Hope on the Rocks by Annabeth Albert

Eleven

Adam

“You look happy,” my mom observed as she set a second steaming casserole on the counter by the oven. One was for the B&B breakfast the next morning and the other was for me, which was nice and would save me some time cooking this week.

“It’s a nice night, and I actually took myself off the schedule for once.” I was due to meet Quinn for dinner at his place, but I wasn’t sharing those plans with Mom. Not because I wanted to keep Quinn a secret, but because she’d leap ten paces down a road I wasn’t quite sure we were even on.

“Glad one of us has some time off.” She wiped her forehead with her oven mitt. “At least this casserole finished a little early. I’ve still got to get to Coos Bay to the home improvement store for something that just can’t wait, and I’ve got East Coast guests arriving tonight. I need to be here to check them in, but if I hurry, I can probably squeeze the store in.”

“What’s the emergency?” I asked, patting her arm because she looked none too sure about getting everything she needed accomplished. “Can Coos Bay wait for tomorrow?”

“No. There’s a light out in the garage at a rental. A size of florescent tube we don’t have a spare for and the local store doesn’t carry. And naturally, guests arrive early tomorrow for that property. I was going to swap it out myself, not bother you with another request for a favor, but then I discovered the lack of a spare.”

“You are not climbing a ladder again if I can help it.” I got all stern with her because Mom refused to acknowledge that she was getting older. The last few times she’d attempted something involving a stepstool, she’d had some dizziness and needed a hand down. “I’ll do it. The bulb swap and the store both. You should be here for the guests.”

“You sure? If you have plans, I can try to call someone else.”

“You have me.” I knew how tight her profit margin could be, even in tourist season, and there was no sense in her calling around trying to find a handyperson free to come help on short notice. “I’ll rearrange some things so I can make the trip.”

I still wasn’t telling her about Quinn, and my mind was already racing ahead to an idea for how I could salvage my plans for the night. Quinn had stopped in for dinner on Saturday night, but we hadn’t been alone since Thursday, and I was dying to be with him again. We’d texted and talked on the phone. The phone sex had been great, and we’d also shared details about our days. Still, four days without more of those world-tilting kisses was four too many.

And yet, here I was, agreeing to postpone that to make Mom smile and lighten her load a little. But I also couldn’t have Mom on that ladder or racing back from Coos Bay and getting in a wreck. I’d simply have to find a way to do both things.

“You’re the best. My favorite son.” Mom gave me a kiss on the cheek.

“I’m your only son,” I reminded her. The praise still felt good though. I liked being able to do things for her, even when highly inconvenient.

“True. But I still love you bunches.” She patted my face before turning her attention back to the food.

I waited until I was in the truck to call Quinn, who answered quickly. It was his day off, so I was banking on him being game for my idea.

“Hey. How’d you like to go pick out paint for your bedroom before our dinner?”

Dinner had been his idea, which was nice. He’d been a little awkward Thursday night, almost like he’d expected me to fuck and run. Not unwilling to talk and cuddle after, but more surprised that I’d been interested in anything other than hooking up. I didn’t need a pretext for a sex date, but I also wasn’t about to start drawing artificial lines in the sand between hooking up and friendship. I liked him out of the bedroom too, and if he wasn’t interested in a relationship, that was cool, but I wasn’t going to be the one obsessing over labels and rules.

“Uh…” Quinn made one of his adorable startled noises. “You’re totally serious about painting, huh?”

“Yup.” And this was why my plan was actually kind of great. Quinn needed to let go of any preconceptions about hooking up and simply enjoy spending time together. “From what I know about our schedules, we’ll both have some time on Sunday. So how about a quick trip to Coos Bay with me to pick out paint? Nice day for a drive.”

It was a gorgeous sunny June day, all bright-blue skies to match the gleaming ocean and not a cloud in sight. When I’d passed the beach earlier, I’d seen a number of kites in the air.

“Ha. It is pretty out, but what’s the true reason for the errand?” Quinn’s voice was light and teasing.

