by Ariel Tachna
“It sounds so easy when you say it.”
“Because it is easy,” Phillip said. “All you have to do is pick up the phone and call Linc.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Think fast, because if you haven’t called him by the time we get back, I’m kicking your ass.”
Kit laughed in spite of himself. “You can try.”
“Call your boyfriend, Kit. Don’t pass up a chance at happiness. Mom would hate it if she knew her death was keeping you from taking a chance.”
Kit winced at Phillip’s all too accurate assessment of the situation.
“Gotta go. It’s late and we have to be up early tomorrow.”
“Kiss Marisol for me.”
“Call Linc.”
“Bye, Phillip.”
“Call Linc. See you soon.”
Kit disconnected the call and leaned back against the headboard. God, had he really been that much of a selfish bastard? He thought back over his last conversation with Linc. Fuck, he really had been. He’d gotten so caught up in his own fears that he’d stopped thinking rationally. His mother would smack him a good one if she were still alive, and he was lucky Uncle Thane hadn’t done it either. He probably had Uncle Blake to thank for that, except it might have saved a lot of heartbreak if Blake had let Thane knock some sense into him.
Now he just had to decide what to do about it. Could he call Linc like Phillip said and try to fix things between them? Could he go out on that limb and trust that this time things would be different and distance wouldn’t mean death?
He didn’t have any answers, but it couldn’t hurt to see what kind of job openings he could find in Houston. He opened a browser on his phone and set to work.
LINC closed the door to his new house in Houston, a modest one-story ranch style in Westbury, with two extra rooms that he’d set up so his family could visit whenever they wanted. He leaned back against the solid wood in relief as the air-conditioning blew cold on his face. His new teammates assured him he’d get used to the heat eventually, but he didn’t see how. Sure, it got hot in Kentucky, but it usually cooled off at night, and the humidity didn’t hover at 99 percent year-round. He pushed off and went into the bedroom to strip and shower. He’d taken a shower after practice, but he was soaked through again, just walking to his car—a Ford Escape hybrid. He’d heard Kit going on about sustainability and carbon footprints the whole time he was car shopping—and then inside from the driveway.
He rinsed off quickly and came back into the kitchen to stare blankly into the refrigerator. He missed Kit’s cooking.
He missed Kit.
There. He’d admitted it, to himself at least.
He’d made the right decision. Hearing the quiet gratitude in Pop’s voice when he sent them a check to replace the aging metal roof and the happiness in Momma’s voice when workers arrived to replace the counters with granite and the cracked linoleum floor with new tile had been the highlight of his month. He missed them, but Ruth and Hattie had called him every day to tell him about their days, to ask about his, and to generally be adorable, annoying younger sisters. James might be doing fine in his apprenticeship without Linc’s help, but Doug had quietly shared his dream of studying architecture at Western. Linc had promised him that if he got accepted, he’d get to go, scholarship or no scholarship. And since he’d need a master’s degree after that, Linc would pay for that too. He’d made the right decision, but it was hollow without Kit there to share it with him. He’d lost count of how many times he’d turned to share a funny story with Kit, only to remember he wasn’t there, how often he’d started to text him, only to remember he couldn’t anymore. He’d been the one to walk away, even if Kit had driven him to it.
Right and wrong didn’t matter now, though. He was alone in a new city, with no one but his teammates, who all saw him as everyone else always had—a means to an end. That it was an NBA championship instead of a district or state championship changed only how visible the win or loss would be, not the fact that no one wanted him for himself, just his talents.
His phone rang as he pushed the fridge door closed, resigning himself to another night of Mexican takeout. At least he could find it easily here.
“Hello?” he answered without bothering to look at the caller ID.
“Hi. It’s Kit.”
“Kit?” He had to swallow past the sudden constriction in his throat to get the word out as he slumped against the fridge in surprise.
“You know, Kit Parkins, from UK.”
