Page 65 of Trevor Takes Care

Ready when you are.

Sky answered almost immediately, though his answer was odd.You’re earlier than I thought. Gimme a sec.

It wasn’t late, but it was late enough. Had he expected Trevor to want to talk at midnight?

Trevor didn’t wonder for much longer. Sky called him.

“Hey,” Sky said, quiet and out of breath, just audible over muffled noises in the background. The noise wasn’t music, so it was probably a movie or gaming streamer or something Sky had put on while working. “So, listen…”

“I love you.” If Sky was officially ending it because he couldn’t take long distance anymore, if G.G. had made him think Trevor didn’t care, Trevor wanted him to at least know that.

Sky choked,reallychoked, coughing for several worrying moments before rasping, “What? Trevor…what?”

“Istilllove you.” Trevor amended his previous statement while his pulse thundered and he walked back and forth in the space available beside his bed. “I tried to be respectful and not get in your way because I was the one who ended it. I know I did that, and that you’re happy there, but a part of me is sorry that I ever suggested it. Also, frankly, we both suck at moving on. My grandma is confused about it, and G.G. thinks… never mind that now.” That was a whole separate conversation. “I think… I didn’t know how to give you all that you wanted back when you were here, and you couldn’t tell me. But you’re starting to now, and you want to be mine, and I want that so much, and I haven’t stopped loving you. So. So… that’s that.”

He probably should have written out his thoughts for this beforehand, tried for persuasive. He was supposed to be a writer. Of a kind.

Sky was breathing very fast. “Trevor.”

“If you still….” Okay, Trevor wasn’t brave enough to ask flat out if Sky still loved him. “Long distance sucks,” he said instead, “but I can save up to come visit you. Seeing you on a screen isn’t enough. Not being able to touch is the fucking worst already, but when I want to take care of you the most, I can’t.” He stopped, relaxing his hand when he noticed he’d clenched it. “You’re mine and you’re family. You and Grandma and…. I know I have nothing really except the desire to make you happy, but….”

“Trevor.” Sky sighed it. Trevor’s shoulders sagged with relief. Sky’s tone was warm, if teasing. “You created a dragon because you wanted to keep us both, Sir.”

Trevor drew in a sharp breath. “You knew that?”

“Well, I thought it,” Sky said, in the tone of someone who had a lot of thoughts and expected most of them to be right. “The question is: did you?”

Trevor refused to examine any of that in this moment. “The question really is: would that make Sky happy?”

“What about G.G.?” It was a whisper; Sky’s mouth had to be pressed against the phone.

Trevor sat on the edge of his bed. “He told me today that he doesn’t expect a happy ending for himself.”

“What?” Sky seemed offended on G.G.’s behalf, then intrigued. “Why not?”

“His past, probably.” It wasn’t Trevor’s information to share so he was vague. “There was a whole thing with an ex taking over his business. Although I don’t think G.G. liked that business much.” G.G. enjoyed the work but as a hobby more than as a vocation. Trevor frowned and considered the rest. “His family doesn’t take him seriously even though he’s…. Ugh. Sky, he reads, and he makes these beautiful things, and he blushes, Sky! He blushes all the time. And he does puzzles!” Trevor listened to Sky’s silence, trying to gauge it while he continued to talk about G.G. like a matchmaker who knew Sky’s tastes. “He’s kind to my grandma and to Nancy across the street, and he cried about his dead cat, and he thinks my art is good.”

“It is.” Sky was still out of breath. “Keep going.”

“He was surprised I’d want to be friends with him,” Trevor revealed.

“Friends?” Sky echoed it with an amused gasp. “Withyou, Brian Trevor? He’ll want more than that, if he doesn’t already. Even if he apparently thinks he can’t get it.”

“He knows about you,” Trevor went on, ignoring Sky’s attempt at distance. “What I feel for you.”

“Oh yes.” Sky’s voice rose. “That. Say that again.”

Trevor’s whole face and neck were flaming hot. “I love you.”

Sky released a deep, shaky breath. “And what does he think about that?”

“He seems to think we’re already together,” Trevor confessed. “So does my grandma, by the way.”

Sky chose to disregard the last part. “And it doesn’t bother him?” His voice rose even higher before he returned to a furious whisper as though he couldn’t imagine anyone not being territorial over Trevor. “What? Why not? Is it only about pushy Trevor for him?”

“Yes… no.” Trevor frowned to himself. “He… changes the subject when it comes to himself, to more than his needs, I mean.” When it came to his heart. “Like I said, he doesn’t expect a happy ending.”

He had no idea what Sky was doing, but Sky somehow gave the impression of sitting back in an oversized chair like a movie villain. “I see.”

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