GirlNextDoor (3 page)

John disengaged just a little. “C’mere,” he murmured,
drawing him toward the couch.

The couch. Nolan glanced around. They weren’t in the shed
anymore. They were in his living room. It didn’t matter. He sank onto the
couch, into John’s embrace again, and their lips joined. His arousal grew more
intense. He slid one hand under his partner’s shirt. Splayed his palm over
John’s delicious warm abs. He groaned in pleasure, and John groaned back.

His cock ached in the confines of his pants. He wanted to be
naked. Naked and stretched out next to John, on the bed, with lots of room and
lots of time. It was all going to be so good…

For him. But what the hell was John doing here? “John,” he
murmured, “you don’t know what you’re doing.”

Krulak grinned crookedly. “Then you’ll just have to teach
me.”

Yes.

John brought one hand around and pushed him gently back onto
the bed, moved over him to kiss him again, pulled up his shirt…

They’d been in the living room an instant ago.

“Ah shit!” Nolan said.

And just that quickly he was wide awake.

He slapped his hand down on the firm futon mattress beneath
him. His back began to ache, as it did every time he slept on the un-bed.
Across the coffee table, the little portable TV flickered the replay of the
baseball game in silence. Otherwise the room was dark.

His cock has been bone hard, but it began to soften as soon
as he was fully awake.

John was not here with him. John was not about to become his
lover. John never would be, because John was straight. And even if he had been
gay, John wasn’t interested in a relationship. Any relationship.

Nolan closed his eyes. Did that matter? At the moment, he’d
have settled for one night. And the friendship. One night and their friendship
would be enough.

And of course, one night would likely destroy their
friendship.

“Shit.” Nolan opened his eyes and sat up.

It was stupid to be fantasizing about his partner. Stupid
and dangerous. John had always accepted him exactly the way he was, but there
had always been boundaries—on both sides. Crossing those lines, even giving a
hint that he’d considered it, would change their balance, their relationship.
No. Even if it were remotely possible, it wasn’t worth the risk.

“Besides,” Nolan said, rolling to his feet, “it’s just a
rebound crush. He was nice to you when Kevin left, and you’re crushing on him
because it’s safe.”

He looked around the living room. The good couch was gone,
the comfortable chair, the wide-screen TV. Kevin had taken all of them with
him.

Nolan became acutely aware that he was talking to himself.
“I need to get a cat,” he said, still aloud. “Then I could pretend I was
talking to the cat.” He shook his head. “Of course, I’ve never been much for
pussy before.”

He shook his head and walked to the kitchen for a glass of
water.

Except for that one weekend
, he remembered.

“And it’s his own damn fault,” he said. “If he hadn’t made
me fix his computer, I never would have known where he was surfing.”

He could not think about computers without checking his
email. He knew there wouldn’t be anything important, but he was awake anyhow.
He opened his browser and smiled wryly. He’d never had an impure thought about
John Krulak until he found out the man was looking at gay porn on the internet.

“Well, maybe one or two,” he admitted to his monitor. He
sighed. “Damn. I really do need a cat.”

Men—and women, he presumed—would look at lots of things on
the internet that they had no real interest in pursuing. Nolan knew better than
to think that John was interested in any actual gay sex just because of what
he’d found in his browser history. It was just his own fantasy. His own wishful
thinking.

John did not want to be here with him, having wild sex on
his crappy futon.

Kevin had taken the bed too.

“I have got to buy more furniture,” he said.

The idea of shopping alone for furniture filled him with
dread.

He had one new message. The name of the sender made him
smile. He’s just been thinking about her, though he’d barely acknowledged it.
The only woman he’d ever slept with. The only woman he’d ever want to shop for
furniture with.

The message was brief, and only five minutes old. She’d been
thinking about him and just wanted to check in.

“Lucy, my love,” he murmured, “how do you always know?”
Nolan smiled and reached for his phone.

* * * * *

Lucy’s phone rang and she eyed it balefully. It was probably
Alex, wanting her now that his precious baseball game was over.
As if,
jackass.
Still, she was curious enough to pick it up and check caller ID.
The name made her smile in relief and genuine pleasure. She pressed the green
button. “Nolan!”

