Out to Lunch

by Anah Crow and Dianne Fox
14 pages / 7000 words
Available file types - html, lit, pdf, prc

Denny is on the mend, finally feeling well enough to get back into the swing of things. He's still nervous about being seen in public with Sully, worried what people will say if they're seen together. Denny's willing to try to get over his fears, though, and lunch with Sully seems like a good start. Will he work up the courage to finally show the world how he feels?

Sample

Denny stood on one foot in the kitchen, washing dishes. He could get around better and better every day, but he liked to try and stay off his bad foot when he could. He had damn good balance now, at least. Upstairs, Sully was getting ready for work. From the sound of things, Sully was putting away the laundry while brushing his teeth.

Denny loved standing in the kitchen and listening. Sometimes, just the sound of Sully living in the same house made Denny so happy that he hardly knew what to do. He would just stand there and breathe through it, like it was a pain. The last dish went into the rack and it was time to go. Denny took a breath and called upstairs, "We can pick coffee up on the way in, so don't be waiting around for me to make it today."

Today, he was dropping Sully off at work and taking the truck to run errands and do some shopping. He'd been trying not to think about it. Today, they'd pull up at the track, and he'd drop Sully off and drive off in Sully's truck. Sitting down to put his shoes on and adjust the pressure bandage on his bad leg let him bang his head on his own knee in frustration. No one was going to think anything of it. No one cared. But it scared him anyway. He couldn't make that stop.

Sully came down a little while later, still pulling his T-shirt down over his chest. He was tanned all the way down to the waist of his pants, his freckles blending right in with the deep bronze of his skin. Sully's feet hit the bottom of the stairs and he started tucking the shirt into his pants at the same time. "You wanna swing a little out of the way, pick up coffee from that place over on Bunting that does the caramel swirl on top of the whipped cream?" he asked, heading straight on over to the closet to get his boots like nothing was different than any other morning.

Whipped cream and caramel... and Sully's skin... "Wait, what?" Denny realized that he'd about tied his finger in his own shoelaces. "Coffee, yeah," he said, trying to recover. God, Sully was so hot. "Sure." Denny was going to hell for damn good reason, that was certain. He got up and limped over to pick the keys up off of the ledge in the entryway. At least once a day it still hit him that he and Sully lived in a house. A house. Not a trailer.

Denny could smell Sully's aftershave, spicy and warm, when he got close, and then there was an arm around his waist and he was being dragged in against Sully's body. The keys, apparently, would have to wait.

 "Good morning," Sully rumbled, angling in to brush his mouth over Denny's.

Denny laughed into the kiss, surprising himself. "It is."