Page 27 of Good Friends
Dane never went out with anyone, either, even though he said Porter could and should.
There was also Dane’s drinking.
Porter didn’t scold Dane over it, because it never interfered with his work. He usually only did it on Friday and Saturday nights, and not every weekend.
Only on the stormy ones.
“My mom wants to be able to come visit me,” Dane softly said.
Who’s going to hold you when you have nightmares?
But Porter didn’t ask.
He didn’t push. Not like that, anyway. He came the closest he ever got to pushing with Dane. “I’ll have an extra bedroom. It can be her guest room.”
Dane finally turned in his arms and looked up at him. “She can’t know,” he quietly said. “She’s the only family I really have left. I know she would disown me, especially after what happened. When he divorced her, Dad still blamed me for my brother going to jail. My relationship with her already hangs by a thread.”
And so Porter didn’t push, because Dane never spoke about what happened like that in the daylight and stone-cold sober.
Porter refused to push.
Because he desperately didn’t want to push Dane away.
* * * *
Porter and Dane met Gavin when they started working in Lakeland. The helicopter company Gavin worked for sat three buildings down from Lakeland Wings Aviation, where they now worked. Gavin didn’t share a lot of info, but Porter got the impression Gavin was on the last chapters of a rocky relationship with a guy.
Upon moving to Florida from Puerto Rico, Dane became a different person almost immediately, Porter noticed.
In public.
In the evenings, and on weekends, Porter frequently ended up spending them with Dane, because Dane would come over to Porter’s. Or Porter would wake up on a weeknight to find Dane had silently let himself in with the key Porter gave him and was now curled against him in bed.
The marks came back worse than they’d been since Porter first got to see that side of Dane, always on his thighs where no one else could see them because of his clothes.
Porter only saw them because they were together.
And he worried.
But while Porter knew Dane would never publicly acknowledge he was gay, much less that there was anything between them that would make people think the two of them were a romantic item, even miles away from Dane’s family in Arkansas, Dane welcomed Gavin’s presence as a friend and made no secret about that. When it became obvious Gavin had more than a few interests in common with them, kinky interests, Dane relaxed even more around him, which relaxed Porter.
He’d hoped, if nothing else, that maybe Dane would come to at least confide in Gavin, too. Not feel as lonely. Porter and Gavin became closer, close friends, good friends, although Porter didn’t pursue the attraction he felt for Gavin despite Dane’s urging.
Gavin finally confided some of what was going on in his life with his relationship with Geoff, and Porter and Dane both supported him, consoled him when Gavin found the strength to make the break and end it with the guy. Especially when other friends, who’d become mutual friends with all three men, started telling Gavin that the guy was screwing around and lying to him about it. That night the three of them had sat around doing shots of tequila, toasting and ending each withsalud.
They settled into a comfortable routine, the three of them. Dane and Porter’s relationship was the unspoken factor, even though Gavin knew about it. They trusted him not to say anything, and there was a safety for Dane with Gavin being publicly known as their friend.
It made it less likely someone might pin Dane to Porter as his “boyfriend.” They were three good friends and coworkers. Well, related industry, in Gavin’s case.
Then Dane’s mother came to visit for two weeks around Christmas. That mostly left Porter and Gavin to hang out without him, except for Christmas Day, when Dane’s mother had them both over for dinner when she learned neither of them had family in Florida, and that they were good friends of Dane’s.
Not that they were gay good friends, either. Just single buddies of his with no close family to speak of.
Porter felt the wall return that day for the first time in years, the thick, impenetrable fortress around Dane’s soul. He could tell Dane felt borderline terrified.
So Porter kept it chill and Gavin followed his lead.
Just friends.
