Warm Heart

by Amy Lane

  “One room,” she said carefully, “for the two of you.”

  “Yes, Charlene, one room. For two consenting adults.”

  He heard a suspicious noise in his other ear and realized he hadn’t turned off his com while he had this conversation. Well, hell.

  “Three rooms in Sacramento,” she said, voice flinty. “Two in Colorado.”

  “And you can eat the deposit,” he snapped.

  “You will thank me later!” she shrilled back.

  “Charlie, don’t be silly. You’ve seen this coming for five years!”

  “But I hoped it wouldn’t!” He heard her deep breath. “C’mon, Mallory. You almost died—”

  “And now I know why I’m alive,” he said, wheedling. “C’mon, Charlie. I’m grown. Have some faith. I bet Timmy is crazy about this idea.”

  She grunted. “Timmy knows I’m the brains of our outfit. Two rooms. I’ll get two queens. For the two queens that’ll be sleeping there. That’s you and me, in case you didn’t know what I was talking about.”

  “People on the street watching you have this conversation know what you were talking about, sweetheart. Thanks for doing this. Call this number when you get back into town—oh! And get me a cell phone and put it on the company account!”

  She snorted. “Anything else?”

  “Call Missy’s hospital—”

  All of her animation faded. “I’ve been calling every day since the helicopter went down. She’s fading fast, Mal. I’ll have your tickets out of Sac for the day after tomorrow.”

  “Thanks, honey.”

  “God, Mal, if you lost your heart to that kid in the frozen freaking wasteland, I’m cutting him off our Christmas card list.”

  “My heart’s in good hands, Charlie. Trust me.”

  “You? With my life. A snow bunny with a case of hero worship? Hardly.”

  “I’m no hero—it must be the real thing.”

  She snorted. “I’ll believe it when I see it. I’ll buy his clothes, but I’m not buying his line. Don’t argue with me—just go get checked out and okayed and make sure Damien lives to snark again. Now why couldn’t you have come back in love with him? Don’t answer that. It’ll only depress me. I’m glad you’re back, Mal. Don’t piss me off.”

  She hung up, and Mal fought against a yawn before looking up the number of the hospital in Colorado.

  “She didn’t sound happy,” Tevyn said softly.

  Mallory shrugged. “She’s protective. We went to school together. My mom died, and we started a new business. For a while it was us sharing an apartment above our dinky little office building. Nobody’s good enough, you know?”

  “And you were lovers,” Tevyn reminded him.

  Mal let out a little laugh. “Believe me, that’s not what’s at work here. She’s got a very hot, very attentive piece of beefcake of her own.”

  “Then why—”

  Mallory put his finger over Tevyn’s lips. “I told you—she’s protective. She liked Keith, and we broke up because I was in love with you. Because she watched me for five years, comparing every guy I met to you. She liked Damie, and I told him no.”

  “Because of me.”

  “Because of how I felt about you. You haven’t ruined my life, Tevyn.” He pulled out a smile—one that felt like it might even warm the permafrost in his feet. “In fact, I think you saved it. Like, demonstrably. Earlier this morning, remember?”

  “Speeding down a hill?” Tevyn arched his eyebrows. “I think I was there.”

  “Yeah. Give her time.”

  “As long as she gives us the hotel room,” he said darkly.

  Mallory nodded. “Now I’ve got one more call to make. Give me a minute.”

  It took ten. Mallory had to shake Tevyn awake to connect him with his grandmother.

  “Grandma? Yeah. It’s me. How you doing?” Tevyn grimaced. “Honey, they said you broke your hip. No, they’re not lying. Honey, they’re—” His eyes got big, and he covered the mouthpiece and whispered, “She would have slapped me for those words!” Then, back into the phone, “I’m coming, Missy. No, not today. I have a flight out of Sacramento in two days. I’ll come then.” The voice on the other end got sad and quavery, and Mallory tightened his hold on Tevyn’s shoulders. “I know you’re confused, honey. I’ll be there as soon as I can be. Yeah, Missy. I raced real good. I raced so good, I put Mallory on the back of my board and he came down the hill with me.”

