SKYLER CLENCHED HIS HANDS. HE HAD NEVER wanted more to grab someone and slam their face into the ground.
He gritted his teeth, stomped back over to their blanket, and threw himself into his chair.
Keith shifted toward him. “Skyler, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” And then he realized he was clenching his arms over his chest. He tried to relax, smoothing his hands over the chair arms instead. “It was just…someone…” He turned to face Keith and took a deep breath. “I was told to tell you ‘Ethan says hi’.”
Keith’s face fell. “Ethan? What did he look like?”
“What did he look like? He looked like me!”
“Oh shit.” He snapped to his feet, looking around, searching, when the lights suddenly dimmed.
Slowly he sat as the orchestra leader strode onto the stage amid the audience’s applause. “I’m…I’m sorry about that,” he said to Skyler’s ear.
“I take it he’s an ex,” whispered Skyler.
“A very ex ex,” said Keith softly.
“Boy, he sure looks like me.”
Blowing out a breath, Keith leaned his head back. “I told you I have a type.”
“I know. I just didn’t realize how…typey…it is.”
“Skyler, I am not with him anymore. I’d never be with him again. I’m with you. End of story.”
A woman behind them hissed a “Shhhhhh!”
Skyler whipped around. “Do you mind? I’m having an important conversation.”
“Yes, I do mind,” she said. “I can’t hear the music.”
“Really? A full orchestra and you can’t hear it?”
An arm grabbed him and yanked him from his seat. Keith marched him up the path away from the picnicking audience and to the street. “There’s no need to make a scene, Skyler.”
Feeling embarrassed he looked away. “I know. I’m sorry. He just…came out of nowhere with this kind of…slithering attitude. Who is he anyway? Is he the one who…”
“Yes. He’s the one.”
Skyler recalled Keith’s telling him about his other boyfriends. Even his family made fun of Keith’s predilection for young, blond men. But there was one who had cheated on Keith and Skyler was guessing it was this guy. “What’s he even doing in Redlands?”
Eyes still scanning the crowd, FBI senses no doubt kicking in, Keith shook his head. “No idea. What else did he say?”
“Just a lot of snarkiness. ‘You know how to pick ‘em’, that sort of thing. Even asked me if I was a natural blond.”
“That asshole,” he muttered.
Skyler drummed his fingers on his crossed arms. “I hope you weren’t with him very long.”
“I wasn’t. I can’t believe I fell for him at all.”
“Neither can I. I thought you had better taste than that.”
“I thought I did, too. I do now,” he said, staring pointedly at Skyler.
“What do you suppose he wants?”
“I don’t know.” He resumed scanning.
“He knew my name.”
Keith halted his search and glued his gaze to Skyler’s. “He what?”
“Called me by name. Knew we were together.”
“Must have caught all that stuff on the internet.”
“Lovely. Is he going to get all stalkery?” Yup. Self-defense class was looking better and better.
“He’d better not,” Keith all but growled. “Look, don’t worry about it. I’ll have my friends at the Bureau check it out, find his local address, if he has moved here.”
Skyler’s arms were still tight across his chest. “I don’t know what you saw in that guy.”
Keith’s slow smile replaced the stoic expression. “You’re jealous.”
“I am not!”
“You are.” Keith moved closer and enclosed Skyler in his arms. “But you don’t need to be. I love you. There’s no one else in my heart.”
“But you loved him once.” He could have kicked himself for the petulant way that came out. He squirmed against Keith’s chest.
Keith hugged tighter. “No, I don’t think I did. I’d remember this feeling.”
Skyler looked up. Keith’s blue eyes gazed down tenderly at him.
“Oh.” He let Keith hold him a moment longer before he gently extricated himself.
Well wasn’t that nice. Had he been jealous? He felt suddenly ridiculous. An old snarky boyfriend? He was pretty sure Keith would have gotten over that. And he really looked nothing like Skyler when he thought about it. Sure he was blond, but a fake sort of California surfer blond. Maybe he wasn’t the natural blond.
Speaking of snarky.
But on thinking of Keith’s words he did feel better. “I’d remember this feeling.” It made Skyler’s belly squirm in a good way. Keith loved him, dammit, not this other guy. He raised his chin, doing some looking around himself. What an asshole. But he wasn’t thrilled with the idea that someone might be stalking Keith…and then it just as quickly occurred to him that this Ethan might be stalking him.
