Page 25 of Aftermath

"My place it is." Cam made a sharp turn. "Now, that description?"

Austin had an odd look, as if something wasn’t quite right. "I think he used the words broody, bad-boyish—" Cam grunted, to which Austin laughed quietly "—and apparently there's a leather jacket to go with your attitude."

Cam rolled his eyes, and it got quiet for a beat or two.

Then Austin asked hesitantly, "Is he an ex?"

"I wouldn’t go that far." He shook his head. "We met up occasionally at his place. It was casual."

Austin hummed, now appearing guarded. "Yeah, he mentioned that. But to him it wasn’t."

There wasn’t a whole lot Cam could say in response to that, so he said nothing. For a while. Then he wanted to retract something he'd said days ago. "That’s why I have my rule. I don’t bring people home to fuck. If I did, I'd have memories to haunt me forever." He shuddered at the truth of that.

Cam could feel Austin's eyes on him for a while, though he pretended not to notice. Instead he pressed on the gas a little and sighed in contentment when he drove on to his street.

Bourbon greeted them in the hallway, and Cam groaned at the sight of more piss on the floor.

"Not cool, little guy." He bent down to scratch Bourbon behind his ears. "I took you for an hour-long walk after dinner." Plus, there was a doggy door now that led to the patio, and the pool had been covered. Straightening, he told Austin, "You know where the bathroom is if you wanna shower." He gestured at the stains of alcohol on his button-down and—shit. "Is that blood?" He closed the distance and touched Austin's ribcage.

"Not my own," he replied quickly. "But I'll take that shower. I smell like the damn bar."

Cam nodded, frowning, and stepped back. He hated seeing his friend injured. "There're towels in there, new toothbrushes under the sink, and I'll find you something to wear." Austin thanked him and headed toward the hallway where Cam's bedroom, workout room, and bathroom were. He still wasn’t putting pressure on his left leg. "Do you need any help, man?"

"No, it's okay. Thanks." Austin disappeared down the hall.

While he showered, Cam cleaned up the mess Bourbon had left him, then went to the kitchen and stood by the window and smoked a cigarette. He had promised himself no more smoking in the living room—for Bourbon's sake—and only by the kitchen window when it was dark out. Eventually, when he got over his embarrassing fear of darkness, he'd go out on the patio even at night.

After using the half-bath in the hallway to freshen up, he ended up in his bedroom where he grabbed a pair of sweats that were a size too large for Cam. He also picked out boxers, which felt odd, and a T-shirt. He didn’t know what Austin slept in, but he'd slept in sweats the last time he was here. He'd also gone commando—something Cam should probably forget.

Lastly, he changed into a pair of black basketball shorts to sleep in, and then he knocked on the bathroom door in the hall, told Austin his change of clothes was right outside, and returned to the living room.

By the time Austin appeared, Cam was idly playing with his cell phone and there was a bad movie playing in the background.

"Mind if I dim the lights?" Austin stopped in the doorway, one hand on the switch.

Cam waved a hand ingo aheadthen looked away, wondering about Austin's aversion to clothes. He was only wearing the sweatpants, not the shirt, and not the fucking boxers. It was way too easy to tell.

With the lights dimmed low, Austin joined Cam on the bed, but instead of sitting down next to him, Austin scooted farther in and lay down on the pillow.

"Tired?" Cam twisted his upper body and looked behind him. Austin really did look exhausted, and he wondered if the last days had been as taxing for him as they had for Cam.

"Like you wouldn’t believe." Austin reached up on the partition wall above him and placed his glasses there. Cam noticed that the bandages around Austin's wrists had been removed. There was scarring, but it wasn’t too bad. "I'll be glad when this week is over."

"Did something happen?" Cam shut off the TV and pulled the soft blanket over them, lying on his side next to Austin.

This time there were two pillows, and he didn’t know if that was a good thing or bad. Ending up close happened so naturally, so the lines blurred easily. There was no thought about offering the couch in his bedroom to Austin, 'cause they slept together. It was how it had been for several nights in captivity.

"Mostly today," Austin sighed as they shifted closer to one another. In the end, as had become common for the two men, they were close enough so their foreheads touched. "I'm pretty sure I see divorce on the horizon."

"What the fuck?" Cam's eyes widened. "I didn’t even know you had problems." He was genuinely shocked, and as the news settled, he pushed away any thoughts of what this could mean—for him.

"Neither did I," Austin chuckled mirthlessly. "Well…" He hesitated. "That was a lie. We've had problems, but I didn’t know they were this big. I don’t know." He heaved a sigh and looked down between them. "In the past few years, we've just been going through the motions. Then all this shit happened, and now she's…it's like she's looking for a way out." He faced Cam again. "She said she can't deal with the aftermath of what I've been through, but I think it's more than that."

Cam frowned, at a loss. He didn’t know enough about Austin's marriage to say a single thing. It was something they didn’t talk about, not even in captivity. Cam had never asked in that cell, 'cause he'd sensed it had been a topic that made Austin feel worse. And when Austin offered to share stories, they were mainly about Riley, his parents, stuff from his childhood…one time he even told Cam who Riley was named after.

As the silence stretched on, the subject died, and Austin looked content where he was. That comforted Cam a little, and he hoped the dude was all right. Perhaps he should ask him about it, but he honestly didn’t want to. He wasn’t very good with words, and he had no desire to listen to Austin go on about the woman he presumably loved.

"I wasn’t lying when I said you're the only one who makes sense to me," Austin murmured after a while. He cleared his throat and averted his eyes once more. "I mean, Gale helps, but…it's not the same thing."

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