“I know who you are. I just didn’t expect to hear from you,” Linc said. “How are you?”
“Miserable,” Kit said. “And a selfish dumbass on top of it. I owe you an apology.”
Linc swallowed down the automatic retort that sprang to his lips at Kit insulting himself. “I’m listening.”
“I made a mistake, and I drove you away, and I don’t know if you can forgive me, but I have a job interview in Houston next week, and I’m hoping maybe you’ll give me another chance.” The words came out in Kit’s characteristic rush, so much of a blur Linc almost couldn’t separate them out.
One thing was clear, though. “You’re coming to Houston? I thought….” He trailed off, not sure what he wanted to say or how to say it without restarting old arguments.
“Yeah, I have a job interview at GSI Environmental for a job as an environmental scientist. It’s not exactly the same work as I’ve been doing at Alltech, but it’s close enough that the experience will carry over. But more importantly, it’s in Houston.”
“Why, though? What about your family?” Linc had to ask after everything that had happened.
“They’ll still be my family, no matter where I live,” Kit replied.
Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but…. “That’s a pretty big change from what you said the last time we talked.”
“I know. But I’ve had a few things pointed out to me recently, including the fact that it was selfish to ask you to give up your dreams, that I’m miserable without you, and that if I think distance is enough to keep my brother out of my hair, I obviously don’t know him as well as I think I do. Will you give me another chance?”
Linc’s heart pounded in his chest. He desperately wanted to say yes, but Kit had already broken his heart once. “I want to say yes, Kit. You have no idea how bad I want that, but what happens if you don’t get the job, or when you start missing your family, or any of the things you were worried about before?”
“If the GSI job doesn’t work out, I’ll look for something else. As Phillip reminded me, Houston has one of the largest medical and research facilities in the world. Someone’s bound to need a biochem major with a passion for environmental issues,” Kit replied. “I know it’s going to take more than words to convince you, but for that, you have to give me time and let me see you again.”
Linc wanted to believe what Kit was saying. He’d gone to the effort of researching jobs in Houston and applying for one, and he’d arranged an interview next week. He wouldn’t put that much effort in if he wasn’t serious.
“You leaving sent me into a tailspin,” Kit went on. “I went to work. I came home. Sometimes I remembered to eat, sometimes I didn’t care. I lost weight. I even missed Sunday dinner. Nothing was right with you gone. It took Phillip kicking my ass to make me realize I was doing it to myself for no reason except my own selfish fears, and that the worst that could happen if I tried to fix things would be that you’d moved on, at which point maybe I would have to.”
“Nothing’s right here either,” Linc admitted. “I keep turning around to tell you something or picking up the phone to text you. The only people I know are my new teammates. They’re great, but they have friends and family and lives that don’t include me. Oh, and the server at the Mexican restaurant down the street. I’ve eaten there so often she knows me too.”
“I’m sorry I was such an idiot,” Kit said. “Will you let me explain?”
An explanation would be good. Linc c
ould guess at most of it from various things Kit had said over the time they’d been together, but if he laid it all out now, then Linc would know, and hopefully Kit’s change of heart would make sense too in a way Linc could believe in. “Yeah, I’m listening.”
“My dad died when I was too young to remember him. My mom died when I was fifteen. All I had left was Phillip, and an uncle in Lexington who I knew but who wasn’t my mom. I’d never been so scared in my life as I was the day the lawyer called us all together to explain the terms of Mom’s will. You hear horror stories, you know, of kids dumped into the foster system later in their lives, of group homes and moving from place to place. I’d already lost everything, and now I was going to lose my brother too.”
Linc knew the facts of the story, but now he tried to imagine himself in Kit’s shoes, alone with his brothers and sisters looking to him for support, reassurance, anything, and having to face the possibility of losing them too. God, the very thought of it made him sick to his stomach, and it wasn’t even real.
“I’m so sorry,” he murmured, even knowing it hadn’t ended that way.