He took out his phone. “I, uh, have to make a call…” He hit Jamie’s number even as Keith slipped back into FBI mode to search the grounds.
“Skyler, are you at the concert?”
“Yes. Are you?”
“Yeah, we just arrived. Left a little later than we planned.”
“It’s already the second half.”
“I know but Dave and I sort of lost track of time…know what I mean?” He giggled.
Rolling his eyes, Skyler switched the phone to his other ear, trying to be as quiet as he could at the edge of the crowd. “Yeah, I know. So where are you?”
“We’re making our way to your blanket. But where are you?”
“Coming right back.” He cupped the phone and tried to keep it down so Keith wouldn’t hear. “I have stuff to tell you…after the concert.” He shut down the phone and slipped it back into his pocket. Keith was still straining to scan the crowd. “Let’s get back to our blanket. Jamie and Dave are joining us.”
They stepped carefully through the lawn chairs and other picnic blankets and returned to their seats. The woman behind him made an exasperated sound. He couldn’t stop himself from turning to her and saying, “It’s the William Tell Overture. I know you’ve heard it before.”
“Skyler,” warned Keith, and Skyler sat just as a lanky man with bright acid orange hair and another taller muscled man with dusty blond hair, wended their way toward them. They shuffled, making room for their guests, and Keith offered them wine from two more glasses.
Skyler ignored one more shush from Shushing Lady and settled in, trying to enjoy the music. But Jamie sidled closer and in his ear said, “So what’s going on with the self-defense class?”
Glancing back toward Shushing Lady, Skyler motioned to him with a finger to his lips. Jamie sighed, sipped his wine, and leaned his orange-haired head against Dave.
A little after ten, the orchestra took their final bows, the lights in the park came up, and the audience began cleaning up their picnic areas.
“So what’s this about a class?” asked Jamie. Dave and Keith were folding chairs and packing up their cooler.
He pulled Jamie aside. “You’ll never guess who I ran into tonight.”
“Who?”
“Keith’s. Old. Boyfriend.”
“No way.”
“Way. And he looks exactly like me.”
“Wow. Keith’s personal Stepford wives.”
“No kidding.”
“Wait…what’s he doing here in Redlands? I thought his former beaus were in Colorado or Washington or someplace like that.”
“Exactly! He made a point of coming up to me to say hello. Knew my name and everything. He’s up to something.”
“Oooo. Shall I call the Scooby Gang?”
“No, no.” He pulled Jamie farther away from Keith and Dave. “I’m going to keep an eye out though, that’s for sure, but no funny business. Though now I’m really gung-ho for this class.”
“Right! So where and when?”
“At the community center at seven. Will you go?”
“Sure. Dave thinks it’s a good idea, too. Everything’s been rainbow flags lately but there are still homophobes out there.”
“Yeah, okay. Good. I feel better going with a friend.”
“So do you guys want to catch a drink at the Shakespearean?”
“I still have my duties here. But if everyone is going, I’ll catch up.”
Jamie turned to their respective boyfriends. “Hey, guys. Want to hit the Shakespearean?”
Keith rolled up the blanket in a lump which Skyler tugged out of his hand and folded neatly instead. “I have an early call on the football field, but I could go for one.”
Dave nodded. “I’m still off this week. Might as well party while I can.”
“My fire-fightin’ man,” cooed Jamie.
Keith grabbed the chairs while Dave took the cooler. “I’ll take this stuff to the car, okay Skyler?”
“Okay. I should be done in around twenty minutes.” He watched them go. The park was clearing out in record time. In twenty minutes no one would be left. He began picking up trash left behind. “No matter how many trash cans you have, there are people who are just ignorant slobs,” he muttered. He dumped the glass bottles and cans into the recycling bins, waving to the other volunteers across the lawn doing the same.
Once or twice out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a blond head nearby, but every time he whipped around, they had disappeared into the crowd. “Stepford creep,” he murmured.
After twenty minutes, sure enough, the place was deserted. He waved his good-byes to the rest of the staff and was making ready to leave when he noticed a lone figure still sitting in the benches.
Coming closer, he realized it was Mr. Huxley. The man had obviously fallen asleep. Skyler approached and knelt beside him. Gently he shook his shoulder. “Mr. Huxley? The concert is over. Time to go. Mr. Huxley?”
But when the man slid over and fell to the bench, Skyler could see the froth at his lips, his bulging eyes, and the fact that he was not sleeping at all.