by Shea Balik
Jesse’s dark hair started swirling around his shoulders as he shook his head back and forth. “Un uh. I’m not about to risk my hair getting wet.” Then he looked over at Ethan, who was sitting right next to Jesse. “Your hair won’t matter. Why don’t you go without a tent?”
Ethan punched Jesse in the arm.
“Hey,” Jesse exclaimed while rubbing his arm. “What was that for? I was just stating a fact.”
“You better watch it or you’ll find your head shaved,” Ethan warned him.
Jesse’s dark eyes widened in fear. “Okay, okay. No need to go that far.” Jesse looked over at Ryder. “Ethan gets a tent.”
“Are there any ideas that we can actually use?” Ryder said, doing his best to ignore Jesse.
Kyler had to admit, so long as he didn’t have to participate, watching the others was quite entertaining. Well, at least when he understood them, which wasn’t always, but their banter was still funny.
“Why don’t those with shops on Main just not use tents and use their storefront instead. I know it isn’t ideal, but we can make it work,” Flynn said.
“Are those with storefronts on Main willing to do that?” Ryder asked. “I can’t guarantee it won’t affect your sales as those attending the festival tend to only go into the tents.”
Zane, Jesse, Flynn, Nathan, Will, Macon, and Danton nodded. “I can talk to the other shop owners and get them to agree to it,” Jesse said.
Kyler couldn’t imagine anyone daring to disagree with Jesse. The guy could argue with a mountain and win.
“Good,” Ryder said. “Since I have you all here, I have the assignments for next month’s festival.”
Everyone groaned as Ryder passed out the sheets. Kyler was shocked when Ryder handed him one and his name was on it with two things next to his name. Both were easy enough as he was to help set up tents and help with clean up at the end of the festival. Still, how had Ryder known he’d even be here?
“Also,” Jesse said as several people started to get up from their seats. “I will be having my first campaign meeting next weekend at Flynn and Jax’s house.”
“We are?” Flynn asked. “I don’t remember agreeing to that.”
“Of course you do,” Jesse said nodding as if the gesture would convince Flynn he had in fact agreed to host the party. “We’ll have a barbecue so make sure to sign up with Flynn to bring a side dish or dessert.” Jesse ignored Flynn as he opened his mouth to object. “I expect everyone to be there with ideas for improvements for Cedar Falls.”
Not allowing anyone time to refuse, Jesse grabbed Kyler’s hand and tugged him out the door. “Bye,” Jesse called out over his shoulder as they headed out.
Instead of heading back to Nice ‘N Rosy where Kyler figured they’d go, Jesse dragged him to Sweet Buns. His stomach immediately growled at the sugary sweet aromas that assailed him when they entered. He’d been doing everything he could to save every penny and not splurge on things like food. He had to spend what little money he had on gas so hopefully no one would notice he was sleeping in his car so Kyler only ate when he absolutely needed to and stuck to things like PB&Js.
“Now, Jesse, you already had your macchiato today,” Brenda said when they stepped up to the counter.
Instantly, Jesse’s entire demeanor changed from his confident self, to one of a sad puppy. “But, Brenda, I just had to sit through that insufferable meeting and now I’m ready to fall asleep,” Jesse said even though he was shifting from foot to foot as he couldn’t seem to stand still. “If I have any hope of making it through the rest of the day running errands for Ryder so this festival can happen, I’m going to need something.”
Apparently Brenda wasn’t swayed for she crossed her arms over her chest and stood firmly. “No.” There was no wavering in her tone.
When Jesse’s pleading look turned to one of determination, Kyler took a step back. He wasn’t about to get in between the two as they duked it out. Kyler wasn’t that stupid.
“Kyler.”
He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard a deep voice behind him when he hadn’t even known anyone was there. Kyler whirled to face whoever called his name to find the man he’d been foolishly fantasizing about since arriving in Cedar Falls. Aaron Garnett. He’d done so much daydreaming about Aaron, Kyler wasn’t entirely sure he wasn’t doing so now. “Aaron,” he whispered, afraid the large man wasn’t real.
