A Place to Run

by Diane Adams

  Beth laughed outright. They'd broken through, that was something he'd say to his dad. "Honey, why are you sorry? Everyone wants to get laid."

  "Mom!" The horror on his face was very real and she thought he might burst something important if she didn't relent.

  "Well, except me, of course." She laughed again. "Baby, what are you thinking? You have always been a disaster at casual sex." Jared wouldn't look at her, but he listened. "Why should now be any different? You loved Alex, you still love Alex, despite the fact you aren't together now. Give yourself time to get over it. Are you ready for another relationship?"

  Jared shook his head. "No. Not even close."

  Beth touched his hair. "Then give yourself the respect of some time. Now, about this friend nonsense, I thought Clark was your friend, or is he really mad about the whole Alex thing?"

  Jared met her eyes. "He's mad at me and Alex. He and I are still friends, it's just rough sometimes. I was thinking about hiring his friend Stevie to help in the office. She's really bright, smarter than Clark and I both, most of the time. There are a couple of jobs I want to give him. Small stuff, but they'd be his, and he deserves it for how hard he's worked. He's done a great job with me at Stevie's. I think he can handle a couple home repairs on his own." Jared grabbed his coffee and leaned back. "Oh, I have this idea. Helping Stevie and her mom got me thinking. I'm going to ask the guys to put in some volunteer time on the weekends to help people who can't afford construction work. You know, elderly people and stuff. No one deserves their roof to fall in on their head because they don't have any money."

  Beth relaxed as Jared expounded on his idea to offer home repair to the poor. She resisted her initial reaction to protest the additional work. Keeping busy would stop Jared's brooding. Beth didn't think things were as dark as Jared painted them. He didn't know she met his father at fifteen and fell head over heels. Eight years her senior, Red fought every step of the way. Watching Jared and Alex reminded her of the years she spent proving to Red he could trust her. Personal experience gave Beth hope they hadn't heard the last of Alex.

  Coming Home

  "You're stupid. Did I tell you today that you're stupid?" Clark lay on the couch, flat on his back, his feet braced on the arm, staring at the ceiling.

  Jared barely glanced up from his book. The TV blared, a pointless show played in the background. Stevie was in the office doing books. Smart and sharp, hiring her proved a brilliant decision. Unlike the one that led to Clark feeling free to slouch all over the furniture and say whatever he wanted.

  "And you're an ass. Do I remind you every day?" Jared turned the page.

  "I can't believe you broke up with Alex. He loves you. After everything his mother did to him, he didn't need you dumping on top of him, too." Never mind months had passed since Jared broke up with Alex, Clark was still pissed. "Why am I still friends with you?"

  "I sign the paychecks," Jared said, unperturbed.

  Clark vented every so often, usually when he got a new letter from Alex, who, in Clark's opinion, was every bit as stupid as Jared. He didn't want to think about it. How easily Alex let go still hurt, but knowing it was for the best made the situation bearable.

  Alex's happiness was all that mattered. Frank called to say he understood, and Alex's mother left him alone. Jared supposed he'd gotten out with a whole skin, if only a fraction of his heart.

  "I can get another job." Clark charged full-steam-ahead.

  Jared turned another page and hid his amusement. "So you can." The sound Clark made at Jared's comment made keeping the smile off his face impossible.

  Clark saw it and threw a pillow at his head. "It's not funny. You guys belong together. Stupid dicks, both of you."

  "Alex went to Paris for Christmas, for God's sake. I think he's doing okay," Jared reminded him. Jared didn't like remembering what Christmas had been like that year. He held the company party, the guys all wanted it, but Clark and Stevie hosted it. Jared spent the night outside under the huge old tree, the lights twined through the lower branches twinkling like captured stars. No surprise visit from Alex, and no snow, just Jared, alone with his memories.

  "He went to Paris because he couldn't come here. I didn't get to see him because his mom and his boyfriend are assholes." Clark sat up, his glare daring Jared to deny it.

  Jared understood how much Clark missed Alex but couldn't help the anger the comparison roused. "I did not do the same thing his mother did. Alex understands."

  Clark clearly had plenty more to say, opened his mouth to start, but a knock at the door interrupted him.

  He turned to stare at it. "Dude, you have company."

  Jared lifted a surprised brow. His mother always called first, and the other people who visited him were both there and never knocked anyhow. He set his book aside, and went to answer the summons. Clark, brimming with curiosity, followed right on his heels. He opened the door and was face to face with the last person he'd expected to see. Alex stood on his front porch holding a pie.

  Jared couldn't find his voice.

  "Holy crap." Clark was so close behind him he felt his breath brush the hair at the back of his neck. "I'll get Stevie. We'll see you later." And he left.

  "Hi," Alex said.