“Hey, Lucy. I’m sorry to call so late.”

“You knew I was up. I just sent you an email.”

He hesitated, and she could see his shy smile in her mind.
“Yeah.”

“You okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.”

Lucy frowned. She closed the lid of her laptop and settled
back on her couch. “Nolan.”

“I am,” he said firmly. “I really am. I think I’m
finally…over it.”

“Thank God. It took you…” Lucy stopped herself. This was
Nolan. He was who he was. “I’m glad you’re feeling better.”

“I was wondering. Do you think you could come up some time?”

“I can come up tonight if you need me to. You know that.”

“No,” Nolan answered. “It’s not urgent. I’m fine, Lucy, I
really am. I was just thinking I’d go buy some new furniture and I’d kinda like
your advice.”

Lucy bit her lip, hard. In addition to breaking Nolan’s
heart, that prick Kevin had taken most of his furniture. Fucking bastard. A
string of additional expletives flew through her mind.

Only the fact that Nolan had loved the evil bastard kept the
words behind her teeth. “Okay,” she said.

“Wow,” Nolan chuckled, “you really had to work at that,
didn’t you?”

“You have no idea.”

“Thanks, Lucy.”

“For what?”

“For not telling me what you think of Kevin.”

“I told you once,” she reminded him.

“I know. And I said I loved him, and you never said another
bad word about him.”

“Well, not to your face.”

“Yeah.”

Her control cracked. “Even though I was totally right about
him.”

Nolan sighed, but he still sounded cheerful enough. “I know.
So come help me refurnish.”

“This weekend?”

“Oh. Can you get away that soon? I mean, I’d love for you to
come, but I don’t know if I can get an extra day off.”

“Oh I can probably find something to do while you’re
working.”

“I bet you can.”

“I make friends easily.”

“I know you do. You’re just like John.”

Lucy nodded. She’d never met John, but she liked what Nolan
had said about him in the past. “So are you going to let me meet him this
time?”

“I might,” Nolan answered slowly. “I just might.”

She knew that tone of voice. “Now what are you up to?”

“Nothing,” he protested. “Nothing at all.”

“Yeah. You don’t do hurt innocence for shit, Nolan. I’ll
shoot you an e-mail once I get my ticket, okay?”

“Thank you.”

Lucy grinned. “Love you, Nolan.”

“Love you too.”

Chapter Three

In the morning, Nolan announced, “I took your advice.”

“That’s a first,” John answered. He had no idea which advice
his partner had taken.

They hadn’t even gotten their first cups of coffee that
morning before they took a call on a possible heart attack. The victim was gray
when they got to him. He was a little pinker by the time they got him to the
hospital, and he was still conscious. Odds were very good he’d make it.

The doctors were on rounds by the time they got him turned
over to the ER staff, so the paramedics ducked into the doctor’s lounge for
good coffee.

“You said I should get out more, see people,” Nolan said. He
dumped three packets of sugar into the excellent brew.

“Oh, that. Good.”

“I called an old friend and she’s coming up next week.”

“She?” John asked, mildly surprised.

“I do have women friends, you know.”

“And I notice you never introduce me to any of them.”

“Which is why they stay my friends.” Nolan shook his head.
“I might let you meet Lucy. You’d like her. She’s got kind of a wild streak.”

John grunted. “Your idea of a wild streak is a lot different
from mine.”

“Okay. She’s got what
you
would call a wild streak.”

“Sounds interesting.”

Nolan smiled. “First woman I ever slept with.”

Now John’s interest was definitely piqued. “Lucy’s the girl
who made you gay?”

His partner laughed out loud. “You are such a jackass.”

“True.” John smiled himself, down at his coffee. It always
pleased him when he could make Nolan laugh at a sensitive subject. Honestly,
Nolan Crane was the most self-accepting gay man John had ever known, but there
were still times when he could tell the difference hurt. John had made it a
point to highlight
all
their differences, not just their sexuality, and
in a backward way it had made their friendship better. It wasn’t just that
Nolan was gay. It was that he’d settled down for ten years with his
lover—something John could barely begin to imagine. It was that he put way too
much sugar in perfectly good coffee. It was that he could diagnose a computer
problem from twenty yards away, while John could barely manage to turn it on
and surf for porn. It was that Nolan had six speeding tickets and two
fender-benders on his driving record, while John’s was spotless.

