Hobbled Page 5

“Gosh, it’s heavy,” Luke said. “Must be a bitch dragging this thing around all day.”

  “No kidding,” Danny said, still shooting for stoic, with just a hint of heroic forbearance thrown in to make it more manly. Or so he hoped.

  Danny was practically holding his breath by this time, wondering what was going to happen next. Under his shorts he was still commando, after all. Anything could pop up without warning. He couldn’t help wondering how fast his new neighbor would run out of the house if Danny’s dick suddenly poked its head out of the bottom of his shorts to say hello.

  Blithely unaware of the thoughts running through Danny’s head, for which Danny was truly grateful, Luke gently slid his finger inside the top edge of Danny’s cast, just far enough in to make it snug. While he talked, he left it there. Oddly enough, that cool finger stuck inside his cast, made Danny’s itch go away. That one particular itch, anyway.

  Unfortunately, it made the other itch worse.

  Danny jumped when he felt his cock stir. To head it off at the pass, so to speak, he once again started talking without really thinking about what he was saying. Happily, this time he made a little sense.

  “So you bought the house next door. It’s been vacant a long time. Hope you like the place. It’ll be nice to have neighbors again! Aren’t you a little young to buy a house? Or maybe I shouldn’t ask that. Sounds nosy.”

  Luke smiled. He seemed to know Danny was uneasy, although Danny prayed to God Luke didn’t know why. With his index finger still tucked inside the top of Danny’s cast just below Danny’s knee, Luke placed his drink back on the table. While the fingers of his other hand were still cold from holding the soda, he started massaging the toes sticking out from the bottom of Danny’s cast. Danny actually had to close his eyes, it felt so good.

  “My dad rented it with the option to buy,” Luke said, paying particular attention to Danny’s littlest piggy. Massaging it, flexing it, making it grunt with happiness like all happy little piggies do when they’re having the time of their lives. “My dad’s gay,” Luke added. “We moved here so he can be closer to his boyfriend. I don’t know if they’re going to move in together or not. I think Dad wants to be sure they are absolutely right for each other before he takes that final step.”

  “Wow,” was all Danny could say to that. Then he said it again. “Wow.”

  Still massaging the little piggy, Luke leaned forward and gazed deep into Danny’s eyes. “You aren’t homophobic, are you?”

  “Who, me?” God, Luke’s eyes were blue. Oh, wait. What was he talking about? Danny did a rewind on the last few seconds and tried to forget about Luke’s eyes and catch up on the conversation.

  Luke laughed. “Well, you looked a little stunned there for a second. I thought maybe—”

  “No, I—wait. Your dad must already know the two of them are right for each other or he wouldn’t have packed up and moved here. By the way, where’d you move from?”

  “Tucson.”

  “That’s weird. My dad goes to Tucson a lot on business. He’s there now, as a matter of fact.”

  “Small world.”

  “So where’s your mom?”

  “She died,” Luke said. “Long time ago. I was little.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry. My mom lives in Indiana. She’s a bitch.”

  “Oh,” Luke said. “I’m sorry.”

  “So you’re still living with your dad, then,” Danny said. “Me, too. At least until I get on my feet.”

  “You mean both feet,” Luke said, patting Danny’s cast.

  And Danny laughed. “Yeah. Both feet.”

  “It’s pretty much the same story with me. Pop and I are close. He didn’t want to move away from Tucson unless I came, too. I think he felt like he would be abandoning me if he did, although I am old enough to take care of myself.”

  “Of course you are,” Danny said. “So am I, for that matter. So how old are you, if you don’t mind my asking.”

  “I’ll be twenty.” Luke said.

  “Oh.” He was older than Danny thought.

  Luke plucked at Danny’s toe, as if to say “gotcha.” “In a year and a half, that is.”

  Danny blinked. Then he got the joke. For some reason, Danny felt immense relief knowing the guy wasn’t actually older, although he wasn’t really sure why he felt that way. Maybe Danny simply felt safer knowing he and Luke were on a more even footing age wise. “Oh! Well, that’s cool. So am I. I’ll be twenty in a year and a half, too.”