“It turned out okay,” Kit said, though he sounded hoarse, like he was fighting back tears.
Linc almost wished they’d waited to have the conversation until they were together and he could hold Kit to comfort him, but he needed to hear this now, before he let himself hope again.
“Before the lawyer could say anything, Uncle Thane pulled Phillip and me into this huge bear hug. You’ve seen him. He’s got logs for arms and a mountain for shoulders. He looked us in the eye, one at a time, and swore that no matter what the will or the lawyer or any judge in the world said, we were his boys now and he wasn’t letting us go. Obviously he and Mom had talked about it before she died, because the will was in order and Uncle Thane got custody of us immediately, but it was never about the legal side of things for me. It was that blunt declaration of belonging. As long as I had Phillip and Uncle Thane, everything would be okay.”
“He must have seemed ten feet tall to you at that age,” Linc said.
“Twenty,” Kit replied with a chuckle. “He was already the only adult male figure in my life, and there he was taking us in without blinking. Uncle Blake joined our family a few months later, and his support has been invaluable too, but it took a while before he became that same bedrock that Uncle Thane is. When we graduated from high school, Phillip went to work for Uncle Thane full-time, while I started at UK. We got our own place, the apartment you saw, and I didn’t think twice about moving out, but Phillip was still right there beside me and Uncle Thane was ten minutes away if I needed him. And somehow I convinced myself that I needed physical proximity in order to have all the rest, that without it, I’d lose my foundation and would crumble like a house of cards.”
“You’re stronger than you think,” Linc murmured.
“Maybe, maybe not,” Kit replied, “but it doesn’t matter because it’s not a question of distance. Phillip’s my brother. Uncle Thane’s the father I never knew, even if he’d never claim that title. That’s fact, not something that might change if we aren’t in the same room or house or city, but I couldn’t see it.”
“What changed?” Linc asked because it was that final realization he still couldn’t quite trust.
“Phillip went away,” Kit answered simply. “Sure, it was just on his honeymoon and he’s coming home this weekend, but it’s the longest we’ve ever been apart. And we texted or emailed every day. He sent pictures and I told him all about work, and the fact that he wasn’t there physically didn’t change anything. And then he found out I was moping around and he kicked my ass over the phone. If distance didn’t even change that, it wasn’t going to change anything else. So I looked for jobs in Houston and found the one at GSI Environmental, and everything fell into place.”
Linc could just hear all the things Phillip said to Kit about moping, and the thought brought a smile to his face, the first one that felt genuine since he’d walked out of Kit’s apartment all those weeks ago. “When is your interview? I’ll meet you at the airport.”
The sound that came through the phone might have been a sob or a laugh, Linc couldn’t tell, but Kit answered him immediately. “Next Thursday. My flight is Wednesday evening. They offered me a car and a hotel room. You don’t have to pick me up if it doesn’t suit.”
“I wouldn’t have offered if it didn’t suit,” Linc replied. “Text me your flight details and I’ll pick you up. I’ve got a guest room you can use if you want, or I can drop you at the hotel. We can figure out the rest when you get here.”
“Thank you,” Kit said softly. “I love you.”
Linc sucked in a sharp breath. He’d given up on hearing those words from Kit again.
“I love you too.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
LINC shifted restlessly from foot to foot as he waited outside the security checkpoint for Kit to come through. He’d texted Linc when he landed, so it wouldn’t be long now, but after nearly three months, even those few minutes were too long.
He caught sight of Kit’s messy curls before he could see his face and took a step forward to meet him. Then another, and another until he could gather Kit in his arms and bend to kiss him. “You’re here,” he said when they broke the kiss. “You’re really here.”
“I’m really here,” Kit agreed, eyes sparkling with emotion.
“I’m tempted to kidnap you and never let you leave,” Linc warned him.
“I’d let you,” Kit replied.
