Chasing the Rainbow (12 page)

The sunroom’s walls which weren’t window-filled had been painted a cheerful, pale yellow. One wall held a drafting table, the other a couch and a mini-fridge. “Your hideout?”

                  “Busted,” Bobby said. He looked immeasurably pleased as his own gaze wandered over his room. “You’re the only person other than the few guys I’ve had help, here and there, who’s ever seen it.”

                  “Wait. Really? Weren’t you with…?” Jody stopped, not really wanting to talk about Angie.

                  Bobby squeezed Jody’s hand. “Yes. I was still with Angie when I got the place. I bought it when the market went ass up. It was originally something I wanted to flip. I mean, hell, I’m a contractor. Why not? I get materials at cost, do my own designs, got the place for half what it’s worth. Started as something to do in my spare time.”

“Started?”

Bobby released Jody’s hand and wandered over to stare out one of the windows. Jody leaned against the doorframe; studying Bobby from the back. The man was beautiful and his. Even if for just a little while. Today Bobby was still Jody’s.

                  “It wasn’t long before I started getting all these ideas about this place as a home. My home. There’s three bedrooms, one could be an office, and I’d be close to Ma now that she’s getting older.” Bobby faced Jody, perching on the windowsill behind him. “I guess that’s when I started thinking about what home was to me.”

                  “And what did it mean to you?” Jody couldn’t help but wonder, since Bobby’d gone distant for a moment as he recalled something which clearly made him sad.

                  “Not what it should.” At Jody’s frown, Bobby came over, running his thumb over Jody’s bottom lip before placing a kiss there. There was nothing dirty or deep about the kiss, it was chaste, really. But it was the sweetest, most emotional kiss they’d shared yet. He didn’t know what brought the kiss on, but he sure had no intentions of complaining. He also didn’t try to deepen it any more than Bobby did.

                  Bobby hugged Jody to him, Jody’s cheek resting on his shoulder. The moment was comfortable and felt like something Jody’d only ever read about in books.

                  “This. God, Jo, this is what it felt like in my head.” Jody pulled back and studied Bobby’s face. He didn’t seem sad any more, just lost in memories. “I felt guilty because I had this great girl who really treated me pretty well, but I just couldn’t feel… something. You know?”

                  “Oh, I do know. Remember? Divorced?” Jody could recall all too well the desolate feeling of loving someone, caring for them, but not being in love with them. Like you were searching for a way for the sex to feel right, or a way to feel connected with someone, but just feeling like you found another best friend. “It’s not that they weren’t special, they just… weren’t men.” He knew the explanation was simple, but it really was that simple.

                  Bobby chortled before sobering, placing a kiss on Jody’s forehead. Jody loved how affectionate Bobby could be when he let his guard down. In fact, it may have been one of his favorite things about Bobby. Even when Bobby didn’t say words, his unashamed tactility—something Bobby said was an Italian trait, but Jody would argue it was just a Bobby thing—gave him a sense of knowing where he stood with him.

                  “I’d known I wasn’t as into women as my brothers, but I guess it never really made sense until I bought this damn house. I couldn’t see coming home to Angie. I didn’t want her in here, tainting it. Which made me feel like a bastard. I mean, she left her husband for me, and I didn’t want her in my dream house.” Jody remembered that particular guilt well, though he’d barely made it a year. He couldn’t imagine over a decade of the guilt. He wanted to point out Bobby had been a teenager at the time, but decided to let Bobby get it out. He needed it.

“My mother knows about the place, but she still thinks I’m just flipping it. So it was my hideout when things started getting worse after that year. Angie knew things were going south… The more time I spent here, the more wrong our relationship felt. Then you came out. And you know the rest.”

                  “Damn,” Jody said, kissing the pulse point on Bobby’s throat, squeezing his arms around Bobby’s waist a little tighter. He pulled back and looked into Bobby’s eyes, trying to convey his sincerity when he said, “Thank you for showing me this today.”

                  Bobby did something Jody had only seen once or twice. He blushed. Only a little, but enough to make Jody’s lips tick up into a grin.

                  “I, uh, wanted you to see. And thanks for listening to me whine. I haven’t really ever told anyone all that,” Bobby admitted, eyes averted from Jody’s. Jody gushed happy things on the inside but decided to pull away and give Bobby a moment.

                  He wandered back into the house, leaving Bobby to his thoughts until he was ready to catch up. He could see the potential in the place. The floorplan was fairly spacious, though as an apartment dweller all his life, most homes outside lower Manhattan looked large.