  “Well, aren’t we a pair.” Luke grinned, and Danny grinned right back.

  Luke moved along to the second toe. Figured he would spread around the happiness, Danny supposed. And if that was really what he was doing, then he was succeeding admirably. Danny was happy as a clam. Oddly enough, Luke seemed to be enjoying it too.

  They fell into a companionable silence, with Danny staring at Luke as if he simply couldn’t get enough, and Luke staring back at Danny through his bigass glasses with a gentle smile on his face. And when their eyes seemed to be a little too hooked into each other, Luke gazed about the room.

  His eyes fell on a picture hanging on the wall by the window. It was a blown-up snapshot of Danny with his dad’s arm draped across his shoulder. They were standing in front of the polar bear tank at the San Diego Zoo. A polar bear was grinning behind them like it knew it was having its picture taken.

  Luke laughed. “Cute bear. Is that your dad?”

  Danny followed Luke’s eyes to see what he was looking at. “Oh. Yeah. That’s us at the zoo last summer.”

  “Wow,” Luke said. “Your dad is hot.”

  “I’m sorry. What?”

  “No, really,” Luke said. “Look at him. He’s really hot.”

  “Shut up!”

  Luke laughed. He reached out and tucked his finger under Danny’s chin. Then he tilted Danny’s head until he was sure Danny was staring at the same picture he was. “Your dad looks like an actor or a model or something. Don’t tell me you never noticed it before.”

  And now, truly looking at the picture for maybe the very first time in his life, Danny realized Luke was right. His dad really was a hottie.

  “Gee. I honest-to-God never knew.”

  Luke giggled. “I’ll bet.”

  Danny was getting a little embarrassed talking about his dad like this, so to change the subject, sort of, he asked, “What does your dad look like?”

  Luke shrugged. “Looks like me, I guess. Reddish hair. Kind of short. Also like me. I guess he’s good-looking enough.”

  “If he looks like you,” Danny said, unable to stop himself, “then I don’t imagine he had much trouble finding a boyfriend.”

  Luke gave Danny a searching look, as if maybe what Danny had just said made him wonder something. And Danny was afraid he knew what it was. So to cover his tracks, Danny blurted out, “So have you met the guy? The boyfriend? Did your dad introduce him to you?”

  Luke appeared to set aside any questions he might have about what Danny said about his dad finding a boyfriend. He was on the third toe now, and that toe was just as giddily happy to be the center of attention as the other two toes had been.

  “Nope,” Luke said. “I wasn’t even sure he was gay until a couple of months ago, when he told me we were moving.”

  “Gee. Were you shocked? About him being gay, I mean?”

  Luke thought about that. “Not so much. I, well, I know some gay people. They’re just like you and me, you know.”

  Like me, certainly, Danny thought.

  Luke left Danny’s third toe screaming in protest when Luke moved along to the next toe too damn fast. Luke was too busy thinking about Danny’s last question to notice. “I think I was just glad Dad had finally found somebody he loved. I knew he was seeing somebody. I just didn’t know it was a guy. Not until he told me. But I don’t have a problem with it.” His eyes bored into Danny’s once more. “Would you?”

  Danny blinked. “Uh, no. I don’t think I would. I mean, it would be a shock and all, wh
at with it being my dad, but, uh, no. No problem.”

  Danny couldn’t help wondering if that were really true. How would he react?

  On the other hand, Danny was a wee bit more worried about how his father would react when Danny finally got around to telling him he was gay.

  But that was a speculation Danny was always trying to avoid. Now was no exception. He steered the conversation to another heading.

  “So where’s your dad now, Luke? Closing up the house in Tucson?”

  “Yeah. I came early to bring the van and maybe get this house arranged a little bit. Dad won’t be here for a couple more weeks. He had to train his replacement at the bank. Talk to a Realtor. Shit like that. I didn’t want to hang around in a torn-up house, so I talked Dad into letting me bring the van early.” He released Danny’s toes and patted Danny’s knee instead. After he finished patting it, he let his hand lie there. “I’m glad I did.”

