Beyond The Music (The Rock Gods Book 7) (24 page)

“I’ll take the same, please,” Aaron told the waitress. Once she was gone, Aaron directed his attention back to Lincoln. “Thank you for going to the nursing home with me,” Aaron finally said.

“Well, to be fair, I didn’t know that’s where you were taking me.” Lincoln smirked.

Aaron nodded and smiled faintly. “True, but you could have stayed behind in the car and you didn’t,” Aaron said. “You chose to come inside with me and that means a lot, so thank you.”

Aaron had his hand wrapped around the base of his water glass. Lincoln studied his long, tapered fingers for a second. He knew firsthand the strength in those digits, but right now, all Lincoln wanted to do was reach out and try to offer Aaron some of his own. The fact Aaron had even wanted to share something personal from his life with Lincoln wasn’t lost on him. Lincoln let that thought settle inside himself and take root. Meeting Margaret and getting a glimpse into who Aaron was as a man was enormous, and because of that, what he was feeling in this moment felt powerfully intimate. Without giving it much thought, Lincoln stretched his index finger and ran it along the backside of Aaron’s hand and fingers. Aaron’s gaze watched Lincoln’s finger move across his skin and then lifted to meet his eyes and Lincoln thought his heart would stop.

Sweet mercy, I wish we were somewhere private right now,
Lincoln thought.

Aaron’s own index finger hooked with Lincoln’s and squeezed and Lincoln felt his cock begin to fatten inside his jeans. Funny how even the small things like the beginning of a boner felt like miracles these days. What was also amazing was the man sitting across from him that was making this all happen. With Aaron beside him, Lincoln’s life was suddenly a much better place to be, and Aaron wanting to hold Lincoln’s hand in a public place was priceless. That right there was beyond miraculous and it left Lincoln light-headed that he could be this fortunate.

“Margaret and my Gram were close before my Gram’s illness got to the point she didn’t really know who Margaret was anymore,” Aaron said. “Now that Gram is gone, Margaret calls me her grandson. I think to her, that’s what I am. None of her family comes around anymore, so in a way, I’m all she’s got.”

“That’s really sad,” Lincoln remarked. “Margaret seems like a nice old broad and she clearly doesn’t have a problem with you being gay, like most people from her generation.”

Aaron chuckled at that. “Nope, neither Margaret nor my Gram had a problem with me being gay,” he said. “She’s tried to fix me up with more of the male staff there than I care to think about.”

“How’d that work out for you?” Lincoln teased.

“The guys she pointed out to me were either straight or straight and married.” Aaron laughed. “Not a favorable combination for a gay man to have a relationship with, but at least they were nice about it and shrugged off the attention as being that of a rambling old woman.”

“What about your parents?” Lincoln asked. “Did they have a problem when you came out?”

“Funny story.” Aaron grinned at the memory. “I was nineteen and going to nursing school and I still hadn’t come out to my parents. I started seeing one of my classmates partway through my first year and eventually he moved into my apartment. Then, on a random Sunday, my parents decided to drive down to San Diego for an unannounced visit to see my new apartment. I had no choice but to introduce Daniel to them as my roommate and then I waited for their reaction. You should have seen the look on their faces after the light bulb went off when they noticed the apartment only had one bedroom. I actually saw my mother looking around for a pull-out couch in the living room or something—anything that might mean Daniel and I weren’t sharing that bed.”

“Ahhhh, busted,” Lincoln teased. “Did they get pissed?”

Aaron tipped his head. “I’m not sure I’d call it anger. I think it was more shock. They went home after that and I gave them some time before I made the call to talk to them about it. I should have told them sooner. I mean, I’d known since the age of ten that I liked boys and not girls, so this wasn’t a sudden awakening for me at nineteen. Know what I mean?”

“Yeah, I hear you,” Lincoln commented.

“For a while after that it wasn’t something we’d discuss all that much,” Aaron added. “It was simply something they knew about me. Maybe they thought it was a phase, who knows. A couple years after that my parents divorced. I stayed close to my mom but my dad and I drifted apart.”

“Are they still living?” Lincoln asked.

The question hung between them while the waitress set down the plates holding their lunches in front of them. After refilling their glasses of ice water, she disappeared again and Lincoln’s attention went back to Aaron.

