he smiled at Cody and said, “What are they?”
Cody shrugged his shoulders. “Just diet pills.”
Harriet was reading the contract. She looked up and raised one eyebrow. From
what she could see, it looked as if high-strung Cody had already taken too many of those
pills that morning.
“But you’re not fat,” Rush said. “Why on Earth would you need diet pills?”
Lance handed Cody a glass of water. Cody popped two pills into his mouth,
swallowed them, and said, “I have to be extra thin for the photo shoot I’m doing next
week. The photos of me have to be absolutely perfect. I want everything I do from now
on to be perfect.” He smiled and shook the bottle of pills in front of his face. “And these
babies give me all the energy I need for the strenuous rehearsals I’ve been doing.”
Harriet watched Rush give Lance a look. Rush was about to say something to
Cody, but then Esther, the office manager, crossed into the office to where Rush was
sitting. She leaned forward and said, “There’s a call for you, Rush. It’s your aunt in Connecticut.” There was a weird smile on Esther’s face and her palms were pressed
together as if she were praying.
Rush smiled and said, “Tell her I’ll call her back as soon as this meeting is over.
It’s won’t take long. We’re only signing contracts.”
Harriet knew Esther wasn’t a calm, quiet woman. She’d always thought Esther
was a bitch. She was loud and pushy and obnoxious. As far as Harriet was concerned, she
was one of those employees who had too much freedom and too much to say. But this
time Esther leaned forward and frowned. And in a soft, gentle voice, she said, “I think
you’d better take this one, Rush. It sounds urgent.”
Rush tilted his head and stared at Esther for a moment, then stood up from the
chair and followed her out to the reception area.
Harriet lit a cigarette, watching Lance Sharp run to the rescue. These gay men
were always so dramatic. The slightest disruption twisted their dicks and sent them in to a
tailspin. Harriet simply would have excused herself from the office and dealt with the
matter quietly. But Lance furrowed his eyebrows and crossed to the doorway, rubbing his
jaw and squeezing his chin. Bart’s office was large. Even with the door open, no one
could hear what was being said in the reception area. But when Rush shouted, “No,”
Lance dropped the contracts on the floor and jogged into the reception area to see what
had happened.
Harriet shrugged her shoulders and took another drag from her cigarette. Harriet
had a flight to catch and she wasn’t there to waste time on Rush Goodwin’s personal
problems. She lifted a contract, pointed to Bart Hasslet with a cigarette, and cleared her throat. She said, “I don’t know about this one clause, Bart. I think I’d like to have it
removed from the contract. I’m not sure if it’s in Joey’s best interest.”
Chapter Seven
By the time the paramedics had arrived, Rush’s mother had already been gone for
fifteen minutes. Rush’s mother and his aunt had been sitting in the breakfast room,
reading the morning paper like they normally did, when his mother clutched her chest
and fell forward on the kitchen table. His aunt had called 911 immediately, but the
doctors said she’d suffered such a massive heart attack, nothing could have saved her.
Rush dropped everything and went to New England. He took a taxi from the train
station, because his aunt didn’t drive. Bart Hasslet gave him two weeks off to take care of
his mother’s funeral and settle things with his aunt.
Two days after his mother died there was a small funeral with graveside services.
Rush and his aunt were the only family members. He came from a small family. Except
for a distant cousin in Florida who could not attend the funeral, Rush and his aunt were
the only ones left. The women from his mother’s knitting circle and a few neighbors
attended the funeral. Harold, Rush’s old boyfriend, was there, too. He showed up in a
navy blue suit and stood next to Rush during the entire service.
When it was over, Harold walked him back to the limousine and said, “If you
need anything, let me know.” Then he reached for Rush’s hand, squeezed it, and added,
“I mean that.”
Rush smiled and shook his hand. Though he was still in shock, it was nice to
know Harold didn’t hold any hard feelings against him for moving to New York. “I’m
glad you came today, Harold. Thank you.” He’d told everyone he knew in New York not
to come to the funeral, especially Lance Sharp. Rush wanted to go through this alone. For some reason he didn’t fully understand, he wanted to keep his New York life and his
New England life separated.
Harold smiled and let go of his hand. As he stepped back, he said, “I’m around if
you need anything.”
Rush nodded and said, “Thank you.”
The day after the funeral, Rush’s aunt announced that she was going to visit her
cousin in Florida that weekend,and she would stay down there indefinitely. She spoke
with a stiff upper lip, but there were tears streaming down her face. “I’m not ready to be
alone in this big old house,” she said. “I am coming back. But I want to get away for the
time being. This was just too much of a shock for me. I’m the older one. I should have
gone first.”
Rush hugged her as hard as he could, wiping a few tears from his eyes. In only a
week’s time, she seemed to have aged years. “Why don’t you come to New York and
stay with me for a while?”
She shook her head back and forth. “New York isn’t for me,” she said. “I’d be
more comfortable in Florida with my cousin. But thank you for asking. You’re a good
boy.”
She was gone by that weekend. Rush booked a flight and drove her to the airport.
On Saturday morning, while Rush was still in bed, his cell phone rang. When he
picked it up off the nightstand, he saw it was only seven in the morning. He rubbed his
eyes and said, “Hello?” The drapes were drawn and his room was still dark. He wouldn’t
have been able to read the caller ID. “Are you awake yet?” Lance Sharp shouted. “Because I’m at the train station and
I need someone to pick me up.”
Rush bolted forward. “You’re
where
?”