  Danny swallowed, looking down at that warm hand resting on his knee. He studied the hair on the arm the hand was attached to. Then he gazed a little farther south to study the hairy legs of the boy cradling Danny’s left foot in his lap.

  God, Luke was beautiful from one end to the other.

  Danny’s dick stirred again, making him jump. Jeez, he wished it would stop doing that.

  “So am I!” he blurted out. He blushed, then toned it down a bit. “I mean, well, so am I. Glad you came early, I mean.”

  Luke grinned and gave him a wink. “I think you and I are going to get along just fine.”

  “Yeah,” Danny said, still blushing but finding his own smile as well. “So do I.”

  Danny had almost built up the nerve to reach down and pat the hand that was patting his knee, but before he could get around to it, a car horn made them both jump.

  “Crap!” Luke said. “Must be the peons Pop hired to empty the truck. Good thing he did though, huh? If you tried to help me they’d drag you to the state pen for breaking parole. Or jumping ship. Or crossing the thirty-yard line. Or whatever the hell they call it.”

  “They call it the quickest way to find my ass in jail and break my father’s heart,” Danny said. He didn’t even try to fake a smile after he said it. The thought was too depressing.

  Luke looked at him, his cornflower-blue eyes wide, full of sympathy. He reached out and touched Danny’s cheek. Just the lightest touch imaginable. But to Danny, the touch burned all the way down to the bone.

  “Then we won’t let it happen,” Luke said. “And for what it’s worth, I think you did the right thing flipping over that fucking ice machine. Sometimes a guy has to do what a guy has to do.”

  “Thanks,” Danny said.

  Before anything else could be said by either of them, the car horn blasted again, making Granger bark and making the cat spit and hiss at Granger for barking. It also got Luke moving toward the door.

  “Later, buddy,” Luke said.

  And Danny nodded. “Later.”

  Danny’s heart was going a mile a minute.

  He didn’t know it, but so was Luke’s.

  DANNY stood at the kitchen window and watched Luke hop the hedge with ease and speak to the two guys waiting for him in the driveway next door. Once again Luke’s ginger hair was set ablaze by the morning sun. Danny had never seen anything so gorgeous in his life. Luke was smiling and gesticulating to the two workers, pointing to the truck, then the house, bending to pet Granger’s head, and once, he faced Danny’s kitchen window and gave Danny a wave. Danny was so startled, Luke had turned away before he thought to wave back.

  Wow. The past thirty minutes had been the most erotic thirty minutes of Danny’s young life. He could still feel Luke’s warm fingers touching him. Touching him. He could feel the timbre of Luke’s voice still flowing across his skin like a sweep of silk.

  Danny actually had to close his eyes when he remembered Luke reaching out to brush his cheek just before he left the house. His fingers were so gentle. His eyes so kind.

  His body so sexy.

  Holy shit. The guy had to be gay. He had to be. But what if he wasn’t? What if he was just really, really friendly? Danny knew if he made the first move on Luke, and Luke backed away, or worse, ran away, Danny would be crushed. He would be so humiliated, it would probably set back Danny’s little coming-out party for another decade. Or longer. Or forever.

  Danny let the kitchen curtain fall closed, and he clumped his way back to the kitchen table, where he collapsed into the chair he had been sitting in earlier.

  Torn somewhere between despondent and exhilarated, he reached out and touched the seat of the chair Luke had been sitting in.

  It was still warm.

  Danny sighed. He really had to get laid. Please, God, just once.

  Chapter 4

  SINCE his erotically charged tête–à–tête with Luke earlier that morning, erotically charged from Danny’s perspective at any rate, Danny had been alone the entire day. Playing video games. Playing more video games. Facebooking with people he didn’t really know or ever want to meet. Eating. Eating again. Then eating maybe a couple more times. He could have clomped his way to the hedge and struck up a conversation with Luke, but the guy and his two helpmates were busy unloading a huge truckload of furniture, and Danny didn’t want to bother them. Instead, Danny had tried twice to strike up a conversation with the cat, but to no avail. The cat wasn’t talking. Still pissed about the bird, he supposed.

