Read Kate Sherwood - Dark Horse 02 - Out of the Darkness Online
Authors: Kate Sherwood
“Yeah, I guess.” Dan doesn’t really want to acknowledge quite how deep in he already is; he’s just going to have to hope Evan understands. He takes another drink instead of thinking about it too much, and this time he’s finished the glass before Taylor. When he stands up to go to the bathroom, he has to take a second to balance himself, and he thinks back over how much he’s had to drink. It’s quite a bit, he figures, and he hasn’t eaten much. “Hey, you’re gonna be here for a bit, I guess. You sure as hell aren’t driving.” Taylor nods apologetically. “So we should think about dinner. I need some food before I pass out.” Taylor nods again, and Dan gestures to the bathroom. “There’s a good Italian place we can walk to when I’m done.” His mouth is watering already.
When Dan leaves the bathroom, Taylor goes in, and then they’re off. They sit on the patio at Zio’s, and it’s still a bit early for dinner, so they order beers and some appetizers, and it’s really a hell of a lot more pleasant than Dan had thought his afternoon was going to be when he’d first gotten Taylor’s call. Taylor calls his sister and checks that she can watch Owen, and then they just get caught up. Taylor lets Dan skip over the more painful parts of the years since they’d last seen each other, and Dan repays the favor by doing his best to be interested in the details of Owen’s progress through the milestones of early childhood. Dan isn’t sure that an early ability to grab the hand that holds two cookies rather than one indicates a rare level of mathematical genius, but he lets it slide.
By the time they finish eating, the sun is setting, they’re both still more than a little tipsy (Taylor had asked about the availability of Dan’s couch fairly early in the meal), and Dan is almost totally relaxed. He’s got things to figure out the next day, and there’s still a conversation with Evan to be dealt with, but he feels good. He feels calm. That changes pretty abruptly when he sees Evan’s Cherokee wheel into a noparking spot in front of the restaurant, with Evan climbing out and staring at Dan like he can’t believe his eyes.
“Dan?” The answer seems pretty obvious, so Dan doesn’t say anything, just tries to collect himself as Evan strides toward him. “Jesus, Dan, what the hell? You left me that message, and I couldn’t get hold of you, and it’s because you were out here on a patio, drinking with….”
Evan catches himself before he says anything too insulting, and Dan takes the opportunity to pat his pocket for his phone. It’s right there, and he pulls it out as he frowns at Evan. “I asked you to call me back, man, that’s all.” He’s sure he would have heard it ringing, but he flips the phone open to check for messages anyway. He’s faced with a blank screen. Oh. “Shit. The battery…. It’s an old battery, it loses its charge really fast.” He trails off. “Were you worried? I’m sorry, I just….” He doesn’t have too much more to say. “I should get a new battery.”
Evan still looks angry. “What were you calling about, anyway? Just wanted to let me know you were going out with—” Evan catches himself again. Dan isn’t sure whether to appreciate the effort at selfcensorship or resent the fact that it seems to be necessary. Evan frowns a little. “Can you come out to the car for a second?” He turns to Taylor. “Do you mind if I borrow him for a minute?”
Taylor nods his acquiescence, and Dan clambers to his feet. He knows that Evan doesn’t miss it when he takes a moment to steady himself, but better that than staggering. He follows Evan to the Cherokee and climbs in on the passenger side while Evan circles around to the driver’s door. Once he’s in, Evan takes a look at the crowded patio, most of whom are watching the drama unfold, and then looks at Taylor and makes a series of hand gestures that Evan seems to think means that they’re going to go for a little drive. Taylor nods as if he understands, but Dan doesn’t see how he could. “I bet he thinks you just told him to steal a base.”
Evan doesn’t seem to be in the mood for idle chatter. He pulls out into traffic and drives down a couple blocks, then turns into the high school parking lot. They sit looking at the bleachers, and Dan nods toward them. “Where you got your first kiss. You went to private school, but you were slumming it with a townie. What, did the private school girls not put out?”
