“So far gone you don’t remember, eh?” Kyle laughedagain. “You were pretty wasted, man.”
“Don’t remind me,” Matt muttered.
Kyle didn’t hear him. “We’re just about to head out,”he said. We’re, Matt caught that—so Jordan was spending thenight now, was he? “If you want to swing by here sometime today andtake a look out back, that’s fine with me. I’ll leave the gateunlocked. I’m working another double today so just come on bywhenever. Unless you want me to get it now and give it to Vic whenI see him? No guarantee.”
Matt could imagine how well that would goover. “I’ll just stop by on my way to the gym,” he said.
Back inside, he locked the balcony door, depositedthe phone book on the coffee table, and dropped the phone into itscradle. His sneakers made no sound as he headed down the hallway totheir bedroom, where Vic was nothing more than a dark shape beneaththe covers. Entering the room, Matt skirted the bed and sank to themattress beside his lover. One hand touched Vic’s shoulder, thentraced the shelf of his collarbone down to the middle of his chest.Beneath Matt’s fingers, a strong, steady pulse throbbed. He let histouch play up the thick cords of muscle in Vic’s neck, then aroundthe curve of his lover’s jaw, to rub gently behind Vic’s ear. Hisforefinger strayed over the tiny gold hoops in Vic’s earlobe, thenfollowed the shell-like whirls of his outer ear.
Beneath him, Vic drew in a rumbling snore thattapered off in a contented sigh. Matt leaned down and pressed hislips to his lover’s temple. “Love you,” he whispered.
A firm hand slipped from the sheets to cover Matt’sknee and Vic’s eyes fluttered open, but from the blank expressionin them, Matt knew his lover was still asleep. His next kisscovered Vic’s lips and those dark blue eyes closed again withanother sigh. Into Vic’s mind, Matt whispered, ::See youtonight.::
Vic’s love for him welled up in Matt like a hotflash. He caught Vic’s hand in his own, kissed the batteredknuckles, then tucked the blankets in around his lover beforeheading out. At the door he stopped and glanced back. Fromsomewhere deep within the bed sheets came a single thought.::Love you, too.::
Then Matt noticed the clock on Vic’s bedside tableand realized he’d better get going if he had to swing by Kyle’splace on his way into work. With quiet steps he headed down thehall, grabbing his gym bag on his way out the front door.
* * * *
Chapter 20
Matt slowed his car as he turned onto Kyle’s street.An eerie feeling of déjà vu settled over him—how many timesin the past had he been behind the wheel of his late model Jaguar,peering through the tinted windshield, out over the black hood, ashe approached Kyle’s house from the far end of the road? Before hemet Vic, how often had he swung by Kyle’s on his way to the gym,for a cup of morning coffee or after work, for a drink or two withhis friends? They used to have a lot of fun together—no matter whatVic thought of his coworker, Kyle was always good for a laugh, andmany times Matt had been close to giving into his insistentadvances because life had been so lonely back then. That fatefulday they went to the gym together, Matt remembered trying toconvince himself perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad, if he and Kyle…
He smiled at the memory, and glanced in the rearviewmirror to see his own lips grinning back. Then he’d met Vic, andthe whole stint with Kyle was over before it ever even began.
He slowed the car further, until he crawled down thestreet. But there were no cars in Kyle’s driveway, nor parked infront of his house, which had a closed air about it, as if devoidof life. At the curb, he eased to a stop and watched the house fora minute to ensure it was empty. If Kyle were running late,or Jordan had stayed behind…
But it appeared that no one was home.
Matt took his foot off the brake and the car inchedforward, until he could see the gate on the other side of the housethat led to the pool beyond. No one was hanging around, waiting forhim to arrive. The gate stayed shut, and none of the curtains onthe windows in the house fluttered or moved as if someone watchedhim from inside. Just go up already, he told himself. Itwasn’t trespassing—Kyle knew he was here. Just go and get itover with. If the phone’s there, fine. If not, you’ll just have toreport it lost when you get to work.
Goaded into action, Matt yanked up the parking brakeand turned off the ignition. He sat and listened to the engine tickas it cooled, but it was the only sound on the street. In the wholeworld, even.
What was he afraid of? He was alone, with noone around. What had happened on Saturday was in the past—Mattsuspected that neither Kyle nor Jordan had dwelled on the cookouthalf as much as he did himself. He was being stupid about the wholething, he knew it. At the moment, here, he was alone. No reason toget all riled up and worrisome when no one else was evenhome.
Pocketing the keys, he climbed out of the car andstood with a stretch. The slam of the car door echoed around thesubdivision like a gunshot, punctuating the silence.
Hands in the pockets of his shorts, Matt jogged upthe slight incline to Kyle’s gate. He tried to look like a man on amission—get the phone, get back in the car, get to work—and hopednone of the neighbors Kyle claimed were so damned nosy decided tocall the cops to report a trespasser. When he reached the gate,Matt risked a glance over his shoulder at the still empty street.His car sat like a black bruise in the otherwise pastel colors