In complete fascination, he watched firm lips curve upward into a smile that had Kyler’s heart beating faster. That’s how he knew Aaron couldn’t be real. The man would never look at Kyler like he was the only person in the world Aaron had wanted to see.
After proving just how stupid he was at the party, Kyler knew there was no way Aaron would stick around to talk with him even if he was there. Not that he could blame Aaron. Kyler knew there weren’t many people who wanted to deal with someone as clueless as he was.
As much as he hated to have to give up seeing Aaron, even if it was only in his head, Kyler also understood it wasn’t good that he was hallucinating. Maybe not eating much in the past few days hadn’t been such a good idea. Then again, it might have been sleep deprivation as sleep hadn’t been easy to manage when every little sound startled him awake in fear someone would catch him in his car.
He’d been kicking around the idea of getting a motel room for a night when he got paid in two days. He hadn’t been sure spending the money was wise, but if it meant not hallucinating, he’d have to consider it a bit more seriously when he got his check.
Arron’s smile dimmed as concern replaced the happiness that had been there a moment before. “Are you okay, Kyler?”
It wasn’t until he felt the warmth of Aaron’s strong hand on his arm that the fog that had been encompassing Kyler’s brain lifted to reveal one truth. This is real. Aaron is really standing here before me smiling at me like he’s happy to see me.
“Kyler,” Aaron’s voice was hard, unyielding. Kyler wasn’t quite sure what was happening or why Aaron felt the need to shake him so hard, but he didn’t care. All that mattered was that Aaron was actually there.
“Damn, I have never seen anyone actually turn that shade of blue before,” Jesse said from what sounded too far away considering he knew the man wasn’t more than a few feet away. “Do you think he’s turning into a blueberry like that girl on Willy Wonka?”
Huh?
Kyler wanted to ask Jesse what he was talking about and why his voice sounded as if it was coming through a tunnel, but before he could, he suddenly found himself in heaven. Aaron’s lips were on his, hard and demanding as he forced Kyler’s lips to open.
Air was pushed into his lungs.
Wait. Why do my lungs feel as if they’re on fire?
Suddenly Kyler lurched back from Aaron’s mouth and drew in great gulps of air into his starving lungs.
“Thank God,” Aaron whispered as he pulled Kyler against his massive chest.
Yep. Heaven. Kyler wasn’t sure what was going on or why he was still needing to take in so much air, but he didn’t care. He was in Aaron’s arms. Nothing else mattered.
“Damn it,” Jesse exclaimed. “I almost had the picture. Do you think you can turn blue again? No one is going to believe me if I don’t have proof that you had nearly turned into a blueberry.”
“Jesse, what in the hell is wrong with you?” Brenda admonished. “Kyler, are you okay? Should I call an ambulance?”
Kyler had no idea what Jesse or Brenda was talking about and for once, he simply didn’t care. Being blissfully ignorant while in Aaron’s arms wasn’t so bad.
One of Aaron’s large hands went to the back of Kyler’s head and forced him to tilt back so he could look into Aaron’s dark brown eyes. “Are you okay, little one?”
Little one! Aaron just called him little one. Kyler wanted to jump up and down. Not that he really wanted to be called little, but that Aaron had a nickname for him had to be a good sign. Right?
“Kyler,” Aaron’s tone was more deman
ding, calling to something deep within Kyler to answer him.
“Yeah. I’m fine,” he barely managed to push out as too many emotions were rolling around inside of him. It was too much and suddenly Kyler was sure he was on sensory overload. Woefully unequipped to deal with it all, Kyler found his brain shutting down.
“Kyler,” Aaron said sharply, but once more Kyler felt as if his voice was hollow as if being shouted through a tunnel. A hard, demanding mouth was on his and Kyler’s already racing heart sped up even faster.
Spots appeared in his vision, blocking him from seeing Aaron’s dark, chocolatey brown ones clearly. Kyler fought them back but no matter how hard he tried to focus on Aaron’s face, it faded behind the spots.
“Got it,” he just barely heard Jesse shout. “I didn’t think you’d actually turn blue again for me, but I appreciate it.”
Huh?
But before Kyler could ask Jesse what he meant, everything went dark.
