Hobbled (6 page)

Besides Danny’s clippers, the young man was also holding a plastic bag full of dog poop, which explained everything. In one motion, he handed Danny the clippers back and flung the bag of dog poop over the hedge and into the yard next door. His yard.

“So,” the redhead said, sticking out his hand, “I’m Luke Jamison.”

“Nice to meet you,” Danny stammered, taking the hand and holding onto it for way too long because he really, really liked the way it felt. Then he came to his senses and realized how long he was holding onto Luke’s hand, which made him drop it like a live grenade. And that made him blush. He could feel the blood infusing his head all the way up to his cowlick. Christ, he hated that feeling.

Luke seemed to enjoy it. He blinked back a laugh. “Nervous?”

No, just head over heels in lust,
Danny wanted to say, but of course he didn’t. Instead, he started jabbering. And once he started, he couldn’t seem to stop. He became more horrified as the seconds passed and he just kept blathering on and on and on, but still he couldn’t seem to make himself shut up.

“You’re probably wondering about my ankle monitor and the cast and everything. It’s like this, see. My boss pissed me off, so I flipped the ice machine over to get back at him, and then I wasn’t watching what I was doing because I was busy throwing all the hamburgers out the drive-thru window and I slipped in the ice and broke my leg and the judge thought it was pretty funny but he didn’t think it was funny enough to let me off the hook scot-free so once my dad talked him out of making me go to jail, the judge slapped this monitor on my ankle and told me I have to wear it for six weeks and since this is just the second day I’ve still got nearly six weeks to go before it comes off but I’m not dangerous or anything so you don’t have to worry about living next to me and even if I was dangerous I can’t leave the yard or the red light comes on and then ten thousand cops will come and beat me to death with night sticks so you’d be safe anyway.”

Danny finally managed to force his mouth shut by sheer willpower, sort of like closing a rusty gate. Then he said, conversationally, sanely, nonchalantly, and as if he hadn’t been mindlessly jabbering for the last forty-five seconds like a lunatic, “And how about you? Moving in, huh?”

Luke gave a little headshake. “Wow. That was a whole lot of information there.”

He stared at Danny for a minute and finally seemed to come to the conclusion that Danny was normal. Danny couldn’t imagine why.

Without answering Danny’s question, Luke dropped to his knees and took a closer look at the monitor around Danny’s ankle. Him and the dog both checked it out. While he was checking it out, Luke cupped Danny’s calf in his hand and lifted the foot up closer to his face to get a better look.

Danny gasped at the feel of Luke’s hand on the skin of his leg, then he gasped again because he started to lose his balance, and when he started to lose his balance, he dropped the hedge clippers and reached out for the only thing available to brace himself against, which happened to be Luke’s head.

With his hand in Luke’s hair, and Luke’s hand on his bare leg, Danny thought he had died and gone to heaven. When Luke looked up at him with his face no more than a foot away from Danny’s crotch Danny figured this was a major improvement on heaven. Heck, heaven was probably
nothing
compared to this. Heaven was probably
Newark
compared to this.

Luke smiled up at Danny. He seemed to be inordinately amused by Danny’s wide, wide eyes looking down at him. “You’re enjoying yourself, aren’t you?”

Danny could only nod.

Luke stroked the back of Danny’s leg. He didn’t seem to be shy about it either. “So do you have a name or are you just known as the criminal mastermind of the neighborhood?”

That made Danny laugh. “Danny,” he sputtered, still engrossed with the feel of Luke’s hair between his fingers and Luke’s fingers on the back of his leg. “My name is Danny.”

Luke patted Danny’s calf and gave it a couple of strokes before releasing it and hauling himself to his feet.

“Well, this is going to be fun, Danny. Let’s get to know each other, what do you say?”

Luke looked down at the monitor on Danny’s right foot. He cocked his head to the side and stared at it for about five heartbeats, like he was thinking things over. Then he looked like he had thought things over long enough and had finally come to a decision.

