Chapter One

 

 

“No way. I don’t need the E.R.” Pike glared at his friend Dylan who was staring at Pike’s rapidly swelling wrist with skeptical eyes. Pike slumped against the wall, not bothering to try to get up after his tumble off a ladder while installing recessed lighting in the master bedroom.

“Can you wiggle your fingers?” Dylan didn’t sound convinced.

“Ow. Ow. Ow. Yes.” Pike tried to comply with mixed results, fingers moving but pain radiating with each movement. And it was just his luck that his fall had occurred with the final screw for the light with dust and debris still everywhere in the small room.

“Urgent care. Now.” Dylan used the same tone he used with his boyfriend Apollo’s twin girls.

“But I’ve still got to paint the ceiling and move the furniture—”

“Dude. You’ve painted the room itself twice since Zack’s been gone. I think the ceiling can wait a few days.”

“He’s back this week. Everything needs to be perfect.” Pike moaned, both from frustration and the pain in his arm. “I had a vision—”

“And I’ve got one of you in a cast and with painkillers. Come on. To the car.” Dylan didn’t sound unsympathetic, but he still didn’t get it as he hauled Pike off the floor and herded him to his little car. Pike had used his never-ending list of home renovations to keep his sanity while Zack had been deployed the past three months, but the master bedroom was his pet project. He wanted exactly the right wall color, the perfect lighting, the best bedding and accessories to welcome home his guy.

He knew from experience how tired Zack always returned from shorter trips and SEAL training missions and that a place to rest was paramount for his off time, and Pike had a dream of the perfect oasis, a bargain budget retreat for both of them to shut out the rest of the world. And with the world increasingly frustrating and uncertain and Zack likely facing more deployments, they needed this space.

And what they didn’t need was a trip to the urgent care department of the local hospital near the college where Pike taught. Not when the line to simply check-in stretched almost to the lobby door, a good eight people deep. And the sunny waiting room was filled with sniffling kids, weekend warriors on crutches, and more than a few people who looked like they needed to be moved to the front of the line for stitches.

“I’ll wait with you,” Dylan said after he helped Pike dig out his insurance card one-handed. “Just let me text Apollo—”

“Don’t.” Pike held up his good hand. “I’ll be fine. I’m not bleeding or a big emergency—I could be here hours. I’ll catch a cab home. Apollo and the girls need you more than me.”

“If you’re sure…”

“I am.” Pike stepped aside so that an anxious looking elderly woman pushing an older gentleman in a wheelchair could go ahead of him. “I’ve got my phone. I’ll be fine.”

Dylan left after getting Pike’s assurance that he’d text with updates. It took a good thirty minutes to get through the line and all the paperwork with his insurance card, and finally he was able to snag one of the last seats in the waiting room.

Buzz. Pike’s phone jangled with the special vibrating pattern he’d assigned Zack and his pulse sped up.

Having a good weekend? Thinking of you.

Hmmm. Should he confess how shitty his weekend was going? In addition to the fall, he’d wasted far too many hours getting the recessed light cannisters in place, needing to call Dylan for assistance as a last resort. And Friday he’d had a faculty meeting that had dragged on and on before he’d had to scramble to make it to a vet appointment for Gizmo, which meant tomorrow he’d be scrambling to do his grading, probably one handed. But he couldn’t lay any of that on Zack.

He’d memorized the guidelines on one of his favorite military family websites for communicating during a deployment. Keep it light. Keep it positive. Avoid complaining or arguing. He’d tried hard to stick to that, not telling Zack when the moss green paint he’d picked had turned out first too minty then too gray. Hadn’t told him about Gizmo’s minor but expensive abscess. Hadn’t unloaded when his car needed new brakes or when the old dishwasher finally gave up the ghost. He wanted so badly to be what Zack needed during this time.

Yeah, he typed. Going great. Thinking of you too. The next part was tricky. He couldn’t really ask Zack how it was going or tell him to stay safe or any of the questions or pleas swirling around his head. Can’t wait to see you, he added finally.

