Page 51 of All of Us

“Yeah, Babe?” The familiarity did weird things to me, a shudder going through me.

“I missed you. I’m glad you are here. Sweet dreams.”

“I missed you too. Good night.” He turned and began preparing the couch for sleep.

In my room, I took a minute to feel my feelings—it was a lot. Jacob was here in my house, the man I’ve waited for all these years, yet there was something inside me that pulled me to Joe. I didn’t want to let that go, which made this whole thing even more confusing.

Exhaustion blanketed me, and I fell into a restless sleep.

Chapter nineteen

GENTRY

I was exhausted. It was hard for me to believe that Dusty, my Dusty, slept in the other room after all these years. Stranger yet, he worked for my boss’s son. After we talked last night, it felt like we could be together if we wanted. The one person I thought was lost to me forever was down the hall.

A hand rubbed my back, and Dusty’s voice told me to wake up. For the last twelve years, my dreams have been like this moment—Dusty waking me up to start my day. Recently, though, my fantasies sometimes had Joe waking me in our bed.

As I opened my eyes, I saw the edge of the coffee table and felt the warmth of someone sitting on the edge of the couch, their hand on my back. He said it again, and everything came back to me in a rush. It wasn’t a dream.

“Dusty? I can’t believe you are really here?”

I heard him snort. “I am. I had a hard time believing it myself when I woke up.”

He kissed the side of my head. “Get up. I’ll make you some food, and we can watch a movie or something. Did your boss get back to you? If he didn’t, you’re late, it’s almost 10:00 a.m.”

I sat up and stretched. Dusty’s eyes watched as my t-shirt raised up enough that he could see my abs. I grabbed my phone and hoped Earl had gotten my message. It surprised me to see a message from Martin Wilson.

“Shit.”

“What’s wrong?” Dusty asked from the kitchen.

“I have a message from Martin Wilson.”

He scrunched up his face.

MARTIN W

Take a few days if needed

I wouldn’t like having to choose.

Well, that was ominous.

“This is probably bad,” I said. Taking my phone to the kitchen, I showed it to Dusty, my hand resting naturally on his hip while he read the message. I left him with my phone while I did my morning business and put on some jeans and a tank top.

It was a little awkward between us, even though there was so much natural familiarity. The contrast between wanting to melt into the man I loved so much and not knowing him made my chest tight.

“Sit.”

I did as I was told, and a plate of food was set before me. My stomach growled as I waited for him to join me at the table.

“Eat up before it’s cold.” I dug in. Memories of us sitting at his dining room table while his mother made us meals flooded back to me.

I had asked about his family last night and was glad to hear they stayed in touch even though he hadn’t really settled into a career until the last few years.

There was one thing we needed to talk about that I hadn’t brought up last night. “So.” He looked up at me. “I don’t know for a fact, but Joe said he had been seeing another guy. Are you that guy?”

He choked. “Warn a guy,” he coughed a few more times and took a sip of juice. “Yeah. I guess I am that guy, he never gave you my name?”