The Teacher and the Soldier (12 page)

“No one has ever said that to me.”

“I’m sorry—”

“Don’t be. My friends, colleagues, they were my family. You watched the back of the next guy because you knew he was watching yours. We were like brothers I guess and yeah, coming back here to normality in small town USA was quite a bit of a culture shock. I don’t think a single other person has ever summed up what I had in the Marines as family before though.”

“Did anyone else come back? From your team.”

“Two are still out there. I don’t know anything, but I kept in contact with their families here so I would know. What made you leave this morning?”

“I didn’t exactly leave. I’m on your porch.”

“You know what I mean. I woke up and we were twisted together as close as you can get without sex then when I next woke up the bed was empty and it wasn’t much past dawn.”

“I wish I could put it into words,” Luke said. How to sum up panicking and dreams, and being here at the cabins, not getting too involved with a gorgeous soldier, and the whole heap of shit going on in his head. “I try not to think about it.”

“So, tell me about Colorado,” Daniel changed the subject.

“Work. I’ve been looking at positions for English teaching at schools in Aurora and Denver.”

“That’s a long way from Richmond?” Daniel looked at him with questions in his expression. How was Luke going to explain this one? In the end he decided to go with what he had convinced himself was a good reason.

“Somewhere new. Wanderlust. You were a marine, you know what it’s like.” Luke shrugged. Daniel had to know what it was like to not want to settle in one place. The very nature of his job was to move from country to country.

“Not me,” Daniel replied. He sipped his coffee then leaned his head on the back of the swing. “Home is here. Doesn’t matter where I’d get taken, home will always be here in the mountains.”

“I like the Smokey’s but there are mountains in Colorado.” Luke wasn’t lying. He loved the peace he could find just sitting here and recalled it from ten years before when he would sit and listen to the sounds of the mountain and breathe the fresh air.

“There are mountains in Afghanistan,” Daniel pointed it. “Doesn’t mean I want to live there.”

They subsided into silence. Luke sipped his cooling coffee and used his toes to rock the swing slightly. He felt relaxed for the first time in a long time.

“So, what are you going to do for two weeks?” Daniel asked. There was no hidden message in the question, no suggestion that Luke spend it with him and Luke hesitated a moment before answering. He had a whole lot of plans in his head, top most was sleeping and chilling and calming the fuck down. Sex was therapeutic right? Sex released endorphins that were good for insomnia. He’d certainly not had trouble sleeping curled up with Daniel.

“I’ll need to call in some real estate agents to get the investment listed. That’s number one on the list. Then nothing really, job hunting, seeing if I could factor in lowering the price of my condo in Richmond so the freaking thing sells.”

“You really are uprooting from your life there.” Daniel closed his eyes and the frown had disappeared from his face, leaving smooth sun toned skin apart from his laughter lines that bracketed his mouth. Luke ached to touch and to get another smile from Daniel as he traced each of those small marks.

“I was hoping the offer of your spare room was still open,” he said. Daniel opened one eye then shut it again.

“Nope. I have stuff stored in the second bedroom. You’re going to have to share with me.”

Disappointment at the start of Daniel’s sentence gave way to happiness that sparked inside him at the rest. He could do that. Share Daniel’s bed for the next fourteen days, and maybe it would level him so he could catch up on the sleep that had eluded him since finding out his dad had been murdered. If he was more awake and less stressed then surely he would be able to handle the ghosts of his past and the hatred he harboured for his father. Get it all out of his system instead of pretending that counselling had made everything better and that he was all okay. He didn’t share any of that with Daniel. Instead he leaned over and pressed his hand against Daniel’s hard sex.

“Wanna start sharing now?”

