Defined By Deceit

Chapter Twenty-Three

“Did you make the reservations?” Shane asked Jessie, his voice a little louder and sterner than he’d intended.

“Yes, Smith Jr.”

“Did you pay the registration for all the guys?”

“Yes, Smith Jr.,” she said, more dryly than the first time.

“Don’t sass me girl,” Shane snapped at her.

“Oh, my gosh. I’m not. What is wrong with you?”

“Pay him no never mind, Jess. He’s mad because Llew keeps shooting him down,” Jack said from behind his desk. Only the three of them were on the site, making sure they were ready for the one-day trip to Wilson. They were already losing two days of labor on this; they didn’t need any further delays. Yeah, Llew had invaded his dreams last night and cost him an entire night’s rest. That didn’t mean he was pining.

Shane stood with his hand on his hip, glaring at his best friends. “He’s not shooting me down. We’re just getting to know each other first. On a more platonic level.”

“Code for ‘shot you down’.” Jack laughed. Jessie joined him and Jack took the opportunity to really heckle his friend. He stood up and made his voice as deep as he could as if imitating Llew’s bass-filed drawl, “Smith Jr., I think we should be friends first, because that’s the benefit of being gay and dating a man. We would rather get to know each other and talk first, share our feelings, before we jump into bed.’”

Jessie covered her mouth, trying not to laugh harder, and even Shane had a hard time not smiling. Jack was right. Men did like to connect emotionally but they didn’t mind learning the physical side of their partner simultaneously. Why wait? Wait if the other had performance anxiety. He wouldn’t dare let them know about any of that though. He’d have to figure out something.

“Are you sure, Llew’s going tomorrow?” Jessie rifled through her paperwork.

“Why?” Shane asked, confused. “He’s an employee on the new site. He has to be there.”

“He didn’t respond to my e-mail or text. Maybe it has to do with last night.”

“What about last night?” He and Jack said at the same time.

“Well, I had breakfast at Shirley’s this morning and Missy Jean told me that some guys were really jaw-japing at him yesterday while he did some work for Shirley.”

Jack waved his hand dismissively in the air. “Llew has to toughen his hide if he’s gonna survive. Words ain’t never hurt nobody.”

“But they sure sting like heck.” Jessie conceded.

“Llew’s gonna have to learn how to tune out the world.”

Shane spun around. “What’d you just say?”

Jack looked quizzically at him. “I said he’d have to tune ‘em out.”

“You’re brilliant.” Shane beamed, yanking his coat off the back of his chair. “Thanks for the great idea, buddy. I’ll see ya’ll tomorrow in Wilson.”

He left them standing there with their mouths hanging open. He wanted to check on Llew after making a quick stop at his house. He searched for his gym bag in his coat closet, quickly pulling out what he needed and turning to go back out the door.

As soon as Shane turned the corner onto Ms. Pat’s street, he saw a long torso, bent over in low-riding denim jeans and heavy boots, hammering away at the porch stairs that led to the front door. Fuck, Llew was too fine not to pursue. He looked awesome in a tool belt, like a rugged, bearded man who could fill the role for a construction worker porn star.

He pulled up to the curb and when Llew saw it was him he stopped and stood up, tucking his hammer back in his low-hanging tool belt.

Llew couldn’t believe Shane had come back. He thought the guy would be repulsed at what he’d revealed to him. But here he was, in his dark denim jeans and blue and white striped t-shirt. Oh god, he was so beautiful, with those light brown eyes and blond wind-swept hair. He was just so energetic and full of life. Llew couldn’t figure out for the life of him why Shane kept coming around trying to pull dead weight along with him.

“Hi, Llewell. Ms. Pat finally got someone to redo these steps, huh? She been complaining about them for months now,” Shane said, propping one foot up on the first step to the porch, leaning in to rub his hand across the large boards Llew had just finished hammering. “I told her I’d send a guy over to do it, but she insisted on letting that good-for-nuttin son of hers continue to feed her excuses.”

When Llew was caught staring, Shane stopped talking and stared right back. Llew was beginning to really like that about him. Shane tipped his head down, tucking his thumbs in his pocket like he battled with what to say next.

“Believe it or not, when you look at me like that, it’s hard for me to gather my wits. But I’m gonna say what I came to say.”