Nick wasn’t moved by Denny’s effort at one-upmanship. “Dominick’s,” he said with a chuckle. “I think it’s a 2009.”
Jesse smiled at him as if to say, Atta boy. It made Nick feel good.
Denny gave a sort of a laugh through his nose. “Shall we?” he said, gesturing toward the door.
The three walked up to Mrs. Kloswick’s front door. Before anyone could ring the bell, it opened. Why am I not surprised? Nick thought. Mrs. K. opened the screen door wide and enthusiastically welcomed them in. They were lead through the entryway to the living room. A pretty young woman stood as they entered. She had soft, shoulder-length, light brown hair with blonde highlights. Nick was sure they were natural. She walked toward the men. She had a sweet smile and soft brown eyes.
If I were straight…
“This, gentlemen, is Angela!” Mrs. K. said majestically with a sweeping motion toward her niece. “Angela, dear, you remember Dennis and Jesse?”
“Yes, of course,” came the soft reply. “How have you been?”
Both men nodded and exchanged pleasantries in response.
“And this”—Mrs. K. turned to Nick, putting an arm around his shoulders and pushing him forward—“is our new neighbor, Nicolas. He’s a teacher.”
Nick smiled self-consciously. He took the hand extended to him.
“Yes, Aunt Ursula has told me so much about you.” She emphasized the word, “so” and gave him a half wink.
Nick could hear Denny’s stifled chuckle behind him.
“I’ve heard some about you as well,” Nick said, releasing her hand. “You’re studying to be a teacher yourself. What level?”
“High school Spanish,” she replied.
“Well, we’ll leave you to get acquainted,” put in Mrs. Kloswick. “Come, you two,” she said to Jesse and Denny. She took the bottle of wine from Nick, thanked him and said to Denny, “Bring your wine and come with me. Jesse, you get the drink orders from Angela and Nick, and meet us in the kitchen.”
She marched off in that direction with Denny in tow. Jesse chuckled and looked questioningly at Nick and Angela.
“I’ll have the Pinot Noire from that quaint little winery in France,” Nick said with a wink.
“Me, too,” said Angela.
“Very good,” said Jesse, with a half bow and click of his heels in pseudo butler fashion.
“Have fun,” he added as he left the room.
“My aunt has a good heart,” Angela said, turning to the sofa and sitting down. “And she means well.”
Nick joined her. They talked for a few minutes about Nick’s job and Angela’s aspirations. Jesse returned with the wine.
“Your aunt has instructed me to serve the wine and get back to the kitchen to help with dinner.”
All three laughed.
* * *
Dinner went well. Mrs. K. proved to be an excellent cook. The three-course meal consisted of butternut squash soup, served with each guest’s initial written in cream on the surface. The main course was baked chicken breast stuffed with fresh spinach leaves and Boursin cheese. The chicken was rolled in butter and crushed garlic potato chips and served with twice-baked potatoes. Dessert was individual blackberry pies, baked in teacups. Mrs. Kloswick made sure Angela got credit for much of the cooking, although the young woman insisted all she had done was chop a few veggies and crush the potato chips.
During the meal and following, the conversation roved from topic to topic, with Mrs. K. always bringing it back to subjects that focused on Nick and Angela. Everyone indulged her with veiled smiles and furtive glances. Nick was surprised when she brought Clyde into the conversation.
“Nick has this wonderful little dog. His name is… ah… Clarence.”
“Clyde,” Nick volunteered.
“Ah, yes, Clyde. Nice little beagle,” she continued. “Basset,” Jesse corrected her.
This brought a look from Denny.
“Whatever,” she went on undeterred. “Angela just loves dogs,
especially bassets. Don’t you, dear?”
“Um…well…yes, Aunt Ursula, if you say so,” Angela said
with a soft laugh.
Aunt Ursula’s real motivation was revealed when she
suggested it might be time for Clyde’s nightly walk and added it
would be nice for Angela to get a little air.