* * * *

Two things happened to Luke simultaneously. He’d dropped the price by ten thousand on the condo he’d bought into with Zach and it sold fairly quickly. Then, the end of the week the cabins were listed for sale. He’d thought long and hard about price and taken advice from everyone. And now he was with Brenda in her kitchen. He’d helped her move a ton of wood to where they were boarding over the remains of the burnt cabin. They talked about painting her kitchen. He wasn’t extraordinarily good at painting. His last painting job had ended in disaster. He was good at drawing and using watercolours—not so much a twenty foot long wall and a tub of cream paint. It took ages to fully get the paint out of his clothes and the splatters off of his face. Never mind. He had warned Brenda he was rubbish, but she seemed intent on keeping him busy. Daniel was off somewhere with the truck, bringing back supplies, and Luke wasn’t ashamed to admit he quite liked having Brenda to himself.

“I put the proviso in that any sale needs approval from you as percentage holder,” Luke explained.

“That’s good of you,” Brenda said. She pushed the cookie jar towards him and he helped himself. “You didn’t need to do that, but we sure appreciate that you have done.”

“I always meant to. Stupid really. I didn’t have much to do with you and Daniel when I was younger, but I feel like I owe you that much now.”

“You were older than Daniel,” Brenda began. “And you didn’t live in the owner’s cabin until your granddaddy died. There wasn’t a lot of crossover in our lives.”

“But you knew my mom.”

“I did. I liked her and your dad. She never wanted the cabins. She wanted to sell like you are, but Mike never accepted that. I guess the fact that he inherited it was a new and exciting project for him. Your mom and dad were having issues before she left. You know that right? She didn’t just up and leave for no reason. And I believe she had every intention of coming back.”

Daniel recalled arguments, fights, loud and intense, and him hiding in his room or spending time at the school with the younger kids and playing for teams of every sport he could manage. Yes, his parents weren’t the calmest of people. The man his dad had been had diminished through drink, and his mom had never had the chance to come home.

“I know.”

“So let’s hope she sells then,” Brenda said. She crossed to the sink and rinsed out her mug. Daniel loved the way she looked on the resort as a ‘she’. Brenda was a part of this place, the same as Daniel was.

“Fingers crossed,” Luke added. Just for something to say.

When they had finished working and as dark drew in, Luke stretched tall and loved the ache in his muscles. He felt fit and alive and, for the first time in a while, positive. As he was saying his goodbyes, Brenda stopped him and handed him a box.

“I know it’s Danny’s turn to host the boys tonight, he’ll want food.”

True. Daniel’s idea of cooking was heating prepared meals. Luke loved cooking but there was no need to point that out. Cooking in Daniel’s kitchen was altogether too much like settling in for the duration and he only had another seven nights. He thanked Brenda, then walked the short distance to Daniel’s cabin. The interior light was on and he imagined Daniel inside, getting the place tidy. He let himself in and smiled. Daniel took these Friday beers very seriously as evidenced by the fact that he had filled the dishwasher this morning and actually tidied the kitchen surfaces. Not that he lived in dirt, but the interior was kind of chaotic. Just another facet of Daniel’s personality that was at odds with the way he kept his clothes and his bedroom. Everything was in order, the bed always made, clothes hung, drawers organised. Luke put that down to his time as a marine, and blamed the kitchen on the fact that Daniel hated cooking.

Glancing at the clock on the microwave he saw they had at least an hour before Kieran and Finn arrived.

They could get one hell of an orgasm in before that.

Chapter Nine

Kieran sat opposite Daniel and had that infuriating know it all look on his smug face. Daniel tried to ignore it, but it was difficult when he knew that it was probably his own smiling that was causing the smugness. He couldn’t help it. Luke was good for him. Funny, sweet, sexy, hot—he was everything Daniel wanted in a partner. There. He’d said it. Partner. Kieran may well sit there with his ‘I told you so’s, but at the end of the day he wasn’t wrong. He said there was something in Luke that matched Daniel. He was right.

If only Luke wasn’t leaving in seven days. If only he thought working at Weston High School was a good idea. If only he didn’t continue to think uprooting himself again was a solution to his problems.

