Page 49 of Stronger Than Blood
Mick shook his head. “No! He supposedly had a girlfriend, but they never married.”
“A beard, then?”
“Huh?” Mick asked, and I laughed again.
“You’ve never heard of a beard? Back in the day, when gay men didn’t want people to figure out they were gay, they’d get a female best friend to pretend to be a girlfriend. They called them beards 'cause, you know, like you hide your face behind a beard. Anyway, when your uncle put his hand on my shoulder, I felt it. I felt his sadness and loss.”
“He didn’t want me to feel that way?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, but I could feel all the sadness from his life as a gay man. You know it’s sometimes easy to forget how different things were back then.” Mick nodded. “Okay, so let’s go for a walk and let your uncle stay here,” I said, hopefully encouraging the spirit to give us some space.
We walked down the square toward the park on the other side of the town hall. “You know,” Mick immediately said, “you don’t have to pretend to like me. I’m a grown man.”
I stopped and, before I could think, I pulled Mick into my arms and kissed him. When we pulled apart, I sighed and looked down. “I’m sorry. I didn’t ask for your permission.”
Mick laughed and pulled me back into his embrace, this time kissing me. When someone whistled beside us, we pulled back and laughed, embarrassed. Neither of us looked at who’d whistled but instead we carried on our way. Kissing someone in the middle of the day in the street was a surefire way to get the town talking.
I took Mick’s hand, though, and led him to a little gazebo in the park, where we sat down. “Listen, I didn’t mean to give you mixed signals, and I realize now that’s exactly what I did. Ilike you, and not just the screw-around kind of like you. I have never met a guy I wanted to get to know before taking it to the next level. Usually, I screw first and think later. But I know there’s something special about you. Maybe because of that, I’m messing this up.”
Mick stared at me, then sighed. “Rory, I like you too, but I don’t have much experience with dating. I mean, I know I’m not ugly, and I’ve had plenty of opportunities to hook up, especially if I’m in Chattanooga or the more populated areas, but I’ve only had one relationship, and that ended badly. I never thought I’d even consider another one… not more than a fantasy, at least.”
“But you’re thinking about one with me?”
He nodded. “I sorta was, when I wasn’t thinking you were just being nice but not interested enough.”
I smiled and took his hand, kissing it. “I’m not gonna play. I want all the stuff, including holding you and kissing you and all the other things too. But my gut tells me we have to take this slow. Is that okay?”
“No!” Mick said, but laughed. “But I guess, if you’re going to try to have some common sense about all this, we can do it your way. That being said, I don’t promise not to jump you eventually, and if you really do like me and aren’t jerking my chain… although there ain’t nothing wrong if you want to jerk my chain,” he said, wagging his eyebrows before chuckling lasciviously, “I will try to resist.”
I leaned over and kissed him, and with our semi-private surroundings keeping us from prying eyes like earlier, I deepened the kiss to show him just how much I wanted him. How much I’d like to throw caution to the wind and take him as mine.
When we finally pulled back, the look he gave me sent shivers through me. “Shit, this is going to be harder than I thought,” Isaid, and when he looked down at my crotch and back up at my face, he laughed out loud.
“Good. If you’re insisting on this slow crap, you should be in as much pain as me.”
Chapter thirty-four
Mick
Ilaughed out loud at Rory and Kalinda’s faces. The store was absolutely packed with townspeople. They'd told me they were going to invite the mayor and the town’s attorney, Jonah, and they’d be bringing a few people over for a discreet conversation about their microdistillery.
I knew—maybe I was psychic or more likely I knew my hometown—that if word got out, there would be a rush on the place. Even if the town wasn’t in favor, there was absolutely no way people were going to resist being in the middle of a decision that impacted us all.
I'd baked a ton of pretzels using one of my favorite recipes I’d found online a few years ago, and luckily, I had the sense to make a couple hundred of them on Thursday night. Brenda had given her blessing for me to use the restaurant, and I’d given her a few hundred bucks to cover the supplies. I loved that she trusted me with the restaurant already.
What surprised me over the opening was the number of people who showed up with their own hooch. “Is that legal?” Rory had asked Jonah, who shrugged and laughed.
“Probably not, or at least it’s a gray area, but since the mayor and sheriff showed up with their own jugs, I doubt anyone is going to cause a fuss.”
I chuckled and leaned into Rory as he shook his head in disbelief.
It was a true party, and I regretted having to slip away early to take a nap before I had to be at the restaurant to bake Sunday’s orders. Having the place to myself gave me the space I needed to get everything done before they opened the next day.
Luckily, I had not had another encounter with the dreaded ghost of Preston Garrison in Granny’s house. The bright-red X still adorned my window, and I placed my little crystal under it when I went to bed every night. No reason not to do everything I could to boost the energy.
Things had been spinning since we’d gotten back from Memphis. Kalinda had hired the mayor’s son to fix up and paint Uncle Eddie’s old apartment. The party had been fairly easy since none of us thought it was going to bethe partyof the season, so we hadn’t really made much effort to decorate or have food prepared.
Regardless, I hadn’t had any alone time with Rory, and that sucked because I’d already decided I was going to ignore the going-slow agreement. Rory said he wanted me. If he really meant it, I couldn’t see why I shouldn’t speed things along. I figured, if he wasn’t keen on the idea, he’d let me know.