                  This was an actual house. Not necessarily in a prime location as far as Jody knew, but the neighborhood outside was quiet; the sidewalks had little foot traffic. Inside, the smell of sawdust and paint overwhelmed the senses, but in his mind’s eye he could see a quiet little home where Jody could read in a chair in the living room while Bobby worked on a design in the sunroom.    

                
Don’t get ahead of yourself.

                  He turned to watch Bobby approach when he heard his boyfriend’s heavy boots trudging through the kitchen.

                  “You know, those unfinished walls there…” Jody pointed at the longest wall in the area he assumed would turn into the living room. “I don’t know if it’s possible, but you could do built in bookshelves on either side, leave space for that 62-inch you have in your room.” Which Jody’d given Bobby hell for when he’d seen the size of Bobby’s television in relation to his bedroom. “You could maybe even do it a different color as an accent. Set it up as the focal point, then it’d separate that out so you have room for a formal dining area on the far side.

“It’d be awesome if you could divide it with an arch or something there, because then you could pull the colors from….” He caught the strange expression Bobby wore as he stared at Jody. He snapped his mouth shut and rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed.

                  One thing Jody loved was making a house look nice. He may not know how to grout, and he surely sucked at dressing himself, but Alex always said his gay showed when he got to decorating a home. And he’d gotten excited over the blank canvas he saw here. It wasn’t like he was moving in, just giving ideas right?

                  “Sorry,” he mumbled. “I’m sure you already have ideas.”

                  “No, that’s actually something I’d thought of. With the arch, anyway. The shelving’s a good idea, too.” Bobby’s tone was still weird.

                  “Well, if you ever need any help.”

                  “Really?” Bobby asked, surprised.

                  “You probably don’t want to give me a saw or anything, but I can do a mean coat of paint.”
Shut up. Why are you even offering this?
Jody knew he probably sounded like he was trying to weasel something out of Bobby. He didn’t mean it that way.

                  Bobby smiled. “That could be nice.”

                  “Yeah?”

                  “Yeah.” Then Bobby crossed the room and kissed Jody soundly. Jody didn’t know what he’d said right, but he didn’t want to free his mouth up to ask.

Chapter 14

JODY SIGNED OFF on the inventory sheet he’d just finished going over with DeDe and passed it across the desk so she could add her own flourishing signature.

              “That was a smooth inventory process. I like the new girl you’ve got in for that.”

              “Yeah, thanks,” he said, taking the paper back from her to file away. “Thanks for letting me bring her in. I know you were worried about adding the extra part-time salary.”

              “No, it was a wise decision,” she said, smiling in the way she did when she was proud of her son. He had to give her props; for a micromanager, she trusted his advice and was good at handing out praise when he’d earned it. And even he would say he’d made the right call. “She more than earned back what we paid out for the extra help.”

              “Speaking of,” he said, pulling out and handing her another paper. “Her ninety day evaluation is due. I didn’t know if you’d want to keep her on, afterward. I’ll let you talk to her.”

              “Excellent.” She perused the document he’d given her before tucking it in her briefcase. She then pulled up her over-large, designer purse and started digging around inside. Jody turned his attention to the computer program they used for scheduling. After clicking around a few times, shuffling a few employees around for request-offs and summer vacation days, he realized DeDe hadn’t gone.

              “Need anything else?” he asked her.

              “Oh, no.” She had her iPhone out, obviously in selfie mode, the way she did in lieu of a mirror to work on her hair. “Just getting pretty.”

              He checked the time, close to seven p.m. “Hot date?”

              She smirked. “Always.”

              He chuckled, shaking his head. “I think I’d miss it if you stopped being predictable.”

              “When you’re good at what you do, why change it?” Her cocky smile was only interrupted by the gloss applicator she’d started smoothing over her lips. He’d noticed her attire had a more cocktail hour look than the usual work clothes. But she was always well dressed, so who ever knew?

              “Speaking of dates.” She did one more poke and flip to her blonde hair; Jody noticed a new blunt cut to her bangs; before her phone made the clicking sound indicating she’d locked it. She placed the phone in her lap, straightened the black fabric of her off-the-shoulder top, and leaned back in her chair, lips quirked. “How are things with your contractor?”

              “Oh.” Jody flushed, but the grin that stretched across his face must’ve been telling. She rolled her eyes in a way he was sure he mirrored often. Many said he looked more like her than his father, and in the eyes; even he could see it. “They’re going well.”

              She leaned forward and picked up one of his ever-present romance novels to flick through. “Is he your Prince Charming?”

              Jody sniffed daintily. “You and Alex, always giving me such crap.”

              “It’s so much fun, though.” She winked, playfully, then cocked her head. “But really. Everything going okay? You’ve been seeing each other a while, right?”