What would he do if Daniel asked him to stay longer? Just a month maybe? They could find out in that month that they irritated the hell out of each other. Finn walked in with soft drinks and beers, so evidently he was on duty later, and Max followed close after. They took the other sofa and leaned in on each other. Max looked tired, but then he’d been out at a garden shed fire the previous night so that was to be expected. Finn supported his lover and they looked so damn good together.

Daniel wanted some of that. With Luke.

Luke came out of the kitchen with more beers and plates of snacks on a tray then took the only seat remaining. Next to Daniel. Gah. All Daniel wanted to do was put his arm around Luke, or hold hands, or touch, or anything but sit with a good few inches separating them. Without making it too obvious Daniel shifted in his seat and pulled up a leg under him. This meant he was touching knee to Luke’s thigh and that settled his thoughts for a while. Luke looked across at him with a smirk. There was a teasing light in his eyes. What was it with teasing and smugness tonight?

“Where did you get to with selling?” Kieran asked.

Luke explained and Daniel listened. They’d put the fifty stake up for a good price but the economy was slow. It would probably take someone local who could see the potential and who had more money than sense to invest in it. Certainly not anyone who wasn’t used to the Tennessee way of life.

The night was easy and fun and a little more of the ice that encased Luke’s emotions where Ellery was concerned was chipped away.

* * * *

Luke finished the call and wondered how he was going to break the news that he was leaving to Daniel. Of course he had known as soon as the deeds were in Luke’s name that he would be moving on. They hadn’t talked about it though. It was one of those non-subjects that was never really brought up.

“You okay?” Daniel stopped in the doorway and leaned against the doorjamb.

“That was Bryan Grove. He said everything is on the deeds and I just need to sign.”

“Okay.” Daniel nodded. “Good,” he added. “I’m making coffee? Want one?” He turned and left. Just like that, without any further discussion. And he said it was good? What was? The deed or Luke leaving? Luke pushed himself up and off the bed where he had sat to take the call. His own worries and irritation made him snappy inside and that wasn’t probably the best mood to be in to follow Daniel, but hell, given the amount of frankly awesome sex and talking they’d done these last two weeks he’d expected more than a ‘good’.

“What do you mean good?” Luke snapped.

Daniel turned from the coffee maker and quirked an eyebrow.

“Good that the deeds will be sorted,” he said. “I’ll bet you’re pleased to be getting this all sorted. Kieran said there were rumours that the Askett family might be interested. Their son Mitchell is some kind of investor.”

“What? Don’t start changing subjects. I don’t give a shit what Kieran said and who wants to buy my half,” Luke said. It hit him that he meant it. That he didn’t care at all. Shaking off the unsettling feeling, he focused on his anger. He was good at that. The end of things had come and Daniel wanted to talk about investors?

“You should care. If you sell then the money you get will mean you can start a good life in Colorado,” Daniel said. Then he crossed his arms over his chest. “Unless of course you want to stay?”

“Stay? In Ellery? Teaching at a second rate school for peanuts, and living with all the memories of what my dad did to me?” Luke could have bitten off his own tongue. They’d avoided talking about his dad so far and there he had gone and given an opening that he knew damn well Daniel was going to take.

“What did he do Luke?”

Daniel had never asked that. Not once in two weeks had he mentioned anything about what had happened to Luke and all of a sudden, wrapped up in asking if he wanted to leave, he was suddenly keen to know? Temper snapped inside Luke at having to even explain the two years of hell he’d been through.

“Took his frustrations out on a kid who should have known better and who should have ducked one hell of a lot faster,” Luke snapped. Daniel dropped his arms to his sides and pushed his hands into his jean’s pockets. He looked momentarily sad then just as quickly there was a flash of pity in his eyes.

Hell no. Pity? Fuck that.

Luke turned on his heel and pulled his bag out from where he had stowed it in the bottom of the closet. Most of his gear was in the car, but he had actually moved some of the essentials into this room with Daniel. Underwear, socks, pants, tees and the book he was half way through reading.