by E M Lindsey
It had been a hellish couple of days, and he was still reeling from it all. Before Joe was arrested, he had attempted to file a false accusation against Sage, but he was so drunk, Molly’s case-worker couldn’t understand him. She called Will directly after, and he explained the situation when he brought Molly in the next day. When Molly was taken in for questioning, she confirmed it all with her therapist, and child-endangerment charges were added to Joe’s arrest.
Joe was picked up that afternoon, and the next day, Will was dragged into several interviews about how long the abuse had been going on, if he had documentation of it from the past, and if he wanted to seek legal counsel on the matter. It was so much to consider, and he felt overwhelmed by it. Being in Sage’s apartment helped, though. His problems waited for him outside the door, but here, he could tuck them away and just exist in a safe space where he was wanted and welcome.
Will jolted out of his thoughts when a warm hand touched his hip, and he turned his head to see Sage reaching past him for a piece of raw pepper, shoving it into his mouth with a grin. “Yum.”
Will rolled his eyes. “Gross, but okay. Is Molly done with her work?”
“Yeah, she got her reading and stuff finished while you were at the office. How uh…how did it go?” Sage asked cautiously.
Shrugging, Will tipped the vegetables into the pan and covered them with the lid as they sizzled. “About as I expected. They just wanted as much information as I could remember, which will give the charges a better chance of sticking. Right now, they think that Joe might be able to use the relationship as a claim that he had permission to use the car, so the theft charges might get dropped.”
Sage pulled a face. “What about the rest?”
“He’ll probably get a plea deal. Molly witnessed it, and since her case-worker has the whole thing documented, there’s not a lot he can do.” Will shrugged and turned back to the pan, lifting the lid to give it a stir. “It doesn’t really matter.”
He felt Sage’s hand move to his shoulder, shifting up slightly to cup the side of his neck, and he pushed into the touch. “It does matter. How are you feeling?”
Will let out a tiny laugh and set the spoon down so he could turn and face Sage fully. “I don’t actually know. I don’t think it’s settled in yet, and when it does, it’s probably going to mess me up.”
“Yeah,” Sage murmured. He dragged his thumb along the expanse of Will’s neck, making him shiver all over. “I wish I could do something to help.”
“You are doing something. Letting us stay here means everything. I mean, I know we have to go home soon, but…”
“I’d like it if you waited,” Sage cut in, his eyes a little dark and fierce. “I just…we don’t know when he’s going to post bail, and I don’t want you alone in that place. He has a key, doesn’t he?”
“Yeah, but I’ve already called my landlord with a copy of the police report so I can get the locks changed,” Will told him.
Sage’s lips thinned. “That’s something, I guess.”
After a moment, Will shook his head with a fond smile. “I’m not in a hurry to go right now. I’m pretty freaked out, and I feel safe here. Molly will want her room back eventually, but she seems happy enough with you around.”
Sage’s cheeks went faintly pink, the blush spreading to the tips of his ears, and Will found his stomach twisting with desire. “You’re welcome to stay as long as you want, you know. My place is always yours.”
“Thank you,” Will said softly. He wanted the moment to carry on forever, but Molly walked in to see about food, and the two men disengaged to get everyone fed.
When Sage came back into the room after getting Molly settled for bed, he found Will standing at the bookshelf, staring at the photo he so often spoke to when things got overwhelming. The same photo he’d been speaking to just moments before Will showed up at his door.
Sage took a moment to appreciate the differences in himself since letting Will into his life, and how instead of terrifying him, they simply fit. Sage wasn’t nearly as protective over his own space the way Derek was, but his home was still his sanctuary, and his routine was everything. Will and Molly had thrown a wrench into it, but where he should have been flailing, he felt like he was on solid ground.
“That’s Ted,” Sage said, walking up to stand beside Will. He reached out and traced the frame with the tip of his finger. “My first real vacation since I was a kid. Neither of us had ever seen the Pacific, so we drove for eight hours and spent two weeks camping on the beach.”
