Sex & Sourdough (35 page)

Kevin followed him around a scraggily clump of bleached tree roots and took his hand. “Is that so bad? If more people came through here, they’d probably destroy it. And this way, we have an entire beach to ourselves.”

“I suppose,” Anders said, pouting. Anders squeezed his hand and they walked, hand in hand, along the beach until they reached Nassau Sound, where the sandy shore gave way to jagged rocks. Then they turned back and retraced their steps, splashing through the surf to avoid climbing over the fallen tree skeletons.

“Are we still going to the store today?” Kevin asked after he finally made it back up the ladder.

“If you want, we can. I’ve got to head by my place to pick up some clean clothes, anyway. Think you can you make it up to the third floor?”

Between their late-night activities and their morning hike, Kevin’s legs were already aching. “Honestly? No. I’m sore.”

“Okay, then. We’ll just stop in and grab stuff.”

“I was going to ask if we could run to a department store too, but I’m not sure I can manage that either. I’ve got a whole two outfits, and I’m pretty sure nothing short of burning them is going to get rid of the hiker smell at this point.”

Anders nodded. “Shopping. But we can take it easy.”

The hike back to the car took longer than it should have. The pain in Kevin’s legs forced him to shorten his stride. Anders took his hand when they got back to the trailhead, and Kevin tried to smile. The pain just mutated his smile into a grimace.

Anders helped him back into the car and leaned down to plant a soft kiss on his lips. “Vicodin, then shopping,” he said.

When they pulled through the gate of Anders’s family home, Kevin saw Frank and Aaron wandering around the guesthouse. Both men stopped when they saw Anders’s Jetta.

“Where the fuck have you been?” Aaron snarled, as soon as they were out of the car.

Kevin glanced at Anders and saw the way he balked for a moment. Kevin slammed the car door and glared at Anders’s brother. Despite the pain, he forced his legs to move, putting himself between Anders and his brother’s anger. “We went for a walk,” Kevin snapped. “My doctor said the more light walking I can manage, the faster I’ll heal.”

Aaron’s glare didn’t falter for a moment. “You know the police still haven’t found his ex, right?”

“Huh?”

“The guy who did that to his face,” Aaron clarified, and then he turned his glare back on Anders. “Next time, leave a note, dipshit.”

“Joel’s not going to fuck with me again, Aaron. I cracked his ribs last time, he’s wanted for assault, and he has no idea I’m back in town.”

Aaron kept glaring at them.

“Seriously.” Anders touched Kevin’s shoulder and stepped around him, putting himself between Kevin and his brother. “I appreciate that you’re worried. I get that you’re feeling protective, and I suspect the story you heard might have been a bit
overdramatized
.” Anders turned his glare on his father. “But you can relax. And don’t you have a ship to get back to? Sailors you’re supposed to supervise and shit like that?”

“We just got back into port. We’ve got two weeks’ liberty, but that’s not the point. This guy broke into your house, lied to our parents, and didn’t hesitate to hurt you in front of witnesses. Until he’s arrested, you need to be more careful.”

“Aaron, you don’t know him. Joel likes to play games, he likes to manipulate people, but he’s not actually dangerous.”

Kevin’s gaze traced the new scars on Anders’s cheek. Only a bit of the medical superglue was still left. The short beard on Anders’s cheeks had made the glue flake off, but small patches of it were still affixed to his skin. Kevin wanted to say something, but what he was hoping to build with Anders was still so new he wasn’t sure it would survive Kevin taking Aaron’s side in this argument.

“Look,” Anders sighed, “we’re going to run to the store, stop by my place so I can pick up some clean clothes, and then we’re going to spend the rest of the day here, okay? We’ll be careful.”

“You’re going into town?” Aaron asked. “You’re going back to your apartment?”

“Yeah,” Anders said, rolling his eyes, “that’s where I usually keep my clothes.”

“Fine.” Aaron grinned. He strolled toward the Jetta and opened the passenger side door. “Let’s go.”

Anders glared at him for a moment, but Aaron just stood there smiling.

“Why not? It could be fun. You guys can show me around Jacksonville while we’re running around,” Kevin suggested diplomatically. “The more I can rest in the car, the better I’ll feel anyway.”

Anders sighed and relented. “Give me a minute.” He jogged into the guesthouse and returned a moment later with a bottle of water. He passed Kevin the water and held out his closed hand. “Painkiller.”