  That was all, just hi. The simple response transported Jared back to the second time he'd spoken to Alex. That rainy afternoon alone in his truck. Alex didn't steal his heart that day, but Jared couldn't remember another time he'd been at such a loss for words.

  "You have a pie." His cheeks heated, that was a brilliant thing to say.

  Alex's smile flashed and His knees weakened. This was going badly.

  "Yeah, I made it for you. It's Pi Day."

  "You baked?" Jared blinked, sure he'd missed something. "What the heck is Pie Day?"

  "I baked. I made one for Dad, too," Alex said with another flash of his brilliant smile. "It's not bad. Not pie, pi like the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle, you know, three point one four."

  Jared's brain felt like mush. "I know what pi is. You brought me a pie because it's Pi Day?"

  Alex beamed like he'd said something particularly intelligent. "Yep. There are three whole cherries and an infinite number of pieces."

  "An infinite number?" Jared looked at the pie again, and a smile quirked his mouth. Alex frowned, his brows drawing together. "Well, not really infinite I guess, but there are way more than I want to count." His confession made Jared laugh and hope lit in Alex's eyes. He set the pie on the porch railing and dug in his back pocket. "There's something else. Here."

  He handed Jared a couple of crumpled sheets of paper. Puzzled, Jared unfolded them. The top one was his last letter to Alex, obviously worse for wear, the tear stains on it made him wince. He flipped to the second page. Written in Alex's messy, left-handed scrawl was one of those corny sayings you could buy at General Amos or the Dollar K to hang on your wall.

  "If you love something set it free. If it comes back to you, it's yours. If it doesn't, it never was."

  Jared looked up to meet Alex's eyes.

  Alex no longer looked amused. He was dead serious.

  "It's our contract," he said. "You let me go, and I went. I stretched my wings and all that other stupid crap. Now I'm back. By the terms of the contract, that means I'm yours. What are you going to do?"

  Jared looked at the papers in his hand and then at Alex. At some point in the past months, his boy had become a man. Jared rescued the pie from the railing. He pushed the door the open and stood aside to let Alex in.

  When We're Dreaming

  "This pie really isn't bad. That's a lot of little pieces though, what'd you do to it?" Jared asked, taking another morsel from the plate on the bar in front of him. It took all his willpower not to turn and stare at Alex sitting beside him.

  "Mom has this chopper thing. I mashed 'em up in it." Alex had a piece of pie as well, though he pushed his around more than anything.

  "You're staying at home?" Jared's head came up and
he turned to face Alex.

  Alex made a face. "Yeah, I guess. Mom doesn't talk to me, or even admit I'm there, really, but she can't get used to me if I'm never home, and I'm not ready to give up yet."

  "I'm sorry she still hasn't come around." At a loss for words, Jared took another bite of pie.

  "I don't know if she ever will. Dude, she hates you." Alex sounded tired. He took a drink of his milk and returned to poking his pie.

  Jared forced away the urge to reach for him. "I know. So, how was Paris?"

  "Gorgeous. I guess most people would give a lot to spend Christmas in Paris. It was a great architecture trip. I learned some awesome stuff. Pretty French boys kept hitting on me and I got a Christmas kiss on the Eiffel Tower."

  Jared didn't even try to pretend he liked the idea of Alex kissing pretty French boys.

  Alex laughed at the face Jared made. "That's pretty much how I felt about it. You know what I couldn't stop thinking about?" Alex stood and grabbed Jared by the hand. He led him into the other room. "I couldn't stop thinking about how much I'd rather be here, curled up in that stupid ugly chair with you." Alex stopped in front of the recliner and tugged Jared into it with him. Jared started to say something, but Alex kept talking. "I understand why you did it, why you wrote that letter. It's why I didn't fight you. As much as I hated it, you were right. I picked Pi Day to come back because you panic so easy. I was sure you'd freak out if it was Valentine's Day. Besides, how cliché is that?" Alex laughed self-consciously.

  Jared didn't know what to say. He had trouble believing Alex was really there. His favorite and most forbidden fantasy started with opening the door and finding him there.

  "Seventeen. Still in high school," he muttered, more as a reminder to himself than an admonishment to Alex.

  "Jared, I know you, and believe me, I know I'm not going to get laid for a while yet. You'll probably wait until I'm twenty-one just to prove a point." Alex laughed a little. "It doesn't matter. I figured something out." He suddenly turned to face Jared fully, his young features intent. "You asked me once where I saw myself in ten years. Jared, if I can trust my heart to know I'm gay, shouldn't I be able to trust it to know who I want to be gay with?"

  Sabotaged by his own logic, Jared was speechless.