  Whatever Missy said next, it made Tevyn sit up straight and catch his breath.

  “Yeah, Missy. He is a good man. You’re right. I should keep him. I’ll tell him you said so. Night, honey. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  He hit End Call and slumped against Mal again, exhausted. Mal took the phone and held it out to Jeri, who turned her backside toward him. He slid it in and said thank you, and she gave him a wink before going back to work on Damien.

  Damien had an IV in and was apparently stoned and sleeping, and Mal was actually a little jealous of his friend.

  “What’d she say?” He ran his hands—clean for the first time in days—through Tevyn’s snarled hair, smoothing the curls the best he could.

  “She said you were a good man and she’s so glad we’re together now. Mallory, she doesn’t even know what day it is, and she knew that. Isn’t that weird?”

  “I’m glad someone approves,” he said.

  “Yeah, well, me too.”

  Mal was warm and safe, and his stomach was at least sated for the first time in a week. He leaned against the comfortable seat and pulled Tevyn closer and let his eyes drift shut. So many grown-up things to attend to—but they had this moment, right here.

  It was like coming down the mountain. They were alive. They were together. It was all he could ask.

  Feet on the Ground

  TEVYN tried really hard to hold on to his patience.

  He’d thought he could deal with Charlie’s protectiveness, but he hadn’t realized how bad it would get.

  She’d sailed into their hospital room, past guards and reporters, by dint of chutzpah alone. Once there, she’d pretty much thrown a bag of clothes at Tevyn and gone to slobber all over Mallory without giving Tev so much as a second glance.

  “Oh my God! Lookit you! You’ve lost twenty pounds, you bastard!”

  “I skipped dessert for a week.” Mallory looked over at Tevyn and winked. “You want to change first?” he asked.

  Before their night of fluids and tests, they’d both been given a thorough look-over for parasites but had begged to use the shower cubicles instead of getting a sponge bath. Blissful hot water—Tevyn wasn’t sure about Mallory, but he’d spent a good long time soaping everything six times and scrubbing his teeth until his enamel was at risk. It had been good to get clean the night before, but it would be even better to get out of the hospital gown.

  They’d both asked for their sweaters back. Everything else could be burned, but there was no denying that those sweaters had saved their lives. They sat, neatly folded, in a plastic bag with their wallets, which had been recovered at the crash site.

  “Yeah.” Tevyn scowled at Charlie, who smiled back with teeth that looked pointed. “I was hoping to change right here.”

  “Oh, sweetie, there’s a bathroom right there. Didn’t you see it?”

  Tevyn rolled his eyes so hard he had to reclaim them from the back of his head. “Just didn’t think I’d need it.” And with that he dropped his hospital gown off his shoulders and stood naked while he rooted through the department store bag.

  “Deadpool boxer briefs,” he said blankly.

  “They were on sale.”

  “Wranglers.” That wasn’t so bad. Only so many ways you could screw up jeans.

  “Like my nephew wears,” she said, all sweetness.

  “A Shaun White T-shirt.”

  “He’s in your profession, right?”

  “And a hooded sweatshirt with Batman on it.”

  “That is age appropriate, isn’t it?”

/>   Tevyn looked at Mallory for help and saw that the entire wardrobe conversation had sailed right over his head.

  He was staring at Tevyn’s body—underfed and stringy after the last week—with a sort of wistful hunger.

  Tevyn caught his eyes and smiled wolfishly.

  Mallory licked his lips.

  Without a damn given to Charlie, Tevyn dropped the paper underwear the hospital had provided and pulled the damned Deadpool underwear on without a second thought. Keeping eye contact with Mallory, he put on the Shaun White T-shirt and the Batman hooded sweatshirt and the plain white gym socks, Wranglers, and high-top Converse tennis shoes like this was how he wanted Mallory to see him. When he was done, he walked to the side of Mallory’s bed—in front of Charlie—and leaned over to take his mouth in the kiss that had been brewing between them from the moment he’d seen that wistful hunger.