Kevin took the three small pills—one Vicodin and two Motrin—and mouthed a quiet thank-you.

Three hours later, when the relief of the painkiller began to ebb, Kevin was beginning to regret suggesting that Anders and his brother show him around Jacksonville. He was tired and his entire body ached, and it was barely noon.

Running around with both men did have one perk, though. Seeing Anders curled up in the backseat of his Jetta was cute. Anders taking the backseat was his answer to how to fit two very large men in his car. His brother Aaron had agreed to drive, while Kevin stretched out in the passenger’s seat. Anders was the only one of them who had any hope of fitting comfortably in the rear bucket seats.

They dragged him through a shopping center that seemed to stretch on for more than a mile. He bought a few new outfits, and a new pair of tennis shoes, since his were falling apart. He bought a couple things for Anders, too, just because he wanted to see Anders wear them. After basic clothing they dragged him to a surf shop, where they insisted he buy a pair of board shorts, with the assurance that he’d need them. Finally, they drove down Hodges Boulevard to Anders’s apartment so he could fetch some clean clothes of his own. And until that point, Kevin had been happy to believe that the city of Jacksonville was a sixty-mile long stretch of mini malls and old, run-down houses. Down Hodges Boulevard, luxury apartments stretched for as far as the eye could see, all three-story buildings tucked away in gated communities, with ornate landscaping, identical screened patios, and pastel colors. And between the apartment complexes were the golf courses Anders hated so much.

Kevin was beginning to understand why Anders hated apartment complexes and golf courses.

“So your dad builds these?” Kevin asked, staring out the window.

“He only had a hand in three of them. And he’s got two more down by the St. Johns Town Center, the mall we were at earlier.”

“And a full-blown subdivision out in Orange Park,” Aaron added. “And the townhouses in Neptune Beach.”

“The Orange Park development was bought out,” Anders said quietly. “He only made about 2 percent, but….”

“But what?” Kevin asked, glancing between both brothers.

“No one wants to live in Orange Park. He picked up the entire development dirt-cheap, when the other developer went bankrupt. When the housing market collapsed, there were some developers who made a lot of money and some who lost everything. The ones who were investing in private single-family developments lost big. The ones who were investing in rentals” —Anders gestured around at the sea of identical apartments—“had a huge influx in leases because people who lost their homes to foreclosures still needed somewhere to live.”

As they pulled into a pastel yellow apartment complex, Kevin saw the perfectly lined-up rows of trees, behind perfectly lined-up hedges, and perfectly lined-up rows of green grass growing like tiny pom-poms. He could see the landscaping cloth peeking out from underneath the thin layer of red mulch. The pond fountains all over town had seemed interesting, at first, but they really were everywhere. Every ornamental pond, natural pond, and drainage ditch seemed to have a fountain pump in the center, and they all looked alike.

“Stop by the office.” Anders pointed to a single-story building inside the gate. “I’ve got to get my new key.”

Aaron pulled into a parking spot next to two golf carts and climbed out so Anders could get out of the backseat. He disappeared inside an ornate building that looked more like a clubhouse than an office. When he came back out, he tossed the new key to his brother and got back into the car. “Put that on my keychain?” Aaron was already twisting it onto the ring. Then they drove through a maze of identical pale yellow buildings.

“You know, I can see why you hate it,” Kevin said flatly.

“What?” Aaron glanced sideways at him. “How could anyone hate this? It’s engineered to be perfect.”

“I hate it,” Anders piped up from the backseat.

“It’s a lot nicer than our parents’ place,” Aaron insisted. “They have to put so much effort and money into keeping their place looking nice, just so they can have the woods as a backdrop.” Aaron shook his head. “That’s too much effort.”

“I agree, it’s too much effort, but I think they just shouldn’t bother. This just looks cheap compared to Talbot Island, or out in the forests. Jennings State Forest and Cary State Forest are less than an hour away, and I swear I’m the only one who ever goes out there.”

Aaron shook his head. “You’re the one who should have been a damn park ranger. You’re the only one who wants to put up with the bugs. And the damn palmetto bushes that cut your legs if you’re stupid enough to wear shorts. And no one else actually likes those creepy pitcher plants. I’ll take three inches of pavement over the natural Florida any day.”

