Taking In Strays (24 page)

Donny looked over at the clock and was shocked that five hours had passed since he had stretched out on his bed to think. “It took you a long time to talk.”

“It took me awhile to get the story from Stanton and my brother,” Peter said apologetically.

“And to make up your mind?” Donny asked softly.

Peter nodded. “It was a lot to think about.”

They were quiet for a moment and then Donny’s stomach complained about missing breakfast and lunch. Peter smiled, straightened the button on his collar, and then stood up. He held out a hand to Donny. Donny stared at it, mystified.

“I called off for the rest of the day,” Peter told him. “I want that date that I missed this morning. Shall we go out and find something to eat?”

It was such an emotional turn of events that Donny almost said no. Peter’s expression beginning to turn disappointed changed his mind. He took the man’s big hand and stood up. “Sounds good to me,” he said.

“Do you know somewhere close by?” Peter asked as they went down the stairs together.

Burton looked up as they came down and seemed relieved. “I wasn’t sure I should let him go up, but I think you wanted to see him.”

“You were right,” Donny told him. “Thank you.” He saw a wrapped sandwich beside the register. “Was that mine?”

“I’ll take it home for dinner,” Burton told him gruffly. “I had a feeling that if I took it to you it would only go to waste.”

“It would have,” Donny agreed. He looked around at the empty shop and asked, “You don’t mind if I go out with Peter?”

“I think I can handle the store,” Burton chuckled. “Get out of here.”

“Thank you, sir,” Peter told him and sounded as if he were about to get emotional again.

“You’re welcome, young man. Try not to be late for your dates, again, all right?”

Peter could only nod, not trusting himself to speak as Donny steered him out of the shop.

Donny blinked at sunlight and took a moment to get his bearings. The sun was warm and welcoming, the sky was blue, and his life was taking a turn for the better, at least for the moment.

“Nice little community,” Peter commented.

“It is,” Donny agreed and pointed to their right. “There’s a small café that way. They sell French crepes and really good coffee.”

Peter looked amused as he followed Donny down the street. “Crepes? Are they good?”

“With raspberry, vanilla crème, or chicken in white sauce, yes,” Donny replied in anticipation.

“Sounds good,” Peter said.

“Would you rather have something else?” Donny was suddenly nervous and unsure.

“The company is more important than the food,” Peter replied with a gentle smile.

Donny blushed. “Well, I hope you like them, then, and the company.”

“I already like the company,” Peter replied.

People made way for Peter because of his size, Donny noticed, and eyes admired his good looks. The man caught the sunlight in his hair, in his blue eyes, and even on his smiling white teeth. Next to him, Donny felt like a skinny dark cloud skulking in his shadow. They were opposites in everything.

Peter looked down, his hand touching Donny’s back as if to guide him through some difficulty as they entered the café. “You suddenly frowned, what’s wrong?”

“You’re perfect,” Donny replied truthfully.

Peter began to reply but a perky, brunette waitress was suddenly there and asking them how many were in their party. “Two,” Peter replied. He scanned the narrow restaurant with its fancy copper designs on tables and walls, French décor, and upper loft where dinners could find privacy. He pointed up with a smile and asked, “If you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” she replied and took them upstairs to a table that was sparkling with colored light from a stained glass window.

After they had been seated and she went to get their drinks, Peter finally said, “I’m not perfect.”

Donny looked him over critically. “Name something wrong.”

“I have one ear slightly lower than the other one, a birthmark on my right ass cheek, and I have a double crown on my head. That’s why I keep my hair short. It grows weird.”

Donny chuckled. “That’s not really anything wrong.”

“Anything wrong with you, that I should know about?”

It was an attempt at humor but it fell flat. “You’ve seen me naked, already. I didn’t exactly turn you on,” Donny reminded him.

Peter blushed as the waitress put down their coffee. He stared down into his steaming cup until she was gone. Then he replied, “That’s not true!” He seemed lost in the memory, then, a small, shy smile on his lips. “You’re slim, strong, and you have a great…ass,” he finished after an uncertain pause. “It’s perfect; kind of round, but firm.”

