The Truth Within (Pelican Bay 3)

The room itself was bright with light, but it was cold. There was a little space heater in one corner, but it wasn’t plugged in at the moment.

I hadn’t had any clue about Ford having studio space, but Isaac and Maddox had known he had one. They just hadn’t known where it was. After Ford had run out of dinner tonight before dessert had been served or the race that Newt had been so excited about had even gotten started, everyone had been worried about the young man.

Except me.

I’d been pissed.

Okay, well, pissed about being worried.

To say the evening had started off awkwardly was the understatement of the decade. It was clear Ford hadn’t known I’d been invited to dinner when I’d walked in with a box of cannoli from Pelican Bay’s most popular bakery. Of course, I hadn’t been expecting to see Ford either, so when we’d come face to face, we’d just stared at one another like a couple of deer caught in headlights.

We hadn’t seen or spoken to one another since the morning I’d dropped him off at his house. Even then, we’d only managed to say a quick, polite goodbye, and the second Ford had closed the door, I’d hit the gas pedal. It’d been a form of self-preservation because I hadn’t wanted to spend another second in his presence… couldn’t spend another second in it… because it’d been way too tempting to just throw my fucking rule about not touching him out the window and reach for him right there in front of his family’s home.

I’d been back to the hospital to see Walter since the night I’d invited him to come stay with me, and so had Ford, but fortunately, we hadn’t run into each other. But Walter hadn’t stopped raving about what a nice boy Ford was and expressing his concern that there wouldn’t be anyone to watch over Ford while Walter’s house was out of commission. Since Walter had been feeding into my own fears about Ford, I’d made excuses to Walter about needing to work in an effort to keep my visits short. But I still found myself driving past his house several times a day, especially when I saw Jimmy’s car back in the driveway.

Ford hadn’t had any new bruises tonight at dinner, which had obviously been a relief, but when he’d appeared to get more and more restless as the meal had gone on, I’d started to worry that maybe there were bruises I couldn’t see or that Ford was afraid of something that he was expecting to happen when he got home. The other men at the table had tried to draw Ford out, but it had just caused him to clam up even more and the second we’d finished with the main course, Ford had stood so fast that he’d knocked his chair over. He’d blurted out his thanks and said he’d needed to go, but he hadn’t once looked up at his hosts as he’d spoken. As he’d been leaving, Newt had called out to him, practically begging him to stay just a little longer, but Ford hadn’t even looked at the little boy. He’d just softly called out an apology, then he’d been gone.

I’d ended up excusing myself within a minute. I’d said I needed to check something at work, but I knew none of the adults had believed me. But none of them had tried to stop me either. I had no clue how the guys had figured out I was gay or that I was attracted to Ford, but it was obvious to me now that dinner had been some kind of matchmaking setup.

Especially when Ford and I had conveniently been seated next to each other on a bench that’d had us brushing up against one another every time we moved even just a little bit. I’d wanted to strangle the scheming matchmaker-wannabes, but I’d been too busy trying to keep my raging body in check. Being that close to Ford again and not being able to really touch him had been torture.

After driving to Ford’s house and seeing Jimmy’s car there, I’d waited for a good ten minutes to see if Ford came home before I’d given up and started driving toward the station to check in with Alex before going home for the night. I hadn’t been driving for more than a minute when Isaac had called me to see if I’d found Ford and had talked about remembering Ford once mentioning having a studio somewhere. I should have just let things go at that point because my primary concern had been Ford having another run-in with his brother.

But instead, here I was.

Even now, I could see that he was safe, but I still couldn’t make my feet move. Ford hadn’t noticed me yet so all I had to do was turn around and go.