              “Yeah,” Jody said, softly. “Four months, if you don’t count our semi-dating those two months before; when he’d come to lunch, pretending he wasn’t here to see me.” And didn’t he feel like a tween girl for even thinking of those. His mother’s knowing snort said she’d probably thought the same thing.

              “That’s great. I’m happy for you.” The sincerity of her words was disarming. Jody’s chest hitched, realizing she usually did mean it. She’d always been so supportive of everything when it came to him. Even when he’d married—though, she’d seemed sad. She knew he did everything in his power not to be like her, but she’d stood by him, been proud of him. She hadn’t batted a lash when he’d announced the divorce, or even when his first serious boyfriend after that had dumped him. If he married Bobby tomorrow, she’d pay for it and be mother-of-the-groom-zilla.

              Meanwhile, Bobby’s mother still wouldn’t talk to him, even after he’d broken down and gone to try to see her. When Jody’d mentioned he was helping Bobby with his house, Jody’s mom had offered to buy furniture as a house-warming—and an apology for tricking Bobby into thinking she was seriously going to give him business.

              Of course, Bobby had turned her down, even though she’d continued to offer at least once a week for the last three weeks. Bobby’s mother, though, couldn’t be bothered to answer the phone.

              Jody felt like an unimaginable shit, looking at his mother, who for all that she wasn’t equipped for motherhood, always did her best to make up for it in the ways she could. He was realizing he’d judged her, pulled away from her for years. Yes, he’d always loved her, even if maybe there’s been a time he’d blamed her for his father’s broken heart. But he understood her. And today, he was ashamed because she gave him so much, when Bobby’s mother couldn’t even get over one little thing about Bobby, who for all the world was one of the best men Jody’d ever met.

              “Do he and Alex get along well?” she asked, oblivious to the overwhelming emotions roiling in Jody’s chest.

              Before he could stop himself, Jody was out of his chair, around the desk and hugging her. She was stiff for a brief moment, before she patted his back with one hand and huffed a small, surprised laugh in his ear.

              “Sorry,” he said, pulling back. Her cheeks were pink, eyes dancing with mirth.

              “No need,” she said, as if he hadn’t just initiated a hug for the first time in at least a decade. There was no doubt if you caught her expression that she was trying to hide the fact she was chuffed.

              “Yes,” he responded to her earlier question. “Alex has helped with the house a couple times.” Alex was much better with a saw or hammer than Jody.

              “That’s great, Jody. I’m very happy for you.” Again with that sincerity.

              “Thank you.” He looked her in the eye. “Really.” Her eyes crinkled at the corners—though he’d never say that to her.

              “Of course,” she said, standing from her chair and gathering her things. “Now. Wish me luck.” Back to the familiar, though she was clearly misty.

              “Oh, please. You don’t even need it.”

              She threw her head back, elegantly, and let out a regal laugh. “No, I don’t.” And with that she was out the door in a click-clack of Jimmy Choo heels. He shook his head fondly before returning to his work, feeling steadier than he had for some long time. He didn’t know why that whole exchange seemed to have meant so much to him, but… It did. It really did.

***
 

“WILL JODY BE gracing us with his presence tonight?” Carlo asked over his shoulder, as he washed his hands in the utility sink at their work site.

              “Aw. Are you missing my boyfriend?” Bobby asked.

Carlo turned to face him fully. “I never thought I’d hear you say those words.”

“I wasn’t that slutty.”

“No, but you were that straight.”

Bobby narrowed his eyes at his brother. “You called me a fag until I was twenty-five and that gay guy heard you and clocked you.”

Carlo glared and gestured to his crotch. “Right here, motherfucker!”

Bobby flipped his brother off. He needed to get a move on because he was actually going to Jody’s that night. They tried to alternate who stayed where since Bobby’s work now had him in Astoria. He was still getting used to waking up to Jody in his bed, in his world. But hey, everyone knew and so long as it didn’t bother Carlo—whose objection he’d always known would only come out of having an extra person eating their food, using their electricity, etc—he didn’t sweat it much.

He was in a relationship. That was the only thing to get used to. But not so much, because when he thought on it, Jody’d become his best friend. They each contributed on dates, they’d gone to a couple book events, kept seeing Jody’s foreign films, hit South Beach in Staten Island with friends. But the best moments were their quiet moments alone. And not because they were hidden, but because they were simple and they did really feel like those things he’d wanted when he was alone, remodeling that house, feeling guilty over Angie. Those were when they just hung out together, talking and laughing, or whatever.

