Page 27 of Survivor
Chapter Twenty-One
Frank
It was a warm day for Massachusetts, the temperature finally surpassing eighty and holding at a brisk eighty-two degrees. Taylor had agreed to wait in the car while Frank went and met Caleb and Justine inside the terminal. Justine was aware of how he felt about Taylor and accepted it. And while he was confident his best friend wouldn’t have an issue with the two of them being a couple, he still wanted to talk to him, give Caleb a heads-up before they headed back to the cottage.
The Knights couldn’t be missed as they walked toward him, Caleb tall, tanned and buff while his wife was petite and pale but extraordinarily beautiful. They were the odd couple, so to speak, catching the eye of several people along the way. Justine smiled and waved, running up and flinging herself into Frank’s open arms. “Hey, Frankie!”
“Get off him, woman.” Caleb pried his wife off his friend. “You’re scaring the natives,” he mock-whispered.
Justine looked around, confusion marring her pretty face. “Where’s Taylor?”
“He’s waiting in the car. I wanted to talk to the two of you first…I, well,”
“Oh, for Pete’s sake, Frank, just spit it out.” Caleb sighed, rolling his eyes like a toddler.
Justine squealed, clapping her hands and bouncing on tiptoes. “You told him, didn’t you?”
Frank grinned, shaking his head and laughing at the little pixie. “I did.”
“You two keeping secrets again?” Caleb looked back and forth between them, one eyebrow raised. “Spit. It. Out.” He enunciated each word with precision and annoyance.
“Taylor and I are together. A couple.” Fuck it, there it was.
Justine threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and hollering “Yay!”like a crazy person. Caleb pulled her off again and pointed her toward the exit. “Baby, go keepthe kidcompany and let the big boys talk for a minute.”
Frank didn’t like the way his partner said “the kid,” with too much emphasis on the vowel. “What’s up your ass, Knight?”
“How could you keep something like this from me?” Caleb barked. Why in the hell was he angry?
“I didn’t keep anything from you. We weren’t together before this trip and now we are. It’s that simple.” Frank crossed his arms over his chest defiantly.
Caleb closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath, running his fingers through his hair. When he opened his eyes, the anger from just a few seconds earlier was gone; now Caleb looked like a wounded animal. “Listen, Frank, it’s not you and Taylor being together that I have a problem with. It’s a little…weird, to be honest, but we can talk about that later. What I do have a problem with is you not telling me that you had feelings for him. We’re partners, Frank, supposed to trust each other with our lives. But you couldn’t tell me how you felt about the kid?” He pointed toward the parking lot.
Deflated, Frank slumped, pinching the bridge of his nose to stave off the headache floating just below the surface. “I get that Caleb, I do and I’m sorry. I didn’t realize just how much I cared for him until recently. And, he’s not a kid, by the way; let’s just put that out there.”
Caleb rolled his eyes again and Frank chuckled. “Seriously though, I didn’t say anything because I felt…ashamed for looking at him, for wanting him. And then I thought he could do better. But then Taylor told me he loves me and wants to be with me.”
“Whoa, wait just a tick, back up. Taylor told you he loves you?” Caleb shrieked.Not very becoming for such a big guy, Frank thought. He opened his mouth to speak but a very familiar voice answered for him.
“Yes, I did.” Taylor strolled over to them with a wicked smile on his face, wrapping one of those long arms around Frank’s waist and pulling him close.
Slack-jawed and wide-eyed, Caleb stared at the two of them for a minute. Then, very seriously, he said, “Are we in Kansas, Dorothy? Cause I could have sworn the missus and I flew into Massachusetts for some fun in the sun.”
“You two are a mess.” Taylor reached for Caleb, wrapping his other arm around him and walking the three of them out to the curb where Justine sat, blaring “Finally” by CeCe Peniston on the radio, singing every damn word, loudly.
After dinner that evening, Caleb and Justine wandered out to the beach for a walk and Frank and Taylor decided to join them. The sunset on the water provided a gorgeous background, the orange halo in the sky lighting a path across the ocean. “Listen, Frank, I’m good, we’re good, just don’t keep something this important from me again. Okay?” Caleb nudged Frank with his shoulder.
“Of course, partner,” Frank promised. “I would have said something, but honestly,Ididn’t even know what I was feeling, not for certain.”
The moon was high in the sky by the time they turned and started making their way back to the house, the lights of the lanterns on the back porch showing the way. Taylor and Caleb were acting like idiots, shoving and knuckle punching each other, normal antics for the two of them. When Caleb shouted, “Race you back!” and the two of them took off, Frank snorted.
“How do you put up with him?” he asked Justine.
Linking her arm with Frank’s she sighed, happily. “What can I say? I love the big, dumb goof. And he’s awful pretty.”
~ ~ ~
Frank thoroughly enjoyed having Caleb and Justine as well as Valerie and Charles at the cottage; they were his family after all. But having Taylor all to himself for the last few days of their vacation was a godsend. The morning before flying back to Texas, Frank woke in his bed alone, the other side cold and empty, and for a brief moment, his heart sank. Was it all just a dream? No, he could smell Taylor on his skin, could remember the feel of his touch from the night before. It was then that Frank realized the depth of his feelings for Taylor. In the time it would take to snap his fingers, Frank knew he was in love.
