Second Chances Read online

  I just wave my hand at him. “Forget it. We’ve all been there.”

  Aaron smiles. “I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

  “Yeah, you wouldn’t want the boss finding out. I hear he’s a tight ass.”

  Aaron laughs at that and I wish I didn’t like the sound of his laughter so damn much. “Yeah. He’s kind of an asshole, isn’t he?” Aaron adds.

  “Seriously, though, you should get a new alarm clock. It shouldn’t just turn off unless you hit the button.”

  “That’s what I thought, but it damn sure wasn’t going off when I finally rolled over and woke up. I’ll pick a new one up on the way home today. Don’t want to show up late two days in a row and have you thinking I’m a slacker.”

  “Too late for that.”

  Aaron reached for a hand towel I’d been using to clean up some of the dust from ripping up the floors and grinding down the uneven flooring underneath. With it in one hand, he grabbed the other end with his free hand getting ready to pop me with the towel but I was too quick. I moved around him, grabbing a hold of the towel and pulled hard trying to pry it out of his grip. Aaron wasn’t about to let go, however, and when I yanked the towel he came with it, and in an instant all of the humor left the room. His body brushed against mine and then our eyes locked with our mouths no more than a couple inches apart. I could hear my heart pounding in my ears and when I saw his eyes drop to my mouth it did a backflip in my chest. Moving my own eyes down to his mouth, I had to bite my lip to hold back groaning when his tongue ran over his bottom lip. Images of him dropping to his knees in front of me, of that mouth and that tongue, of my hand gripping his hair while he ran his tongue along my…damn!

  My dick turned to steal behind my zipper and I took a quick step backwards, hoping I’d been fast enough that he’d not felt my arousal jutting into his hip. Both of us stand there breathing hard and not saying anything until Jessica comes bouncing in and we both jerk our heads in her direction when we hear her voice. “They’re here with the new cabinets.” She stops and her eyes dart back and forth between Aaron and me like she’s sizing us up. If she noticed the issue I’m sporting below my belt, she didn’t point it out. I guess I’ll find out later because there is no way she’d let me live it down if she did.

  “Uh, good,” Aaron finally responds. “Let’s go help them get them inside.”

  He doesn’t look back at me, which is probably a good thing in front of Jessica, but it kind of pisses me off. I know I wasn’t the only one who almost got caught up in the moment just then, and I’d be damned if I was going to feel guilty for how my body reacted to him being so close. I’m not the one who’s married here. Luckily, his avoidance and my irrational anger at the situation takes care of the hard-on problem I’d been having and I was able to follow the two of them out front to meet up with Pete and the guys delivering the cabinets. Now that they were here we had plenty of work to get done this afternoon, and I was damn glad to have something to keep me busy. I needed the work to keep me focused on why I was here. Something to distract me from telling Aaron where he could shove his avoidance, or worse, from shoving him against the wall and claiming his body with mine.

  ***

  We worked until well after dark getting everything in correctly. We’d had to make some adjustments that cost us more time than we’d expected, and by the time the kitchen was ready for the final touches it was already eight and we were all ready for a drink and some food.

  “I’m taking you all to dinner,” Aaron announced while we were packing up our tools.

  “Good. I’m starving,” Jessica said.

  “Yeah, and I need a beer,” Pete agreed.

  “I could eat,” I add, “but you don’t have to buy for all of us. You haven’t seen how much these two can eat.”

  I didn’t move fast enough and Jessica punched me in the back of the arm. When I started rubbing it and poked my bottom lip out like I was about to cry Pete and Aaron burst out laughing at me, so I flipped them both the bird. “Screw you guys.”

  We ended up at a bar and grill eating our weight in wings and pretzels. I had a couple beers, but the three of them came close to drinking a beer for every wing they ate. I’m sure that’s a slight exaggeration, but it quickly became obvious to me that I would be driving everyone home for the night. I’d already collected keys about thirty minutes before the waitress brought Aaron the check.

  “I’m going to have to drive everyone home in your truck, Aaron. We won’t all fit in the cab of mine.”

