Devlin and Garrick by Cameron Dane (short story to read txt) 📕

fit man, not the wide shoulders and thicker bulk Devlin remembered of Gradyn Connell. This man’s skin was a handful of shades lighter than the allover tan skin Devlin remembered kissing from top to bottom. This person had raven-black hair, long enough that some of it was pulled back with an elastic band, and the rest looked as if it had worked loose of that band over the course of the morning. And fucking hell, the thing that Devlin couldn’t believe with his own eyes--fucking shit--this man didn’t have so much as a dot of indigo ink anywhere on his face, into his hairline, or down his neck. Devlin had touched those tattoos; he’d licked them and gotten into a shower with that man multiple times over that weekend in San Francisco. No way had they been surface ink. What the hell?

“Dev.” Maddie jabbed him in the shoulder. “You’re being rude.”

“Sorry.” Devlin snapped back into the moment and realized the man still had his hand reached out in offering. “Garrick, you said?” Devlin asked. He slid his hand into the warm clasp of this person who was not a stranger.

Damned well wasn’t any Garrick Langley either, whoever that was.

“Yes, my name is Garrick,” the guy said as he shook Devlin’s hand. “And I take it you’re Maddie’s other brother? I’ve met the chief already.”

You’ve met me too, you bastard. You fucking lived inside me for almost forty-eight hours straight.

Devlin didn’t let go of “Garrick’s” hand when the man made to pull away. “Yep, I’m Devlin, the other brother,” he replied. That not right blue gaze shot to his, and the long fingers clasped around his contracted.

“You seem familiar,” Devlin pushed. “Are you sure we haven’t met?”

“I just moved to Redemption a month ago.” Garrick narrowed his stare, as if studying Devlin under a microscope. “I don’t think we’ve crossed paths in town.”

Devlin noticed he didn’t exactly answer the question. “Where were you before you came here?”

“DC.”

Not San Francisco. Or Oakland. Didn’t matter. Maybe Garrick--formerly known as Gradyn, Devlin damned well knew it--had moved from one coast to the other with his girlfriend after they got married.

“How’s your wife?” Devlin asked.

That got the man tugging against their handhold again, and this time Devlin let him go. “I’m not married.” Confusion mapped the guy’s tattoo-free features and raised his voice higher. He held up his ring-less left hand, and there wasn’t any leftover tan line in sight from something he might have recently removed. “Never have been.”

Maddie suddenly pounced and landed a stinging punch on Devlin’s arm. “What the hell is wrong with you?” She turned to Garrick and put a hand on his wrist. “G, I’m sorry my brother’s being such a jackass. If it makes you change your mind about helping me restore the Trans Am for him, I understand.”

“No, it’s okay.” Garrick waved his hand in a dismissive manner. He crouched back down and sat on the edge of the rolling board. “I obviously look like someone he knows. That has to be kind of weird. No harm done. Nice to meet you, Devlin.” The guy looked up at Devlin and held his gaze in silence for a prolonged heartbeat. “I hope I’ll see you again.” Then he lay back on the board and disappeared under the car.

Devlin rubbed his arm and tried to warm away the goose bumps that had lifted under his skin. For that split second Garrick had stared at him, Devlin had felt naked.

Just like Gradyn made me feel five years ago in that club.

“What the hell, Dev?” Maddie jabbed his arm again, her punch as good as any featherweight boxer. “Come with me before I change my mind about restoring this car for you.”

She grabbed his arm, and Devlin let Maddie drag him across the spacious, open building to the far back corner of the garage. His thoughts remained on Garrick, though, now some fifty feet behind him. Something suddenly hit Devlin. Garrick had forgotten the replacement light he’d initially asked Maddie to hand him. He had slid under the Accord again, under the pretense of working, without a light.

He hid himself under that car. Away from me. He damn well knows who I am. And now he knows I recognize him too.

Question upon question spun in Devlin’s head. Why was Gradyn calling himself Garrick now? Or was Garrick real, and Gradyn the lie? Why had he so drastically altered his appearance? Why was he pretending he and Devlin had never met? And why had he come to Redemption?

Devlin had nothing but time on his hands these days, and he intended to find some answers.

* * * *

Devlin stared at his computer screen and scanned through the list of e-mails in “Gradyn’s” folder. Six months worth of communication, and he couldn’t help smiling at some of the subject lines from Gradyn to him. Miss You, Devlin and Horny Tonight and Something Cool I Had To Tell You and A’s Beat Bo-Sox, Suck It and I Want Your Cock So Bad, just to name a few. A handful that dealt with more serious subject matters were mixed in too. So Sorry About Your Mom and Daddy Issues? Heh. Can You Have Those If You’ve Never Had One? and Lost An Old Friend Today; I Fucking Hate Meth.

Then Devlin glanced over the ones that had come during the last month of their long-distance relationship, where the subject matter had changed to increasingly benign, until the final one, with the header I Have To Tell You The Truth.

Highlighting it, Devlin opened the e-mail, as he’d done a thousand times the first few months after receiving it. Since then, he had avoided it and the stab of betrayal it sent through his gut each time he read the words.

Devlin--I had fun with you, please don’t think everything was a lie. I met you at a tough time in my life, a place where I was in transition and had to make some huge choices. I needed to know