The Teacher and the Soldier (8 page)

Counselling had helped him. Doctor Liam Wolf had been the single most important focus to Daniel for a long time and in a mostly non sexual way. Daniel recalled that he ’hadn’t even talked in the first two. He’d simply listened to Liam rambling on about the hospital and his expansion ideas and the stories about the paramedic who he had an eye on. Two sessions where Daniel had left feeling unsettled that he had to talk to someone who had no idea of what it was like to lose half your team, or to have friends die next to you.

On the third session the entire sum of these thoughts tumbled out with no order as soon as he’d sat down. Liam listened and nodded. He hadn’t seen what Daniel had seen, but hey, he’d thought why not tell him anyway. The direction had worked. Talking was good. Daniel had been one of the lucky ones—apart from the injuries that had got him discharged he was alive and he had a purpose in life.

Luke sighed and turned his back to the building.

“Maybe another time,” he said. “Can I get a lift back to town?”

He looked tired and Daniel fought the instinct to give comfort with a hug. He wasn’t convinced that Luke could handle any more emotion.

“Sure. Get in.”

Chapter Five

Luke spent another day in his hotel room and after four hours of watching daytime TV he was losing his mind. He couldn’t sit in the damn room for the whole time up to getting the paperwork signed. He’d go mad. He did the best thing he could at that moment. Called Zach.

“Hey, Luke,” Zach answered on the fourth ring. He sounded odd.

“Are you okay?” Luke asked.

“I should be asking you that,” Zach replied on a laugh. Luke frowned when he heard laughter in the background and someone calling Zach’s name.
That explains Zach sounding out of breath
.

“I’ll call you later, sorry,” he said.

“Don’t go, Luke, I’m here to talk.”

“Is that Simon with you?” Luke heard the chuckle from Zach and that answered his question. “Then go get him. Honestly don’t fuck that up just to listen to me whine. Go back to him. And have fun. I’ll call you later.”

“Luke—”

“I have a date anyway,” Luke lied.

“You do? Who with. In the same town you hate? What is he like?” Zach sounded so interested and Luke hated the lie, but seriously he needed to wean himself off of Zach’s support and conversely wean Zach off of worrying about him.

“Six foot, green eyes, dark hair, tattoos, fit.” Luke realised he was describing Daniel Skylar to the very inch. He only needed to add ex-soldier to the mix and that would be the man who had grabbed hold of him and not let him go. He could fool himself into thinking Daniel was just a convenient body type, but something in the man’s eyes spoke of someone who could see inside Luke’s soul. That scared him so much.

“Then why are you phoning me? Go get your man.”

They said their goodbyes and after Luke had hung up he knew that unless he wanted to sit in this damn room for the next however long it was, then he needed to pull himself together and get himself outside. Coffee was a good start. Maybe he could go up to the cabins. Visit with Brenda. Daniel may even be up there.

He left his room, locked it behind him and made it downstairs and out into the fresh air before his head told him he wasn’t up to handling this.

“Luke!” The voice made Luke turn and behind him coming down the path was the short guy he’d spoken to the other day, Kieran. He caught up and immediately launched into talking.

“I wanted to say sorry for the other day, it was stupid of me not to realise that you hadn’t been up there already.”

“Honestly, it’s cool. I needed to get myself up there at some point.” Luke was surprised to realise he wasn’t just trying to make Kieran feel better. He actually meant it. Seeing the cabins had brought back memories good and bad, but at the end of the day it was another thing that he had confronted and he’d made it out in one piece.

“Want to get a coffee?” Kieran asked with a smile.

“I was just heading over there.” Having Kieran there would maybe stop anyone from talking to him and asking him questions.

“I’m meeting Daniel and Finn, and the doc is coming over later. He’s a nice guy, you’ll like him.”

Dread flooded Luke, followed swiftly by that flash of lust for the impossibly gorgeous soldier. “Oh, I don’t have to join you, I’m happy to get takeout.”

By this time they were already at the door and Kieran cast him a quick smile before opening and holding it open. Daniel channelled Zach and pasted his happy smiley face on then walked the few steps to his doom.

They’d taken over the back corner table and when Daniel looked up and his gaze connected with Luke’s he didn’t look happy. If anything the scowl probably indicated he was pissed off. He closed the notebook in front of him and leant back in his chair. Crossing his arms over his broad chest, he narrowed his eyes and just stared. There was a third man that Luke assumed was the doc. The man stood and extended his hand.

“Liam Wolfe,” he said.

“Luke Fitzgerald.” The doc had a strong grip and he appeared to be assessing Luke. Unsettled, Luke released the grip and slid into the booth opposite Finn who was out of uniform and in a bright yellow T-shirt.

“Hey,” Finn said in greeting.

Daniel nodded. “Hi.”

He waited for the cop to start asking awkward questions, but it seemed all Finn was interested in was what coffee he was going to be ordering and debating loudly between a muffin and toast with eggs.

“What can I get you boys?” Monique interrupted. They ordered coffees and Finn settled on the muffin.

“We’re meeting up to talk about a project that Danny is working on. Tell him, Danny.” Evidently Kieran had appointed himself king of breaking awkward silences.

“Stop calling me, Danny,” Daniel said with no heat. “Luke doesn’t want to hear about it, he’s leaving town soon.”

“I’d like to know,” Luke said. He latched onto the idea of hearing all about a project as a way of having attention deflected from him and directed onto someone else. Daniel looked at him pointedly and Luke pasted his best and most innocent smile on his face.

“I’m working with Liam to create a centre for veterans returning from Afghanistan, or any theatre of war, to help them with a place to stay to get their heads straight. Help them with medical support, someone to talk to about PTSD that kind of thing.” Daniel shrugged to punctuate what he was saying. Like he hadn’t just announced he was absolutely focused on what he wanted to do with his life.