“After the divorce, my Gram moved in with my mom,” Aaron explained. “Gram was healthy back then so for a while she was good company for my mom, since I was still living in San Diego.”

“Siblings?”

“I have a sister, Kathleen,” Aaron said. “She’s a plastic surgeon in LA.”

“Wow, so you both went into medicine,” Lincoln commented.

“My dad is also a doctor, as was his father, so maybe we did come by it naturally, I don’t know,” Aaron stated. “Of course, they wanted me to be a doctor, too, but I saw a different path for myself. For me, I preferred the personal one-on-one time I could have with the patient. It offered me the opportunity to hear their health concerns and work closely with them. Doctors don’t have that. There’s more of a disconnect between a doctor and his patient, whereas a nurse has a lot more face time with the patient. That’s what I liked, but if you knew my father or my sister, you’d know why they’re better off being doctors.”

“I think I can understand that,” Lincoln said.

“My father was a lot more upset that I wanted to be a nurse than the fact his only son was gay,” Aaron stated. “He thought I was settling or taking the easy way out by being a nurse. That wasn’t the case at all. Nurses work their asses off just as much as doctors.”

“And, Daniel?” Lincoln questioned. Aaron went quiet for a few moments while he seasoned his fish and vegetables and Lincoln was beginning to think he might have overstepped with his question. “Hey, it’s okay if you don’t feel like answering that.”

“I don’t mind,” Aaron answered. “It’s kind of nice that you’re even interested.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Lincoln asked.

Aaron took a bite of fish and washed it down with his water. “After graduation from nursing school, Daniel took a job at one of the hospitals in Chicago. I stayed here to take a few more courses so I could be certified for massage and physical therapy. By the time I finished with all of that, my grandmother was showing the first symptoms of dementia and my mom needed help caring for her.”

“Jesus, you really didn’t take a break at all,” Lincoln said.

“My mom wanted to keep Gram at home with her as long as she could,” Aaron continued. “In order to do that, I had to move back home and help. It was the least I could do, since my mother was literally killing herself to care for my grandmother.”

“What’d you mean?”

“My mother’s health started to decline during those years, but when I asked her about it, she’d brush it off by saying she was tired from caring for my grandmother. Turned out, she was ignoring the early signs of ovarian cancer. By the time she went to the doctor, the cancer was too progressed to stop it.”

“Oh, god, Aaron,” Lincoln sighed. “I’m so sorry.” He reached across the table and placed his hand on top of Aaron’s.

“Ironic, that I’d be part of a family of doctors and none of them could fix my mom,” Aaron’s voice was raw with emotion. “I ended up caring for my mom until she passed, in addition to my grandmother. Two years after my mom died, my grandmother passed.”

“Shit, I’m really sorry about your mom,” Lincoln consoled. “And losing your grandmother so soon afterward couldn’t have been easy for you.”

Aaron did his best to shrug off the memory. “Circle of life and all that bullshit,” Aaron stated. “But caring for them as I did gave me the signs I needed to know with absolute certainty I was on the right path with nursing. It was what I was born to do.”

Lincoln had lost his appetite from Aaron’s family history. All he wanted to do now was hold Aaron and he hated himself for asking the questions and forcing Aaron to pick at the scab that covered his grief. He pushed his half-eaten plate to the edge of the table and reached for Aaron’s hand again. Aaron was just about to twine their fingers when the waitress returned. At the sight of her at their table, he removed his hand from Lincoln’s and placed it in his lap.

“Are you finished with this?” the waitress asked Lincoln.

“Yeah, just the check please,” Lincoln said. He dug into his pocket for his wallet and handed his credit card to the waitress. “Oh, and I’m also paying for the two gentlemen at the table over there. Thank you.”

“You don’t have to pay,” Aaron stated. “I’m the one that suggested we get some food after visiting with Margaret. It makes me kind of lame if I ask you out and you end up paying. Don’t you think?”

“You mean, like a date?” Lincoln smirked.

“What?”

“You said you asked me out,” Lincoln repeated. “That sort of implies this was a date.”

“Oh, I guess so,” Aaron replied, and damn, if his face didn’t blush into a sexy shade of red. “I mean, I don’t want you to think I’m assuming anything by this lunch.”

