Life in Fusion (29 page)

details.”

I laughed, not having realized I’d done that. “I need to be

beloved, damn it. That takes work and sacrifice!”

“It would really be more of a job opportunity than it would

a favor,” Lynn said.

“Hopefully one that comes with a company car,” Wade said

under his breath.

Lynn was obviously confused by that seemingly random

comment from Wade until I sneered at him, pointing my two

crooked fingers his direction. She suddenly smiled, realizing

she’d stumbled over one of those random points of contention

most couples have in their arsenal, ready to whip out and wield

whenever the opportunity arises.

She cleared her throat and continued. “I can’t remember from

whom exactly, but I heard you worked in medical records with

one of the hospitals in Albuquerque?”

“Yeah, still do in fact.” I said, as if reminding Wade I hadn’t

moved in just yet. “Why do you ask?”

“I was hoping to approach the Mayor about dragging the

SC into the twenty-first century, taking Dr. Jacob’s and the

pharmacy’s records, and making a move toward becoming digital.

We’re so into the environment and reducing waste, I think we’d

have a shot at selling it as a way to go paperless. It would also be

nice to link up to the hospital in Denver.”

“We medi-vac our residents there for emergencies,” Wade

said. “This is a good idea.”

“And a lot of our graduating seniors wind up going to one of

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211

the universities there.” Lynn took a seat next to me, placing her

hand over my arm. “You moving here seemed like the right time,

unless you had other plans for work.”

“I do need a job of some kind.”
Christ will I never escape medical

records?
“I can’t just live off Mr. Money Bags.”

“You can actually,” Wade reminded me, though I could see

he was excited by this idea. “I did offer to support you while you

write.”

I cringed, not being able to reconcile myself into becoming a

house husband. “I’m interested.”

“Boo!” Jackie said, poo-pooing the idea. “Who’s going to play

with me all day? I was hoping you could help me with the kids.”

I felt my eyes bugging out. “And sounding better by the

minute.”

Lynn and Wade started to laugh as Lynn got up and said,

“We can talk details another time. For now, I wanted to see if

you’d even be interested. But being in charge of the whole thing,

you could certainly work at your own pace. Set your own hours.

Should make it somewhat more desirable for two newlyweds

such as yourselves.”

Another woman came up, putting her arm around Lynn.

“Boone this is my partner, Jessica Sullivan.”

“Jess,” she said, smiling. “Very nice to meet you. We’ve heard

a lot about you.”

I stood up, taking her hand. “That’s right, I totally forgot.

Wade mentioned the two of you to me.”

“There are an impressive total of five whole gay people in

Summit City now that you’re joining us.” Lynn said.

“We could have a parade,” Jackie said, sarcastically, cracking

herself up.

“Five
out
gay folk,” Jess reminded.

“Intrigue,” I said grinning. “We’ll have to get together so you

can tell me who the closet queers are.”

212 Ethan Day

“I wanna play that game!” Jackie protested, obviously not

enjoying the feeling of being on the outside of anything.

“Sorry,” Wade said with a shrug. “That’s official Homo-Intel.

And you have loose lips, lady.”

“You may wanna reconsider telling me then,” I said, grinning

as Wade shook his head at me, disappointed.

Jackie leaned in and whispered into my ear that I needed to

shut up so I could find out who they suspected and tell her later.

“You have no idea how nervous the sight of you two

whispering makes me.” Wade placed a hand over his stomach

like he was nauseous. “Like an ill wind blowing through town.”

“We’ll catch up with you all later,” Lynn said, then pointed

to me. “I’ll get with you before you head back to New Mexico.

You’re here for the week, right?”

I nodded, getting first hand insight into what Jackie had

described—considering someone I hardly knew was clued in to

my personal itinerary.

“Well that’s good news, right?” Wade asked, examining my

face for what I assumed was any clue to what I was thinking.

“It is, I guess.”

“You don’t look too happy to me,” Jackie muttered.

“To be honest, I wasn’t exactly thrilled hearing the words

medical records.” I sighed, letting the idea sort of settle over

me. “I need a job, though, and I like being useful. That wouldn’t

exactly suck as the new kid on the block.”

“You’re such a sweet guy.” Wade grinned, lovingly, like he was

proud of me.

I didn’t exactly hate being looked at that way, as if I was his

hero.

“Plus you can tell me who’s had crotch critters and boob

jobs.” Jackie’s eyes glassed over, like she was happier than she

ever knew possible.

“Sorry, sister,” I said, bursting her bubble. “That would be

Life in fusion
213

illegal.”

“My man, the sexy new records sheriff.”

I laughed at the corny cheese-fest that was my boyfriend.

“Sheriff indeed,” Jackie scoffed, rolling her eyes. “He’s

probably hoping you’ll get handcuffs.”

Wade’s face pinked up, embarrassed by his sister.

“Like I wouldn’t already own a few pairs?” I asked, pointing

out how ludicrous that would be.

Wade’s faced reddened a shade or two darker, but his

eyebrows arched, revealing a playfulness, and betraying the fact

he was intensely interested in this new discovery.

“Okay, I’m out of here,” Jackie said. “Before I wind up

hearing something that scars me for life.”

I felt Wade’s hand on my hip.

“You’re still not off the hook for earlier, buddy.”

“Does that mean you’re gonna punish me?” Wade asked.

I almost came in my shorts as he stared at me. I knew he was

mentally molesting me and I was suddenly ready to forgive and

forget. I cursed my slutty libido for not being more willful and

defiant as I lost myself in the crystal clear, deep blue of his eyes.

I was already struggling to recall exactly what I’d been pissed off

about to begin with.

