It took him a few minutes to find the pay area, and he had to figure out the directions to pay for his space with the sticker half torn off. He took the stub for his vehicle’s dash and headed back. He opened his door. “Just about done.” Scottie stuck the ticket face out so they could see he’d paid and what the time frame was, and then he grabbed his bag and got out Jax’s wheelchair.
“How do you open this again?” he asked.
Jax showed him how to unfold the chair and lock it in place. “That way it won’t go flying out from under me.”
“Good plan. I don’t think I need to compare hospitals.” The last thing Scottie wanted to do was go back to one of those. It had taken over two weeks before the effects of his concussion had worn off, and he was still prone to headaches if he focused too hard on the computer screen.
“Where’s your camera?” Jax asked.
“In here.” Scottie patted the backpack slung over his shoulder. “I upgraded my bag while I was getting new equipment too. I want to keep my hands free while I’m pushing you around.”
“My hands aren’t that bad,” Jax objected. “I’m capable of using crutches, so I think I can use a wheelchair.”
“The skin on your hands is new and sensitive. You don’t have any gloves. If you slid down one of these hills, it would hurt. Just let me push.” Scottie was firm as he made each point.
Jax sighed. “Okay, okay. You’re right.”
“Which way?” Scottie asked. He did an internal dance at Jax saying he was right, but he didn’t want to seem smug.
“Right.” Jax pointed. “The Space Needle isn’t far from here. Once we’re done, we can find a spot to get lunch. I tried to get us reservations to SkyCity, but the restaurant was booked for some event. The food’s spendy, but the restaurant revolves around once per hour, so the view is pretty great.”
“I don’t mind. It’s something we can do some other time. We can still walk all around the viewing deck, right?”
“Yeah.”
Scottie grunted and stepped closer to the wheelchair so he didn’t have to push as hard up the hill. “It’s a good thing you looked it up before we came, though. I didn’t think about any reservations besides the hotel.” Scottie figured they’d be able to see the wide metal legs—it was the Space Needle after all—but with the buildings and the way the streets were laid out, they’d made it almost to the campus area before he saw it.
“Wow. I know it sticks up above the buildings in pictures, but I didn’t think it was that high.” Scottie stopped them at the edge of the big concrete plaza. He pulled his backpack off his shoulders. “Do you mind?” he asked.
“That’s why we’re here.” Jax grinned. “Do your thing. I want to see how intense a guy who ends up in a wildfire because he can’t stop taking pictures really is.”
Scottie growled. “I told you I wasn’t taking pictures. I was packing up when that limb fell.”
Jax’s smile faded. “I was just joking around.”
“Sorry. I know. It’s just, I still feel guilty that you got hurt because of me. I didn’t know about the fire before I went hiking up there, but if I’d been at my base camp, no one would have needed to come get me. You’d still be up there, doing what you love.”
“I like the adrenaline, the satisfaction of making the fire turn the way I want it to. It’s intense up there sometimes. Other times it’s backbreaking labor, long hours, and little to no progress. Sometimes I hate my job. Saving people is the best part.” Jax cleared his throat.
“I don’t hate spending time with you. If you hadn’t been up there, we would’ve never met, and I’m fucking glad we did even if it’s because we both got hurt. So stop feeling so guilty and take your pictures already. We don’t have forever, and we still have to go inside and ask them about which elevator to use when it’s our turn to go up to the Observation Deck.” Jax’s voice went from soft to rough, and Scottie looked around. Sure enough, another couple had walked up just a few feet away.
“Our turn?” Scottie pulled out his camera and started snapping pictures. He squatted to change the angle and tilted the camera. “I thought you could just go up anytime.”
“No, you have to buy tickets in the gift shop or online first. They send up groups every thirty minutes. That way they make sure there’s not too many people inside at once.”
“Makes sense,” Scottie said absently. There was a slow-moving cloud behind one side of the top of the Space Needle. He froze and waited for it to move, holding the shot so it would stay in focus, and snapped it just after the cloud cleared it and the next batch came in, framing the entire top in blue sky.