“Hey.” Lincoln touched Aaron’s wrist to get him to look at him again. “I like the idea of us going out, and if it makes you feel better, you can pay for our next
date
. How’s that sound?” Lincoln winked at Aaron. He signed the credit card slip and shoved his wallet back into his pocket. “For now, let’s get the hell out of here because I’d like to take my
date
home and maybe spend the rest of the afternoon making-out with him.”

“I see the porn star is back on duty?” Aaron joked.

“It’s
you
that makes me feel like a porn star,” Lincoln added. “And that’s all I can say about that because my pants are starting to get tight in the front.”

Lincoln slipped his sunglasses and ball cap back on and walked beside Aaron on the way back to his jeep. They were almost there when another leg cramp hit Lincoln just as he attempted to open the passenger door to the jeep. He screamed out in pain and fell to the pavement on his knees. Three seconds later, the two security guards rushed between the vehicles with their guns drawn to see what the problem was with Lincoln. Aaron was already on the ground doing his best to rub the tight knot out of Lincoln’s hamstring.

“He’s okay,” Aaron explained to the men now looming over Lincoln with a look of suspicion on their faces. “I’m not hurting him. It’s a leg cramp.”

It took a few minutes, but Aaron managed to get Lincoln relaxed enough to help ease him to his feet and into the jeep. Soon after, they were on the road to make the drive back to Lincoln’s estate.

“I fucking hate these cramps,” Lincoln bit out as he continued to rub his aching leg.

“I know, I know,” Aaron said. “I wish there was something more I could do beyond what I’m already doing. When we get back to your place, we’re calling your neurologist and setting up an appointment. After that, you and I are going to sit down and go over your disease modifying drug options so when we do see the doctor you’ll be ready to tell him what you want to do. Okay?” Aaron looked at Lincoln while he dodged traffic and waited for a response.

“What about the making-out part?” Lincoln asked with a mischievous grin. “Can we do that, too?”

Aaron started laughing and switched lanes on the congested road. “I’m always up for a game of sword fights with you.”

“Sword fights?” Lincoln chuckled. “I fucking
love
sword fights!”

The jeep fell to a companionable silence until Lincoln spoke again. “Is Margaret okay?”

“Well, if she doesn’t start eating soon, she’ll be in trouble,” Aaron said. “She’s lost a lot of weight since I saw her last and she was already too thin to begin with.”

“I noticed that myself,” Lincoln said.

“It’s like she’s given up and is willing herself to die,” Aaron said. “I’ll try and visit her again in a few days and see if I can get her to eat something.”

“I’ll go with you, if you want,” Lincoln offered. “Or if you’d rather go alone, then that’s okay, too.”

“You’d go back with me? Seriously?”

“You sound so surprised. Why wouldn’t I go see Margaret again?” Lincoln asked. “She thinks I’m handsome. What’s not to like about that?”

Aaron gave Lincoln a playful shove on the shoulder as they drove and then the passenger compartment fell quiet again.

“She’s right.” Aaron’s voice was almost a whisper.

“What’d you say?”

“You’re handsome.” Aaron’s grin was wide. “And hot.”

“Don’t forget sexy,” Lincoln added.

“That’s the same thing.”

Lincoln shrugged. “I’m also musically gifted.”

“And don’t forget humble.”

Lincoln broke out in laughter just as Aaron turned into his driveway. Aaron punched the security code into the keypad that Lincoln had given to him and drove up the driveway to park in front of the garage. Behind them, the two security guards pulled up at the curb across the street from Lincoln’s house.

“Home sweet home,” Aaron said as he slid out of the driver’s seat.

“Now, we can go have that sword fight,” Lincoln announced.

Aaron stopped walking and put his hands on his hips for emphasis. “You’re cheating.”

“How’s that?” Lincoln asked as he slowly made his way around the back of the jeep, his leg still feeling tight. Aaron came up beside him and tucked Lincoln’s arm into the bend of his to help him walk without another leg cramp.

“We’re calling your doctor, remember?” Aaron said. “Then I’m going to read through the information about the drugs with you and I’ll help you make a decision.” Aaron helped Lincoln up the steps to his front door and after the door opened, he locked it behind them. “After we finish with all of that, then we can talk about a sword fight.”

“I vote for having the sword fight
first
then we can do all the other boring medical shit later,” Lincoln said.