“Are you sure you’re not a birder?” Eamon asked as Scott came to the apparent end of his heron facts.
“Not at all,” Scott assured him. “I’ll have to introduce you to some of the real scientists one of these days, and you’ll see. I just have a good memory for trivia.”
“I didn’t know that about you,” Eamon said, surprised.
“It’s good for the job,” Scott told him. “I can always remember if it’s the XL57 with the fancy new kind of brake-pads or the other model of Archeox, or whatever without looking up the specs.”
“You’ve lost me already,” Eamon said, leaning comfortably on Scott’s shoulder.
“It doesn’t matter,” Scott said with a laugh. “It’s just good for impressing a certain kind of customer who doesn’t think a small-town bike repair place can read a spec profile.”
“Well, I think you’re very impressive.” Eamon ran a hand softly down Scott’s arm.
“You just admitted you’ve never heard of Archeox,” Scott laughed. “I know this doesn’t matter to you.”
“I never claimed to be impressive,” Eamon joked.
“Sure you did.” Scott pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “I’ve always been impressed by you.”
Eamon let out a breath that was almost a laugh and almost a sigh. “Even with how badly my life is falling apart lately?”
“I wouldn’t say it’s falling apart,” Scott said, surprised. “You’re going through a rough patch at work, sure, but that happens to everyone. You have to think of this as a vacation.”
“It hasn’t all been bad,” Eamon agreed, taking Scott’s hand and squeezing it.
“I would hope not.” Scott squeezed back.
Eamon practically purred, leaning into Scott’s embrace. “I could stay just like this forever,” he said, and looked out over the water with a shiver of contentment.
26
Scott
”You’re late!” Lennox yelled from the couch as Scott let himself into Lennox’s unlocked house.
“Not skipping this week though,” Scott called back. “Give me some credit.” He tossed his jacket over one of the hooks by the door and kicked off his boots.
The chorus of whistles that met his appearance in the living room was overkill as far as Scott was concerned.
“They’re not even at the first commercial break,” he said, glancing at the TV as he slumped down into a chair. “Relax.”
“But you took my advice,” Tony caroled, sounding way too pleased with himself. “We’re so proud of you, big guy.”
Scott sighed, putting his head in his hands. “Who said something?”
“Well, Annie at the grocery said she saw you with a very handsome man, and she asked Greta if she knew who that might be, and Greta said she’d ask me, and, of course, I definitely could guess who that was,” Tony said without taking a breath and grinning stupidly the whole time. “Also Kieran said y’all were smooching in the conservation area this afternoon.”
“You’re not that subtle,” Kieran called from the other side of the room.
“I hate all of you,” Scott said without heat.
“If you did, you’d have left years ago,” Lennox put in. “Or is that the next step? Your fancy new boyfriend whisks you off to town and leaves the rest of us high and dry?”
“Also, why did I have to wait to hear about your new man until Tony and Lennox filled me in today?” Max added.
“I don’t believe that for an instant,” Scott said drily. “Not with the way the gossip chain works around here.”
“I’d heard a few rumors, of course,” Max admitted gleefully. “But there’s nothing like a good solid fact to keep things interesting.”
“Why are you all so invested in my love life?” Scott complained.
“What love life?” Lennox and Max said instantly, and high-fived.
“We know there’s not a lot of local options,” Tony said easily. “So we want you to make the most of the ones you’ve got.”
“Unless he’s going to drag you away,” Lennox added. “In which case we hate him automatically.”
“Real nice of you to worry about my happiness like that.” Scott glared impartially around the room. “But yeah, things are going good with Eamon, and I don’t think he’s going to drag me off to the city anytime soon.” He was surprised, as the words came out of his mouth, to find that he meant them. Eamon wanted to get back to work, sure, but he didn’t seem as poised to leave town as he had before. He complained about being put on sabbatical, but he also complained about being back in the city for two whole days and kept talking about how nice it was out here. Sellis Creek seemed to be working at least a little bit of its magic on him.
“So why isn’t he here tonight?” Lennox cooed.
“Maybe because I actually like him?” Scott considered reaching over to kick his friend, but he was pretty sure they were too far away for him to make it.
“C’mon, we’re awesome,” Kieran put in. “And what if he’s not?”
“Tony and Lennox met Eamon before,” Scott complained. “Let them tell you all the details.”
“They didn’t ask nearly enough embarrassing questions,” Kieran said with a shake of his head. “Like what are his intentions and is he going to–”
This time Scott really did kick him.
“I’ve known Eamon for less than three weeks,” Scott pointed out. “Can we keep the nonsense to a minimum for now?”
“But you’re already making out in the park!” Lennox said joyously. “I think there’s a lot of stuff we need to know.”
Scott groaned. “Can we just watch the game?” He gestured helplessly at the TV. “Look, uh, it’s a powerplay. Shouldn’t we try to care?”
“There were like two powerplays already,” Max said dismissively. “This game is going to be a shitshow. Mocking you is way better.”
“You’re just jealous,” Scott grumbled.
“Not if your new man introduces us to his hot, rich friends.” Lennox, still reclining on the couch, perked up visibly.