“Got it!” He stood up and shook out his legs, then hung his camera around his neck. “Do you mind if I put my backpack on the handles of your chair? That will make it easier to get out my lenses.”
“Sure, I’m not using them.”
They went into the gift shop and talked to the ticket cashier. Jax had timed their trip perfectly, and their tour was leaving in less than ten minutes. Scottie pushed Jax along the curved ramp to the elevators where they got priority. Scottie bent down and whispered, “Score! Being crippled can be good for something.”
Jax laughed.
“Can you see?” Scottie asked as they went up the side of the Space Needle in the elevator.
“I’ve been up before, so it’s okay. I’ll be able to see on the Observation Deck anyway.”
Scottie took pictures on the way up, but he couldn’t wait to pull out his lightweight tripod and get some shots of the skyline and the mountain. When they were finally up at the top, he was too buzzed to stop and look at the displays. “Let’s go outside,” he said.
“Sure.” Jax was letting him be excited, and Scottie would thank him for that later. First, he had pictures to take.
He had to stop and prove he didn’t have any drinks or anything in his camera bag, but then they were free to go through the doors and onto the concrete deck. Scottie pushed them around until they could see the mountain and stopped, stepping around the chair until he was in front of Jax. There were metal cables all over the place. Scottie frowned, putting his hand on the lowest one. Would he be able to use his tripod? Maybe if he angled it.
“Suicide prevention,” Jax said.
“What?” Scottie asked absently.
“The cables. They’re to keep people from jumping off. People are still stupid and throw things off all the time, like those little paratroopers, but this helps prevent anyone who is trying to hurt themselves or idiots like BASE jumpers.”
“Ahh. That makes sense.”
“You have that faraway look on your face again. Planning your shots?”
Scottie bit his lip. “Sorry. Trying to figure out how to get my tripod to work. I want to make sure I don’t have any camera wobble since I’m going to be using a telephoto lens.”
“I can’t wait to see your pictures.”
Hearing Jax say that sent a warm rush through Scottie. He reached out and squeezed Jax’s shoulder. “Thanks.” He might be an amateur photographer, but he was passionate about taking great photographs. Scottie pulled his bag off the wheelchair so he could release the tripod from the straps cinching it to the bottom of the pack. He judged the height, extended the legs, and then screwed on his camera body. He took a moment to make sure his telephoto lens was clean, and then removed the zoom lens so he could attach the telephoto.
He had to bend awkwardly to make sure he wasn’t sticking his butt out and blocking the walkway as he took pictures, but people gave Jax’s wheelchair a wide berth, like whatever caused him to be in it was catching. It was insulting but kept them away from his camera, and Jax didn’t seem to notice. Scottie didn’t like it, though.
Lining up his shot and filling the frame took the longest time, but then he took picture after picture, sweeping the camera left and right to get slightly different angles. He stood up, pushing against his lower back. “Got it.”
Jax was just sitting there watching him. “Is thi
s boring?” Scottie asked. The idea just came to him that Jax probably wasn’t having any fun.
“I’m enjoying the show. You’re cute when you’re sucked into camera mode. Did you know you stick just the tip of your tongue out of your mouth when you’re focused?”
Scottie’s cheeks heated up. “Yeah. I’ve always done it, even back when I was in grade school. It’s not cute. It’s embarrassing.”
“Uh-uh,” Jax disagreed. “Do you want to take other pictures? You can see part of the Puget Sound, and if you look down over there, you can see the EMP building.”
“What’s that?” Scottie asked.
“It’s a music experience museum.”
“Huh. That’s really weird.” It was oddly shaped with random angles and curls and ridges on the multicolored roof and walls. “Did you want to go there?”
“Not really my thing. I like music and art, but I’m not big on museums.”
“Me either.” Scottie was relieved. He liked this. They were in the city, but it didn’t feel closed in and claustrophobic like he’d expected. Maybe being 520 feet up in the air had something to do with it.
They slowly wandered around the outside circle of the Observation Deck, taking pictures whenever something struck Scottie as interesting before he put away his tripod. He didn’t dare hand over his new camera to a stranger, but Jax saved him by asking a woman to use his phone to take their picture.