Chapter Eleven
The moment he felt Kyler go limp in his arms, fear gripped Aaron, squeezing his chest like a vise. “Call an ambulance,” he shouted even as his fingers when to Kyler’s throat to check for a pulse. He took a calming breath when he felt Kyler’s pulse racing beneath his fingertips.
“I bet his picture will get a ton of likes,” Jesse said while he played with his phone.
Aaron ignored him as he picked Kyler up into his arms and carried him to one of the reclining chairs. It wasn’t ideal, but he didn’t exactly want to put Kyler on the floor either. With infinite care, he placed Kyler on the seat and made sure to put the foot rest up and the chair back as far as it would go.
“Can you get me a wet towel?” he called out to Brenda or anyone else who might be listening.
“I’ll get it,” Jesse said.
Aaron was surprised Jesse had taken the time from posting his picture to even register Aaron had made the request. Then again, from what his other friends said about Jesse, the man was actually very kind, if a bit eccentric. Aaron didn’t hang out with the other couples much as it only brought home how alone he actually was, so he didn’t have much experience with Jesse except when he saw him at the festivals, and usually Jesse was up to something that left most residents in stunned awe.
Far faster than he would have thought, Jesse was back with a wet towel. “Is he okay?” There was a tremble in Jesse’s voice that Aaron hadn’t expected to be there considering the man was just taking pictures of Kyler passing out and posting them.
“I think he just fainted,” Aaron reassured. “But I will feel better with a medical opinion.”
“If I hadn’t of been so distracted with planning my campaign for mayor, I would have paid better attention to how often he was bathing in the back of Nice ‘N Rosy,” Jesse said worriedly.
When Aaron looked over at Jesse, he found the man wringing his hands. “What do you mean he was bathing?”
As if suddenly realizing what he’d just said, Jesse’s eyes widened and he bit his teeth into his green colored bottom lip. Not that Aaron was an expert on makeup, but he didn’t even know there was such a thing as green lipstick.
While he waited for Jesse to answer, Aaron really looked at Jesse and wondered how in the hell Parker dealt with him. Not only was Jesse wearing bright green lipstick, but he had blue eyeshadow, and unless his eyes were playing tricks on him, which they definitely could be with Jesse’s over exuberance with neon colors, he had on fake rainbow colored eyelashes.
His shirt was a bright yellow that actually made Aaron’s eyes water with equally bright pink letters that read, “I’ve decided I no longer want to be an adult…if anyone needs me I’ll be in my blanket fort, coloring.” To finish his colorful outfit, Jesse wore bright orange leggings with neon green boots that had a rainbow platform on the bottom.
Aaron had to look away when his eyes started to water.
“Well, I haven’t had a chance to talk to him about it yet,” Jesse said. “In fact, it’s why I brought him here, so I could buy him something to eat and ask him what was going on.”
“Wait,” Aaron had no idea what Jesse was talking about, but something in his tone told Aaron it was important he understand. “Why were you going to buy him something to eat?”
Jesse gave a put-upon sigh. “If you’d listen, I would tell you. I think Kyler has been sleeping in his car, or in the park, or”—Jesse threw up his hands in frustration—“for all I know he’s been sleeping in the woods, but wherever it has been, he clearly doesn’t have access to running water as he has been washing his hair in my sinks and today I caught him in the back room almost naked taking a sponge bath.”
The moment the words were out of his mouth, Jesse slapped a hand over it. “Oops,” he said. “I didn’t mean to say all that.”
While he may have denied wishing to give away so much, the glint in Jesse’s eyes gave Aaron the feeling Jesse hadn’t let anything slip out. But before he had time to figure out what Jesse was up to, the door opened and Austin, the town’s head EMT, came rushing in with bag in hand.
“Thank God you’re here,” Jesse exclaimed way too dramatically. “Poor Kyler passed out.”
If he wasn’t so worried about Kyler, Aaron would have laughed at the way Austin visibly groaned when he saw Jesse. Austin dropped his bag next to Kyler and knelt down to start working on him. “What happened?” he asked.
Jesse gave a dramatic sigh that could have won awards if he’d been on camera. “I just told you. He fainted.”