Will huffed a quiet laugh. “You looked happy.”
Sage smiled and though there was a flare of pain, it didn’t threaten to gut him the way it once would have. “I was. He made me happy.”
“He was gorgeous,” Will said softly.
Sage couldn’t argue—Teddy would always be one of the most beautiful people Sage had ever seen. And he was nothing like Will, not in his looks and not in his personality. And maybe that’s what made it easier, made it feel possible to have a future with someone else. It didn’t feel like he was trying to replace Ted. He was just falling in love again.
“He was French,” Sage told him, reaching behind that photo frame for the one of Ted at his graduation dinner. The photo showed him at the table with his parents, both of them wearing a strained smile in juxtaposition to Teddy’s enthusiastic, bright one. It had been an awkward moment, but Sage wouldn’t have traded it for the world. “They moved to the US when he was a kid, and he applied for citizenship when he was eighteen. He got a letter to register for obligatory service in the French military, so he decided to trade one for the other.”
Will laughed. “That sounds dramatic.”
Sage couldn’t help his wide grin. “He was definitely dramatic.”
Turning to look at him, Will nodded his head toward the sofa and the pair of them sat, close enough that their thighs touched, but only just. “How did you fall in love?”
Sage’s eyes crinkled in the corners with his grin. “Slowly,” he said. “We met my first day at a community college. I had to take classes there before I could transfer to the four-year university, and he was taking some extra classes so he could graduate early. We uh…we hit it off, but I was still dealing with a lot of shit, and I was seeing someone else at the time.” Sage ran his fingers through his hair, mussing what was left of his product. A few locks fell over his forehead, and he startled when Will reached out and brushed them away. His throat felt tight, but he pressed on. “He was terrible at math, so I started helping him with his class, and we did weekly lunches. At some point, I broke up with the other guy, but nothing really changed. I think a few months in, we realized we were dating. I don’t remember making it official.”
Will’s smile was soft as he leaned his head back and looked at Sage. “But you proposed.”
This part did hurt a little, only because it was so soon after slipping that ring onto Teddy’s finger that it was all ripped away from him. “Yeah I uh…” His voice cracked a little and he cleared his throat. “I took him to a restaurant and I hid the ring in the dessert like a cheesy nerd. Only, I didn’t check the ingredients on the cake, and there was cardamom in it—which he was super allergic to. Before he got to the ring part, he blew up like a goddamn balloon, and we had to rush him into the ER.”
Will sat up straight. “Seriously?”
Sage laughed. “Dead serious. He got a shot of antihistamine in the ass, and he looked like a botched-up Botox job for three days. I re-proposed the moment he could open both eyes.”
Will bit his lip through his smile and reached out, gently brushing his fingers over Sage’s. “I bet he loved that.”
“He did. We were in the middle of making a video—telling stupid stories like that one—to play at the reception when he got sick. I still have it, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch it. I don’t know if I ever will,” Sage admitted. He kept it in a box in his closet. He always knew where it was, but he was never brave enough to tou
ch it. “He died really fast. One night he was sick with the flu, and three days later, his organs shut down and he was gone.”
“I want to say I’m sorry, because it feels like the only thing I can say,” Will told him, pressing his palm flat against the back of Sage’s hand. “But it’s not enough.”
“It’s never enough,” Sage told him. With a careful motion, he turned his hand so their palms were pressed together. He ran his thumb along the edge of Will’s finger, drinking in the tiny sigh it drew out of him. “With something like that, there’s never really words to convey how it feels. But it’s okay. It’s been a long time, and I meant what I said when I told you I was moving on. It just scared me to realize I’d reached that part of my life.”
Will’s gaze dropped to their joined hands. “If things were different, do you think you and I would…”
“Yes,” Sage told him before he finished, not able to hold back. He waited until Will was looking up at him again. “Yes, because I have feelings for you that I can’t ignore, and I’ll never stop regretting what an idiot I was the day I left.”
