“I did,” Dr. Adams answered, his tone causing Landon to take a closer look. Dr. Adams lowered his head, staring down into his lap. “I told you a sign brought me here.” Something had suddenly changed; his voice held a hint of desperation. Instinct more than anything else told Landon it was time to press for the truth.
“Let me ask you a different way.” Landon forced himself to sit up to face Dr. Adams when he said, “What’re you running from that brings you halfway across the world?”
“You think you know me?” The words and tone said something different than the playfulness dancing in Dr. Adams’s eyes as he lifted a single brow.
Yeah, in another place and time, that look would have been sexy as hell. Now though, wasn’t that time. “No, I don’t know you, not at all. I don’t even know people like you, so I don’t know how to guess. It’s why I have to ask.”
“What does ‘people like me’ mean?” Dr. Adams asked, the fun tone vanished as his eyes narrowed and his brow dropped into a hard V. The intensity coming off the man kind of impressed Landon who lifted his good hand in a peace offering.
“Don’t get defensive. I meant sophisticated, if that’s the right word?”
Dr. Adams did another one of his sudden visual mood shifts and started laughing. Shit, this wasn’t working out well for Landon at all. The man had a wonderful laugh, even if it was directed at him, and his dick took notice, plumping underneath his hospital gown.
“You mean stuffy,” Dr. Adams corrected, his face filled with amusement as he gave Landon a racy teasing look.
“You’re messing with me on purpose, and I can’t really tell if you’re joking, so let me tell you something I haven’t said because I didn’t know if I should. When you’re contemplating your signs and their meaning to your life and whether you should open yourself to understanding this world is bigger than you thought, you need to know I stood as the honor guard on duty the night you stayed with your father while he sat by your dad’s casket.”
The air stood completely still. The confession caused Landon’s heart to drum steadily in his chest as he stared at the utter shock filling Dr. Adams’s face. He waited through the range of emotion until disbelief hit, and he narrowed his eyes, shifting toward Landon for a closer look. “That was you?”
He clearly didn’t believe him.
“I volunteered to stay all night with you both.” Landon scrunched his face into his serious I’m-a-badass-sergeant expression then put a hand to his brow partially covering his face like the brim of his wheel cap would do. Recognition instantly filled those blue eyes.
“I tried to find you to thank you. Did you get my email?” Dr. Adams asked, sitting back in astonishment, like Landon had given the best possible gift. He seemed sincerely appreciative, not in the least bit angry that Landon hadn’t mentioned this before now.
“I did. The email was forwarded to me by my CO, but I didn’t do it for a thank-you. I’m not kidding when I say your father was a great man. I moved heaven and earth to get there. I owed Vice President Adams my respect to watch over him as an honor guard, but when I watched his husband, in person with my own eyes, grieve like he did, I realized true love was possible for guys like me.” Landon didn’t waver in speaking his truth, damn the consequences of confessing his belief in something so filled with romance and lacking in any solid reason.
“Do you have someone in your life?” Dr. Adams asked, shifting closer, leaning toward Landon. “I decided I thought you had to have.”
“No, I don’t. Not yet, but I’ll be open to it when it happens. I didn’t grow up around gay men. I had no idea what was going on with me. I keep saying that to you, but I struggled mightily. I couldn’t accept it. I contemplated suicide many times, even came close to following through a couple of times. I was disgusted and thought I was broken… I didn’t have to worry about my family being hard on me; I was doing it to myself. I lived a destructive, nightmare of a life, then I read your father’s books and he gave me hope, but for a different reason than I’ve said.”
Landon took a deep breath, not really questioning why he was laying out the locked away secrets of his life, and the fairytales he believed in. “The true meaning to Vice President Adams’s life was his husband. I felt their connection in every word the man wrote. Then, when I stood watch with you and your father overnight, seeing him sit for hours holding onto the casket, not wanting to let his husband go—I saw the strength of their love, and the depth of their bond, with my own eyes. The next morning, I left as a different man. Even in death, the love between those two men couldn’t be denied. Your parents helped me realize everyone deserves a love that powerful.”
Landon had so much emotion driving his words that he could feel the tears welling in his eyes and forced himself to shut his mouth, to stop the insane information dump he was giving, and swallowed the lump threatening to clog his throat.
Landon wasn’t the only one emotional. Dr. Adams’s eyes were red and tear-filled. He bent, lowering his head as he dug his finger and thumb into his eyes, not saying a single word to what Landon had just confessed.
“Let me be there for you like you’ve been here for me. Tell me why you’re really here. I know you’re hurting over your fathers’ deaths…” Landon started, trying to help in any