“Your place it is then,” Luke finally said. “My place seems to be out of your, shall we say, comfort zone. Plus it doesn’t have any furniture in it. Plus they haven’t turned the water on yet.” Luke took Danny’s hand and pulled Danny in the direction of his front door.

Tail wagging, tongue lolling, Granger padded along beside them.

Two minutes later, they were drinking Cokes at Danny’s kitchen table. Except for Granger. Granger was having water and a bowl of cat food. It was the only pet food Danny had in the house.

Frederick was hissing from the top of the fridge at the fucking dog because the fucking dog was eating his fucking food and drinking out of his fucking dish. Frederick wasn’t big on sharing. Canine intolerant. That was Frederick.

Both Danny and Luke thought the cat’s reaction to Granger was pretty funny. Granger didn’t seem to care one way or the other. He was too busy scarfing up the cat’s Meow Mix to worry about the cat.

By the time Danny and Luke had drunk their first Cokes and scrambled around in the fridge for seconds, they were friends. Sometimes friendship just happens that way, Danny figured. Then he wondered if people ever fall in love that fast.

While trying to make sensible conversation and trying not to say anything stupid, and also trying not to get lost in Luke’s cornflower-blue eyes, which was a constant hazard, Danny was too busy and too inexperienced to know love sometimes does indeed happen that fast. In fact, it had already happened to him. He was just too untested in the ways of love to know it yet. When he did figure it out, it would either make him the happiest guy on the planet, or it would break his fucking heart.

Danny was also too inexperienced to understand
that
universal truth.

Chapter 3

L
UKE
was sitting at the kitchen table next to Danny, looking down at Danny’s cast. “So does that thing hurt?”

It did hurt a little, but Danny thought he would make more points by being stoic. “Nah. Itches though. Itches like crazy.”

Luke scooted his chair around until he was in a position to pick up Danny’s leg, the one with the cast on it, and place it in his lap.

“Gosh, it’s heavy,” Luke said. “Must be a bitch dragging this thing around all day.”

“No kidding,” Danny said, still shooting for stoic, with just a hint of heroic forbearance thrown in to make it more manly. Or so he hoped.

Danny was practically holding his breath by this time, wondering what was going to happen next. Under his shorts he was still commando, after all. Anything could pop up without warning. He couldn’t help wondering how fast his new neighbor would run out of the house if Danny’s dick suddenly poked its head out of the bottom of his shorts to say hello.

Blithely unaware of the thoughts running through Danny’s head, for which Danny was truly grateful, Luke gently slid his finger inside the top edge of Danny’s cast, just far enough in to make it snug. While he talked, he left it there. Oddly enough, that cool finger stuck inside his cast, made Danny’s itch go away. That one
particular
itch, anyway.

Unfortunately, it made the other itch worse.

Danny jumped when he felt his cock stir. To head it off at the pass, so to speak, he once again started talking without really thinking about what he was saying. Happily, this time he made a little sense.

“So you bought the house next door. It’s been vacant a long time. Hope you like the place. It’ll be nice to have neighbors again! Aren’t you a little young to buy a house? Or maybe I shouldn’t ask that. Sounds nosy.”

Luke smiled. He seemed to know Danny was uneasy, although Danny prayed to God Luke didn’t know
why
. With his index finger still tucked inside the top of Danny’s cast just below Danny’s knee, Luke placed his drink back on the table. While the fingers of his other hand were still cold from holding the soda, he started massaging the toes sticking out from the bottom of Danny’s cast. Danny actually had to close his eyes, it felt so good.

“My dad rented it with the option to buy,” Luke said, paying particular attention to Danny’s littlest piggy. Massaging it, flexing it, making it grunt with happiness like all happy little piggies do when they’re having the time of their lives. “My dad’s gay,” Luke added. “We moved here so he can be closer to his boyfriend. I don’t know if they’re going to move in together or not. I think Dad wants to be sure they are absolutely right for each other before he takes that final step.”