“You know me so well already,” I groaned. “Maybe I’ve complained about my unofficial side job a few too many times. I need a lightbulb for one of Mom’s rentals.”

“See? I knew it.” He laughed, a musical sound that made me feel better about having vented to him. “Can we take my car? Not sure I trust your truck to make the trip.”

The truck would make the trip fine, but getting an easy yes out of him was worth the trade-off. I hated being a passenger, but I’d deal. “Okay, but you better let me drive later.”

“Later…oh.”

“Yeah, oh. I still have plans for you. Don’t you worry about that.”

I’d spent every slow moment for the last four days daydreaming about more things to try with Quinn. He was so responsive and eager to please. Kissing him was as enjoyable as learning what his sexy-as-fuck mouth was capable of. Once had most definitely not been enough.

“Mmm.” Quinn’s pleased noise went straight to my cock. It was going to be a long drive, but I had no doubt the wait would be worth it.

“See you in ten minutes.” After ending the call, I put the truck in gear and headed to Quinn’s condo.

He was out front waiting for me, standing next to his car—a newer hybrid SUV, one of the smaller models. I parked and made my way over to him.

“I’m not surprised that your car is black,” I teased, tempted to greet him with a kiss if only to get him all flustered.

“I promise to only look at shades of blue in the paint department. And I think I’ll order some bedding to match, give the color theory a bigger chance of helping my sleep.”

“I have suggestions for your sleep too.” Standing next to his car, I let my gaze roam over him slowly until he rewarded me with one of his blushes.

“I welcome them,” he murmured, and that did it. I gave him a lightning-fast kiss. Not even a snack compared to what I wanted later, but still worth it for his startled noise.

“Sooner we get going, the sooner we can get back.” I slipped into the passenger seat before I could talk myself into snatching another kiss.

“Sounds like a plan.” Settling himself in the driver’s seat, he swapped his usual glasses for sunglasses. The sunglasses made him look more like a rich pilot than his usual hot-nerd self, and something about the look turned my crank, made me that much more determined to take him apart later.

I watched him enter the store’s address into the car’s GPS. “I am sorry for springing the change on you,” I said.

“It’s all right. I don’t mind helping your mom.” He headed for 101. I was happy to see traffic was relatively light.

“Thanks. It’s her busy season, so there’s a lot that needs doing.” I stretched my legs. Quinn was a competent if cautious driver, checking his mirrors often and going a few miles under the speed limit. I could relax for a spell.

“You’re a good son.” Slowing for a red light, he gave me a warm smile.

I was usually more about handing out praise than receiving it, but his appreciation did feel good, made my shoulders lift. “She’s a good mom. The best, really. She built an amazing business after my deadbeat sperm donor skipped town, and she’s always been there for me.”

“It’s important to have people in your corner.” Quinn spoke like someone who truly understood that and had been burned by trusting too freely in the past.

“Word. My senior year of high school sucked. My mom is the only reason I graduated.”

“What happened?” Quinn sounded all concerned.

I shifted around in my seat, wincing. Quinn hadn’t been around when my teenage life had blown up, making me the hot topic of small-town gossip for a few months. It was ancient history, but there was no reason not to tell him. “I had a thing on the down-low with another football player. He was a far better athlete than me, with a scholarship waiting for him. We thought we were so sneaky, but someone outed me.”

Quinn made a dismayed noise like he’d actually known me back then or at least cared about what had happened. “That’s awful. I’m so sorry.”

“Eh. Now, I mainly look back and shrug.” I didn’t quite know what to make of Quinn’s empathy, so I hurried through the rest of the story. “Someone shared a pic. It was obvious that two guys were making out in the cab of my truck. I was visible, easy to recognize, but he wasn’t. I was fucking sick of the rumors, so I finally just said, ‘Fuck this noise, yes, I’m gay, deal with it.’ ’Course that was over twelve years ago, and the stupid comments and practical jokes, like filling my locker with inflated condoms, were enough that I quit the team rather than deal with more idiots. My mom was my rock through the whole mess.”

“Wow. You were so brave.” Quinn said it like I was some sort of hero, which was laughable. I’d just been a kid with a temper who’d been pushed far enough.

