Page 76 of Lucky Boys
But Wes didn’t tease me or look at me with pity. He even granted my request.
“I’ll stay for as long as you need me, angel.”
Angel. I thought I’d heard that when I’d still been fighting the demons in my sleep but figured I must’ve misheard. I wanted to scoff. I was no angel. But I really liked hearing that from Wes’s lips.
“Can I turn on the light?” I nodded my approval, feeling silly now but also not daring to tell Wes to leave.
Once it was flipped on, I blinked a few times, adjusting. Wes had come back to the spot near my bed. That was when I realized he was only wearing plaid pajama pants and that was it. No shirt, his sculpted chest with just enough graying hairs enough to leave other men drooling. Okay, maybe I was other men. I wasn’t drooling, but my eyes kept landing there as I wondered what those pecs would feel like if I ever dared to reach out and touch them. The grim reaper tattoo caught my attention next, but I somehow managed to drag my eyes back up to Wes’s face. He was smiling.
“Can I sit, angel? I promise I won’t touch you.”
My hands were shaking but I somehow managed to nod. Wes sat on the corner of the bed, as far away from he as he could manage without falling off. Too far.
“You can—um—you can move closer.”
“I’d like that. If you start to feel uncomfortable, tell me.”
I loved that he didn’t ask me if I was sure. He respected that I knew my own mind and reminded me that he’d honor my boundaries. He scooted closer so he was sitting about half a foot away from my feet.
I stared at that little bit of blanket in between our bodies.
“I’m sorry I woke you,” I finally managed to say after we both sat in silence for some time.
“I wasn’t asleep. I don’t sleep a lot.”
I snorted. “I know the feeling.”
“Do you think you could try again now?”
I shook my head. “Yeah, no, I can’t go back to sleep now. Maybe I should just go to work?”
“Or we can go to one of the many entertainment rooms and watch some of that show you got me addicted to.”
That made me laugh. He really was addicted. Worse than I was.
I probably should have said no. I still hadn’t gotten anywhere with Larsen and shouldn’t waste time. But for the first time in forever, I didn’t want to work.
“Yeah, I’d like that.”
Wes looked like I just gave him the world. It made him seem so much younger.
We decided on the smaller family room. It had a big sectional with moving parts that could essentially make it a bed. Wes sat on one end, giving me the whole couch to chose where to sit on. I wanted to be close. Maybe not cuddle, but close enough that if I moved my arm, it might brush against his. I could manage that, right? A lump was lodged in my throat, and no matter how hard I tried, my fucking feet wouldn’t move.
“No pressure, angel. Sit where you want. Or if this is too much, we’ll go to the theater room with individual chairs.”
I shook my head stubbornly. “No! Sorry, no. I’m being ridiculous.”
Wes gave me a stern look that went all the way to my toes. “No, Diego, you are not. Whatever limits or concerns you have are valid, even if it’s something that doesn’t bother most. Don’t put yourself down.”
I hugged my body, suddenly unsure about all of this. “I wasn’t always like this,” I blurted. “A freak who can’t touch anyone or leave the fucking house. I was normal once.”
“Diego,” Wes warned, but I ignored him and pushed on. He needed to know. If he was going to be so nice to me, try to care about me, if I was going to try and care about him, he needed to know.
“When I was kid, before my parents—my birth parents—and my grandmother died, I was regular. I played with friends, had fun. I was even in tee ball. Even when I ended up in foster care, I wasn’t much different. I was pretty lucky with most of my placements. Some were better than others, but I wasn’t abused or anything. Some even cared. Things started to change at my last one.” My words caught in my throat and my hands fisted so tightly that my nails were biting into my skin and drawing blood.
“You don’t need to tell me this, angel. It’s okay.”
“It’s not. I-I have to tell you. You need to know what you’re getting yourself into.”