“Wow,” was all Danny could say to that. Then he said it again. “Wow.”

Still massaging the little piggy, Luke leaned forward and gazed deep into Danny’s eyes. “You aren’t homophobic, are you?”

“Who, me?” God, Luke’s eyes were blue. Oh, wait.
What
was he talking about? Danny did a rewind on the last few seconds and tried to forget about Luke’s eyes and catch up on the conversation.

Luke laughed. “Well, you looked a little stunned there for a second. I thought maybe—”

“No, I—wait. Your dad must already know the two of them are right for each other or he wouldn’t have packed up and moved here. By the way, where’d you move from?”

“Tucson.”

“That’s weird. My dad goes to Tucson a lot on business. He’s there now, as a matter of fact.”

“Small world.”

“So where’s your mom?”

“She died,” Luke said. “Long time ago. I was little.”

“Oh. I’m sorry. My mom lives in Indiana. She’s a bitch.”

“Oh,” Luke said. “
I’m
sorry.”

“So you’re still living with your dad, then,” Danny said. “Me, too. At least until I get on my feet.”

“You mean
both
feet,” Luke said, patting Danny’s cast.

And Danny laughed. “Yeah.
Both
feet.”

“It’s pretty much the same story with me. Pop and I are close. He didn’t want to move away from Tucson unless I came, too. I think he felt like he would be abandoning me if he did, although I am old enough to take care of myself.”

“Of course you are,” Danny said. “So am I, for that matter. So how old
are
you, if you don’t mind my asking.”

“I’ll be twenty.” Luke said.

“Oh.” He was older than Danny thought.

Luke plucked at Danny’s toe, as if to say “gotcha.” “In a year and a half, that is.”

Danny blinked. Then he got the joke. For some reason, Danny felt immense relief knowing the guy wasn’t actually older, although he wasn’t really sure why he felt that way. Maybe Danny simply felt safer knowing he and Luke were on a more even footing age wise. “Oh! Well, that’s cool. So am I. I’ll be twenty in a year and a half, too.”

“Well, aren’t we a pair.” Luke grinned, and Danny grinned right back.

Luke moved along to the second toe. Figured he would spread around the happiness, Danny supposed. And if that was really what he was doing, then he was succeeding admirably. Danny was happy as a clam. Oddly enough, Luke seemed to be enjoying it too.

They fell into a companionable silence, with Danny staring at Luke as if he simply couldn’t get enough, and Luke staring back at Danny through his bigass glasses with a gentle smile on his face. And when their eyes seemed to be a little
too
hooked into each other, Luke gazed about the room.

His eyes fell on a picture hanging on the wall by the window. It was a blown-up snapshot of Danny with his dad’s arm draped across his shoulder. They were standing in front of the polar bear tank at the San Diego Zoo. A polar bear was grinning behind them like it knew it was having its picture taken.

Luke laughed. “Cute bear. Is that your dad?”

Danny followed Luke’s eyes to see what he was looking at. “Oh. Yeah. That’s us at the zoo last summer.”

“Wow,” Luke said. “Your dad is hot.”

“I’m sorry. What?”

“No, really,” Luke said. “Look at him. He’s really hot.”

“Shut up!”

Luke laughed. He reached out and tucked his finger under Danny’s chin. Then he tilted Danny’s head until he was sure Danny was staring at the same picture he was. “Your dad looks like an actor or a model or something. Don’t tell me you never noticed it before.”

And now, truly looking at the picture for maybe the very first time in his life, Danny realized Luke was right. His dad really was a hottie.

“Gee. I honest-to-God never knew.”

Luke giggled. “I’ll bet.”

Danny was getting a little embarrassed talking about his dad like this, so to change the subject, sort of, he asked, “What does
your
dad look like?”

Luke shrugged. “Looks like me, I guess. Reddish hair. Kind of short. Also like me. I guess he’s good-looking enough.”

“If he looks like you,” Danny said, unable to stop himself, “then I don’t imagine he had much trouble finding a boyfriend.”