“Okay,” Cain relented.
“Okay?”
“Yeah, okay. We can use the hot tub after dinner. Because you saying the words ‘Remember who’s the Big Daddy’ just made mylife, so I’m giving you a pass. Use it wisely.” He pointed a threatening finger at Damon.
Damon grinned and pulled Cain even tighter. “I think we should probably use the hot tubnow. Just in case I say something else at dinner that makes you change your mind,” he said, and all Cain could do was laugh, because it was so true.
They did manage to wait until after dinner, mostly because Cain’s stomach had started to growl just then. Damon cooked rice and reheated the chicken they’d bought, while Cain ran their bags upstairs, got the hot-tub set up, and assembled a salad. They worked together in a coordinated way, shuffling around each other with a practiced ease that Cain wouldn’t have thought possible. While the chicken was in the oven, Damon hefted himself up onto the counter and occupied himself by alternately stealing cucumber slices as fast as Cain could cut them, and trying to read the script of Cain’s tattoo. Not a second went by when Damon wasn’t trying to touch him or tease him into laughter. “That cutting board too high for you, kiddo? Big Daddy’s got it.”
Maybe it was odd that the simple act of assembling a meal with someone was somehow imbued with meaning, but it seemed that way to Cain. He loved how they’d been able to have a serious discussion out on the porch, one where Damon had allowed himself to be vulnerable and validate Cain’s feelings about his father, and all that good, important stuff… and then devolve into teasing over stupid jokes.
He’d never experienced a connection like this - sure as hell not with his family, and not even with his friends. The fact that he’d found it with someone so sexy, sokind, was damn near unbelievable.
Cain was a pretty fatalistic person - he knew this about himself. Bad shit happened all the time, scales were balanced one way or another. But rather than wasting his time wondering how this thing with Damon would all come crashing to an end, he found himself wanting to just enjoy their time together. This crazy, shitty, wonderful adventure that he and Damon were on could end tomorrow… probablywouldend tomorrow, when they found whatever evidence they were looking for, or pretty soon after, if there were no evidence to be found. Either way there was no way Cain’s life would ever be the same, and there was no wayCainwould be the same, either.
If he ended up alone a month from now, laying in the single bed in his parents’ house, thinking back on this crazy step out of time with Damon, he wanted to have plenty of good memories stored up to fight the inevitable bad.
And that was why, when the last bites of dinner had been consumed, the last of the dishes washed and put away, Cain took Damon by the hand, and led him upstairs.