“Yeah…uh…that would be fine,” Nick stammered, still a little
off guard.
“It’s about time for Shelby’s walk, too,” Jesse added. Denny looked at him again.
“No, dear,” Mrs. K. broke in. “I’ll need you two to help me
with the dishes.”
“Of course we’ll help you,” Denny chimed in.
Both Nick and Jesse looked at him.
“What?” he asked.
“You, volunteering to do dishes?” Jesse snickered. “Jesse Jamison! You cut me to the quick!” said Denny, taking
mock affront. “Come on, Jess. I’ll take a walk with you and Shelby
later,” he added.
“Okay,” Jesse said with a laugh, looking at Nick. “You guys
are on your own.”
Later, Nick came out of his house with Clyde and met Angela
on the walkway. She dropped to one knee and ruffed the pooch’s
furry neck. Clyde leaned into the proffered affection.
“Aren’t you the handsome gentleman?” Angela said with that
soft laugh Nick appreciated so much.
“He’ll let you do that all night. He loves being the center of
attention.”
Angela looked up at Nick and smiled. She stood and the three
made their way to the sidewalk. Clyde turned down the walk
toward Jesse’s condo.
“Not tonight, bud. They won’t be joining us.” Nick looked
back at Mrs. K.’s condo.
He tugged on Clyde’s leash and turned him in the opposite
direction, heading for the dog park.
“Does he know you’re in love with him?” Angela asked
casually as they walked down the street.
“What? Who?” Nick stopped and turned to her, startled by the
statement. Clyde took the opportunity to sniff the nearest tree and
give it a watering.
She smiled and laughed. “Jesse, of course. Have you let him
know you’re in love with him?”
Not sure what to say, he stammered, “Why…uh…why would
you think I’m in love with him?” Nick began walking again, giving
Clyde’s leash a tug.
“Well, to start with, when Clyde turned toward Jesse’s condo
you told him, ‘They won’t be joining us.’”
“How does that tell you I’m in love with him? Seems to be
pretty flimsy evidence,” Nick said. He was smiling.
“If you weren’t disappointed Jesse wasn’t coming with us,
you’d have said ‘She isn’t coming’ or ‘Shelby isn’t coming.’” “Hmmm, I see. Well, it still seems pretty thin.”
“By itself it would be, but—”
“But what?” Nick said, stopping again and turning to her. “The way you look at him. All during dinner, you hung on his
every word and followed his every move. Your eyes shone like
diamonds in the sun every time he smiled.”
Nick started walking again, shaking his head. “It’s that
obvious?”
“Yep.”
Nick walked along in thoughtful silence. They came to the dog
park. He let Clyde off his leash and the hound galumped off to find
a friend. Nick and Angela sat down on a bench and watched him. Without turning to her, he asked, “Do you think Jesse saw
anything?”
“No.”
“No?” He turned to her now, feeling both disappointment and
relief.
“He’s
too busy trying to hide the fact he has pretty strong
feelings for you, too.” She smiled.
Nick’s mouth dropped open. “And you know this how?” “By the way he looks at you, laughs when you’re funny,
watches you when he thinks you aren’t looking. Then looks away
if he thinks anyone might see him.”
“You should be majoring in criminology, Nancy Drew, not
education.”
They both laughed. Then Nick became serious. “What about
Denny? Do you think he sees it, too?”
“Yes, I do think he’s aware the two of you have feelings for
each other.”
“Shit! Oh, sorry—” Nick said embarrassed.
“Don’t be silly. I’m a big girl. But the strange thing,” Angela
said thoughtfully, “is that I don’t think it bothered him. It looked
like Denny was glad you and Jesse are having feelings for each
other.”
Nick looked at her, not sure what to say.
“The question is, why?” She returned his look. “Seems like
something’s going on.”