“I’m here, in Connecticut,” he said. “Are you coming to get me or should I call a
taxi?”
Rush smiled and sighed. Hearing Lance’s voice, after a week of absolute hell,
made every muscle in his body relax. “I’ll be right there,” Rush said. “I have to get
dressed first.”
When he hung up, he jumped out of bed and grabbed a pair of jeans and a white
turtleneck. Though his reddish brown hair was short, it was sticking up on top and
pressed down on the sides, so he covered his head with a knitted cap. Then he washed his
face with cold water and brushed his teeth.
Fifteen minutes later, he pulled up to the platform in his mother’s old Jeep
Wagoneer. It was olive green with a white top and wooden side panels. The car was more
than twenty-five years old and it still ran like it had just been driven off the showroom
floor. Rush’s mother had only owned a few cars in her lifetime. She’d come from old
New England stock, where they believed in holding on to their money and driving their
cars until they couldn’t be driven anymore. The car before the Jeep had been a Chrysler
station wagon from the 1950s.
Lance was standing near the steps, wearing a black leather jacket, dark sunglasses,
and a pair of expensive jeans. His thick gold watch sparkled and his shoes shone. Even
though Rush knew this was Lance’s idea of a weekend outfit, it looked as if Lance taken
a wrong turn in New York and wound up in the middle of nowhere. Rush honked the horn a couple of times. When Lance saw him, he picked up a
black leather bag and jogged down the steps. He passed by two teenage girls and smiled.
They stared at him for a moment with wide, adoring eyes, smiled back, then ran down the
platform giggling and poking each other in the ribs.
Lance opened the back door and threw his bag on the seat. Then he went up front
and sat in the passenger seat. Before the car door was even shut, he leaned over and
kissed Rush on the lips. It wasn’t just a peck either. He put his arms all the way around
Rush and kissed him and inserted his tongue. It wasn’t a long kiss. “You look hot like
that,” he said. “I like the knitted cap look. It makes you look dangerous.”
Though the train station was empty because it was Saturday morning, there were
still a few people around. Rush looked back and forth; his hands were still locked behind
Lance’s neck. There were three rough-looking teenage boys with skateboards staring into
the Jeep, watching Lance and Rush make out in broad daylight. Their eyes were wide and
their mouths were hanging open. Rush pushed Lance back and said, “We’re not in New
York anymore. We can’t do things like this in public.” Then he lowered his voice on
purpose, punched his chest a few times, and said, “We have to act like real men.”
Lance lowered his eyebrows and gave Rush a look. “What did I do? It was a kiss.
I didn’t put my hands down your pants.” He turned to the right and saw the teenage boys
staring at the car. When he smiled at them and waved, they grabbed their skateboards and
ran to the other side of the train station. “I only kissed you,” Lance said. “What’s wrong
with these people? If you were a woman and I kissed you like that in public, no one
would give it a second thought.” Rush smiled. Lance had always lived in New York. When he traveled, he went to
places like Paris, London, and Hollywood. He knew as much about small-town life in
America as Rush knew about auto mechanics. “But I’m not a woman, and this is what it’s
like in small towns. Men don’t kiss other men like that in public,” he said. “They don’t
even kiss each other on the cheek. Usually, they just shake hands and call each other
‘buddy.’”
Lance shook his head. “How on Earth do other gay men live in places like this?”
Rush put the car in gear and backed out of the parking space. “It’s not all bad,” he
said. “It’s like everything else in life—you focus on the good, and learn to live with the
bad.”
After that, Rush drove back to the family home and parked up front so they
wouldn’t have to walk all the way around from the garage. When Lance saw where Rush
had grown up, his jaw dropped and he said, “This place is looks like it’s part of the
English countryside. The property is wonderful. The house is classic and there’s so much
space. It must have been a wonderful place to grow up.”
Rush smiled and shrugged his shoulders, then reached into the back seat for
Lance’s suitcase. “It’s home,” he said. “The house has been in my family for generations.
It’s part of me. No matter where I go or what I do, this will probably always be home.”
Lance stared at the front door and rubbed his jaw. “I can see why.”
On the way inside, Rush started to tell Lance the history of the house, and how it
had been part of the Underground Railroad. But by time they reached the second-floor
hall and Rush pointed to his bedroom door, Lance’s arms were around Rush’s waist and
his jaw was buried in Rush’s neck. Lance placed one hand on the small of Rush’s back and the other behind Rush’s head. While he sank his teeth into Rush’s neck, he whispered,
“You look so hot in this hat. I wanted to do this to you in the car at the train station.”
Rush arched his back and sucked in his waist so Lance could put his hand down
his pants. “But we weren’t alone. You would have shocked those poor guys.”
Lance bit his neck hard. “But we’re all alone now.”
Rush closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around Lance’s shoulders. His heart
started to race and he couldn’t catch his breath. Ever since the first time they’d been
together in the elevator, the sex between them had been passionate and abrupt, as if
they’d never see each other again and it was their last fuck. They always ravaged each
other, fighting for air, until Lance had Rush pinned to his back and his legs were up over
Lance’s shoulders.
It wasn’t any different this time. Without removing his hands from Rush’s body,
Lance pulled him into the bedroom and threw him down on his childhood bed. Lance bit
his bottom lip and pulled off Rush’s shoes and socks; he yanked Rush’s pants and
underwear off at the same time and threw them across the room. When Rush sat up and
tried to remove his coat and sweater, Lance pushed his arms back and pulled off the coat
