Page 26 of Ring Rust

Ryan.

If it had been even five degrees warmer, it would have been an easy no. Jasper didn’t need Ryan—hadn’t for many years. In fact, statistically speaking, if this were any other time in the past few years, Ryan would have been out of town, unable to rescue him from the side of the road.

Oh, that was good. Jasper was going to say that.

“You know, statistically speaking, if this was any other time in the last few years, you’d be out of town, unable to rescue me from the side of the road.”

Ryan sighed again. “You’re right. But statistically speaking, I am in front of you right now. Let me get you home.”

“That is not a statistic.”

“Jasper.”

A gust of wind blew through the trees and knocked a clump of snow off the branches above Jasper’s head. It landed all around his neck and melted down his back. A pathetic whimper escaped through his attempt at a scowl.

Without saying anything else, Jasper got in the front seat and tried to buckle himself in. Ryan joined him seconds laterand turned the heat up, pointing it in Jasper’s direction before reaching over and fixing Jasper’s seatbelt. The warm air hitting his face was so heavenly, he groaned.

“You’re not gonna throw up again, are you?”

“No.” Jasper leaned his head against the window to avoid looking at him.

Ryan handed Jasper a bottle of water. “Drink, please.”

He did.

“Is there some reason you thought walking seven miles in the middle of the night to another town was a good idea?” Ryan asked.

“It was a perfectly fine idea. The weather just didn’t cooperate.”

They were both quiet for a few minutes until Ryan mumbled something under his breath about getting a DUI without having a single drink, then lowered the back windows to get some fresh air.

“Have fun tonight?”

“Yeah,” Jasper said. “Until about five minutes ago.”

Ryan let out an irritated laugh. “Are you angry with me for picking you up?”

“No. I’m angry with you for stalking me twice and scaring me so badly I threw up.”

“You threw up because you had five drinks and no food besides the lemon from your hot toddy.”

“What, did you interview the bartender?” Jasper asked, finally turning to look at him. “Like I said, you’re a stalker.”

“I’m not a stalker! Your friend Craig texted me from your phone and said you were planning on walking home.”

“That bastard,” Jasper said, glaring out the front window.

“Or the opposite. He was worried about you. And so was I.”

“Fine. Thank you for picking me up. But I’m still mad you made me vomit.”

“Okay. I’m sorry I scared you. But you scared me, too.”

Jasper napped the rest of the drive, which was only about fifteen minutes. By the time they got to the house, the snow was deep enough that the driveway was difficult to navigate, and Jasper had to figure out the best way to encourage Ryan to leave without risking his life.

“We need to get going on the trees,” Ryan said.

The spotlights around the driveway illuminated the plants around the chicken coop, now heavy with snowfall. Every autumn, the two of them trimmed back dead branches and thinned anything that might fall on the house or coop, but with the havoc of their breakup, it hadn’t happened.