  “You shhhoo getta kking cab,” Pete slurred.

  I pulled his arm over my shoulder to help keep him up as we made our way to the parking lot. “Yeah, I’ll get right on that, buddy.”

  Aaron was drunk too, but not as bad as Jessica and Pete it seemed as he made sure Jessica got outside and into the backseat without face planting on the pavement.

  “Thank you,” Aaron said after he got in and pulled the passenger side door closed.

  I started up the truck and got the air running before anyone could get too hot and start hurling in Aaron’s ride. “For what?” I asked him.

  “This.” He patted his hands on the dash in front of him. “Making sure we all get home safe.”

  “Oh, it’s nothing.”

  Aaron grabbed my hand and, when I met his eyes, they were more serious than I ever would have believed possible given how many drinks he’d just consumed. “It’s everything. You’re a hero.”

  Sadness overtook his face and I wanted more than anything to know what it was that kept bringing out that look of pure grief in his eyes. I wanted to keep him from feeling that way ever again. It was heartbreaking. The fact that he called me a hero was just confusing. That was probably the alcohol talking.

  After he let my hand go he rested his head back against the seat, facing out the window so I couldn’t see his face. I drove Pete and Jessica home first and made sure they both got inside and in bed before leaving them. Aaron stayed in the truck, appearing to be asleep. I hated to wake him up, but I didn’t have the first clue where he lived. I considered taking him to my place to sleep it off but quickly nixed that idea—he has a husband. I shook his arm gently. “Aaron.”

  “It’s 1224 Durbin Street,” he said without turning to look at me. Apparently he wasn’t as asleep as I’d thought. I pulled my hand back and began heading toward his place.

  When I pulled into his driveway, I expected him to just get out and go inside, but when he didn’t move I figured he’d passed out again. Getting out, I walked around to his side prepared to help him out and into his house. I didn’t expect to open the door and find him wide awake with a steady stream of tears falling down his face. “What the hell, Aaron.” I took his face between my hands trying to get him to look at me, but his eyes were focused on his house behind me.

  “It’s so dark,” he said.

  “It’s night. It’s supposed to be dark.” I tried to wipe the tears from his face but they just kept coming.

  “I mean the house. It’s dark.”

  I glance back for a second. “Yeah, I guess he didn’t leave any lights on for ya. Come on, I’ll help you inside.”

  Aaron finally looks at me. “Was someone here?”

  I shake my head. “Look, Aaron, you’re drunk. Let’s get you inside. I’m sure everything will be fine.”

  “NO! Nothin’s fine. I don’t wanna go in there. It’s too quiet. I’m so tired of the quiet, Caleb. It’s so freakin’ lonely.”

  The tears are pouring down his face in a rush now and he grabs my shirt and pulls me close, then he buries his face in my neck. I wrap my arms around him and feel my own heart breaking when his body begins shaking as he cries. I don’t know what is going on with him and his husband, but no one deserves to feel like this in a relationship. I move him so I can hold his face again. He tries to look away, but I don’t let him. “Aaron, look at me.” I pause and wait for him to bring his eyes back to meet mine. “I’m here. You’re not alone, hear me? I am h
ere.” Slowly, keeping my eyes locked with his, I move closer and closer until my lips are pressed against his and I kiss him gently twice. When I pull back his eyes are wide, but he’s not trying to pull away from me or even look away. “Come on,” I tell him. “I’m with you.”

  Aaron nods and I step back so he can get out of the truck. He’s a little wobbly on his feet, and I’m not sure if it’s from the drinks or his emotional meltdown, but I pull his arm over my shoulders and wrap mine around his waist and walk with him up to his front door.

  I fumble with his keys until he points out the one that goes to the house, but when I go to push the key into the lock the door creaks open slightly. I grab the knob and it’s not locked. “You forget to lock up when you were running late this morning?”

  “No. I remember locking it and checking to make sure it latched.”

  “Maybe someone else forgot to lock it,” I suggest thinking his husband probably left it unlocked for him.