Evan ignores him, and tries to speak calmly. “I’ve got to fly to New York for a couple days, and I’m really busy trying to get ready, and then I got your message… what did you call me about, Dan?”
Dan sighs. “Yeah. Uh… I think we got it figured out. Taylor called me and said he’d been fired, and he said you were the one who did it. So I called you, to figure out what he was talking about, and that’s when I left the message. And then I talked to him… and it sounds like another thing like what happened with me, where the security guys just went a little apeshit. I mean… when that happened with me, I blamed you, too, at first, so it’s not really surprising that he got confused between you and your company….”
Dan decides that he needs to get this all out in one go, without Evan having time to object. “He has a record, just a misdemeanor, but it’s for statutory rape, which is crap, because, shit, do you check the ID of everyone you fuck? And it was years ago, before Owen, and Taylor was just twenty-two, so it was really only a pretty small age difference, and, okay, obviously it’s not a
good
thing to sleep with underage guys, but, you know, if it had been in some states, the kid would already have been legal, so it was just Taylor’s bad luck that it was in California, and that the kid’s dad was rich and pissed off….”
Dan trails off and Evan just stares at him. “You’re telling me that they had a guy with a record for statutory rape working with vulnerable teens?”
That wasn’t quite the reaction Dan was hoping for, although it isn’t that different from his own when he’d first heard the story. “Well, yeah, obviously a bit of a weird situation, but, you know… he proved himself, he did a good job. I mean, you heard him talking, he really believes in what they’re doing.”
Evan shakes his head slowly. “I’ll tell you what, Dan. I
didn’t
know about this, but if I had known, the only thing that would have been different is that I would have been prepared for you to flip out about it. It’s… it’s a potential PR nightmare, Dan, for the company or for the family—neither one can be discovered giving money to a children’s charity that’s run by someone with any sort of history of sexual misconduct.”
“Yeah, okay, he made a mistake! Does it just follow him forever? He can’t ever get past it, can’t find a way to give back to the community?”
“He could give back by working with
adults
, Dan! Or animals, or… doing paperwork, I don’t know, but not working with vulnerable kids!”
“So you’re saying that… that it’s not about avoiding bad PR, it’s actually… you actually think it’s right for him to lose his job over this?”
Evan takes a second to collect his thoughts. “Why take the chance, Dan? I mean, how would you feel if you fought for him to have the job, knowing that he was… questionable, and then something
did
happen? Something with a kid?”
“Questionable?” Dan can’t really keep the bitterness out of his voice. “Unsavory, maybe? Not quite the right sort of people?” Dan’s angry now. “You went to college—there are freshmen who are seventeen, right? Did you ever fuck any of them when you were a senior? Are you sure you didn’t? Did any of your asshole fratboy friends do it? But they never got charged, did they? No, not the rich kids, they’re special; they’re just sowing their wild oats or something.” He reaches for the handle of the door. “It’s bullshit, Evan. I told him I’d talk to you, see if you could help get that job back, but I also told him that if it didn’t work out, I could find something for him with the eventers.” Evan’s staring at him, but Dan climbs out of the truck. He doesn’t want to talk about this anymore. “Have a nice trip, Evan.” He thinks about adding something conciliatory, something about seeing Evan when he gets back, but he doesn’t say it.
Instead, he slams the door harder than he needs to and starts walking back to the bar. He hopes Evan doesn’t follow him but mostly expects that he will, because Evan doesn’t give up easily, and he prefers to be the one who gets to say when a conversation is over. The Cherokee doesn’t move, though, and by the time Dan gets to the corner, he can see Taylor sitting on the patio waiting for him, and as he turns he can see Evan’s car still parked, facing the bleachers. Dan doesn’t let himself hesitate, just turns the corner and heads back to the bar.
wakes up and wishes he hadn’t. His bedroom seems stuffy and overheated, his head is pounding, his stomach is… ungh, best not to think about the stomach too much. He tries to get back to sleep, even though he knows it’s hopeless, knows his body is too pissed off to let him be unconscious through any of this self-inflicted suffering.
