Page 21 of Hold Me Down

They were as close as they could be, so of course Travis was by his side in this.

Of course.

The same way Dave would be, if the roles were reversed.

"Earth to Dave." Colin's voice made him blink and glance back at the screen. "I'm guessing the point has finally hit home, so I'll leave you to it, okay? Call me anytime."

With a quick thanks and goodbye, Dave ended the call and put the phone aside.

He didn't necessarily feelbetterafter that conversation, but he kind of… felt lighter? His situation hadn't changed in the half an hour he spent talking to his brother, but his outlook might have.

A bit.

After all, it could have been worse.

Dave stared at his leg, perched on the pillows and not even aching for the moment, then he looked around the room—the crutches right by the couch, the clear path to the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom, the small mountain of books on the side table… He wasn't totally helpless and he didn't need help every minute of every day. Yeah, he was still getting used to things, and he'd hit some rough patches, but things weren't as terrible as they might have been.

Picking up the remote, he was already considering his ever-growing list of things to watch and trying to decide which show he was in the mood for, when the front door opened, revealing sweaty and flushed Travis.

Dave's heart did not lurch at the sight.

Absolutely not.

"You're back early," he heard himself say, his mind rebooting as he tried not to stare too obviously.

Travis toed off his sneakers. "Yeah, I decided to try a faster pace today. Figured you may miss me."

Always.

Dave tightened his grip on the remote as he tried to squash that thought as soon as it appeared, but the sight of Travis walking closer to the couch made the task that much harder.

Seriously, how hot could one guy be?

Martinez always joked that the KRK Security personnel had been picked at least partially for their looks, because they were all ridiculously pretty, but in Dave's book, there was no one at their company who came even close to how gorgeous Travis was.

Dave was biased, of course, but he didn't care. Many people were good-looking—or even beautiful—in the aesthetic kind of way he could appreciate, but only Travis flipped a switch inside Dave's mind that made him forget his damn name.

Thankfully, he'd had many years to build up at leastsomeresistance.

"I'll miss you even more if you shower before getting any closer to me," he said, purposefully turning towards the TV.

There was a movement in the corner of his eye, and then there were warm and sweaty arms closing around his head and his face was pressed against Travis's chest.

Dave laughed, pretending to swat Travis away as his heartbeat quickened.

Yeah, it could all have been so much worse.

CHAPTER NINE

Unsure how to decide between the therapists from the list Kalei had sent him, Travis ultimately chose the one whose office was closest to home. He figured a fifteen minute walk would do him good, both before and after the session.

Doctor Anika Kumar might have looked like a nice person, but she was still a therapist, and thus, Travis couldn't help but catalogue her as dangerous—at least for the time being.

"You mentioned in your intake form that you've been sent to mandatory therapy by your boss. It's always harder to build trust in a situation like that, in comparison to a case of someone making the decision on their own," she said now, as if reading his mind, which only confirmed that he needed to be careful. "But I'm hopeful that we can come to an agreement about working together on a subject you find important and worthy of exploration."

"It's not that I don't want to work on myself." Travis glanced around the room. A lot of natural light coming from the top to bottom windows and two very comfortable small couches facing each other made it feel inviting while remaining neutral. It was sparsely decorated, with only one art piece of a handwritten text half-hidden under the brush of gold paint and two plants on the opposite sides of the wall he was facing. "I simply wouldn't do so like this."

"And how would you do it, if it was up to you?"

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