The reply was much faster than usual. Me too. You have no idea. Be prepared for me to not let you out of bed for a week ;)

Pike glanced down at his throbbing wrist. He wasn’t going to be getting himself off, let alone Zack anytime soon. And then an image of the wrecked bedroom flashed behind his eyes—dust everywhere, furniture pushed aside, half of it in the hall, none of the prints he’d found on the walls yet, bedding still in bags. Hell, could he even make a bed one-handed? Fuck.

But he made himself peck out a cheerful emoticon laden reply with his good hand. Can’t wait. Love you.

He’d have a few days to pull everything together. This could still work out. It had to.

 

***

“Did you tell him?” Zack’s friend Morrison leaned over the seat to peer down at Zack’s phone.

“Nah.” Zack quickly pocketed the phone. His threat to keep Pike in bed for a week was not for public consumption. “I don’t want to ruin the surprise.”

“Dude. You’re such a romantic.” Morrison shook his head. “I already texted my woman with a list of what I want for dinner and what I want her wearing—”

“TMI.” Laughing, Zack held up a hand. “We can’t all be demanding fuckers like you. I don’t care what we eat. I just want to be home, and I want to see the look on his face. That’s all.”

Zack wasn’t really sure why he liked the idea of surprising Pike so much. Plenty of the guys would have their family waiting at the base when the transport landed, and he knew Pike would have happily dropped whatever he had going on to join them. But Zack liked more private reunions. Wasn’t sure he could trust himself not to lose it if he saw Pike standing there…

“You just want to avoid a public chewing out.” Morrison gave him a knowing look.

And okay. Yeah. There was that too. He was just a smidgen banged up.

“He’ll understand.” Zack shrugged, which hurt more than it should. “Part of the job.”

“Ha.” Morrison snorted. “That right there is some of my best patching up, and you still look like dog puke. And last year, I took a graze to my arm and Sheila acted like I’d been gut shot. So much fussing over me. Which wasn’t all bad. She’s really good at—”

“TMI,” Zach warned again. Thanks to this deployment, he’d learned far more about the talkative Morrison’s sex life than he really wanted to.

“I’m telling you, man. Much better to come clean now. Let him get his freakout out of the way so you don’t have to see.” Reyes butted into their conversation. His wife worked at the college where Pike taught, and Zack had made him promise to not mention his injuries. Which were minor. So minor. Everyone needed to just fucking chill.

“It’ll be fine,” Zack ground out.

“I can’t wait to see how big the baby is. I’m warning you guys right now, I’m going to fucking cry when I see them. And you—” Reyes gave him a hard stare. “—are a fucking idiot for not wanting your guy there when we touch down.”

Zack didn’t quite know what to say to that. Reyes was a huge SEAL, a human action figure all full of macho swagger. And he might joke about crying, but no way was the big guy going to really cry. And besides it was different. Zack didn’t like thinking about why, but it just was. Reyes and Morrison might be his boys, the guys who always had his six, but that didn’t mean others weren’t watching and waiting to see if the gay guy fell apart.

“Won’t be long now.” The senior chief passed by their seats. “Look sharp everyone. And Nelson, tell me you’re not stupid enough to attempt driving?”

The senior chief was one of his most favorite men on the planet, someone Zack respected immensely. So he couldn’t lie, but he sure could evade. “I’ll be fine.”

“Is your truck even on base?” Morrison rolled his eyes at Zack before giving a much more professional look to the senior chief. “Sheila and I will give him a ride. It’s on the way home.”

“Not too late to send that man of yours a text.” The senior chief nodded at Zack. “The wife had him over for dinner a couple of weeks back. Says he can’t wait to see you. He’ll deal with you being banged up, don’t worry.”

“I’m good.” Zack stayed resolute. No way was he falling apart in front of his fellow SEALs and no way was he telling Pike the truth about his injuries. Not when Pike was having a great weekend and expecting a guy—a healthy guy—to come fuck him through the mattress like Zack had so foolishly promised. Zack couldn’t burden him with the truth, not now.