  Danny wasn’t used to all the seclusion, or to the restrictions this house arrest business was making on his ability to move around and function like a normal human being. It pretty much killed that ability dead, is what it did. Danny hadn’t appreciated what a wonderful thing it was to be able to just hop in his car and go somewhere when he had a mind to, or to simply pick up a phone and call somebody when he felt like talking. No wonder people go on and on and on about the importance of freedom. It is one of those things you don’t miss until you don’t have it any more. Like sex. Of course, in Danny’s case he had never had sex to begin with, except with himself, so you’d think maybe he shouldn’t be missing it so much now.

  If Danny was going this crazy being restricted to the house and yard, without access to his car and unable to use the telephone to call out, what would it have been like to spend these six weeks in a jail cell? No wonder his dad pleaded with the judge to let Danny serve his sentence under house arrest. Funny it was only now Danny really appreciated what an act of kindness that had been on his father’s part. And it was costing his dad a small fortune, too, because the cost of leasing the ankle monitor was accruing daily. Since a prisoner under house arrest saves the city over $150 a day in jail costs, you would think the city would be paying them, rather than the other way around.

  But apparently the city didn’t see it that way. The pricks.

  On top of all the loneliness and the restrictions on his movements and the frustration of having a cast on one leg and a damn flashing light on the other one, Danny was also trying to understand his feelings about Luke. Not that they were really that hard to understand. Danny wanted to get into the guy’s pants and he wanted the guy to get into his. Pretty basic stuff there. You’d think it wouldn’t be so confusing for him to figure it all out.

  Lord, virginity sucks dick. Or was that an oxymoron?

  Late in the afternoon, Danny’s father called. When Danny grabbed the phone on the first ring and heard his father’s voice on the other end of the line, the first words out of his mouth were, “I love you, Pop.”

  There was silence on the line for a couple of heartbeats, then his father replied, “I love you, too, Son. Feeling lonely, are we?”

  Danny gave him a wry chuckle. “How’d you guess?”

  “Don’t worry. You’ll make it through. I’m just sorry I had to leave you to face the music alone.”

  “It’s okay, Dad. You can’t put your life on hold for me all the time. You have to do stuff for yourself once in a while.”

  “Wow. Who is this level-headed guy
I’m talking to and where’s my crazy son who takes his frustrations out on ice-cube-making machinery?”

  Danny laughed. “Maybe he’s growing up. I miss you, Dad.”

  And Danny thought he could feel his father smiling at him over the phone line. “I miss you, too, Danny. Anyway, I assume everything is okay.”

  “Yep. Just fine. Somebody’s moving into the house next door. Did you know?”

  His father hesitated for a second. “Actually, yeah, I did hear that was going to happen. Have you met anyone yet?”

  “Just the son. He’s over there now, unloading a bunch of furniture. Nice guy. His name is Luke.”

  “Same age as you?”

  “Yeah,” Danny said. “How’d you know?”

  “I heard he might be. Maybe you can strike up a friendship with him and then you won’t be so lonely. I know you left all your real friends back in Indiana, and you really haven’t been in California long enough to make new ones. Outside of the penal system, I mean.”

  Danny groaned. “Stop it.”

  “Sorry.”

  His father cleared his throat. “I’m serious, Danny. Make friends with the new boy next door. It’ll help get you through the next six weeks. You need an ally. Someone you can talk to. And he’s new in town too. Don’t forget that. I’m sure he needs a friend to talk to as much as you do.”

  “I’m talking to you.”

  “It’s not the same as a friend, kid.”

  “I talked to Mom.”

  “Oh, God.”

  “Yeah. She wants me to come back to Indiana the minute I get this hardware off my leg.”

  “What’d you tell her?”

  “I told her hell no.”

  His father chuckled. “Bet she loved that. I’ll probably be getting a call from her myself any minute now. Sure looking forward to that. We have wonderful little chats, your mother and I. She’s quite a woman.”

  “She’s a bitch.”

  “I’m trying to think of an argument to that.”

  “Don’t waste your time.”

  “Okay, I won’t.”

  A comfortable silence settled over the line. The silence didn’t bother Danny at all. He was just happy knowing his dad was on the other end. He could almost feel him there. Like he was in the same room.