Page 192 of Men in Shorts

If Jamie had been a wee bit slower, less reckless in his pell-mell pursuit, he would’ve arrived too late. He would have lost Perry before they could share a coffee, then a meal, then a kiss.

It would’ve been better that way, considering.

His phone vibrated again. He retrieved it, trepidation tightening its fist around his innards.

Perry

Never mind, you’re probably at a hospital or something and I’m bothering you

Jamie’s sinuses heated. He blinked back tears to clear his vision as he wrote all the words he wanted to say.

Thank u

U could never bother me

Can I come 2 yours later

I need u

Jamie deleted each truth as soon as it was typed. None of it mattered next to keeping Perry safe.

Keeping Perry alive.

* * *

Perry heldthe phone close to his face, watching the threesomeone-is-typingdots appear, then disappear, again and again. What was Jamie trying to articulate, and why was it making Perry so nervy?

The dots vanished a fourth time, with no reply sent.

Perry lowered the phone. He should stop pushing. Jamie’s family was none of his business.

But his dogged curiosity couldn’t be quelled. He was a journalist, after all.

Besides, something told him Jamie was teetering. What thatsomethingwas, Perry couldn’t put his finger on. Maybe an instinct, or maybe just wishful thinking.

Perry

Is someone ill? Has there been an accident?

What if it was Jamie’s estranged father? That would explain the mix of emotions in his voice last night before he left.

Perry gasped as he realized whichsomethinghad shouted Jamie’s indecision. It was nothing Jamie had said or even how he’d said it.

It was the kiss.

Not the first kiss, here by the sink. The second one, at the front door, when Jamie had turned back at the last moment and pulled Perry close, like a drowning man clinging to a beam of flotsam. That second kiss seemed to hold both their beginning and end, declaring their relationship both alive and dead.

Was it a kiss goodnight or a kiss goodbye?

Perry’s phone bleeped. He didn’t wait for Siri to speak the message but quickly pinched and zoomed the text to read:

Jamie

We met 2 days ago

I don’t owe u my autobiography

Perry’s stomach went ice cold, his face lava hot. Perhaps he’d pried too hard, too fast, but he didn’t deserve such hostility.

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