Page 47 of Rock the Cradle of Love
The bar is full, as he’d expected, on a Friday night. A few people look their way as they head deeper into the place, but no one’s gaze lingers as if they recognize them. Men holding hands doesn’t seem to faze anyone either. Taylor relaxes further.
“Oh my God, Noah Drinkwater,” hollers a voice. Taylor stiffens even though it’s a friendly voice. He’s got no cause to be jealous either, so he takes a breath.
The volume of the place drops and all heads swivel toward them. Taylor has no doubt they all know who the hometown kid who became a professional athlete is, even if they don’t know him personally.
Noah lets go of Taylor’s hand and hugs a guy equally tall and broad as the two of them. “Aiden O’Leary. How goes it?”
A handful of voices call out hello, and Noah raises a hand in acknowledgment. Aside from a few extra-nosy-bodies, the crowd resumes its collective game-watching and chatter.
“We’re celebrating.” Noah tugs Taylor closer. “Aiden, this is Taylor, my boyfriend. Taylor, this is Aiden, proprietor of this fine establishment, but, also, he was one of my mom’s teacher’s assistants back in the day and willingly took charge of a younger, more ornery me. I think I was what? Twelve, thirteen?”
“Something like that.” Aiden laughs and holds out his hand to Taylor. They shake. “Nice to meet you, Taylor.”
“Nice to meet you too.”
And it is. Aiden doesn’t bat an eyelash at Noah’s revelation. Huh. Nice.
“What are you two celebrating?”
“We’re just celebrating us,” says Noah. He hooks Taylor’s neck with his arm and smacks a kiss to Taylor’s temple.
“Cool. What can I get you?”
“Two bottles of Heineken.”
“Coming right up. There’s a booth over there.” He points.
Taylor follows Noah to the booth. Most sets of eyes follow them. A few people nod, others say hello. Noah nods and says hello in reply. Noah’s usually so keyed up about meeting his adoring public, but maybe the difference is, these are his people, so to speak. Taylor doubts Noah knows a single person here aside from Aiden. It’s nice to see though.
The booth is round so they end up sliding to the middle and sitting next to one another. Noah leans in and kisses Taylor. “This is nice, huh?”
“It is.” Taylor nods.
The crowd cheers again and they glance at a nearby TV to see Cam Atkinson being mobbed by his teammates.
“You think the Blue Jackets are gonna go all the way?” Noah asks.
“I don’t know. I think it’d be cool. They’ve been shit hot all year.”
“Yeah, but the Pens…they’re gunning for back-to-back. They’re not going down without one hell of a fight.”
A woman with long light brown hair sets their beers down along with a bowl of pretzels. “I’m Johanna. I’ll check back with you boys in a bit.”
They thank her and look at each other.
Taylor’s finding it a little hard to believe that kissing and making up is really going to be this easy. “Is it really going to be this easy?”
“Is what going to be this easy?” A crease forms on Noah’s forehead.
“Kissing and making up? I mean, I expected to have to do way more groveling and suffering.”
“Look, Taylor, I didn’t want to break up. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I believe you about the phone and your uncle, so it’s forgiven.” He takes Taylor’s hand and kisses the back of it. “But there absolutely won’t be any sex until we have several conversations, and I’m serious this time. We can’t…what happened can’t happen again.”
“That’s fair. Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me, okay? I contributed to what happened too, so it’s not fair for you to shoulder all the blame or to think I’ve bestowed some great honor on you by taking you back.”
God, Taylor loves this man so much he feels about to burst. “All right, all right. You’re right. I appreciate you owning your part.”
