Total pages in book: 16
Estimated words: 14860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 74(@200wpm)___ 59(@250wpm)___ 50(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 14860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 74(@200wpm)___ 59(@250wpm)___ 50(@300wpm)
By the time I caught up to him, he was already at his car.
“Mouse,” I called but he ignored me and yanked the door open. I managed to catch the door as he was climbing into the seat.
“Mouse,” I said again, refusing to release my hold on the door even as Mouse sat down in the driver’s seat and shoved his key into the ignition.
“I have to go,” he muttered as he turned the key. The car sputtered but refused to turn over. I swore I heard Mouse let out a little sob before he viciously turned the key again. More sputtering, then nothing. One more turn and the car didn’t even sputter. It just clicked a few times before Mouse finally gave up.
“It’s probably a bad spark plug,” I said quietly. It tore at my insides to see him looking so defeated.
Mouse turned his head so I couldn’t see his face but there was no missing it as he wiped at his cheeks with his hands.
“Come on, I’ll take you home,” I said as I opened the car door a bit wider.
“It’s okay, I’ll call a tow truck. But thank you for the offer, Mr. Warner.”
Hearing him call me that was a stark reminder that while I knew exactly what our new connection to one another was, Mouse had absolutely no idea.
And there was no way in hell I could tell him. Never in a million years would I have expected my date to be from the same small town as me, let alone have him turn out to be an employee. He could destroy my entire life with a few words.
Hudson Warner is a fag.
Or, more likely, he could blackmail me for a nice tidy chunk of cash and move on. If I outed him, he could easily just leave Eden and find a place where no one would know him. But if he outed me, I’d lose everything I’d worked for.
But despite knowing the risks, I couldn’t walk away from him. Just like I couldn’t have allowed that asshole to touch Mouse even if I’d been wrong and Mouse hadn’t minded the contact. My brain, fuck, even my heart, were already starting to think of Mouse as mine. I might not know a lot of the basic facts about him, but we’d had intimate enough chats about our childhoods, hopes, fears, and dreams for me to know the younger man was very likely “it” for me if the things he’d told me were true.
And in my heart, I knew they were.
“A tow truck could take hours to get here and most of them want cash even if they can fix the problem on the spot and you don’t need a tow.”
I spoke the words as casually as I could but what I really wanted to do was crouch down and take his hand and promise him everything would be okay.
Mouse sniffed a few times and then straightened his body so he was staring at the dashboard.
“Let me take you home, Mouse,” I implored softly.
It seemed to take forever for him to finally nod and then reach for the keys so he could pull them out of the ignition. I forced myself to step back when he got out of the car. “I’m parked over there,” I said with a nod of my head.
I’d made use of the valet parking, not because I hadn’t wanted to walk a few extra steps, but because it was just what I was used to doing. But as Mouse glanced in the direction I’d indicated, I felt the distance between us grow from a trench to the goddamn Grand Canyon.
“I’ll wait here if that’s okay,” Mouse murmured.
I simply nodded and hurried to the valet stand. Instead of waiting for the valet to get my truck, I tipped the guy, got my keys and strode to the silver Ford pickup. I tried to collect my thoughts as I got the car started but as soon as a slightly hunched Mouse appeared in my headlights, his head hung like it always was, I knew this was going to be the longest goddamn hour of my life.
Mouse opened the passenger side door but then stopped. “Um, do you have a towel or something? My jeans ain’t all that clean,” he said as he looked at the leather seat. I didn’t miss how he glanced at the well-appointed dashboard and the rest of the luxurious interior of the vehicle.
The truck had cost what would have seemed like a fortune to most people but had barely been a blip in my bank account. Seeing Mouse’s expression was a stark reminder that even though I paid my employees well, it would take the young man a lifetime to make the amount of money I’d dropped on the pickup.
“Don’t worry about it. These seats have seen a lot worse than any dirt on your pants. And your pants look good, by the way.” As soon as the last words were out, I realized how it had sounded. “I mean, they look fine… clean… good in a clean way.”