“I’m, uh, not sure that’s his kind of thing,” Scott said.
“Having friends?” Tony cackled.
Scott had meant playing matchmaker, but now that he was thinking about it, he wasn’t sure Eamon had ever talked to him about his friends. Not current friends anyway, only people he’d known in college or who had been around in the early days of his career. As pissed as Scott was at the loudmouths currently driving him nuts, this struck him as inexpressibly sad.
Maybe he should bring Eamon around here one of these weeks. He wasn’t sure if Eamon was much for sports, but the game was mostly an excuse anyway, and the guys would confine themselves to no more than the usual amount of teasing if Eamon was actually present. Besides, Eamon could take care of himself. He might not be the guy with the widest social circle in the world, but he wasn’t exactly shy. He’d been joking around with Scott since the moment they met, and could probably take on any one of these annoyances in a battle of wits.
It was definitely one of the hottest things about him.
“Earth to Scott!” Kieran was shouting at him.
“What?” Scott said grumpily.
“Daydreaming of lover-boy?” Kieran snorted. “Anyway. I’m getting up. You want a beer?”
“Sure,” Scott said with a shrug.
“See, I’m a great host,” Lennox said from the couch as Kieran disappeared in the direction of the kitchen. “You should totally bring your boytoy around.”
“You’re still sitting on your ass,” Scott pointed out.
“Irrelevant.” Lennox waved a hand. “It’s my TV and my beer, man.”
“You’re the best,” Tony said, laughing openly at his friend. “Also I bought at least half of that beer.”
“My fridge then.” Lennox waved a hand. “You could be nicer to me, you know.”
“Absolutely not,” Scott said firmly.
“Smack him for me,” Lennox whined.
Ton
y reached out and tapped Scott’s knee. Scott raised an eyebrow and Tony shrugged. “I don’t want to get up either, man.”
Suddenly, Max yelled and the room, including the newly re-arrived Kieran turned towards him.
“Is no one else watching the damn game?” he said, incredulous. “They fucking scored, man. After all this bullshit. Look at that replay. A thing of beauty.”
“Well, fuck,” Tony said, turning back towards the TV. “Shit, you think they’re going to show it again?”
“They might,” Max said. “It was a real nice one. Makes up for the rest of this dogshit, I think.”
On the TV, hockey players were being forced to stop celebrating so they could drop the puck again. Scott wasn’t super invested in the game – not his team after all, even if they were in the playoffs – but it was definitely better than being interrogated at length about Eamon.
On one hand, he could see how Eamon could seem like exactly the opposite of everything he wanted: some guy from the city, here on a break, ready to disappear at any moment. But when it was just the two of them, when Eamon was talking about the future he wanted, it didn’t feel like that. Eamon seemed so tired when he was talking about his company, and tireder still when talking about the board. He wanted control back, yes, but did he really want the sleep-deprivation and hurry-up lifestyle that came with it. Scott was staking a lot on a few words, maybe, but he couldn’t help his feelings. If he’d learned nothing else from the past couple of weeks, at least he’d learned that.
“You’re daydreaming again,” Max crowed, nudging Scott’s leg.
“Maybe it’s better than being here with you fuckers,” Scott told him, swigging down his beer and glaring impartially around the room.
“And yet, you’re here,” Max said peacefully.
Scott laughed. “You got me there.” It was nice to see the guys, he thought. As much as he was diving head-first into the glow of his new relationship, his friends still meant a lot to him. Maybe he would bring Eamon around one of these times. It seemed like something everyone could use.
Or at least, it would probably be funny.
27
Eamon
Day by day, Eamon could feel himself diving head-first into this new relationship. Had he ever felt like this before? Floating on clouds, ready to drop everything just to see Scott again?
Not that he had much to drop these days.
As the summer bloomed forth into a riot of plants Eamon couldn’t identify, he found himself spending more and more time around town. Scott was switching to summer hours, so he often worked late picking up after the evening bike rental crowd, and Eamon would bring him takeout and they’d eat it together – sometimes in the shop if it seemed like Scott was going to have to work through his dinner break, sometimes just down the road where a bench overlooked a little parkette that Eamon had hardly noticed in the spring, but that now seemed to be changing every week as it overflowed with greenery.
In between times, he kept tinkering with the appointment program – more for something to do than because Scott was having real problems with it. But every once in a while it would drop an appointment or screw up a number and Eamon took those mistakes as a personal affront, even if Scott kept telling him that they didn’t matter. It was something to do anyway, in between grocery shopping and his spectacular new sex life.
There wasn’t much to be done on the CarreSys front after all. The board members were beginning to take their summer vacations, which meant that all the votes were being endlessly postponed. The production team was still working on the launch of their latest version, but Eamon was trying not to think about how behind they were.
Nothing he could do about it after all. Not until the board reinstated him.
So instead he brought Scott food and wandered around town. He was biking more, thanks to Scott’s good influence, even when he was on his own and Scott was busy at the shop. The conservation area was slowly becoming one of his favorite places to ride, and he was starting to see what Scott saw in the place – what had made him want to settle down here and protect it.