“Really?” Luke said. “That’s a fantastic idea.” He turned to look at Liam. “Is PTSD an area you want to work in?”

“It was actually Daniel’s idea,” Liam said. The coffees arrived and the interruption gave Luke a few moments to consider what Liam had said. Did Daniel have personal experience with PTSD? He imagined the young soldier probably did after what he’d read about Daniel being discharged. No wonder he knew how to stop the spiral of what happened to Luke by the river. That explained why he hadn’t hit back. Luke glanced at Daniel but immediately looked away when he realised Daniel was staring right at him, but he could see him still looking out of the corner of his eye. The scrutiny was only broken when Liam and Finn began to discuss the project and the size of the property they needed.

Luke had been out of the game a long time. Well, to be fair he’d never actually been much in the game. One foot in and one foot out, he had met Zach and slid into a relationship. Not much playing at all. Except, Liam evidently had an accurately working gaydar if his comments were much to go by.

You have very sexy eyes, Luke.

Do you work out, Luke?

Do you have a boyfriend, Luke?

“So, Luke, I know why you’re in town,” Liam started on a different tact. “How about we meet up for dinner or something.” That was direct. Luke could feel the burn of Daniel’s stare at that point and he flustered over the words.

“That would be nice,” he said.

“You’re only here a week,” Daniel interrupted.

“I have to eat,” he replied just as quickly. So sue him, it would be nice. Uncomplicated short-term sex was something he could see happening with Liam as opposed to the intense heavy emotion filled sex he imagined with Daniel. And there laid the problem. Liam was simple, Daniel was complicated.

“How about this evening? We could drive out somewhere?”

“Sounds good,” Luke found himself answering. Finn and Liam left and Kieran not long after. Finally it was Daniel, Luke and a hovering Monique who were left. Daniel scooped up papers and pushed them back in the folder then stood abruptly.

“I need to get up to the cabins. Nice to meet you again, Luke.”

Luke followed him out of the door. “Wait.”

Daniel turned to face him and words failed Luke in an instant. Daniel looked half pissed off and his mouth was set into a thin line. Luke missed the ready smile and the understanding look that had seemed permanently resident in Daniel’s eyes. For a moment he wondered if chatting to Liam and arranging a meet up was what had caused the irritation in Daniel. Then he dismissed that as pure fantasy.

“What you’re doing, the project, that’s a really good idea.”

“Thank you,” Daniel said. He made to leave.
Great
. That conversation was going nowhere.

“I’m sorry,” Luke said a little desperately.

“What for?”

“For making plans to meet up with Liam.”

Daniel frowned. He stepped closer to Luke and looked down at him. There was intensity in his green gaze. Gone was the understanding guy and here was the soldier that Luke had known was in there. He swallowed at the challenge in Daniel’s eyes. “I don’t care if you meet up with him. Just don’t hurt him by getting too involved then leaving. He’s a good man.”

“It’s dinner,” Luke protested.

“You don’t believe that any more than I do. It’s sex plain and simple.”

“Okay, so what if it is? Maybe it’s just what I need, have you thought about that?”

With his free hand Daniel twisted his fingers into Luke’s shirt and tugged him closer until there were inches between them and all Luke needed to do to kiss this infuriating man was to close that short distance.

“If you need that then you don’t use Liam to get me worked up so I do something stupid.” Daniel ground out the words.

“Wait, what?”

Daniel released his hold then stalked away. Luke didn’t have the presence of mind to do anything except watch Daniel leave and will away the lust that swam through his system. Jeez. He was standing on Main, in full view of everyone, with a hard-on and more likely than not a slack-jawed expression of need.

“I didn’t recognise you straight away.” The voice belonged to Monique. Luke forced back his instinctive need to run. “Sorry about your dad.” Groaning inwardly he turned to face her with his best patented smile.

“Thank you,” he said. “I can’t stop.” He walked away directly to the retreating Daniel just as he got in his truck. Knocking on the window he waited until Daniel rolled it down.

“What? I’ve said my piece.”

“Give me a ride up to the cabins?” Luke glanced back at Monique who was watching the exchange from outside the diner. “Please?” he added. Daniel followed his gaze then with a curt nod indicated Luke could climb in. Luke scrambled round and sketched a wave at Monique. Door shut, he exhaled noisily.

“Don’t want to talk to Monique?” Daniel asked and started the engine.

“Don’t want to talk at all,” Luke replied honestly. “Not about dad, or what happened, or any of it.”

Daniel considered him thoughtfully for a short while then put the truck in gear to leave the town in the mirror. He didn’t call Luke on his avoidance tactic, but he also didn’t say much of anything until they were nearly at the cabins.

“I know you’re a teacher,” Daniel said. “Back in Richmond right?”

And there went the can of worms with the lid well and truly prised off. Best stick to answering the question in a very general way and not go into specifics. “I teach mainly Senior English and some art history.”

“Is it a big school you teach at?”

Luke sighed. “It was a big school.”

“Was?” Daniel glanced at him with raised eyebrows then returned his attention to the three way junction, pausing to check for approaching traffic.

“It was a big school with budget issues. They had to cut funding for several departments and they were a business academy, so they decided the art history side of my teaching wasn’t a priority against things like computer studies. This left my position vulnerable and because I was last into the school I was first out. “

“Oh. So you lost your job? Then you came here to confront ghosts? No wonder you had a panic attack.”

Luke leaned his head back on the headrest. Daniel had in many ways summed up exactly what was going through his head at the moment. Not being able to work at what he loved doing was one hell of a trigger in any person—add in coming home, and a meltdown was inevitable. It was just shit that it had to happen when someone was near him.

“This is where you tell me that I’ll find another job just like that and everything will be fine.”