“So my best feature is my ass?” Donny wanted to know with a lifted eyebrow as he opened his menu.

Peter opened his menu as well as he protested, “No! Not your best feature, just your sexiest one.”

“You are not making this up?” Donny wondered as he put down his menu, already knowing what he wanted.

Peter rubbed at his square chin and replied after a nervous cough, “I didn’t want you to think that I had brought you there for sex. I really did want to help you. I tried very hard not to let you know how you were affecting me.”

Donny chuckled at the word
hard
and then reached across the table and tapped on the menu. “If you like beef, the beef tips crepes are excellent. They come with piped mashed potatoes with garlic.”

Peter nodded, seeming out of his depth. “All right. Sounds good.”

When the waitress reappeared, Donny ordered the chicken crepes and Peter ordered the beef. Donny asked for raspberry crepes for desert.

When they were alone, again, Donny was almost overwhelmed by the sudden realization that, only twenty minutes before, he had been contemplating suicide. His hands tightened into fists. Peter reached for one and put his own hand over it.

Peter told him, somehow understanding, “I don’t expect you to be all right for me, so don’t pretend to be. If you want to go, we can take the food somewhere else.”

“It’s like being in a good dream and a nightmare at the same time,” Donny explained. “I can hardly believe we’re sitting here, together, after everything that happened.”

“I’m glad I decided to see you,” Peter replied. “I just couldn’t believe the facts I was being handed. Especially when so much was going right for you… for us.”

Donny wanted to be angry at Dan, but, handed those kinds of facts, he couldn’t say that he would have acted any differently.

As if his thoughts had conjured the man, Peter’s cell phone rang. He checked the number and then looked undecided.

“It’s Dan isn’t it?” Donny asked.

Peter nodded and replied firmly, “I’ll talk to him later.”

And Peter would tell Dan that he trusted Donny, without any evidence, and that they were now dating. That wasn’t going to go over well.

Donny turned his hand over and took hold of Peter’s. The warmth and the solid security of that grip was both comforting and re-affirming. “This may be the worst time to start a relationship.”

Peter’s hand tightened and his expression began to look devastated.

“I can’t let you go, though,” Donny told him.

Peter’s relief was palpable. “I’m glad. We can make this work, Don. Let’s eat and then call it a day. We’ll take things slow.”

Donny nodded. “We both need to recover from today, I think.”

“I’ll call you tomorrow to see how you are,” Peter promised. “We’ll make another date, then.” He didn’t suggest breakfast at the book store. Neither of them wanted to relive that disaster.

“My cell phone was destroyed,” Donny remembered. “You’ll have to call the shop.”

Peter handed over his own cell phone. “Take this one until you replace it. I don’t like the thought that you might run into trouble again and not have a way to call for help.”

“Having a cell wasn’t much help the last time,” Donny pointed out.

“You managed to reach the station while you were being kidnapped,” Peter snorted. “I think that’s a success, Don.”

“I don’t think I’m in any danger, but this will make it easier for you to call me,” Donny replied.

“My ulterior motive, of course,” Peter chuckled.

Their food came and they ate in companionable silence. When the meal was over Donny felt reluctant to leave.

“I like crepe’s,” Peter told him as he stood up. “Sharing that raspberry one was hard. I wanted to eat the entire thing.”

“I didn’t know if you wanted desert,” Donny replied in dismay as he stood as well and left a tip. “We could have ordered another one.”

“Sharing dessert with you was sexy,” Peter replied in a voice that was almost a deep purr.

It startled Donny and he realized that he had never considered that Peter might have a sexual side that he was willing to show in public. They weren’t alone, but Peter hadn’t looked around furtively before delivering that line. He was obviously all right with people knowing that he was gay and wasn’t shy about his feelings for Donny.

“I better go home, now,” Donny said.

Peter looked worried, then. “Was I too…”

“No,” Donny assured him. “You weren’t
too
anything. I just don’t trust myself.”

Peter looked confused.

“I want you,” Donny clarified, keeping his voice low. “I want you right now.”

Peter swallowed hard. He caught at Donny’s chin and kissed him deeply, before releasing him just as quickly. “Promise you won’t…”

Peter floundered for words and Donny finished bitterly, “Find someone else to relieve my itch?”