“I should have been more patient. More understanding,” Will told him, squeezing his hand.
Sage shook his head. “You didn’t know, and it was unfair of me to expect you to wait around without any idea how I really felt. If I could change things…”
“I know,” Will whispered. “And I still want this. Even with Joe, you were all I could think about, and part of me wonders if I didn’t deserve what he did.”
Sage felt anger rise in him, and he breathed through it. “Nothing you could have done would have made you deserve the way he treated you.”
Will shrugged, and Sage hated seeing the doubt on his face. “I know. I mean, logically I know, but my brain doesn’t always operate on logic,” he said, and Sage smiled at the way Will echoed his past words. “I just need time.”
“I can be patient,” Sage told him, “as long as you need me to be. I haven’t felt this way for anyone since Ted. This right here,” he held their joined hands together between them, “and our kiss, is the most I’ve done with another person willingly.”
“Willingly?” Will asked flatly.
Sage rolled his eyes. “I was on one of those awkward not-dates, and Mat kissed me to get me out of it. But it didn’t count. He’s straight, and I didn’t know it was coming.”
Will couldn’t stop a small, huffing laugh. “I see.”
When he looked back up at Will, the understanding in his gaze was plain. It was obvious Will knew exactly what this meant, exactly how much of a step Sage was taking just to hold hands like this.
“I can be patient too,” Will told him. “We’ve known each other a while now, and I know I want to be with you, but I don’t want to rush. I want this to work.”
“But we can at least agree that there’s something to work on?” Sage chanced.
By way of response, Will shifted so he was pressed up against Sage, head tucked against his shoulder, Sage holding him the way he used to before it all went to shit. Except now, there were no secrets. No one was hiding how they felt, and his past was all out there in the open. Now, they knew what they wanted, and were willing to reach for it.
“There’s definitely something here,” Will finally said.
Sage couldn’t help himself when he pressed his lips to the top of Will’s hair and smiled.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“I’m gonna do it,” Sage announced to no one as he binned his discarded gloves. He glanced up at Mat, who was leaning against the side of his stall, before grabbing a stack of paper towels and his disinfectant spray.
“Is this like a new guessing game, or are you going to clarify?” Mat asked.
“He’s talking about his new husband and kid,” Derek replied with a grin, popping up over his own stall to grin at his brother.
Sage flipped him off as he began to wipe down his station. “Fuck you, Der. You’re one to talk.”
“I would not be offended if people started calling Baz my husband,” Derek said with a shrug. “And you know it’s not a lie.”
“We’re not even dating,” Sage said. “He’s in the middle of that bullshit with his ex, and we’re trying not to rush things.” He binned the dirty paper towels, then stood up and reached for his phone. “But I am going to ask him out on a date. An official one.”
Kat, who was pinning new work to the corkboard, looked up with a grin. “I volunteer as sitter,” she called out. “Jazzy is in love with Molly. She actually ate everything on her plate the last time Molly came over. I want to steal her and keep her.”
Sage softened at the immediate acceptance from his family, and the fact that they weren’t giving him shit for how long it took him to get there. “I’ll bring it up. He’s a little wary right now because of everything, but I know he trusts you guys.”
Kat turned and leaned against the counter. “Is that dude still in lock-up?”
“I’m not sure,” Sage confessed. “It’s only been a week, but the last time he talked to his lawyer, Joe was still waiting to post bail. His first hearing is set for Thursday though, so at the very latest, he’ll be out then.”
“That fucker better not show his face in town,” Mat warned, his jaw tense. “Everyone is going to be looking for that guy. Wyatt told me he sounds like a serial killer.”
Sage let out a tiny snort. “I don’t think he’s that bad, but he is a huge dick. I don’t trust him to stay away after he’s out.” It didn’t help Sage’s insecurities now that Will and Molly had finally gone back home. Not only did his place feel empty and incomplete without them there, but he found himself restless and worried.