Jax thanked her, and Scottie took a picture of her and her three in return, which was a lot harder. Teenagers hate to smile, so it was a challenge to get them all at once. Scottie squatted and leaned in close, resting a hand on Jax’s shoulder, and they both smiled. “Ready to go inside?” he asked.
The history of the Space Needle was interesting, but Scottie was getting hungry. Breakfast was several hours ago, and he didn’t have any snacks in his bag.
“Hungry?” Jax snickered after his stomach growled loud enough they could both hear it.
“Yeah.”
“Let’s go get lunch then before our parking runs out.”
They’d easily spent more than an hour at the Needle, so they opted to stop at a sub shop before they headed back to Scottie’s SUV. They had time to spare, but Scottie could see the strain on Jax’s face. He was hurting, even if he didn’t want to say anything.
“Hotel?” Scottie asked once he’d put the wheelchair in the back.
“Do you mind?” Jax had his head tilted against the seat with his eyes closed, but he looked anything but relaxed.
“Nope. You’re my guide, remember? Seeing the sights is fun and definitely different from my usual trips, but the point is spending time together. Besides, it’s hot as hell out there, and I’m sweating from pushing you around. I could go for a shower, a nap, and then maybe a swim later.”
“All my burns have healed. My therapist okayed swimming since we have a hotel with a pool, but I might need help getting in and out.”
“I can do that. We’re visiting Pike’s Market tomorrow, right?”
“Yeah, we’ll go early and have breakfast and check out the fresh produce and fish market. I don’t want to get any fish, but it’s cool to watch the sellers throwing them.”
“They really do that?” Scotty had seen the clips, but he always figured it was hamming for films, not an everyday event.
“Yep. And there’s a shop where you can get fresh mozzarella made on-site and there are a ton of other stands selling local products. Below the food market are shops with all sorts of things. The shops might be too tight to get into with the wheelchair, so we might not be able to see everything, but we should be able to make a good day of it.”
SCOTTIE HELD back several curses as people crossed the street without even looking, and against the signals when he had the green. “This is nuts.”
“This is Seattle.”
“It’s a good thing I live in Vancouver, then. I would not handle this day-to-day.”
“Tomorrow we could take the light rail, if you want. We’ll have to walk more, but it’s a hell of a lot cheaper. I wouldn’t want to cripple you, though, so do you feel up to pushing me around?”
“Does the hotel have a hot tub?”
“Yeah, and our room has a jetted tub.”
“Then I should be good.” Scottie slammed on the brakes yet again. Jax grunted. “Sorry.” The GPS finally indicated they were close to their destination, and the hotel had a sign for their parking garage on the right. Thankfully Scottie was already in the correct lane for it.
It took them about thirty minutes to get their key cards at check-in and find the room. Scottie slung his camera gear onto the table by the window. “Hang out here,” Scottie said. “And I’ll go get our stuff.”
Jax scowled, but he couldn’t carry his bag with the crutches. Scottie rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything when he heard Jax grumbling under his breath. He checked to make sure the key card was still in his pocket before he left. They had a room on the first floor, which made it easier to pack in both their bags. Sweat was dripping down his forehead and stinging his eyes by the time he was done. The shower was calling his name.
“You need anything before I hop in the shower?” he asked.
“No, I’m good. I used the bathroom while you were doing the manual labor, and I cranked the air conditioner so it’ll cool off in here. Have at it.”
The room had two beds, and Scottie plopped his bag down on the end of his. He dug out a pair of shorts and his trip bag. Sharing a room was one thing, but he wasn’t ready to be running around naked or in a thin towel that barely stretched around his hips.
Temptation was the norm when he spent time with Jax, but Scottie didn’t want to hurt him. He was a mover while he slept—he took up his whole queen-sized bed at home between falling asleep and waking up in the morning. It didn’t matter how many pillows he had, by morning they’d all be on the floor. If they tried to share the bed, Scottie would probably kick Jax in his knee or try to roll over him.
