You don’t have a right to that hurt, asshole.
He let that voice circle around him, and it calmed him enough that he could speak. “Good for you.” Jake snorted, but he didn’t look like he found anything funny about the situation. “I mean it. I’m glad you’re…well, I’m just glad you found someone.”
Not totally a lie, but not quite the truth.
“Why did you think she was Maya?” Jake asked.
Border shrugged, his hands in his pockets again. “You talked about Maya like…well, I was wrong I guess.”
“Yeah, you were wrong. Maya’s just my friend, but Holly is the one here. Holly is the one that stays.” Jake bit off a curse. “I’m going to ask Holly to marry me because it’s about damn time I settle down, and she’s the one for me.”
Border didn’t know why Jake was saying these things to him, but he had a feeling the man was saying it more to himself than Border.
“Okay,” Border said. “I…I don’t know why I’m here.”
“You don’t know a lot of things, Border. You never did.” Jake ran a hand over his face. “Sorry. Fuck. Okay, do you have a place to stay? I know your dad lost the house—” Jake cut himself off even as Border stiffened.
“Dad’s dead, Jake,” Border said, his voice emotionless. “Got drunk and got behind the wheel. Luckily, he only killed himself and the damn tree he hit. So, yeah, he lost the house, and he’s not here anymore. I came to say…well, I don’t know what I wanted to say, but I can go now. I guess I just wanted to let you know I’m here.”
Jake’s face paled again, and he took a step toward Border, his arm outstretched before he froze and lowered his hand. “Shit, Border.”
“Shit is about right.”
“Where would you go if you left here right now?” Jake asked, his voice low.
“I’ll find a motel.”
“Fuck that. I’ve got a guest room. No use you paying for some shitty place where they don’t wash the sheets.”
“So I should stay here where I don’t know what’s on your sheets.” He said the last part with a smile, and Jake flipped him off. Of course, he did it as he smiled, so Border figured everything would be okay for now.
“You’re an idiot,” Jake said, and Border knew that was for more than just the sheets comment.
“Yeah, I am.” Border cracked his knuckles. “Would Holly be okay with me here?”
Jake looked at him before shaking his head. “She doesn’t live here, so, yeah. Plus…well, she doesn’t know how I know you.”
Border swallowed hard. He didn’t deserve to be a memory Jake shared with others. He knew that. “I thought you were going to ask Holly to marry you?”
“I said I was thinking about it,” Jake spat before holding up his hand. “I’m tired and don’t want to have to deal with all of this crap right now. So why don’t I show you to your room and we can call it a night? Because I…well, I just can’t right now.”
Border nodded and followed the man he’d loved at one point in his life toward the back of the house. He’d left to protect Jake and to find who he could be without a drunk of a father riding his ass.
He hadn’t liked the man he was becoming without a purpose, but by the time he’d found some semblance of himself, he’d been too late. He couldn’t have Jake the way he had at one point, but maybe if fate smiled down on him for even a moment, he could have Jake in his life somehow.
And wasn’t that the hell of it all? He’d come back to Denver to find a home, and now he would be begging for scraps. Not to mention he still wanted to know who Maya was.
Coming back wasn’t what he had expected it to be, but really, he shouldn’t have expected anything at all. He never had before.
Chapter Four
Waking up with the man he’d once loved under his roof made for one weird-ass morning, but Jake was used to strange. He was a Gallagher, who happened to be an honorary Montgomery, after all. Weird was sort of how he lived and breathed.
Not only had he woken up with a headache from tossing and turning all night, he also had a hard-on from hell. He wouldn’t rub one off, though, because he knew if he did, he wouldn’t be thinking of Holly.
That killed him.
He wasn’t a cheater, wasn’t an asshole that thought of someone else when he came. Holly was his girlfriend, therefore, the only person who would make him come. There was something insanely wrong with him that he was even having this conversation in his head.
Instead of jerking himself off, he would take a cold shower and pray that whatever the hell was wrong with him—as well as his hard-on from hell—would go away. He sighed and shuffled his way to the bathroom, knowing that today was going to suck ass.
By the time he made it to the kitchen, coffee had already been made, and there was a note by the multi-serve pot. Jake wasn’t sure if he wanted to read the damn thing, not after the night he’d had.
Jake –
I headed over early to get my truck and a couple of things. I’ll be back tonight, but if you don’t want me to stay longer than the one night, it’s no worries.
See you.