“Mom deserves more credit than me.”

“Well, I think you were both brave. You never found out who shared the picture?”

“Nope. Doesn’t matter. Like I said, ancient history. Whoever it was, they gotta get right with their own conscience.” I’d long ago decided that I was better off not knowing. I had to live here, and letting anger consume me with what-if scenarios was not healthy. “The other guy wasn’t about to come out, so that ended. He went on to play Division 1 baseball, got himself a degree. And last I heard, he was in Seattle, married to a dude, so guess that worked itself out eventually too.”

“Wow.” Quinn shook his head. “You weren’t tempted to seek out a fresh start somewhere else too?”

“Where would I go?” I scoffed. “I wasn’t a decent enough ball player to get scholarship money. Not book smart enough to hack it on my grades either. And Mom and Ramona needed me. They stuck by me. I wasn’t about to be one more person letting them down.”

“That’s admirable. Really.” At the next light, he gave me another of those hero-worshiping looks.

“Eh.” I slunk a little lower in the seat. I wasn’t all that. “I don’t know about admirable. I just did what needed to be done. I stayed close with Mason, and when the chance came to buy the Rainbow Tavern, I grabbed it because what better fuck-you to any narrow-minded folks than success. Mason’s dream of turning the area into a magnet for LGBTQ tourism is a good one too.”

“It is. That’s part of why I took the job here. I saw an article about the restored resort and decided it might be the right change of scenery for me.”

“See? It’s working already, getting fresh blood to the town. What I went through sucked donkey balls, but maybe some of the kids in school right now won’t have it so rough.”

Outside the SUV, the coastline sped by, gorgeous green and blue scenery I barely noticed, head trapped somewhere between the past and present.

“You’re pretty amazing. A lot of people would come through that bitter and angry, justifiably so.”

“I have my moments,” I admitted. I didn’t know why Quinn was so easy to talk to about this stuff. I hadn’t dredged up a lot of these memories in years because most people were aware of them and knew to avoid the topic with me. “But I can’t help Mom and Ramona if I get myself busted over a petty bar fight or something like that. And life’s too short to stew over all the bad crap.”

“Excellent advice.” Quinn went all thoughtful, likely thinking about his bad breakup again. He tended to go all bristly at the idea of moving on, so I let him have his thoughts and focused on the view outside the car until we reached the home store. It was large, but it was a local operation and tended to be a bit more unpredictable about what they stocked than a typical big-box store.

Like the huge bin of pillows right inside the door. The throw pillows were covered in various colors of fake fur and soft nubbly material, garish and probably discounted for a reason. But Quinn immediately headed for them.

“Oh! I didn’t know they carried things other than hardware.” He petted one of the softest pillows in a way that made me want to swap places with it. My opinion of the pillow, which was done in shades of blue, shifted with each pass of his hand.

“They gotta have some pretty stuff to pull the tourists in.” Reaching down, I tried to see the tag for the pillow without interrupting his petting.

“What are you doing?”

“Checking to see if the cover zips off and is washable. It is. Get it,” I ordered, pointing to our empty cart.

“Oh no. I couldn’t.” A red stain crept steadily up his neck, and he dropped the pillow like it was a barbecue briquette.

“But you want it.” I said it like the fact it was. I was already looking forward to the sensation-play possibilities.

“It is nice, but…”

“It’s even blue. If you don’t buy it, I’m gonna get it, and it can live at your place. Help you sleep.”

“Okay, okay.” Quinn added it to the cart, mumbling something under his breath about bossy men.

I took advantage of him leaning over the cart to whisper in his ear, “Don’t tempt me to turn all mean Daddy on your ass.”

“Thought you were a nice one.” He looked more turned-on than alarmed, eyes going hot and a little wild.

“Didn’t say I couldn’t deliver a spanking if you earn one.” I kept my volume down but my voice firm, loving how his eyes went even brighter.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Quinn quickly escaped, pushing the cart toward the paint section, and I let him. I’d get my chance to prove my point soon enough.