“Pitcher plants?”

“They’re carnivorous. They’re kind of like Venus flytraps, except they’re shaped like a long pitcher with a lid. Anders actually transplanted some he found out in the woods when he was a kid and tried to keep them on his windowsill. Dad thought me and Cole were sneaking out, because the intrusion alarm on the upstairs window was tripped each night so he could feed the creepy plants.”

“Carnivorous?” Kevin laughed. “That’s awesome! Can you show me some?”

“Yeah. There were some on the hike out to the beach this morning, but I didn’t even think about them.”

Aaron sighed, turned into a tight parking spot, and killed the engine. “Come on, Anders, let’s get your shit.”

Anders squeezed Kevin’s shoulder. “You sure you don’t want to try coming up?”

“I hurt,” Kevin admitted. “I’ll just hang out.”

Anders gave his shoulder another squeeze and climbed out through the driver’s side door. Kevin watched him pop his back and stretch, imagining the way the lines of tight muscles he knew so well were moving beneath Anders’s T-shirt. He knew something was wrong when he saw the muscles he was fixated on tense and freeze. Anders’s entire posture changed in an instant.

Kevin threw open the car door and climbed out, pulling himself up with his arms so he could move fast. He followed Anders’s gaze, staring at the row of parked cars and hedges across the parking lot. He instinctively shoved Anders back toward the car a little, trying to shield Anders with his own body before he realized there was nothing there. “What is it?”

“Nothing,” Anders said. “I just thought I saw Joel.”

“Where?” Kevin asked.

“I think I’m just tired.” Anders gently shoved Kevin’s arm, which had come up to shield Anders automatically, away. “Sourdough, I don’t think you’re in any shape to be playing superhero, and I’m pretty sure that was just a stray cat.”

“What’s going on?” Aaron’s eyes narrowed.

“His ex,” Kevin said, nervously scanning the hedges.

“The one who’s ‘not going to fuck with you again,’ hmm?”

Kevin brought his arm around Anders again, and he was relieved when this time Anders didn’t push him away.

“I don’t know. It was just a flash. The last couple times he broke in, he just left gifts on my counter. That was before the fight, though.” Anders slipped out of Kevin’s grasp and strolled toward the concrete stairs where Aaron stood, scanning the bushes. Kevin shut the passenger door and followed him.

Anders paused on the third step and glanced down at him. “Thought you were sore?”

Aaron smirked down at them from the first landing. “Help your boyfriend up the stairs. I’ll start grabbing your clothes.”

“But you don’t… you do have my keys,” Anders said, almost to himself.

“Big brothers get to be overprotective,” Kevin reminded him.

“Big brothers get to be protective of little sisters. I’m not a fucking girl.”

“Let Aaron go ahead. I don’t want to let you out of my sight with that asshole anywhere nearby. He might not scare you, but he freaks me out. And I could really use some help.”

Anders sighed again, but he trotted down, set his shoulder under Kevin’s arm, and helped him climb the stairs. As they started up the second flight, Kevin was in a lot of pain. He was trying not to actually start panting, but by the time they staggered up to the top landing, he felt like he’d just climbed a mountain. Sharp stabbing pain radiated from his groin down his legs.

“Still think that was a good idea?” Anders whispered.

“I have more Vicodin,” Kevin gasped. He collapsed against the wall by the top of the stairs and tried to catch his breath. “I’ll be fine.”

Anders shook his head and grinned. “No more strenuous activity for you until tomorrow, at least.”

Kevin wasn’t sure just what to make of that smile. “Fine.” He smiled despite the pain. “Does that mean you’re doing all the work tonight?”

“I’m afraid so,” Anders said, pinching Kevin’s butt hard.

Anders wandered toward an open apartment door while Kevin caught his breath. “Holy shit,” he heard Anders gasp. “He actually broke the door open. The frame around the dead bolt is cracked and all over the place.”

“Don’t touch it!” Aaron shouted, in a growl that would have made a drill sergeant proud. “Do not touch anything!” Aaron stood in the doorway, blocking the rest of the apartment. His face was a mask of focus and rage. Despite the resolute look on the man’s face, Kevin saw his entire body was trembling. “The police are on their way. They’ll need to collect evidence….”

“It’s my apartment,” Anders insisted. “What does it matter if my prints are on the door?”