As partners, they were very good together.

“We’re going to rent a van,” Nolan continued. “Clean out
that storage locker finally, and then Lucy’s gonna help me buy some new
furniture.”

John’s eyes narrowed. Three days after Nolan threw his
faithless lover out, he’d come home to find more than half of their furniture
gone. John had urged him to call the police and report it stolen, since Kevin
never held a steady job and Nolan had paid for everything in the apartment, but
of course he wouldn’t. For months now the apartment had been half empty.

If he was ready to buy furniture, maybe Crane really was
moving on.

“Let me know if you need help,” he offered. “I’ll be happy
to round up some firemen to move furniture.”

“Knew I could count on you.”

John sipped his coffee, wondered again why his partner felt
the need to sweeten it. Whatever. Nolan was moving forward. It was progress.

* * * * *

A deep voice said, “Hey!” and before Nolan could turn, a
massive hand landed on his shoulder. He turned carefully to face the policeman
who stood behind him. Then he had to look up, because the man was half a foot
taller than him.

“I know you from somewhere, don’t I?” the cop demanded.

“Uh…maybe,” Nolan admitted. The heavy hand was still on his
shoulder. “I’m Nolan Crane. I’m a paramedic.”

The cop grinned broadly. “That’s right,” he said. He lifted
his paw and slapped it down a few times. “You jump-started my partner last
year. Johnny Dietz, remember? Had a heart attack chasing a shoplifter.”

Nolan nodded. “I remember.” He did. They’d worked on the
fallen officer for about twenty minutes before they got any kind of a steady
pulse. He should have been brain dead by then. Carefully, he asked, “How’s he
doing?”

The cop shrugged. “Eh. He’s on a desk now, bitches about it
all the time.”

“He’s lucky he’s alive to be bitching.”

“That’s what I tell him. I tell him, ‘Damn it, Johnny, you
get to go home to your little girls every night, get to tuck them in when you
should be six feet under. You’re the luckiest man on this planet’. But he
doesn’t listen.”

“I’m glad,” Nolan said sincerely. “I’m glad he’s alive and
bitching.”

“Yeah.” The cop finally withdrew his hand. “I thought for
sure I was going to watch him die.” He shrugged, embarrassed. “It was really
somethin’, the way you and that other guy stayed with him.”

Crane nodded. There was no point in telling this man that he
and John had decided with a glance that the man had exactly one more minute of
resuscitation before they gave up on him. One more minute had been all he
needed.

“So what brings you out to the airport?”

“I’m meeting someone,” Nolan answered, happy to change the
subject. “She should be…” Then he saw her, and forgot what he was saying. “Excuse
me,” he muttered, and started across the concourse.

“Sure, sure.”

He moved upstream against the wave of exiting passengers.
Lucy was moving with them, but dragging a suitcase. They met in the middle of
the concourse. Nolan stopped and simply wrapped his arms around her, and Lucy
hugged him right back. Other people made grumbling noises, and some of them
bumped into them, but it didn’t matter. She was there, right there, warm and
loving and just
right
. The way she always had been.

The hug stretched on. It felt so damn good just to hold her,
to feel some human contact after so long. “I don’t know how to let go of you,”
he said quietly.

Lucy giggled. “Then don’t.”

“Okay.”

The police officer, however, had other ideas. The big hand
descended again. “Hey, uh, you’re kind of blocking traffic here.”

Nolan reluctantly stepped back, though he kept one arm over
Lucy’s shoulder. “Sorry, sorry.”

The cop looked the woman beside him up and down. “Not sayin’
I blame you any.”

Lucy smiled brightly. It was a smile that could make men
walk into walls. “We’ll get out of the way,” she promised.

“Okay. Thanks.”

They walked, though not quickly. “How’ve you been?” Lucy
asked.

It was a loaded question. She knew how he’d been. He’d
called her after the breakup, and she’d called him every night after for
several weeks, until he asked her to stop. She knew what he’d been through. And
she’d know now if he lied. “I’m better,” he said honestly. “Not all better, but
lots better.”