Austin continued to pull out various instruments but Aaron was sure he saw the man’s lips moving as he silently counted to ten before looking right at Aaron. “What happened?” he asked again.
“I don’t know. I started to talk to Kyler and he suddenly stopped breathing.” It was the weirdest thing Aaron had ever seen.
Out of the corner of his eye, Aaron saw Jesse’s head bobbing up and down as he shoved his phone at Austin. “I didn’t get the picture the first time, but this was how blue Kyler turned the second time and it was pretty close to the shade he was the first time.”
Austin glanced at the picture, mainly because Jesse had shoved it under his nose and he couldn’t have seen anything else until Jesse moved it. “Do you think he was becoming a blueberry?” Jesse asked seriously.
Austin stopped moving the stethoscope he had to Kyler’s chest as he listened to his heart to look at Jesse as if he’d grown two heads.
“What?” Jesse asked. “It happened on Willy Wonka. It could happen here.”
Austin shook his head in disbelief, then got right back to work without responding to Jesse’s asinine comment. Thankfully, that’s when Kyler started to wake up.
“Kyler, can you hear me?” Austin asked.
Aaron felt as if a hundred-pound weight had been lifted off his chest when Kyler’s lashes lifted and he could look into his eyes. Behind his glasses, they appeared huge as he stared up at Aaron. “What happened?” Kyler asked.
“I think you were trying to turn into a blueberry, but apparently the others think I’m crazy,” Jesse muttered.
Those brown eyes that Aaron had thought plain before, but this close found fascinating now that he could see several different shades in their depths, blinked at Jesse. There was confusion in Kyler’s face as he stared at his boss, but instead of asking what Jesse meant, Kyler’s focus went back to Aaron, silently asking him to explain.
He would have if he’d understood any of it himself. Sure, he’d seen Willy Wonka and he knew what scene Jesse was talking about, but the man couldn’t possibly believe someone could turn into a blueberry. Could he?
“Kyler, can you tell me what you were feeling when you passed out?” Austin asked, saving Aaron from having to try and explain Jesse’s weird ideas.
“I passed out?” Kyler asked Austin. Then his gaze came back to Aaron as if he wanted him to confirm what happened.
“Yes. It was as if you just stopped breathing, twice. But the second time, you fainted.”
The cutest
shade of pink infused Kyler’s neck and crept up into his face. Damn, but Aaron wanted to know if he could get Kyler’s ass the same pretty shade. In an effort to hide the bulge that was starting to form in his pants, Aaron knelt down so he could hide it from view.
“I-I, um, I…” Kyler’s gaze went from Aaron to Austin to Jesse, back to Aaron.
When Kyler’s wide, frightened eyes landed back on Aaron, it was obvious there was something he wasn’t saying. Not about to let Kyler get away with hiding things from him, “Spill it,” he demanded, leaving no room in his voice for Kyler to do anything but obey.
If he was going to woo Kyler into his arms, Aaron might as well start off as he planned to continue. He was a Dom to the core. He expected Kyler to obey him in all things. They may not technically be in a relationship yet, but as far as Aaron was concerned, that was only semantics.
There was a moment’s hesitation from Kyler before he sighed and softly said, “When I realized you were really here and not a hallucination, I was overwhelmed and I guess I forgot to breathe.”
The admission probably shouldn’t have pleased Aaron so much, but he had to admit it did. How could it not? To know Kyler wanted him so badly he’d forgotten to breathe…talk about a boost to his ego.
“So, you weren’t trying to become a blueberry.” Jesse sounded disappointed. “I guess that’s probably for the best since I wouldn’t want to have to find another manager for Nice ‘N Rosy.”
“Yeah, because that’s the takeaway of this,” Austin said. “Not inconveniencing you.”
Jesse stuck his tongue out at Austin. “I don’t remember asking for your opinion.”
Not wanting an argument to ensue, Aaron asked Austin, “Is Kyler okay or should he go to the hospital?”
A small hand gripped his arm tightly. “No hospital,” Kyler said. “Besides, I feel fine,” he insisted.
Knowing that Kyler was most likely homeless, which probably meant he had no insurance, Aaron was willing to go along with him on not going to the hospital if Austin thought he was okay.