“I love it. It smells like you.”
He wanted to take Sky the pretty way home, but one of the roads on that route was bumpy where the frost heaves never settled back flat, and he was worried about Sky’s hip. Not that his road was smooth, but it was shorter. Instead he headed straight north on Route 7.
“It’s a half-hour drive. Sorry. Pretty much everything up here is a half-hour drive. If you need me to pull over, please speak up. Okay? Let’s do this right.”
“I will. I won’t puke in your Jeep. Promise.” Sky’s hat was pulled down hard, shadowing his face, hiding him away. “You nervous about me being in your house?”
Yep.
Except he was trying to think of it as their house.
“Remember that time I puked in your truck?” He laughed and ignored Sky’s question. “I thought you were going to divorce me.”
“Lord, yes. You were sick as a dog. Shit, baby. You know it’s love when you clean another man’s puke up and don’t kill him.”
You know it’s love.
But whether it was love was never their issue, was it? He loved Sky deeply. At one point, passionately. It might look a little different now—older, beat up, tarnished—but it was the same love.
He reached over and took Sky’s hand. “It’s love.”
“Sure it is, baby. It always has been.” Sky got it, he knew. Sometimes love wasn’t enough to put a square peg in a round hole.
He wondered what shape they were now.
The rest of the drive was quiet. When they got close, he pointed out Lewis Creek and his post office, but really it was a long drive through the country, and there wasn’t much but farms and trees to see and the Green Mountains off to the east. He lived in the middle of nowhere.
“This is Charlotte. Not ‘Char-let.’ It’s pronounced ‘Char-lot’ up here. Or, if you’ve lived here all your life, it’s ‘Shlot.’” He laughed. “Heinsburg is up the road that way, I run a lot of errands up there. Burlington is due north another half hour.”
Beckett turned onto his road and slowed way down. It was hard-packed but hadn’t ever been paved, and between the washboards and the potholes, it could be a bumpy ride.
“How much land did you end up buying? Did you build?” Sky was watching everything with interest.
“No, I bought a house. I only have ten acres but it’s pretty, and I’ve been working on the house steadily. It’s in great shape.” Until a year ago, when he wasn’t working or on the water, he was working on the house. There wasn’t much to do now, just little projects. “It took me almost seven months to find what I wanted. I rented in Middlebury for a while after I partnered with Adam.”
It had taken Adam a year to convince him to move to Vermont, and less than a month for Beckett to decide he was staying. He loved it.
“Cool. Lots of trees.” Sky shifted and stretched, lips tight as he moved. “How’s your folks?”
The question of “What did you tell them about me?” was clear as a bell.
“They’re good. Dad retired last year, and Mom is helping Ali with her brood. She’s up to three now, the two you missed are both boys. Mom says she’s done, but I think Gary wants another. Dad comes up every couple of months, he loves it up here. Especially the boat.”
He cleared his throat as he turned into his driveway. “He asks about you every time I talk to him.” Mostly Dad asked if Sky had killed himself yet. But Dad had been asking that about Sky since they got back from their honeymoon.
“I’m sure he does. Did you tell him I came close this time, but he has to have patience?”
“I haven’t told him anything yet.” They didn’t talk that often anymore, which was probably for the best because he had no idea what he’d say anyway.
He rounded a stand of trees. He pointed to his two-story, renovated farmhouse. “That’s the place.”
Beck pulled through the circular driveway and parked at the end of the newly installed ramp that led up to the deep front porch.
“It’s gorgeous. Seriously. You did good.” Sky patted his hand, the touch gentle, almost sweet.
“You like it?” He climbed out, got Sky’s walker, and went around to the passenger side. “Did you see who’s waiting for you?” He pointed at Walter, who was hanging out in the living room window.
Sky chuckled softly, shaking his head at the sight. “I bet he ignores me. He’s a butthead when his feelings are hurt.”