Will had taken the liberty of installing a cheap alarm system from the hardware store, and all of his employees were on alert about Joe at the café, but Will couldn’t be protected all the time. And neither could Molly. Sage didn’t want to over-step, but he found it harder and harder to resist the urge to patrol the neighborhood when Will and Molly were alone in the evenings.
His only relief was knowing the community had banded together to keep Joe away and keep Will and Molly safe. But it didn’t mean there weren’t chinks in the armor.
“I’m heading over there right now, and I’ll text you about the date,” Sage said as he pushed through the swinging door and headed for the exit. “Anyone want anything while I’m there?”
There was a collective groan, only because any time Sage was sent on a coffee run, he spent all his time flirting with Will and usually came back empty-handed. He got a collective boo as he headed to the door, but he didn’t much care.
“Fine, fine,” he said, waving them off. All he wanted in the world was to get his hands on Will, to touch him, even if it was just in small, casual ways. They’d been taking it slow, hand-holding and the occasional cheek nuzzle, but nothing more. Will’s body was responsive though, and Sage felt his own light up any time Will was near him.
He wasn’t sure how he’d be in the moment, and that gave him a little anxiety because the last thing he wanted was the ghost of Teddy to be with them when they finally made it to the bedroom. He wanted the moment to be special. He wanted to acknowledge the fact that it was momentous for him and important, but more than that, he wanted it to be about them. Only them.
He wasn’t sure he was capable of that just yet.
Walking into the shop, Sage immediately spied Will leaning one hip against the counter, signing with Basil who looked like he was on a coffee and sandwich run for him and his sister. Will had taken ASL during his undergrads, and though he’d claimed not to remember too much of it, his flow of conversation with Basil was almost as good as Tony and Kat’s.
‘…cute together. Will you go on a date soon?’ Basil was asking.
‘I don’t know, I hope,’ Will started, but then he caught sight of Sage and his hands fluttered to a stop.
Basil immediately noticed the shift in Will’s attention, and he turned, grinning when he saw Sage standing there. He waved him
over, and Sage crossed the room. ‘Hi,’ Basil signed.
Sage smiled at him. ‘Lunch?’
Basil shrugged. ‘Ama has a big order today. Four weddings this month. We’re both exhausted.’
Sage pulled a sympathetic face. ‘Tell Derek to help. His clients are out of town. He has free time. Boyfriend bonus,’ he spelled several of the words since he wasn’t there with his lessons yet, and he enjoyed watching Basil’s eyes squint with amusement at ‘boyfriend bonus’.
More than anything, he enjoyed knowing this man brought his brother happiness and peace—something Sage had worried Derek might not ever find. ‘Maybe I will,’ Basil answered. His gaze flickered back to Will, and his smile shifted into something more of a smirk. ‘I should go. Leave you two alone.’
Sage wanted to protest, but he was also there on a mission, so he didn’t argue as Basil gathered up his things and nodded his goodbye. He shot them both a wink as he nudged the door open with his hip, and in a moment, he was gone.
With a breath, Sage turned back to Will, who was watching him with a soft expression. He was helpless to do anything other than press himself against the counter and reach out to drag his hand along the edge of Will’s jaw.
“You look amazing right now,” he murmured.
Will ducked his head, his cheeks warming under Sage’s fingers. “I look disgusting. I had an entire bag of chickpea flour explode on me in the kitchen, and it turned into some sort of glue mixture when I tried to wash it off.”
It was only then that Sage noticed the gobs of flour stuck in the ends of Will’s hair, and the smudges of it along his neck. He laughed at how blinded he was to anything except how much he wanted Will, but he couldn’t bring himself to feel bad about it.
“You still look gorgeous,” he said with a shrug.
Will grinned at him and reached up to squeeze Sage’s wrist before pulling away. “Are you on a coffee run?”
Sage shook his head. “Nope. Different mission.”