Linc inhaled sharply as relief washed through him. He studied Kit’s face, looking for any sign of doubt. He found none.
“God, I didn’t think this could really happen.”
“It’s happening,” Kit promised.
“Do you have a bag?” Linc asked.
“Just these,” Kit said, holding up the thin suit bag and small duffel. “A suit for the interview and a couple of extra changes of clothes.”
“I guess that means I have to let you go back to Lexington in a few days.”
“Only if you want to,” Kit answered. “Phillip offered to pack my stuff and ship it to me if I decided to stay.”
Linc had no words for how badly he wanted that. “Let’s get out of here before I embarrass us both.”
Kit grinned up at him. “It’s a big city. I bet no one recognizes you yet.”
Linc laughed at that. “Maybe, but I don’t want the reason my name is in the Chronicle the first time to be on charges of public indecency.”
“Take me home.”
Linc had never been so happy to follow an order in his life.
LINC nuzzled the top of Kit’s head as they lay in bed together, relaxed after the best—and fastest—blow jobs Linc could ever remember giving or getting. Kit tilted his head up so he could kiss Linc tenderly.
“I’m still having trouble believing this is real,” Kit said softly. “I was so afraid you’d tell me I’d waited too long.”
“I suppose that point would’ve come,” Linc said, “but not for a while yet. Everything still reminded me of you. Looking at houses, buying a car, all of it. I’d hear your voice in my head or if I couldn’t decide between two options, I’d pick the one I thought you’d like best. Then I’d kick myself for doing it when you weren’t ever gonna be here to know what I’d done, but I’d still turn around and do it again the next time a decision came up.”
“I like the choices you made, the ones I’ve seen so far,” Kit said. “The house has good bones, as Uncle Thane would say. We can always update things here and there as we have time.”
Linc smiled and pulled Kit closer. “I don’t know where GSI Environmental is. If this area isn’t convenient, we can look somewhere else. With the Rockets contract, it wouldn’t be a problem to get a mortgage on another house even if this one didn’t sell right away.”
“Don’t start.” Kit poked Linc in the ribs. “You don’t have to rearrange your life because of me.”
“You rearranged yours
for me,” Linc pointed out.
“No, I just realized following my dreams had a different set of requirements than I thought it did. But for your information, I looked it up on a map, and it’s only about twenty minutes from here, depending on traffic. Even in Lexington, that’s not unreasonable, and in Houston, it’s practically next door. Can you even get to the Toyota Center that quickly?”
“Don’t know. I haven’t tried, but that’s about how long it takes to get to the training center,” Linc replied. “Wanna come watch practice after your interview tomorrow? I’ll introduce you to the team.”
“I’d love that,” Kit said. “The sooner I get settled down here, the happier I’ll be. I know it’ll take you time to believe I’m here to stay after everything I put us through, but I’ll do whatever it takes to prove it to you.”
Linc was finally starting to believe him. He could feel the truth of Kit’s words in the intensity of his gaze and the determined set of his shoulders. Then again, he wouldn’t say no to letting Kit convince him.
“THIS was a good idea,” Linc said, looking around the cabin on Canyon Lake Kit had arranged for the weekend between the preseason games and the season opener in a week. Phillip would be coming the day before the game, but they had these few days alone before the insanity set in.
“I’m glad you like it.” Kit wrapped his arms around Linc’s waist from behind. Linc shifted a little so he could get an arm around Kit’s shoulders and simply stood there, enjoying the closeness in the quiet and privacy of the wood-paneled room. The cabin was large enough he could have brought his whole family down—and would when he could convince them to come for a visit—but for now, it was the two of them and an absolutely stunning view of the lake from the front porch.
“Do you have the time all planned out for us now that we’re here?” Linc asked.
“Not all planned,” Kit said. “I had some ideas of things we could do if we want to get out of the cabin for a while, but I’d be perfectly happy spending the weekend curled up next to you in bed or on the couch too. I wanted some us time.”