  Mallory returned it, sweetly, and Charlie, who had been in full cry the entire time, shut up like a switch had been clicked.

  Tevyn pulled back and stared at Mallory, surprised. “I didn’t know we could do that here,” he said.

  “The hospital?”

  He was getting used to that little quirk in Mallory’s lips that indicated he was kidding.

  “Off the mountain. On the mountain, that was easy. I was wondering if we could do that here.”

  “No frostbite,” Mallory said, winking. He rubbed the dark beard that had grown on his narrow face in the last week. “But I may want to shave when we get to the hotel.”

  Tevyn rubbed his own blond scruff—not hardly enough to call stubble. “Me too, unless you like the style.”

  Mallory’s hand cupping the back of his head was a welcome surprise, and this kiss packed some heat.

  And that’s where they were when Charlie got up and let the reporters in.

  WHAT followed was a miserable media circus of cell phones pushed into his face as every blogger on the planet tried to make him a hero and Mal and Damien into grateful acolytes at the altar of his awesomeness.

  “What made you decide to bring Mr. Ward and Mr. Armstrong down the mountain with you, Tevyn? It must have been a hard decision, knowing you could have made it so much faster yourself.”

  “Do you think I could have done that without Mallory’s help?” he’d asked, growing angry. “Do you think either of us could have brought Damien down alone? Even Damien helped—and not just by being positive either. He kept the fire going when we were both exhausted. Do you know how important that was? It’s the only reason we’re not psychotic or dead! Mal spent an hour in a blizzard bringing in firewood so we could tend to Damien’s leg! He risked his life so the three of us could make it down together. You all see the medals and the pro-athlete thing and think I’m a hero, but on that mountain, it had to be all of us or none of us, and the blizzard didn’t give a damn about my trophies. Now get the hell out. We’re fucking tired!”

  That was what made Mallory kick them all out—while still wearing his hospital gown. He shoved the door closed and turned to glare at his business partner.

  “That was really awful,” he said. “What’s gotten into you?”

  Charlie glared back mutinously. “That’s going to be your life now, do you realize that?”

  “Not really,” Tevyn muttered, grabbing the suitcase with Mallory’s clothes. He pulled out boxer briefs, a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, and a zip-up hoodie. “They were sort of rabid today. I assume coming down the damned mountain after a week got them riled.” He glared at Charlie too. “What is your problem with me, by the way? This didn’t used to be so bad!”

  “You could hurt him!” she snarled.

  “Charlie,” Mallory said kindly, “that’s really between Tev and—”

  “Mallory, go change,” Tevyn said, keeping his eyes locked with Charlie’s. “In the bathroom. Please. Me and Charlie have to have a talk before we get to the hotel.”

  Mallory looked from one to the other, and then, God love him, bailed.

  “You’re too young for him,” Charlie said as soon as he’d disappeared.

  “He thought that too.”

  “You sleep with anything that moves.”

  “Not anymore.”

  “He’s—”

  “Kind?” Tevyn said, and she blinked. “Strong? Funny? Vulnerable? Do you think I don’t know that? How about smart? Did you factor that in? He knows who I am, and he knows who he is, and we’re both ready to be us together.”

  “Did you notice all those reporters?” she demanded. “Did you see what happened there?”

  Tevyn sighed. Of course he had. Tevyn had been the hero—everyone else had been his accessory. “Do you think I give a damn about that?” he returned. “And I know Mallory doesn’t. Do you know why he comes to our sporting events? Not just mine. He comes to all his clients’, even if not as much.”

  “To make sure everyone is doing well in the season,” she said, like she was reciting company policy. She might have been. “To see that the client’s needs are being met and to adjust for any flux in the income stream.”

  “To hear our names over the intercom and know he helped make our dreams come true,” Tevyn told her.

  She gasped and covered her mouth. “That’s not—”

  “Company policy? Maybe not. But it’s why he’s there. Because he doesn’t want to be the superstar. He wants to help the superstar do his job. Well, he can help me do my job by holding my fucking hand.” Tevyn closed his eyes. They were getting the first flight out of town as soon as they knew Damien would recover. Mallory promised to be there. “He can help me live my life by being by my side. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

  “No,” she said, her voice wobbling. “Because it sounds reasonable. It sounds like you’re going to be his happy ever after, his knight in shining armor. But I’m all he’s got, do you understand me? If his knight in shining armor breaks his heart, I might not be able to pick up the pieces!”