Nick turned back to watch Clyde playing with a German
shepherd twice his size. Several thoughts came to him as he
considered what Angela had just said: the phone call he had
overheard the morning after he’d met Denny; his dismissive
attitude toward the ring Jesse had given him for their anniversary;
his odd behavior while Jesse was out of town, forgetting he had let
Shelby out; asking him to take care of her while he was away until
late.
Yeah, there does seem to be something weird going on. But, like Angela says, what is it?
At that point Clyde returned to where they were sitting and flopped on the ground, apparently exhausted from his romp with the bigger dog.
“Do you think you can prop yourself up on those pegs of yours so we can walk home? I’m not gonna carry you, you know,” Nick said, reaching down to scratch the tuckered dog’s head.
Clyde just sighed.
* * * As the trio approached the condos, they saw Jesse and Denny leaving Mrs. Kloswick’s and heading for home. Nick called out to them. They turned and waited.
“I guess you’ve had about as much of Aunt Ursula as you can take for one night?” Angela said lightly.
“You can say that again,” Denny returned.
“Dennis!” Jesse admonished.
Angela laughed. “I understand. She can be a bit over the top, but she means well.”
They all chuckled at this.
Then Denny said, “You guys have a good walk, good conversation?”
“Oh, we found some interesting topics to discuss,” Angela replied, looking at Nick and smiling.
“Yeah, we did. As a matter of fact, we found out we’re both interested in mysteries,” said Nick, smiling at her, tempted to wink.
“Mystery books, movies, what?” Denny asked.
“More like real life ones,” said Angela. “You know, the mysteries of life.” She looked directly at Denny and smiled.
Nick was aware Jesse had been watching him during the exchange,
“Hmm, sounds too deep for me tonight,” Denny answered. “Come on, Jess, time to get home.”
Jesse turned to Denny and said, “Remember, you promised to take a walk with Shelby and me.”
“’Promised’ is a pretty strong word,” Denny grumped as he turned away.
Jesse rolled his eyes, said goodnight to Angela and Nick, and followed Denny down the sidewalk.
“You should rescue him from that,” said Angela, turning to Nick.
Nick didn’t respond. He just watched Jesse and Denny stroll up their walk and enter the condo. At that moment, he stopped fighting his feelings. He was in love with Jesse; he couldn’t deny it. And Angela was right. Jesse needed rescuing. But—the question was—how would he do that? More importantly, could he do that?
CHAPTER 10
Jesse hadn’t seen Nick since the night of Mrs. K.’s dinner party. He was anxious about it. His anxiety grew as each day without some form of contact went by. He rationalized that it was because Nick was busy adjusting to a new job, but he worried there was something deeper. Then he started worrying about why he was feeling this way in the first place. Nick was a friend. That was all. Yet every time the phone rang and it wasn’t Nick, he worried. The degree to which he was agitated by the lack of contact was more akin to how he had felt in the early days of his relationship with Denny.
Denny . In these early weeks in September, he seemed to be flying more than usual again and was having more layovers, too. Jesse, although aware of the flight hour restrictions on the cabin crew, had never before felt the need to keep tabs on Denny’s flight time. Now he was beginning to think he should.
There was also the call that afternoon from Brian, Denny’s buddy at the airline, another flight attendant. He had called to say he was in town and wanted to get together with Denny. Seems Denny had told him he was done flying for the week and was happy to be on his way back to Chicago. As far as Jesse knew, Denny was in California and, from there, had another flight to Atlanta. At least that’s what Denny had told him when he had called that morning. Brian had mumbled something about being mistaken, but the call had left Jesse feeling unnerved. Things like this were happening pretty frequently of late.
So, with all that going on in his mind, he jumped when his phone rang.
“Hi, this is Nick.”
A wave of relief swept through him.
“Nick, good to hear from you.” Jesse hoped the rush of happiness he felt at hearing his neighbor’s voice didn’t show. “Haven’t heard from you in a while. Everything all right?”