On Tuesdays, Scott had a real evening off so they could try to eat a real dinner together somewhere other than behind the counter of Sellis Creek Cycle Works. Eamon occasionally felt guilty about not learning to cook, but Scott said he didn’t care so long as Eamon kept bringing him groceries. It was nice to just hang out in Scott’s kitchen and watch him work. Eamon’s own kitchen, back at the penthouse, had never seen this kind of use, and he often felt vaguely guilty when Scott complained about his old stove, thinking of the pristine new model he’d had installed and barely used for anything more complicated than frying an egg.
But the important thing was that tonight they had time together, which was why Eamon was so annoyed when his phone started to ring halfway through. He put his plate down on the coffee table with a jerk, and scrabbled in his back pocket for the device. The name and number flashed up onto the screen and he made a disgusted noise, rejecting the call and shoving the phone away.
Scott stopped scrolling through movie titles and stared at him in disbelief.
“It’s just Kevin,” Eamon said.
Scott looked vaguely shocked. “Shouldn’t you answer that? We’re only having dinner.”
“He can always call back,” Eamon said. He watched Scott fondly. “This is more important.”
“Take out and arguing about movies is more important?” Scott looked both charmed and shocked.
“He’ll call back if it’s really vital,” Eamon said with a shrug. “But it never is these days.”
Now Scott looked pretty much just shocked, and Eamon felt the sting of shame pricking into him mercilessly.
“It’s not that I don’t care,” he protested, knowing as he did so that he sounded pathetic. “But half the board’s on vacation now and the other half is planning their vacations, and literally nothing is happening at the top level. Even the department heads are slacking.”
“And that doesn’t...bother you?”
Eamon groaned. “Of course it bothers me.” He nudged Scott’s knee with his own. “But I’m trying not to let it, you know? Taking some of your good advice and letting them go their own way without me. Let them see that I was more than a figurehead.”
“My advice?” Scott laughed. “I can’t believe you took me seriously. What do I know about running a big company?”
“You know how not to get burnt out,” Eamon said frankly. “When I look at the hours you work, and I see how cheerful you are about it... It makes me think, you know?”
“Find a job you love and all those clichés,” Scott replied with an embarrassed laugh. “I got lucky.”
“I loved coding,” Eamon said drily. “Managing people... Well, that was what Kevin was for.”
“And he did a shitty job?” Scott asked.
“I guess not.” Eamon shrugged. “He was always telling me I needed to step back and let him deal with the people problems, so I guess he was right about that.”
“You know, it’s funny,” Scott said thoughtfully, leaning into Eamon’s side and putting his own dinner down on the coffee table next to Eamon’s. “You keep talking about how you have this temper and you couldn’t deal with people at work without blowing up, but I’ve never seen any of that from you.”
“You’re not fucking up,” Eamon joked. He rested his head on Scott’s shoulder. “I don’t want to be that person. Especially with you.” He took a deep breath. “And I feel a lot less mad these days. Maybe I was getting a little burnt out being so involved with everything at work.”
“I told you cycling could be meditative,” Scott said with a grin. “Beats yoga any day.”
Eamon laughed. “You really think it’s that?”
“I know it’s that,” Scott said firmly. “Plus the clean country air and so on.”
“The conservation area is pretty nice this time of year,” Eamon agreed.
“Does that mean you want to come help out with the summer cle
an-up?” Scott wheedled. “Saturday after next, prizes for the most trash collected, spending a whole day with me...”
“You know I’m anywhere you ask me to be,” Eamon said with a chuckle. “Just tell me where to go, and what to do.”
Scott looked at him for a long moment, heat in his gaze. “Do you know how much I wish you weren’t talking about picking trash up in the park?”
Ears beginning to redden, Eamon laughed. “I could be talking about other things too, if you play your cards right.”
“Just let me know which ones are wild,” Scott said, half-joking, half...something else.
Warmth crept up Eamon’s spine as he leaned in closer to his lover to peck him on the cheek. Scott’s arm came down around his back, squeezing him in even closer. “That’s a terrible joke,” he murmured in Scott’s ear.
“Is it still terrible if I’m not joking?” Scott replied and kissed him until Eamon could hardly remember what they’d been talking about.
28
Scott
Today was a busy day at Sellis Creek Cycle Works. They did, in spite of Scott’s friends’ helpful comments, happen from time to time as the weather got warmer and people began to spend more time outside. This particular busy day might have been more related to the roadworks that were going on just south of town and seemed to be bending people’s wheels on a regular basis, but Scott wasn’t going to complain too much – at least not until it started affecting his rental bikes.
Whatever the cause, he had a couple of repairs in the back that he couldn’t seem to get done in decent time. Every time he started to settle in to fix the problem, someone would come through the front door wanting this or that and he’d have to rush out front to help them. By the time Eamon was dropping by at dinner time, Scott still felt like he was up to his eyes in work.
“Is it that time already?” he said mournfully when he stuck his head out of the back room at the sound of the bell and saw his boyfriend standing there.
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