  Alex didn't give him a chance to regroup. "Your future isn't on a different path, Jared. How can it be, when we go to the same place when we're dreaming? I know you're scared. I'm scared too. It's fucking terrifying, okay? But don't we have to at least try?" Alex finally ran out of words and silence fell between them.

  Jared kept his expression inscrutable. "Is that all you did these last few months, think?"

  Alex blushed. "Pretty much. What about you? What've you been doing?"

  "Missing you."

  Alex's breath caught. "Yeah?"

  Jared brushed dark curls off Alex's forehead. "Yeah."

  "Wanna make out with a seventeen year old?"

  Jared made a noise low in his throat and rolled Alex to his back

  "I love when you growl at me."

  Braced over him, Jared frowned. "I don't growl."

  Alex looked doubtful. "Yeah okay, is there going to be kissing now? Usually when you don't growl at me there is kissing."

  "Will you shut up if there is?"

  "Yes."

  Jared kissed him.

  The More Things Change

  Alex expected to celebrate their thirteenth anniversary having dinner with Clark and Stevie, so he was understandably puzzled when Jared pulled into the parking lot of the most exclusive furniture store in town. "What's up?" he asked.

  "We're a little early. I want you show you a couple lamps I found for the living room." Jared closed the door of the cherry red Camaro.

  Grumbling, Alex got out of the car. "Couldn't you just text me a picture?"

  "Nope." Jared grinned and grabbed Alex's hand, tugging him inside. Elegant, tasteful arrangements of furniture filled the store. Jared headed for the back. Alex let himself be pulled along, thinking the faster they got done, the sooner he'd get some of Stevie's fried chicken. The arranged displays gave way to rows of recliners. Alex could see the lamps on the back wall and fixed his attention there. When Jared came to a sudden stop, Alex ran right into him.

  Jared laughed and turned to face him. "It's not General Amos's, but I thought maybe it'd be okay."

  Puzzled by Jared's behavior, Alex's brows drew together and he glanced around. Beside them, in all its real leather glory, stood a recliner, the duplicate of the cheap one in their living room. Cheap was relative term in the case of that chair. It hadn't cost much to start with but they'd spent plenty on it over the years. Alex touched the new one. The leather felt like butter under his fingers.

  He lifted his gaze to Jared's face. "Really?" he breathed.

  Jared nodded. His fingers brushed Alex's jaw. "Happy Anniversary, Alex. Infinite circles and all that other geeky pi crap." Jared touched Alex's hip, where he had gotten a second tattoo, the symbol for infinity, their names, and a date. 3.14.

  Alex captured Jared's hand and intertwined their fingers. "Pi doesn't mean infinite circles."

  "Not the point, you can give me a math lesson later."

  Alex grinned and petted the chair. "I thought you didn't want a new one? How'd you do it?"

  Grinning, Jared didn't try to hide how happy Alex's excitement made him. "Special order."

  Amazed, Alex stared at him, speechless. Jared laughed, delighted that he'd surprised Alex so thoroughly. Jared dragged Alex into the chair. It held them without a single protest. Jared reclined and lay nose to nose with Alex. Aware of Jared's resistance to public displays of affection, he reined in his desire to kiss Jared stupid. They didn't do much to celebrate Valentine's Day, cards, maybe some candy or flowers, because Pi Day was their day, officially their anniversary. This year, Jared had outdone himself. He pulled Alex close and kissed him. Shocked, Alex didn't resist. His mouth opened eagerly to the hungry press of Jared's tongue. The sound Jared made curled Alex's toes and he wasn't at all surprised to find himself on his back with Jared braced over him.

  "They're supposed to deliver it tomorrow," Jared said.

  Alex cupped Jared's face, his thumb traced his cheekbone. "Go get the truck. I'll call Clark and tell him we won't be there."

  Jared leaned in and kissed him again, hard. "Deal. Keep my spot warm. I'll be right back." Jared jumped up and headed for the front of the store.

  Alex's smile could have lit the showroom without aid of the electric lights. He made his call and settled in to wait for Jared. Keeping things warm wasn't a problem. Alex's first sight of Jared, fourteen years ago, lit a fire that still burned hot. Things weren't likely to cool off in the next twenty minutes. Alex snuggled into the leather of the chair, hoping it was a sturdy one.

  He had the feeling it would be around a very long time.

  THE END

  Diane Adams

  Diane started writing a number of years ago but never published until Dreamspinner Press accepted Blue Skies in spring of 2010. She works a regular 9 to 5 job during the week and has the herculean task of raising three kids on her own so time to write her stories isn’t always so easy to find. She has successfully managed to squeeze a bit in here and there and loves to write, explore and develop her characters although she admits she has to be careful with characterisation (her favourite part) as she is prone to spending too much time on this and not enough on making sure things happen!