Page 32 of Ring Rust

“You are so embarrassing,” Jasper said, pulling off his shirt. He wadded it up and threw it down the stairs where they kept multiple dirty laundry baskets. Next were his jeans, which he pulled off one leg while he balanced on the other. At the top of the stairs.

Ryan reached out and grabbed Jasper’s arm to pull him away from what he worried would be certain death if he fell over.

“Stop!” Jasper said, shaking Ryan’s hand off his arm.

“You were near the top of a staircase!”

Jasper huffed and pulled the pants off his other leg and threw them down the stairs, too. His socks followed closely after, and then Jasper was standing there in just his underwear, arms crossed and face scrunched up angrily.

“Mav is a perfectly nice guy just trying to help me fix the park.”

“Yeah, I’m sure that’s all he wants,” Ryan said, his eyes trailing up and down Jasper’s body. “Forget the saws and ladders, he was looking at you like he wanted to throw you into that pile of leaves and fuck you hard enough to knock the branches down.”

“First of all, that’s an insane thing to say. Second, I was wearing jeans and a turtleneck outside. Are you kidding me?”

“Are you kiddingme?You’re not an idiot, and neither am I.”

Jasper made his way to the sink to get a glass of water. “No, I’m not.” He took a sip and sighed. “Why are you here, anyway?”

“You said you’d be out of the house at eleven, but you’re still here. I guess you got distracted by Ladder… Ass… Guy,” Ryan said. He rubbed his forehead, really wishing he’d come up with a wittier comeback.

Jasper choked on the water he had in his mouth before letting out a hoarse laugh. “Ladder Ass Guy?”

As much as Ryan wanted to show zero amusement at anything related to Maverick, seeing Jasper laugh at something he said—and in an affectionate way, not an irritated one—was too precious to ignore. He laughed a bit, too. “His face was so close to your ass, and you were on a ladder. That’s what I meant.”

Jasper was still laughing, each breath out flexing the muscles of his stomach deliciously, drawing Ryan’s eyes to the firm lines of his belly and the hair spanning the length of his chest,disappearing somewhere behind the elastic of his wet boxer briefs. He let his eyes linger, focusing on the outline of Jasper’s cock, the shape of his balls cupped by soft blue fabric. Ryan cleared his throat without thinking, ending Jasper’s laughter.

“Hey! Don’t try to make me laugh,” Jasper said. His scowl started out half-assed, fighting against a grin, but then he snapped back to anger. “Why are you here?”

“Your text said you’d be gone by eleven. I came to get some tools out of my workshop. I didn’t know you’d be here,” Ryan said. “Not that I don’t want to see you. Of course I do.”

“My text said tomorrow. Did you even read it? Or did you come here specifically to catch me doing something you could be a jerk about?”

“No, I—” Ryan paused. He hadn’t actually read the text, too focused on the optics of read receipts and texting frequency—specifically, the uncomfortable disparity between theirs. “I misread it, I guess.”

“Okay.” Jasper headed towards the bathroom. “I’m taking a shower, then hosting a few people for a game night. No need to lock up when you leave.”

The door closed behind him, leaving Ryan with a jumble of emotions clawing at his insides. Anger at Jasper’s attitude, confusion at his playful laughter, embarrassment that he'd acted like a possessive asshole moments before Jasper’s reminder that he wasn’t Ryan’s to possess. Even curiosity about who was coming to the game night, and how long he’d been doing it—he’d mentioned it once ages ago, but Ryan wasn’t sure he’d ever brought it up again.

He made his way to his workshop, where he kept both his tools and his model landscape supplies. Jasper had been so busy the past few years he wasn’t making anything, claiming he’d fallen out of love with the artform, but Ryan knew better.

About a year ago, he’d started a landscape of Jasper’s theme park—the plan was to give it to him as a Christmas gift to reignite Jasper’s passion, but time got away from him. Now it was half finished, sitting uncovered beneath a hole in the roof he hadn’t noticed before.

The falling water had dislodged several of the attractions, washed away most of the vegetation, and drowned several model animals that now lay on their sides, wedged under toppled buildings. The model of Jasper, painted as realistically as Ryan could manage—with a pathetic, scrawled smiley face—stood by the park’s office. He thought the Ryan figurine was missing entirely until he stepped forward and heard something crunch under his shoe.

“Oh,” he said to himself. He knew exactly what it was but couldn’t bring himself to look down.

Twenty minutes later, he'd dried the landscape with rags and secured most of the buildings. He picked up what he could, shoved it into his car, and left before Jasper’s friends arrived.

Chapter Ten

As soon asRyan showed up on Beni’s doorstep carrying two grocery bags and a wreath, Jasper regretted his offer to help the sisters set up for their annual Friendsmas party. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d bothered decorating their house for the holidays. Ryan was never around, so what was the point?

This was the cruelest part of Ryan’s retirement. Everybody else got to enjoy the version of him Jasper had spent years missing. The version who had time and showed up for family events. The version who brought wreaths.

For everyone else, that was exciting. Ryan was around more, a seamless reintroduction to their lives, like no time had passed. For Jasper, it felt like grief. His marriage had ended, but he still found himself mourning it all over again every time Ryan acted like the man he was before wrestling consumed his life. Everyone else got to enjoy the new Ryan. Jasper had to live with the fact that he’d arrived too late—and he was too scared to open himself to that hurt again.

“Wreath time!” Ryan said. He tossed the wreath like a frisbee and Jasper watched it bounce twice before crashing to the ground.