Page 78 of Holding On to a Hero
“Okay, um, well until I have a chance to update my will, everything I have goes to my boyfriend Jason.” He looked at me anxiously. “But that’s just because I haven’t had a chance to get it updated, Will.”
I stared at him and then it clicked in my head what he was suggesting. My eyes were probably bugging out of my head. “What? Cole, no, that’s not---”
“Mr. Graham, please do not interrupt my questioning of this witness.” I wasn’t so in shock over Cole possibly putting me into his will that I didn’t even get a chubby from Jason’s bossy tone.
“Uh, yes,sir, Detective.” I glared at the back of his head. “But—”
“Nope. Okay, Mr. Washburn, we’ve established that very few people want you dead although your boyfriend Jason possibly has a money motive.”
Cole raised one eyebrow. “Okay.”
“We already know about your family,” Jason stated. “Now I need you to go through all of your past lovers, Mr. Washburn.Allof them.”
Cole rolled his eyes. He looked back at me and smirked. I braced myself.I will not get jealous. I will not feel inadequate. He’s not with a famous actor right now. He’s with me and Jason.“Tommy Laramie in my senior year of high school. Hookups galore until I started filming my first movie. A couple of actors who are in the closet and I will not name. And Jason. And now Will.”
It struck me again how lonely Cole’s life had been.
When I mentioned it Cole nodded. “It was, but I was used to it. Lots of guys came on to me, but I never confirmed or denied, you know? I just kept my mouth shut and watched a lot of porn.”
“Until me,” Jason interjected. Cole looked at him affectionately and shook his head.
“Yeah, Jason kind of blew me away.”
“I think you blew me first.” Jason leered at Cole before turning back to the road.
Cole laughed and said, “Okay, now it’s my turn, Mr. Shelton. Tell us about people who might want to try to kill you.”
As I had imagined, Jason didn’t have any enemies. His dad passed away when he was eight years old, but he’d left enough life insurance money that Jason’s mom had been able to raise Jason and Brian in middle class comfort.
“You’ll love Jason’s mom, Will. She’s hilarious.”
Jason groaned. “More like a force of nature. She’s going to try to mother you, just a head’s up. And don’t let her catch sight of Abby, or Mom’s going to move to Austin and Abby will have a volunteer grandmother so fast she won’t know what hit her.”
Jason’s romantic history was mostly littered with hookups with fellow soldiers. And then he’d had one significant relationship after he’d left the service. “But I was gone so much on bodyguard duty that I wasn’t even surprised when he told me he’d met someone else. And then a couple of jobs later I got assigned to protect this asshole A-list actor, and my life hasn’t been the same since.”
Cole, who was now holding my hand through the gap in the seats, blew a kiss at Jason. Then he sent one my way too.
“And then we met you, Will,” Cole said seriously. “You’re more than we could have ever wished for.”
“Why me? I still don’t get it. I mean, I’m nobody.”
“Will, you’re amazing. You’re sexy. You proved we could trust you with our secret. You love animals like we do. You adore your family. You’re protective and calm in a crisis. What’s not to want?” Cole glanced at Jason for assistance.
“And your personality meshes so well with ours. I feel like the three of us could be so much stronger than just Cole and me alone.” I still couldn’t see Jason’s face from my position on the back seat, but I could hear the sincerity in his voice. Cole was agreeing.
“He’s right, you know.” Cole wiggled his brows at me. “You complete us.” I groaned as they chuckled.
“Okay, enough mushy stuff,” Cole announced. “It’s time to cast the made-for-streaming movie about this adventure we’re on.”
“Uh, what? You think there’s going to be a movie?” I didn’t know how to process that.
“Duh. Famous actor, dramatic scenes of our heroes getting shot or shot at, cross-country road trip and an adorable pet. It’s got Netflix written all over it. Okay, we’ll start with some of the minor characters so we have time to think about ourselves. Will, if you were going to cast the Malcolm character, who would play him?”
“Hmm. That’s a good question. That guy who was onSupernaturaland then played the bad guy onThe Walking Dead, maybe? Malcom is younger than that, but it would have to be someone who can do grumpy really well.”
“Good, good. What about Brian? Jason, who should play Brian?”
Jason made a face. “Right now I’m leaning toward someone really unattractive.”
