Anna Keaton: The Game

But God damn it, he loved Leon with all his heart.

"What's the job market like for someone like me?" he asked. He could run just about every type of heavy machinery made, was certified to work on most of it too. But in this economy, finding a job wouldn't be easy. Giving up the one he had might be close to insane.

"I picked up the job listings for the city. I have it in my briefcase in the car. There are jobs, babe."

Nick frowned.

"There's a second bungalow on the property," Leon said.

"It's a one-bedroom with a tiny kitchen, but the bathroom is decked out with a Jacuzzi tub. It needs a little remodeling, but I think Aunt May might—"

"Wait. You want to move Aunt May to Maine ? She grew up in that old monstrosity she lives in. She's not going to move anywhere. Especially not to some little shack." Nick shook his head.

Leon looked a little sheepish.

"What did you do?"

Leon pressed his lips together.

Nick closed his eyes a moment. "You talked to her, didn't you? That's why you asked when I'd talked to her last. You wanted to know if she mentioned this to me, didn't you?"

"I e-mailed her some pictures of the place, then called her to see what she thought."

"And...?"

"She wanted me to get information about the local senior centers and...nightlife."

Nick rolled his eyes. "Oh, God."

"She asked if we'd be comfortable there. How conservative the area was."

"How conservative is it?" Nick asked.

Leon shrugged. "They're not lynching any fags lately, if that's what you mean."

That drew a small chuckle from Nick.

"Nick. Maine just legalized gay marriage. I didn't find any strictly gay bars, though I heard about at least one. But there's a lot less stigma to being gay there than there is here.

It's a small city, pretty close-knit. When I was offered the job, I came right out and told them I was gay, and they couldn't care less. In fact, one of the partners of the law firm is gay, and he was one of the biggest supporters for gay rights that helped get marriage legalized."

Hate crimes against gays had gone up in Seattle in the past couple of years. Nick had to keep his lifestyle secret at his job because he worked with a bunch of macho fucks who made antigay comments on a regular basis. They had no idea where he lived, or who he lived with. He hated it. But he liked being employed, especially when that was at a premium these days. A union job with benefits was as good as it got.

Nick leaned his elbows on the table and propped his head in his hands. They shouldn't be having this conversation now, not after the amazing sex they'd had. They should be finishing their drinks, heading home, and crawling into the crisp, clean sheets he'd put on the bed that morning, snuggling with each other and Charlie, their ten-year-old half-blind, half-deaf pound mutt.

"What about Mom?" Nick asked.

"She's going to marry Bill."

Nick's head snapped up. "What?"

"That's what Aunt May says."

"How the hell does she know?"

Leon shrugged. "She knows a lot of shit she shouldn't. But she's almost never wrong. You know that."

He did. And if Aunt May said it was so, it most likely was.

Bill wasn't a bad guy, but he was ten years younger than his mom, and that creeped Nick out a little.

Leon leaned back in his chair and dug into his pocket—not an easy feat with the skintight leather—and pulled something out he gripped in his hand.

"What's that?" Nick asked, sitting back in his chair and lifting his drink.

"Something...to think about."

Nick scowled and downed the rest of his drink. "Like you haven't given me enough already? Shit, Lee, you want me to move to the other side of the world."

"Just the country, Nick. Not the world."

Nick sighed. Like that made any difference. A trip to Oregon was a big deal to him, even though they did it often.

Change scared him, and Leon knew it. It'd taken two years of heavy persuasion before Nick had agreed to move in with him. Another year and half before he was ready to buy a house with him. Before Leon, he'd been, well, kind of a slut.

He hadn't dated any one guy more than three times until Leon came along and wouldn't leave him alone. And he'd been so free because he didn't want the change that a relationship would bring.

And God, there'd been change. Leon was a neat freak.

Don't leave clothes on the bathroom floor. Don't leave dirty dishes in the sink, put them in the dishwasher. Don't drink out of the milk carton....

Nick scrubbed his hands over his face. Even when Leon was out of town now, he picked up after himself and poured the damned milk into a glass, even if he was the only one to drink the fucking milk from that particular carton.

What would be the biggest change, though? Moving to Maine or losing the love of his life? Because he could see it in Leon's eyes. He wanted this job. And if he didn't take the job because Nick refused to go, he might lose Leon anyway.

"Aunt May's really into it?"

Leon grinned. "She already contacted a real estate agent about selling her house."

"Good luck with that," Nick muttered. May's house was a hundred years old. Nick and Leon sank a small fortune into it last year just to get the wiring and plumbing up to code before she either flooded or caught fire. This fall the goal was to tackle the heating.

"Someone'll want it, even if it's to demolish the house. It's on prime property."

Then why replace the furnace if a wrecking ball would be taken to it?

Leon reached over and took Nick's hand in his again.

"Babe. I'm serious. I know how you feel about moving, about leaving Seattle, about..."

"Say it."

"Change."

Nick nodded.

"I won't go without you. You're stuck with me."

"But you want this."

Leon nodded. "It's a beautiful place to live."

"I've heard of nor'easters. Doesn't sound so damned beautiful to me. And last year a hurricane almost hit there."

"Our basement flooded twice last spring, and we're all waiting for another major earthquake," Leon reminded him.

Nick wanted to pout, to stomp his foot. Instead he let out a slow breath. "When do you have to tell them if you're taking the job or not?"

"Next Friday."

One week. Nick clenched his teeth. Not time enough for him to even fly out there and check it out first. Fuck, he hated planes, too.

A slow smile slid over Leon's handsome face. "We'll rent an RV. Drive cross country. You, me, May, and Charlie."

Nick's jaw dropped. "You're fucking kidding, right?"

Leon's grin grew. "No. You've never been anywhere. We can stop at the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, Niagara Falls. May would love it."

Nick jerked his hand from Leon's. "Hold up. First you want me to move across the country, then you want me to do it slowly with my wacky aunt and a half-blind St. Bernard? Are you nuts?"

"Yes, I am. And you'll love it. You have never, in the five years we've been together, taken more than a three-day weekend. You need a vacation. You need to relax. You need three weeks traveling cross country in a big ol' RV with your family."

His family.

He looked into Leon's dark eyes and saw the truth there.

He, May, even old Charlie, were his family. His mom had a new life, one that increasingly nudged him away. She didn't need him to come over and unclog her garbage disposal or fix her washer when it went psycho on her. She had another man in her life when Nick had been the only one for nearly three decades.

Aunt May still needed him, though, since he seemed to be the only one able to understand her strangeness. He liked it.

She was as sharp as a tack and as odd as a three-dollar bill.

Did Leon need him, though? Would he go on without Nick?

Of course, he would. He was a stunningly handsome, college-educated man. Any gay man in his right mind would gladly bend over for him.