of a sudden, the phone went off, and Skye jumped, but so did Dru. He went to pick up the annoying thing.

“Dru Beckett,” he answered and gestured at Kara to go on and build her sandwich as she wanted.

“Oh, hi, honey. No, didn’t look at the number,” Dru said and mouthed “Thom” at Skye, who nodded. “Yeah, we’re fine. Skye got some sleep. Kara came over, and we’re going to have lunch just now.”

Dru looked at Skye with raised brows. “Yeah, okay, see you then, honey,” he said and handed the phone to Skye, who looked at least as surprised as Dru felt. “It’s for you,” Dru said, and Skye took the phone.

“Thom?” Skye asked and wandered off toward the library.

Dru turned to check on how Kara was doing and found her staring at him with a strange look in her eyes. “What?” he asked.

“He’s, like…
hot
. Like…
amazing
,” she said in a very girly and dreamy tone, making Dru roll his eyes in a theatrical way.

“And so totally not in the game. So stop, you’ll make him uncomfortable.”

“Fine… just… observing,” she said as she wrapped her panini in a napkin and took a couple of bottles of water from the fridge.

Dru had just finished preparing his own meal when Skye walked back into the room.

“What did Thom want?” Dru asked, more reflexively than anything else.

“Oh, he had looked into the possible options for a therapist, or, like, asked around, really. He had met that psychiatrist guy….” Skye frowned, trying to remember the name.

“Roy or something, I think,” Dru said.

“Yeah, something like that. Anyway, he had referred a couple of people, and he gave me the names to do research online. I need to take care of it as soon as possible anyway, and I can always call Al to make sure I get an appointment.” Skye shrugged as he returned the phone to its place.

“I suppose having him tell the new guy that you are supposed to stay in intensive therapy would help. He can probably put it so that a professional understands, I mean,” Dru said as he took a seat next to Kara at the bar.

“Exactly. I can’t put it into words, and I don’t even know what exactly I’m supposed to be working on with the new person,” Skye said, speaking while stuffing his panini. Dru assumed it was because it was easier for Skye to talk without making eye contact in the first place, and there was a stranger around.

Dru got up from his seat to go get another bottle of water from the fridge. He walked behind Skye and touched his lower back like he did with both Thom and Kara and even Thom’s best friend, Oscar, occasionally. The clatter of the plate that had been in Skye’s hand made him bolt back, and he heard Kara gasp.

“Fuck… sorry,” Dru said for what felt like the tenth time since Skye had moved in with them.

“Is… is it okay if I take this to my room and research while I eat?” Skye asked suddenly, looking embarrassed and uncomfortable as hell.

“Sure, we don’t mind,” Dru said, and Kara nodded her agreement. Skye took a water bottle off the counter and walked to the stairs and up, and they heard his door close in the other end of the hallway.

“Damn,” Kara said quietly.

“You’re telling me. You know I touch people like that all the time. He can’t be touched, nobody can make sudden movements around him… I don’t know how we’ll handle this,” Dru said and sat down to eat his lunch.

“It will work out. Everything always does somehow,” Kara said. That was almost her motto in life, and it made Dru grin.

“If you say so, pumpkin.”

Later
, while Dru was wrapping up his work for the day a bit early, Skye walked out of his room and went downstairs to put his dishes away. Dru had been working nonstop since Kara left, and he had gotten the basics for Axel’s website done. It was only a part of the work, but it was in a spot where he could easily pick up the next day, and that was what was important. He hated to be stuck in the middle of revising code, but he hated to miss time with Thom even more. This time he wanted to figure out dinner before Thom got home, and he had a feeling Skye had something on his mind.

He left the computer on to be able to easily check his e-mail later and went downstairs, finding his way into the living room. He plopped down on the couch and turned on the TV.

“What happened to exercising?” Skye asked from behind him.

Dru turned his head and looked at his friend. “I was too into working, and I feel lazy today. I really am almost too into the whole keeping fit thing, Thom’ll tell you that if you ask, but I just didn’t feel like it anyway.”

Skye moved around the couch and sat down on the other end. The couch was long enough that there was no way for them to come into contact. Dru changed channels, flicking through them and waiting for Skye to gather up his nerve for whatever he was going to say.