  Aaron shakes his head profusely. “No. Nobody else should be here. It’s just me.” His voice trails off and I barely hear the last thing he says. “Ben’s not here anymore. Just me. Alone.”

  “All right, let’s just go check it out.”

  I feel for a light switch on the wall when we walk in and when I cut it on the first thing I notice is the room looks immaculate. “Come on, nothing’s going on in here. Let’s check all the rooms just to make sure everything’s good.”

  Finding his house unlocked must have sobered Aaron up a bit because he’s able to make his way toward the back of the house without my help. I follow behind him; still not sure he won’t go down if he trips and loses balance. We check a couple bedrooms and a bathroom, but Adam stops in front of the last closed door.

  Abruptly, he turned away from the door and faced me. “We checked enough. No one’s here.”

  “You got somethin’ in there you don’t want me to see, huh?” I smirk, trying to lighten the mood and cheer him up. It doesn’t work.

  “No one goes in there.”

  A tear makes a slow trail down his cheek and I move forward and wrap my arms around him. “Aaron, I don’t know what’s going on, but I really think we should make sure no one’s been in there. They could be hiding in there now. If you want I can call the police to come check it out.”

  “No,” he snapped. “I don’t want strangers in there. You can check it if you think you need to. I’ll be out here.”

  Aaron moved around me and headed to the living room. I turned back to the door and opened it slowly, reaching in to turn on the light before I stepped inside.

  The room was larger than the others we’d checked and had a king sized bed against the far wall. Across from that was an attached bathroom and walk in closet full of clothes, but from what I could tell they weren’t Aarons. Aaron seemed more like a jeans guy and the closet was filled with fashionable men’s clothing I couldn’t picture Aaron wearing. Clearly this was the master bedroom, and Aaron was not sleeping here. I walked around the room and noticed there was a pretty thick layer of dust on the dressers. There was a picture on the nightstand of two men looking into each other’s eyes, their love for one another a shining light beaming off of them. I recognized Aaron so the other man must be Ben. I couldn’t imagine two people who could look at each other like they were in that photo ever splitting up, and Aaron’s refusal to come into their bedroom was setting off a red flag or a dozen. From the looks of it, no one had been using their master bedroom for a long while. Aaron was right; nobody was in here.

  Chapter Seven

  Aaron

  I heard Caleb walk back into the living room, but I couldn’t look at him. He’d been in our room, the room where we made love, the room I was in when my phone rang, when they told me he was gone.

  “Nobody was in there,” I heard Caleb say.

  I wrapped my fingers behind my head and stared at my feet. “I know.”

  I felt his hand touch my lower back and begin gently rubbing up and down. He was trying to comfort me, and as much as I didn’t want to admit it his touch was soothing. When he’d kissed me earlier my heart stopped breaking for a moment and I didn’t want him to stop. Not sure how I feel about myself for thinking that at the current moment, but I can’t deny the way I felt.

  “Aaron.” Caleb’s voice is soft and hesitant. I grip my hair tighter. Please don’t ask about the room. Please don’t ask about the photo that I know you saw. I wait several moments for him to say more, but he stays quiet. Finally, I drop my hands from my hair and look over at him. “I’m staying here tonight.” I start to shake my head, “no,” but he cuts me off. “I don’t know if you actually left your door unlocked, or if someone else did, but I do know that I’m not leaving you alone tonight.” I don’t miss the fact that he’s not asking me, and I’d be lying to myself if I said I was okay being alone.

  Caleb stands up and moves in front of me. “Well, you gonna show me where I can get a blanket or somethin’?”

  I raise my eyebrows and stare back at him. “A blanket?”

  He waves his arm toward the couch I’m sitting on. “You gonna leave me in the cold on the couch? That’s harsh.”

  He smiled like the damn Cheshire cat and I couldn’t help it, I smiled back. I stood up and waved him toward the back. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’ve got a sleeping bag for you. You’re too big for that couch, and I don’t plan on buying a new one after you jack it up with your granddaddy long legs.”