  “Then work with me here!” Tevyn begged. “Maybe if I am his knight in shining armor, you don’t have to be taking care of him all alone.”

  She looked at his suitcase then and pulled fitfully at the zipper. “If you make him move to Colorado, I’ll gut you in your sleep,” she said, and Tevyn swallowed nervously, because she meant that.

  “Only for a month or two in the summer,” he said. “So we can stay in my grandmother’s cabin and let the dog run in the country and play.”

  “You have a dog?” And oh, thank you Jesus, she sounded hopeful. Like them having a dog meant something to her.

  “We plan to get one,” he said. “When our lives are settled. He said you’d dogsit.”

  “It needs to be a big dog.” She carefully wiped the eyeliner under her eyes with the edge of her pinky finger. “I’m not letting him go to someone who likes one of those football-sized things that my cat can beat the crap out of.”

  “Deal.” He watched her pull out a pair of loafers for Mal—deck shoes, really, totally impractical in the winter, but they were battered, and he had the feeling they were his favorites and she had known that. “He can’t travel with me all the time. I know that. I’d really like someone to help me with his care and feeding,” he offered tentatively. “I… we don’t have to be at odds.”

  She turned to him with eyes that were red—but not overflowing. “Hurt him and I will hurt you,” she said, and he had no doubt she meant it in every way possible. “You dick around with his heart, kid, and I will never forgive you.” At that moment, their doctor came in, and she raised her voice. “Mallory, get your ass in here! I think they’re going to spring you, and I’m dying to get the hell out of the hospital!”

  Test result after test result was recited, and at the end, Tevyn made the doctor state his HIV status loud and clear. Yeah, sure, he’d been promiscuous, but he’d been careful, dammit, and it was important for Mallory to know that.

  Mallory was special. What they were going to do together was special.

  “So we can go?” Mallory ask
ed after the final instruction to take their vitamins and report anything out of the ordinary.

  “You may certainly go,” the doctor agreed.

  “Do we know how our friend is? Mr. Ward?”

  Dr. Brekken sobered. “He is in his second round of surgery right now,” he said quietly. “After recovery, he’ll spend a couple of days in the ICU. I wouldn’t count on visiting him until at least tomorrow.”

  Tevyn closed his eyes.

  “Understood,” Mallory replied. Tevyn felt a tug at his hand, and Mal was there, lacing their fingers while towing his suitcase behind him. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  They went walking through the hospital, Charlie clicking on her high heels in the lead.

  “We’ll see him tomorrow,” Tevyn said, feeling lost.

  “I will,” Mallory told him. “You’ll be on a plane to Colorado. I’ll get the next one out after Damien’s stable.”

  Tevyn must have let out a sound of protest, because Mallory brought their twined hands up so he could kiss Tevyn’s knuckles.

  “You need to get there,” he said softly. “I get it. I get you to myself for tonight. I’ll just have to make sure it’s some night so it’s not our only one.”

  Tevyn thought about them, together, in a darkened room. “Mal?”

  “Yeah?”

  “It’s not going to be our only one.”

  “God, I hope not.”

  “We’ve waited long enough.”

  CHARLIE had definitely picked a nice hotel—the Hyatt in downtown. They stopped for lunch first, where, per doctor’s orders, they stuck to chicken on whole wheat, because their stomachs would be small and sensitive for a little while.

  Charlie checked them in and handed Mal the key card, then eyed them both. “I’m the floor below, same room. You know. In case someone needs to sleep in my extra bed.”

  Tevyn snorted. “I’m not seeing that happening,” he said, squeezing Mallory’s hand. Just that contact and the whole rest of the world faded away.

  They practically ran to their room, and Tevyn sat down to unlace his sneakers while Mallory was still wrestling his suitcase through the door.