He hears the shower running and remembers Taylor. There’s a moment of panic when he thinks about how the flirting had escalated as the night had run on and when he realizes that he can’t actually remember getting to bed alone, but a quick look around makes it clear that the bed hadn’t been used for anything more than sleeping in. And he’s really pretty sure that he wouldn’t have done anything that stupid; Dan knows he’s not the cheating type. He tries not to wonder if there’s even a relationship left to cheat
on
.
When Dan stumbles into the main room, he sees Taylor’s clothes jumbled up beside an old quilt on the couch, so there’s another little bit of reassurance about the separate sleeping quarters. The coffeemaker is already on but not yet producing anything useful, so Dan tries to concentrate on folding up the quilt and putting it back on the armchair it usually covers. The entire operation takes much longer than it should, and Dan feels a little dizzy by the end of it. He wonders how many times in his life he’s vowed to never drink again and how many more hangovers it’s going to take until he finally gets the damn message.
By the time the shower turns off, Dan has managed to pour himself a mug of coffee. The first few sips are too hot, but he ignores the pain. There’s a bottle of aspirin on the windowsill, and he swallows a couple of those, and then Taylor’s out of the bathroom, just a towel wrapped around his waist, and in spite of the hangover, Dan has to take a moment to admire the view. Taylor has definitely kept himself in shape.
Dan considers his hosting duties done and heads for the bathroom. He knows that nothing will cure this but time, but cleaning up will at least make him feel less… oozed on. He spends longer than usual in the shower and thinks maybe he actually fell asleep a little bit, and when he comes out with his own towel wrap-around, Taylor’s dressed in a pair of Dan’s jeans and a T-shirt that Dan immediately wished he’d reserved for himself, one that’s worn to the perfect level of threadbare softness for his sensitized skin. Oh well—it’s not like Dan hasn’t got other old clothes.
Taylor rubs his hand over his face. “I’ve got to get home. My sister called—she needs to go out and doesn’t have time to drop Owen at the daycare.” Dan can’t really imagine dealing with a happy toddler while he’s feeling the way he is, and he doesn’t know whether to feel sorry for Taylor or to laugh at him. “And, look, man….” Taylor seems to have something more important to say, and Dan tries to focus enough to listen. “About the job stuff… it’s cool. Don’t… you know, don’t worry about it. This isn’t your fault, or your problem, or whatever.”
Dan frowns a little. Taylor’s offering him an easy way out, and it’s really tempting, but Dan doesn’t want to be the sort of person who does the easy thing instead of the right thing. At the same time, he’s really not sure what the right thing
is
, so he goes for the honest approach. “My brain’s broken. Can I… you got severance, right?”
“So… how’ bout you look around, see what’s out there—’cause, yeah, I don’t think Evan’s gonna be much help in getting the old job back.” Dan still doesn’t know how to feel about that, and there’s no way his head will let him think about it now. “And if there’s nothing— you’re a good rider, man; we could find something with the eventers, but we’ve got good people already, so you’d be coming in pretty far down the list, you know… have to work your way up. If there’s something better somewhere else, you might as well find it.”
Taylor nods again. “Yeah, that’d be a lot… tidier.” He grins a little. “Maybe not as much fun, though.” And Dan can almost feel it as Taylor’s eyes run over his shower-damp body. When Taylor looks back at Dan’s face, his eyes are dancing, teasing, but there’s a warmth there as well, a hint of a possibility.
Taylor waggles his eyebrows and slips out the door, then pops his head back in. “Oh, shit, I forgot. Some guy came by while you were in the shower. Your landlord, I think. He seemed a bit freaked out to see me. I told him I didn’t live here, had just stayed the night, but he still seemed a bit off, seemed to think there was some big secret—does he know you’re gay?”
Dan tries to think back over his contact with the landlord. He can’t even remember the guy’s name, but Ryan had said he was some sort of hippie potter or something, which doesn’t sound like a good job for a homophobe. “I don’t even know if he knows I exist—I left him a note, but right now I’m just living on somebody else’s thirty-days notice. That might be why he was surprised.” Dan doesn’t want to deal with this. “I’ll try to track him down later, I guess.”