He’d done it more than once to his boyfriends in the past and to say they didn’t appreciate it was an understatement. Scottie’s lower back ached, meaning he’d probably be really restless trying to get comfortable. He was glad the shower had decent water pressure. He closed his eyes, let the water run over his shoulders, and then leaned forward, swaying side to side to massage his tight muscles and rinse away all the soap.
Scottie paused when he was bent over, drying off his legs. Would Jax need help in the shower? He groaned. He couldn’t think about Jax in the shower, naked, all those muscles glistening wet. Scottie pulled his shorts on, wishing he’d brought some underwear—the tighter the better.
Jax was already in the other bed, so Scottie had a reprieve. The curtains were drawn so the room was dim. Scottie dumped his dirty clothes on the closet floor to keep them out of the way and then hurried into his bed.
“You okay?” Jax asked.
“Yeah, just tired,” Scottie said. As soon as his head hit the pillow, exhaustion swamped him. He’d been up early, driven all the way up to Seattle and fought traffic twice, plus spent a few hours walking around and taking pictures.
“Will the TV bother you?” Jax asked.
“No, go ahead.”
Jax reached over and grabbed the remote to turn on the flat screen hanging on the wall at the foot of the beds. Scottie rolled onto his side and bunched the pillow under his head and neck. He closed his eyes, listening to the movie Jax turned on until he drifted off.
Chapter Twelve
JAX WATCHED the end of a movie, dozed off, woke up, and watched another show… and still Scottie slept. No wonder the TV didn’t bother him—he had a snore like a buzz saw. He flopped onto his back, and the snore paused but then started up again. He shifted onto his right side and his left but still kept snoring.
If that was normal for him, Jax was definitely going to invest in earplugs.
The news had just started when Scottie finally woke up. He snorted, coughed, and then rubbed his hand over his face.
“What time is it?” he mumbled.
“About twenty after five.”
“Really?” Scottie blinked and yawned. “I didn’t mean to sleep so much. Why didn’t you wake me?”
“You needed it, and I took a nap too. It’s probably going to be too crowded to go swimming, but I’m getting hungry. We could go out to eat.”
Scottie scratched his stomach as he sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. “Sure. I need to get dressed.”
“Just throw on a shirt. We’ll go somewhere casual.” Jax knew Scottie was freeballing it. He might not have said anything, but he’d noticed the swollen bulge when Scottie got out of the shower. It wasn’t fair of him, but he had plans to push Scottie’s no-touching rule to the breaking point.
He didn’t mind a little ache in his knee, not if he got to touch those tight muscles on display as Scottie stood up and stretched. If he didn’t, other parts were going to hurt a lot more than his knee anyway. Jax bunched the blanket over his lap.
“Okay.” Scottie stumbled into the bathroom. He really was a heavy sleeper.
Jax moved the blanket, reached into his shorts, and rearranged everything in his underwear so it didn’t feel like his cock was going to get bent in half when he sat up. He worked his way to the edge of the bed by the wall so he could grab his crutches.
When Scottie was done in the bathroom, Jax was waiting just outside. “Whoa.” Scottie steadied them both by grabbing Jax’s hip and one of his shoulders. “I didn’t expect you to be right here,” Scottie said. His palms were hot against the bare skin of Jax’s arm, and warmth was practically pouring off his body compared to the chilly air-conditioned room.
“Sorry. I need the bathroom.”
“Go ahead.” Scottie squeezed his shoulder and then let go. Jax used the toilet and then washed up, running his wet hands through his hair to tame the wild strands.
“Do you know where you want to go for dinner?” Looking up when Jax came out of the bathroom, Scottie finished tying his shoes. “I’m ready to go.”
“Give me a second.” Jax was wearing sandals since they were easier to slip on and off. He grabbed his wallet and phone from the table where he’d left them, next to Scottie’s photography equipment. “I know the tourist sights pretty well, but I was thinking of just finding something close by. I bet whoever’s working in the office might have a suggestion. While you’re in there, could you ask them to drop off some extra pillows? For my leg. And some extra towels.”
On Fire Page 10