Page 16 of Wish We Were There

For a moment, everyone was silent, then Kylie stood abruptly.

“I’ll get started on these dishes,” she said. Angie and Dean followed her out, leaving him and Taylor alone. He glanced at Parker with an almost guilty expression as he stood, as if he knew how confused Parker must have been, but still he didn’t say anything.

“What was that about?” Parker whispered once they were alone. Taylor grimaced.

“It’s complicated,” he replied hurriedly. “I... I don’t know how to explain, Parker. We can talk about it later. Okay?”

Parker was silent for a moment, trying to get a read on anything about what had happened from Taylor’s expression, but he was still entirely at a loss.

“Okay,” he finally relented, and he stood, too. “I’ll help with the leftovers.”

“Wait,” Taylor said quickly. “I also wanted to ask you... You’ll help me, right? With the renovations and stuff? Is that okay?”

Parker blinked, taken aback at the sudden change in subject. “What do you mean?”

Taylor lifted his arm in the cast self-consciously. “I won’t be able to do a lot by myself, but I want to get started as soon as possible. I’ll probably hire someone to put in new floors and maybe fix the stage; but everything else, I think I can do myself. Will you help me?”

Despite his apprehension, Parker managed a slight smile at Taylor’s worried face. If that was how he could support Taylor, then he’d do it gladly.

“Yeah,” he said, and Taylor’s expression softened with a smile, too. “Yeah, of course. Just let me know when. I can probably help you find a contractor, too, for the stuff we can’t do ourselves. But I’ll definitely help out where I can.”

“Thank you,” Taylor said, relief obvious on his face. “I really appreciate it, Parker. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Heat sparked in Parker’s chest at Taylor’s words and the shy smile that spread across his face. He didn’t know how to respond, so they just stood there smiling stupidly at each other for a moment, then Taylor gestured toward the kitchen.

“We’d better go help,” he said quietly, barely above a whisper, and Parker laughed.

“You’re right,” he agreed, reaching to help clear the table.

Some hushed conversation between Dean, Angie, and Kylie stopped abruptly as they stepped into the kitchen, but it hardly phased him now. All Parker could think of was the sweet way Taylor had looked at him when he’d agreed to help out. As long as he could keep making Taylor happy like that, nothing else mattered.

Chapter Seven

Taylor

A week later, Taylor had the keys to the venue, and his name was on the lease. His signature had been sloppy, done with his left hand; he still hadn’t managed to call to have the cast taken off. It was just one more thing on a never-ending to-do list.

He hadn’t seen Parker since the dinner with the rest of the band, but they’d been texting every day since then. Taylor had sent him updates about everything—signing the lease and how surreal it felt, but also smaller day-to-day things like videos that made him laugh. So far, he’d mostly been the one to text Parker first, but Parker usually responded quickly.

Parker was being a little more distant than he’d hoped, though, and Taylor kept thinking about the dinner–about the accusing look in Dean’s eyes whenever he looked at Parker. He was pretty sure Parker had noticed that Dean was being so weird—and Angie too, in her own way—and he was sure it left Parker confused. But he didn’t say as much, and Taylor couldn’t bring himself to bring it up. It seemed like way too serious a conversation to have over text, especially considering half the messages they shared were memes or silly videos.

On Friday, he texted Parker to ask if he’d be free the next day to start cleaning things up in the Bridge now that everything was official. The other man hadn’t responded right away, so his eventual reply made Taylor even more disappointed.

Parker

Sorry dude, I’ll be in LA all day tomorrow for an interview. Can we do Sunday instead?

The text felt like a rejection, which Taylor knew was unreasonable. Even though Parker was around a lot, he was still a busy person with a successful job that relied on either traveling to other people, or hosting them for interviews—both for his podcast and for Punk News Net. Texting him the day before he wanted to start was short-sighted. He should have known Parker would be busy that weekend.

Had any of their texts even been about anything Parker was doing? Did he really only talk about himself? Taylor groaned, inwardly berating himself. Had he ever been this pathetic when he and Zach had been talking?

No, everything with Zach had been so completely different—like a whirlwind that had caught fire. They’d barely known each other before they got together, so there had hardly been time for Taylor to pine after him. How he felt for Parker was more like a storm rolling in, tension slowly mounting until it was all he could think about.

They really needed to talk, but he already had so much on his plate. So, instead, he replied,

Taylor

No problem, Sunday works. See you then!

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