  Caleb sighed and put a hand over his heart. “Here I am trying to protect you from a big, bad intruder, and you’re forcing me to sleep on the floor.” He shakes his head and makes a clucking sound with his tongue.

  I throw my head back and laugh when he lays down on the floor and looks up at me with like a damn puppy begging for a reward.

  “Get your ass up. You just walked this whole house with me. You know I’ve got a spare room. Quit being a drama queen.”

  When we get to the first bedroom I flip on the light switch and wave Caleb inside. “You can sleep here.”

  “Thanks, man. This is much better than the floor, or couch for that matter. I was already having phantom back pains eyeing that tiny couch of yours.”

  When he walks past me, I reach down and grab his arm. He turns to face me, all the humor he was trying to put on for me gone and I see the concern back in his eyes when he looks at me. “Thanks.” I wave my hand out in front of me. “For checking the house for me, for staying here, for driving me home.” I pause and look him in the eyes again. “And, well, thanks.”

  Caleb turned back toward me, keeping his eyes locked on mine. He reached down and took both of my hands in his, then he closed the space between us. “I don’t know the why behind the sadness I see in you, but I do know that I’ve never wanted to be the person to take someone’s pain away as much as I wish I could do so for you.” He moved his face closer so that his mouth was only a breath away from mine and his voice was husky when he spoke again. “If you’ll let me, I’ll make sure you know you’re not all alone tonight.”

  My heart clenched for a moment, but then it took off at record speed and I moved before my mind could jump out and talk me out of taking what I wanted, and in that moment I wanted Caleb. I pulled my hands from his and grabbed the back of his head, pulling him forward and crashing our mouths together. This kiss wasn’t soft and comforting like the one he’d given me in the driveway. No, it was hot, hard and bruising.

  Grabbing his arms I pushed him back until we were stopped by the bed. I quickly yanked my shirt over my head and Caleb did the same. I moved to drop down in front of Caleb, but he caught my arm and shook his head. “Another time,” he said. “Tonight I want you on the bed where we can both watch each other. I need to see your eyes and know you’re here with me, and I’m with you.”

  Without a word I stood back upright and started removing the rest of my clothes. Once the two of us were naked Caleb sat back on the bed and reached for my hands. He pulled me onto the bed, leaning back slowly as I
got to my knees and maneuvered myself between his legs until my erection was pressed firmly against his ass. Dropping my head down, I took his mouth again, and Caleb moved his hands to the back of my head holding me in place while we devoured each other. It had been far too long since I felt the sting of another man’s five o’clock shadow against my face and my lips, and damn it felt good.

  Caleb started pumping his hips upwards, grinding our dicks together while he held my mouth in place. I could feel him all over my body, and his dick massaging mine had me on the edge. I pried my mouth from his and smiled down at him and he smirked back up at me. “Something wrong?”

  “Yeah,” I panted. “I’m about to cum like some horny teenager, and I’m not even inside of you yet.”

  Caleb moved his hands down to my ass and ground himself into me a couple more times with a wide grin on his face, then he let go and said, “Then you should hurry up and fuck me because I want you buried inside me when that happens.”

  Reaching into the nightstand, I grabbed some lube, then I coated my finger and ran it around his hole before inserting first one, then two fingers. I worked my fingers in and out and Caleb grabbed his dick jerking with my movements and rocking his hips against my hand. “Agh, Aaron. I need you to fuck me, now!”

  I pulled my hand away and made quick work of lubing my own dick. I was so hard I thought I would explode just pushing inside. Lining up my dick I met Caleb’s eyes, and then I thrust inside. “Fuck! You feel amazing.”

  “Move,” Caleb demanded.

  Grabbing his legs I worked my dick inside his hot ass and watching Caleb as he stroked his erection. I felt his body stiffen right before shots of hot cum shot all over his chest. Seeing him cum that hard was all I needed to send me over the edge, and I thrust hard and fast, until every drop of cum drained from my body and I collapsed on top of Caleb. “That was amazing,” I said between pants.