Jed tested his body again, surprised to find the ache in his abdomen had faded to a dull roar. His head felt clearer too. For the first time in days, the room didn’t spin. “Nah. Resting my eyes.”
“That old chestnut, eh?”
Max made his way back to the sofa and hovered, like he was considering helping Jed up, but thought better of it before Jed could wave him away and dropped back to his position on the floor.
Jed followed Max’s concentrated gaze to the coffee table. It was strewn with tools and what appeared to be a boat engine. He watched Max work for a while. Kim had told him Max shared Tess’s inability to sit still. She said he had two gears—manic and sleep—but as Jed watched him methodically reconstruct the engine, he was inclined to disagree. Jed didn’t have much interest in boats, but he knew the workings of an engine. As far as he could tell, Max was about done. Whatever his issues, he was clearly good with his hands.
Exhausted, Jed let his head drop back to the arm of the couch. The smell of oil and gasoline was comforting. If he closed his eyes, he could almost convince himself he was somewhere else, but the warmth of Max’s body just inches away kept him in the present. He’d lived in close quarters with other men for most of his adult life, but something about Max felt different. Jed drifted back to sleep with a strange sensation in his bones.
Chapter Seven
MAXTHREWa dead branch into the shallower waters of the lake. Flo charged after it, submerging herself up to her chest. Max laughed. He’d regret letting her get so wet later but couldn’t bring himself to care. It had been a strange week, and the sight of Flo bounding through the shimmering water was just what he needed to see.
The brutal scars on Jed’s leg haunted him. He was all too aware he’d caught Jed at a rare moment—that it was unlikely he’d find him so forthcoming again—but he couldn’t get the devastating injuries out of his head. He hadn’t known Jed long, and yet somehow, the quiet, brooding soldier had gotten under his skin.
Maybe it was the shock of discovering their shared sexuality. Max’s gaydar had always been crap, but he’d never been so blindsided before. He’d had no idea, and now it was all he could think about. Jed had been on Max’s mind since the moment he’d met him, but now that heknew… bloody hell. He couldn’t close his eyes without Jed’s rugged, unshaven jaw and shrewd gaze dancing behind his eyelids. The fact that Jed seemed to be under the weather only made it worse.
Not that Jed had admitted as much. He’d spent his first few days at the cabin crashed out on the couch, but aside from the first night at the cabin, and the conversation they’d had the day before, he hadn’t said much at all.
The sun disappeared below the horizon. Max called Flo and made his way inside the cabin. He hadn’t seen much of Jed in the past week or so. He seemed to have recovered from whatever had laid him low after Thanksgiving. He’d bought a truck from Dan Valesco and disappeared in it every other day. The days Jed was at home, he spent at the kitchen table absorbed in official-looking paperwork, and that was exactly how Max found him as he drifted into the kitchen in search of some supper.
Out of habit, he swiped the cooled, untouched mug of tea from the table and tipped it down the sink. Jed seemed to like the rooibos tea Max favored, but he often let his mugs go undrunk, like he forgot they were there. Max had taken to replacing them whenever he noticed. He drank the tea himself because it reminded him of his mother, Makemba. Even the smell of it soothed him, and took him back to a time he could sometimes barely remember.
Jed glanced up as Max set a fresh mug on the table. “Thanks. When did you get back?”
“A while ago.” Max stole a glance at the paperwork stacked on the table. A military ID card was partially hidden by an official-looking form. He forced himself to look away. “Flo wanted to play in the water.”
“Six-mile hike not enough for her?”
“We caught a lift back from Kim,” Max said. “She was going to come in and say hi, but she had to get Belle from a friend’s house.”
Jed opened his mouth to speak, but paused, catching sight of the reflective jacket Max set on the table beside him. “Is that yours or the dog’s?”
“Seriously? You think I’d wear purple? It’s Flo’s. She has to wear it when she comes into stores and stuff with me. The girls chose the color.”
“Hey, I like purple.”
Max scowled. He was all too aware that Jed oozed masculinity. He probablycouldwear purple and pull it off.
Jed set his pen down and picked up the light jacket. “On duty medical alert dog,” he read aloud. “That’s pretty cool.”
“If you say so.” Max thought it sucked that he had to broadcast his life story on the back of his dog. Bad enough he was stuck with a medical ID bracelet. “If you ever take her out without me, she still needs to wear it. She won’t stand for being tied up outside or left in the truck.”
“Why would I take her out without you? She never leaves your side.”
“Exactly. Sometimes I leave her with a friend and go stay with Kim to give her a break. It gives her a chance to be a normal dog. I could leave her here with you, right?”
Jed nodded. “Sure, but she keeps me on a pretty tight leash too. I’m not sure how much downtime she’d get.”
Max snorted, but it was true. Every moment Flo wasn’t watching him, she’d taken to standing guard over Jed. She didn’t hover to the extent she did with Max—didn’t follow his every step—but if Max was occupied with someone else, she naturally gravitated toward Jed.
Not that I blame her.Though Max hadn’t spent much time with Jed, on days like today, when Jed’s eyes twinkled and his grin was easy, Max foundhimselfinexplicably drawn to him.
He cast another wary glance over Jed’s pile of paperwork. “What’s all this?”
“Insurance bullshit.”
Jed’s tone was curt. Max considered it a dismissal until Jed sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. “I should’ve done it weeks ago, but I couldn’t find the right time at Nick’s place. It was too, uh….”