Page 45 of Country Road Romance

Charlie knew that Doug might seem nice, but he knew better than to try to cross him.

“You have my word that I won’t hurt him. In fact, I intend to make sure that no one ever hurts him again. I think he’s been through enough of that.”

Doug snorted. “You can say that again. Jared’s a good boy, and a smart one, but he sometimes doesn’t make the best choices when it comes to men. Don’t get too far ahead of yourself, though. You know how prickly he is. It’s going to take a lot of doing on your part to get him to open up to you, but I think you’ll discover that it really is worth it.”

You don’t need to tellmethat,Charlie thought.I know that well enough already.

“Now, I’m going to tell you something that’s probably going to make you feel a bit awkward, but I don’t want it to.”

Charlie cringed inwardly. He had a feeling that he knew exactly where this was going.

“Now, I know you’re going to be embarrassed because you’re in your thirties, but I’m going to be frank with you about sex. If it were up to Joyce she’d say that the two of you shouldn’t get into anything while you’re in her house, but what she doesn’t know doesn’t hurt her. All I ask is if the two of you are going to beintimate under this roof, that you at least make sure that you’re protected and take all the necessary precautions. Do I make myself clear?”

By this point Charlie’s face had turned about ten shades of red. It was one thing for Jared’s dad to tell him that he gave him his permission to pursue his son; it was quite another for him to speak so cavalierly of gay sex. What was even going on right now?

Doug, however, was clearly waiting for Charlie to say something, and so he just blurted out the first thing that came into his head.

“Of course, sir,” he said. “I take that sort of thing very seriously, and I know that Jared does, too.” He of course did not know anything of the sort, but it felt like the best thing to say.

Doug nodded.

“Good. I was hoping that this conversation would be easy. You seem like a nice and easy going guy. Like I said. I think you’ll be good for Jared. What do you say we get back out there and rejoin the rest of the family? I’m sure they’re starting to wonder where we are.”

Charlie’s head was spinning by how quickly this whole situation had unfolded. That conversation had been very unusual, but he had to admit that there was also something a little touching about the fact that Doug was so open-minded about, well, about his son having sex in his own house.

When they got back to the living room Jared gave them both an inquisitive look, but since he didn’t ask, Charlie didn’t tell.

By now it was night, and Doug and Joyce began to get ready for bed. Charlie was relieved; it could get very exhausting having to be on for everyone all the time. Soon enough they were all in their separate rooms, and he finally had a chance to think.

As he laid down Jared’s old bed, he found himself wondering what it would have been like to know him when he was that age.It was the same kind of thing that he thought about every time he got interested in someone new. He always felt a bit sad at realizing there would always be a part of that person’s life that he couldn't fully share, but there was also something exciting about learning about their past.

Once he started thinking about Jared’s past, then he started thinking about the present, and that was even more complicated. No matter what Doug might say, he had his doubts that Jared would ever really open up to him. Their conversation after the meeting in the study had been stilted and impersonal, and Jared had barely had two words for him before he went to bed.

It’s time to stop thinking about this and try to get some sleep,he thought.You’re not going to solve all of your problems right now. Maybe tomorrow will be a bit easier.

Charlie had just closed his eyes and was finally feeling sleep beginning to steal over him when he heard the door to the room crack open, the light from the hallway casting a slender glow. He didn’t move at first, thinking that maybe it was Joyce coming by to check on him. However, when he opened his eyes a little, he could tell that the person standing there was not Joyce, but Jared, and his heart started beating so hard he thought it would come out of his chest.

“Charlie,” Jared whispered, voice hardly audible. “Are you still awake?”

“Yes,” he said, even though his throat felt like it was trying to close up. “I’m still awake.”

“Can…can I come in?”

“Of course,” he said right away. “It’s your bedroom isn’t it?”

There was a chuckle from Jared at this, and then he was slipping into the room, padding through a beam of moonlight that came in through the window.

A heavy feeling permeated the air, making Charlie feel a complicated mix of emotions. He was aroused, obviously, but it was more than that. Maybe it was his conversation with Doug earlier, or maybe it was the moonlight, or maybe it was those things and a whole host of others, but something made him feel like whatever was about to happen was going to irrevocably change things between them.

Jared sat down gently on the edge of the bed, almost as if he was asking permission to be there.

“So,” he said, running his hand in intricate patterns over the bedspread. “Do I even want to know what you and my dad were talking about in his study?”

Charlie cleared his throat nervously. He should have known that Jared was going to ask him about this sooner or later, but now that the moment was here he once again found that he didn’t quite know what to say.Well, he told me that we were good for one another and that if we had sex that we should make sure that we were safe,didn’t seem like quite the right thing to say.

However, that was pretty much exactly what came out of his mouth.

For a few minutes Jared didn’t say anything, and Charlie was worried that he’d overstepped some hidden boundary. Finally, though, Jared just laughed softly.

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