He loved working and laughing with Jody at the Bensonhurst house, even when Alex was around and he and Jody ganged up on Bobby. He loved Jody’s ideas for the house and had a hard time holding back how much it meant that Jody saw the same charm in the place he had.

But Bobby’s absolute favorite times with Jody were definitely those quiet moments, just the two of them, in bed or on the couch… reading. He’d never thought something could fulfill him or make him so content—or be as sexy as—looking up from his work or his latest sci-fi book to find Jody; feet in Bobby’s lap or head on Bobby’s chest, smiling as he read. Sometimes he’d have this goofy, swooning look when he was in a particularly romantic part of the book, or he’d be crying at a sad scene and Bobby wouldn’t be able to stop himself from kissing Jody or gathering him in his arms and making it better.

“You, my friend, have got it bad,” Carlo said, patting Bobby’s back. “That is the dumb grin you get whenever Jody’s around.”

“Aren’t you observant,” Bobby said, drily.

“No,” Carlo said, shaking his head emphatically. “The grin is just that dumb.” A couple of the guys on their work crew sniggered in the background. Bobby shot baleful glares in their direction, but they were off the clock, so they kept it up, not scared of their mooning homo boss.

Even the idiots who work for you are okay with it.
Bobby sometimes had to wonder at his life.

His phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out, hitting the button to answer while scowling at his brother. “Yeah, yeah. It’ll happen to you.”

Carlo shuddered. “I hope the desire for hairy man ass isn’t contagious.”

Bobby heaved a put upon sigh at the jackass. “Mr. Gugino?” the voice on the phone said. He felt his lips pull into a frown as he looked at the display, seeing it wasn’t Jody, as he’d thought. He broke into a cold sweat, realizing what the call was about.

“Yeah, it’s Bobby Gugino.”

“Bobby, I need to see you….”

***
 

JODY PULLED THE takeout Chinese from the bag the delivery guy had just dropped off when Bobby used his key to open the door to his apartment. It’d been kind of anti-climactic, the giving of keys, but that’d probably been best. He’d been nervous when he’d offered, knowing that it was technically a big deal, but offering as a practicality rather than symbolism. Though he was pretty sure by the way Bobby side-eyed him that he’d known better.

              “Jo?”

              “In the kitchen!” He checked to make sure they’d given him enough sweet’n’sour. God knows, they’d forgotten one time and Bobby had turned into a diva. He heard Bobby approaching and started rambling, per usual, if he was honest. He’d always been known as a pretty quiet guy, the fly on the wall. But with Bobby, he seemed to want to tell him everything. He was sure it was annoying, but at least he wasn’t spouting off the truth about how much he missed Bobby when he hadn’t been with him.

              “DeDe signed off on inventory today, so I will be free on weekends again,” he said. Then turned to Bobby, who was right in his face when he did. “Whoa. Hey, big guy.”

              There was something funny in Bobby’s expression, but Jody didn’t get a chance to ask if he was okay because suddenly Bobby’s mouth was on his, devouring him. Teeth and tongue. Bobby only kissed like that when he wanted it dirty. Jody smiled into the kiss, happy to oblige.

              “Dessert first, huh?”

              “Fuck yes,” Bobby grunted, pulling at Jody’s clothes as they made their way through the apartment to Jody’s bedroom. They were both completely naked by the time Jody hit the mattress so hard he bounced. He honest-to-goodness giggled, but was silenced quickly by Bobby’s sucking mouth on his cock.

              “Fuck, Bob. Not wasting any time, huh? Ungh….” His eyes rolled back as one of Bobby’s fingers penetrated his hole. “Fuck.”

              Bobby hummed around Jody’s cock as he bobbed up and down on it. Jody didn’t know what had come over the man, but he liked it. He leaned up on his elbows to look down at Bobby, whose full, sexy lips were wrapped around Jody’s cock. Jody never realized how pale he was until Bobby’s olive skin was next to his. Their recent trips to the beach and Bobby’s work in the sun had left him even darker lately.

              That train of thought was lost as Bobby flicked a look through his lashes at Jody, curling his finger to push against Jody’s prostate. His legs jumped like they were being tested for reflexes.

              “Up here,” Jody said. “Otherwise I’m gonna be done before we even start.” Bobby popped off Jody’s cock and with the dirtiest fucking smirk, crawled up the bed to straddle Jody’s chest. They’d not done this before, not really Jody’s favorite, but hey… why not?

              “Stick out your tongue,” Bobby said, breathily. Jody complied and Bobby took himself in hand, thwacking his cock on Jody’s lips and tongue. Jody hummed his approval. “Gonna suck me, Jo? Wanna taste me?”