Peter looked shocked and then leaned in, as if he wanted to make his next words as intimate as possible. His warm breath tickled Donny’s ear as he said, “Think about suicide, again,” he finished. “When I leave, don’t think that I don’t want you, that I don’t care about you, and that I won’t be back. If I miss our next date, I’ll be wearing a toe tag.”

Donny didn’t understand the reference for a second and then he did. He touched fingers to Peter’s lips. “I know that’s cop talk, but I don’t want to think about you dying. I promise that I’ll believe in this-in us. I want it to work.”

Peter had a fleeting expression of sadness and then he was straightening as he said, “It’s hard being in a relationship with a police officer. There’s always danger, always waiting and hoping a call doesn’t come telling you I took a bullet. A lot of people can’t deal with that.”

“Some of your exes?” Donny guessed.

“I haven’t had that many relationships,” Peter protested, but then nodded, “One or two.”

“I can’t predict the future,” Donny replied after they split the bill, despite Peter’s protest that he wanted to pay, and left the café. “I don’t know anything about a relationship, about committing and living day to day with someone else.”

“You keep doing what we’re doing now,” Peter replied as he fished in a pocket for his car keys. “Talking. Keeping secrets is like poison. You say what you like and what you don’t like, honestly.”

“I don’t like that blue sweater,” Donny said with a smirk.

Peter looked down at it, “It was a gift from my sister. I’m not attached to it.”

“It looks like you stole it from your sister,” Donny chuckled.

Peter laughed. “Okay, no more light blue sweaters.”

They stood very close while people walked around them. Their eyes were locked. “Call me,” Donny insisted. “Tomorrow.”

“I will,” Peter promised. He leaned and kissed Donny briefly and then took a step back as if he were forcing himself to move away. “Don’t answer any calls except from me on my cell. They’ll go to my voicemail and I’ll pick them up later.”

“You mean don’t talk to Dan?” Donny asked.

“Give him time to calm down,” Peter replied. “I’ll tell him what happened last night and I’ll make him understand that it’s my decision to date you, not his.”

“I don’t think that’s going to go well,” Donny grunted skeptically.

“Probably not, but we can’t avoid him. He’s my brother.”

“I’ll prove to him that I can be trusted,” Donny promised.

“Trusted with me?” Peter wondered.

Donny could only nod, feeling strong emotions rising up again, especially the fear that his words might prove false.

It was time to part, then, and it seemed impossible, their eyes locked together and every fiber of their beings wanting to be together. Peter took a step forward; caressed Donny’s arm gently, and then was turning and walking away to where he had parked his car.

“Handsome,” Anna said at his elbow.

Donny started and looked aside at her. She was dressed in dark crimsons and black ruffles, an umbrella of black ribbons cocked over one shoulder. Her hands, in black lace gloves, were placed delicately on the umbrella handle.

“He’s mine,” Donny warned her.

“That’s apparent,” she replied with a silvery laugh. “I didn’t stop to speak about my prospects with Handsome, there, though. I wanted to know if you were ready to set a date for our little meeting.”

“Burton liked the idea,” Donny replied, as he tried to switch mental gears. He decided, after a moment, that he had been through too much that day to address anything having to do with business. “I’ll have him call you, later.”

She gave him a steady stare and then confided, “My tax bill on my business is due in two months. I’ll admit that I will have trouble meeting my obligation. I’m eager to put into motion any proposal to generate business on this street.”

“Burton still has to make the final decision about the time. It’s his business,” Donny argued, not wanting to deal with it just then.

Anna lost her Victorian manners and calm for a moment as she crossly snapped, “It’s fine for old Burton to wait, because he has a big offer from a coffee chain to take over his shop. We’re not so lucky. We’ll all go bankrupt and these shops will be empty eyesores.”

“I’ll talk to him,” Donny promised.

She calmed herself and drew herself up, pressing one hand to her tight corset. “I know we must all seem foolish to you, eccentric shop owners who care more about staying in business than making large sums of money, but we love our community, Donny. We don’t want to see it ruined because we failed to do everything we can to stay open.”