I didn’t mind the drug-like addiction I felt in Wade’s presence,

I rather enjoyed it. But I did fear waking up one day in the near

future to find that Wade had taken me over completely. That I’d

allowed little pieces of me to be slowly whittled away until all that

remained were the parts of me that Wade liked the best.

Feeling his warm hand on my cool cheek, I closed my eyes

for just a moment. The thing that frightened me even more was

the fact that like any other junkie, I couldn’t seem to stop, even

though I knew he was killing me—or at the very least a version

of me. When I opened my eyes again he was still there. Like the

mountains that surrounded me on all sides, Wade seemed eternal.

I fell back onto the bed, desperately out of breath and

soaking wet. I glanced down, admiring the stream of cum strung

all the way up my torso. Wade collapsed onto the bed next to

me, also gasping for air. My ass was sore. Between the rough ride

he’d given me before the party and the one I’d just taken on his

monster cock, I was fairly certain we wouldn’t be doing that again

for another day or two.

“I think,” Wade got out between gasps of air.

“You can think?” I was wheezing and my voice cracked. My

head was still buzzing from the orgasm and lack of oxygen.

Wade laughed and rolled onto his side, inspecting my body,

which lay lifelessly stretched out before him. “You look amazing.”

I turned my head toward him and smiled. “I do enjoy having

that freshly fucked glow.”

He reached over and ran his hand over my chest, smearing

my cum around. “You get me so hard. I get dizzy just looking at

you sometimes.”

“Well sure, it takes half your blood supply to operate that bad

boy,” I nudged my head toward his cock.

Wade let out a loud belly laugh, rolling onto his back. His

hand remained on my chest, lightly stroking my skin. We lay there

like that for several minutes, our breathing settling into a rhythm

with one another.

“Are we going to talk about it or pretend like it didn’t happen?”

I sighed, staring up into the rafters. “Considering my first

instinct leans toward ignoring it, we should probably talk about

it.”

“I love that about you, you know.” Wade said, toying with my

nipple. “That you know yourself
so
well in certain ways.”

I could feel my forehead scrunching up. “Only in certain

216 Ethan Day

ways?”

“That wasn’t a criticism, babe.” Wade cleared his throat. “I

think you’re amazing, have an amazing clarity about yourself

most of the time. It’s a huge turn-on.”

“But?” I asked, trying to keep my cool.

“I just think when stuff like what happened with Robbie

comes along…you kind of overreact. You have nothing to be

insecure about.”

“Wow,” I said, sitting up. “I can’t believe you’re turning this

into
my
problem…an issue I have.”

“You think it’s mine?” Wade asked, as if he hadn’t even

considered the possibility.

“I think it’s ours,” I said. “Not mine, not yours…ours. And

I never said it was even a problem, Wade. It’s not an issue that

needs fixed, so much as corrected.”

I felt myself getting angry, so I stopped and took a deep,

calming breath. I shook my hands and groaned my disapproval.

“Call me crazy, but considering we’re supposedly months away

from moving in with one another, I don’t think either of us

should ever be blindsided the way I was earlier tonight.”

“Great,” Wade said, sitting up as well. “Now we’re back to

supposedly
moving in with one another?”

“That’s not what I meant.” I rolled my eyes. “And stop trying

to change the damn subject. You have to admit there’s still a

whole helluva lot of shit we don’t know about one another.”

I had Jackie’s words running through my head from earlier,

about pasts not mattering if you truly loved someone. I knew she

was right, but I was pissed, and it was something I was able to

now wield as a weapon.

“Ask me anything,” Wade demanded. “I’ll tell you anything

you want to know.”

That pissed me off further. I hated it when people said that,

like they were an open book as long as you asked the goddamn

questions. I shook my head at him and shot up off the bed,

Life in fusion
217

storming into the bathroom. He was right on my heels as I took

a wash cloth out of the linen closet and went to the sink.

“How the fuck did this turn into a fight?” he asked, as if

dumbfounded.

Because I’m a crazy person…duh!

I soaked the cloth with warm water and went about cleaning

myself off. “I don’t want to fight with you, Wade. But it would

be nice if the first conclusion you leapt to whenever anything

negative popped up wasn’t…Boone’s fault!”

Wade took a deep breath, nodding. “You’re right—it wasn’t

fair for me to just automatically dump that all on you without

even bothering to consider some of the blame might lay with

me.”

“Thanks,” I said, turning off the faucet.

“I feel you pulling away from me sometimes, and it scares me.

You’ve been skeptical that this was going to work from the damn

beginning.”

“I am so sick of hearing that.” I patted myself on the chest.

“Me having concerns about us isn’t skepticism, Wade. That’s just

being logical—the way any rational person would react when a

guy he barely knows—despite being super duper awesome—asks

him to move in together after a
week
! I refuse to allow you to

color me the crazy one over that anymore. I hate to burst your

bubble, but most people would consider you to be the insane one

out of the two of us.”

“But you seem to forget that this is love, babe.” Wade closed

his eyes and took a breath. “Since when has love ever been

logical? I wasn’t walking around, looking for the next hot guy to

pass by so I could club him over the head and drag him back to

my cave.”

I nodded, letting him know I could see that he too had a

point.

“I wish you could see how awesome you are, Boone.” Wade

ran a hand through his hair before allowing it to settle on his

218 Ethan Day

waist.

“Hey pal,” I said, folding my arms, “I think I’m plenty

awesome.”

“Sure, as a friend, a conversationalist, hell even as a lover.”

Wade looked at me, positively stricken, as if he were desperate

for me to see myself through his eyes. “But for some reason you