It seemed to Jesse that Nick hesitated in responding. “Yeah, uh, everything’s cool. Just really busy at school. You know, getting used to the new routine and all.”
They went on to chat for a while about Nick’s new experiences and his adjustments to teaching. Then Nick said, “Look, my old roommate at Michigan called. Ken has season football tickets for him and his wife, but they’re gonna be out of town this weekend.”
Nick hesitated, and Jesse held his breath.
“Well,” Nick went on, “this is short notice, but I was wondering if you’d like to go to Ann Arbor with me and catch the game. It’s Michigan—Illinois, your alma mater.”
Jesse had to mentally take a deep breath and restrain himself from shouting “Hell, yes” into the phone. “Hey, that sounds good. I’d have to check with Denny and see if he’s gonna be home.”
A jumble of thoughts and feelings rushed through Jesse’s head. God, after all the time he’s been gone, Denny’ll probably be home this weekend. Shit, why would I rather go to Ann Arbor with Nick than be home with Denny? Jesse’s thoughts were interrupted by Nick’s voice.
“Uh…yeah…sure. Well, you let me know as soon as you check with your guy. I’d understand if you couldn’t make it.”
“I will, I will. I’ll call Denny right away and see where he is and when he expects to be home…and Nick?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for thinking of me. I kinda need some distraction this weekend.”
The men said goodbye and hung-up. Jesse, with hands trembling, punched Denny’s number on the speed dial.
* * *
Thinking of you! Fuck! Thinking of you is all I do lately. Nick leaned his head against the wall, his hand still on the receiver of the kitchen wall phone. His heart was pounding.
He straightened up and turned to Clyde, sitting in the doorway.
“Well, I did it!”
Clyde’s tail thumped the floor.
“Angela said I should rescue Jesse, and I sure am gonna try.”
Clyde woofed; Nick dropped down on one knee and buried his face into the hound’s neck. “I sure hope it works.”
Nick had purposely kept out of touch with Jesse f
or almost two weeks, even going so far as not walking Clyde when he knew Jesse would be taking Shelby out. The night of the dinner he had finally admitted to himself his true feelings for the man. That admission had been followed by feelings of guilt at the thought of going after him, breaking up his relationship with Denny, and trying to establish one for himself. He would never do such a thing if he didn’t believe Jesse was being treated pretty shabbily.
He also had no plan. How was he to go about this task of rescuing a grown man from an unfortunate liaison? So, while he sorted out his feelings and tried to come up with a direction for his mission, he had kept his distance from Jesse.
Then Ken had called with the news that his football tickets were available. A kernel of a plan had popped into his head. He would invite Jess to Ann Arbor for the weekend. Maybe just being with him for an extended period of time would do the trick. Hadn’t Angela said she thought Jesse had something going for him? Maybe it just needed some room to grow, a neutral field.
Now, if only Denny is out of the way, too.
Nick knew Jesse would never leave town with Denny at home. He hoped Jesse would call back soon.
He went and sat on the couch next to the phone, but he couldn’t stay still. He got up and walked to the patio door and looked out into the gathering dusk. The logistics of the weekend needed to be worked out. Nick looked at the phone on the end table again. He walked back and sat down.
Ken had offered their house to Nick. The dogs could come with them.
Maybe I should call back and mention that to Jesse.
He lifted the receiver, just to make sure the phone was working properly.
Upon hearing a dial tone, he re-cradled it and walked to the patio door once more.
Yeah, a house of our own, the dogs with us, perfect. A taste of what it could be like if we were…together. He smiled at the thought.
They would leave on Friday right after school was out. Friday was a half day that week, comp time for evening parent conferences. They could leave in the early afternoon. That way they’d have two full nights and a couple of days to be together.
Nights?
What would he do? He wouldn’t try anything. No, he wouldn’t go that far. Just let the ambience work for him.
He jumped when the phone rang. He turned to it, rubbed his palms on his jeans and took a deep breath.
“Hello, Je—”
Second Thoughts Page 10