Forever (Always & Forever 2)

A ding from his computer drew his gaze as if he could see the computer through the bathroom wall. At the soft sound, hope and anticipation nagged at him until he turned around, drawing the haphazardly tied towel off his waist.

His connection to his laptop drew him forward as his heart thumped faster, vibrating against his ribs. Landon tilted his head to the side as he approached. The lowered lid to the laptop should have put the computer in sleep mode. He grabbed the device and dropped down onto the edge of the bed. When he lifted the top, the normal security entry code didn’t initiate. Instead, Robert Adams’s name flashed in his inbox.

Drawing his lip between his teeth, his nerves threatened to choke him. Landon sank his teeth into the flesh, hoping the move would inhibit his excitement. Landon might say he had wished the email there with all the thinking he’d been doing about Robert, but he’d been wishing for thirty damn days.

Landon gripped the laptop carefully, as if he were handling precious fine china, and scooted back to the headboard. His heart rate sped up as he touched the screen to open the message.

Landon,

I’ll be back in DC in a few days. Are you free for dinner?

Robert

Landon only thought his heart had been beating fast before he read the words. Now, it stampeded like he’d come in first in an Iron Man Triathlon and the excitement had released an endorphin overload in his brain. He took a deep breath then read the email again. What did it mean? Asking him to dinner… Like a date? Why would Robert ask him on…shit.

Not a date. It was probably a polite way to give an eviction notice, a way to gently let him know he had overstayed his welcome.

Crap. His chin hit his chest in shame. With two simple sentences, his emotions had run the gamut, from one extreme to the next. He should get whatever it was he had hoped to happen between the two of them out of his head. Of course he had overstayed. Robert had offered his home for a short stay not a permanent move in.

“Dammit!” He hadn’t found a place to live because he fucking liked being among Robert’s things. Even though Robert wasn’t physically in the house with him, the connection to the doctor remained strong. Was he fucking crazy? He seriously needed to get on with his life. This wasn’t healthy behavior. Even the damn feather coincidences Robert had mentioned screwed with Landon’s head. Several times he’d walked into this house to find a feather haphazardly placed between the front door and the guest bedroom. The first time it happened, he’d shrugged it off even though he couldn’t figure out where the feather had come from, but he hadn’t given it much thought until it happened more than once.

Landon dropped his head back until it hit the headboard where he wanted to bang it over and over to knock some sense into all his weird actions and continuous lusting. He knew how this would work. Dinner would be a place for Robert to ease into a polite conversation as to Landon’s exit plans.

The pain in his heart made him frantic. He’d known this day was coming, but he hadn’t known it would feel so final.

If he didn’t answer, would that give him a few extra days?

“Fuck no!” he growled. He should reply to this email and say he’d be out of here tomorrow. He nodded to affirm his thought, but both his head and his heart played a part in his refusal to say those words to Robert.

Be honest. Tell him you have feelings. Tell him you want a date, not an eviction.

In the end, his and Robert’s vastly different places in life held him at a distance. Begging wasn’t his thing, and he made his fingers move to type those words. The sooner he did this, the sooner he could get on with his life.

I can be out of here tomorrow, if that’s what you need.

Sadness and a deep sense of loss overtook him as he pushed send. What the hell had he thought would happen here? Think toward the future, Landon. You need a new game plan. His heart hurt, and it made it hard to think straight.

Okay, so he could get a hotel room for a couple of days until he figured shit out. The ding of a message in the inbox drew his eyes down to the screen. If he didn’t open the email, maybe his heart wouldn’t shatter into a million pieces when Robert thanked him for moving out.

Did this make him one of those weird squatters who parked themselves in someone’s home while they were gone?

Wait, was he a squatter or a stalker?

Shit. Landon again touched the screen to open the message. All the self-doubt and self-reprimand didn’t matter. His heart was in his throat as he read each word.