Life in Fusion (11 page)

the head.

“Stop trying to seduce me you little shit,” Wade grinned.

“We’re doing that whole substance thing tonight, remember?”

I lifted myself off his lap and flopped back into the sofa,

defeated. “Dude, you suck.”

“Not tonight, I don’t.” Wade shoved some popcorn into his

mouth, crunching away smugly.

“But sweetie, nothing says
I love you
like an erection.”

Wade choked on the popcorn, coughing as he leaned forward

to grab his beer off the coffee table. I patted his back while he

twisted off the cap and sucked it down in an attempt to clear his

throat. “You really are a severely twisted man.”

I smiled, continuing to rub his back as he coughed a few more

times. “Sure you don’t need mouth to mouth?”

“Like a dog with a boner.” Wade shook his head.

“I do enjoy doggie style,” I added, winking at him and sinking

back into the sofa.

Wade wiped his eyes, which were watering from nearly

choking to death. “You’re a mess, Boone.” He shook his head,

72 Ethan Day

staring into my eyes.

I smiled at him and my chest felt like it might explode as

fireworks sparked and sizzled between us. Whatever it was Wade

had, I most definitely wanted it. And I somehow knew that once

I finally had it, I’d never want to let him go. That still scared the

shit out of me, but as he leaned over, moving in for a kiss, I

realized my own fears were no match for Wade’s will.

I opened my mouth for his. My eyes clamped shut, loving

the taste of him, mixed with beer and popcorn. His kiss was soft

and slow, but filled with the potency of Wade’s intent to love me,

along with his warning that there was no getting off this train

now that it had left the station.

In Wade’s mind I was already his and he belonged to me.

Don’t ask me how I was able to get all that from a kiss, as I’m

not sure how to answer that question myself. But when he pulled

away from me, his gaze never faltered. I could feel the heat from

his breath brushing across my cheek as he held me there, trapped

under his intensity.

“How ‘bout that movie?” I asked, my voice cracking, making

me wonder if I was experiencing a second puberty.

I watched him grin and knew I’d failed miserably at hiding the

fact he’d had such an effect on me.

“What would you like to watch?” he asked, still hovering over

me.

You, taking your clothes off.
“Whatever.”
Christ does the man never

blink?
“I’m easy, remember?”

“I do indeed.” Wade finally pulled away, sitting back up. “God

love you for that.”

I knew he’d just managed to emotionally molest me without

saying a single word and it threw me way off kilter. Worst of all

was the realization that I wasn’t even pissed, because I’d enjoyed

every second of it. As uncomfortable as actual feelings usually

made me, and this experience was certainly no exception, I found

myself already wondering if it would happen again. And if so, I

was looking forward to when.

Life in fusion
73

q q q

We wound up watching a couple of the Donald Strachey

films since I’d never seen them, and Wade had a pizza delivered

from the lodge. One of those thin, all wheat crust jobs covered

in veggies and chicken. I started to balk, thinking it was a good

thing we were already
not
having sex that night, considering I no

longer wanted his health-food, nutty ass.

As if he could read my mind, he pointed out it had extra

cheese and that the white sauce, while not exactly unhealthy, did

have a considerable enough fat content to be considered worthy

of my delicate junk food palette. I did actually enjoy it, plus I

made sure I picked off just enough vegetables to maintain my

independence, making sure he understood I wasn’t going to

be one of the converts to his demented, granola-boy lifestyle.

He could posture all he wanted, but no amount of food-Nazi

rhetoric would break me down. He’d never take me alive!

Snuggling up together on the couch was by far the highlight

of the evening; though I quickly realized we were gonna need a

bigger couch. Being the massively muscled hunk of beef that he

was didn’t leave a whole lot of extra room for me. He held me

tightly against him, which was a good thing, considering I’d have

been dangerously close to falling off the sofa otherwise. It gave

me a whole new perspective to living life on the edge.

I tried my best to not laugh when I realized Wade would

squeeze me tighter each time Strachey and his on-screen boyfriend

would show up in a scene together and get all lovey-dovey. The

giddiness quickly subsided as I wondered if he was merely one

of those guys who was ready to be a couple and I’d just been in

the right place at the time. Could my very hot and supple bubble

butt have been more interchangeable with the next guy’s than I’d

previously allowed myself to think?

Just as my inner ravings threatened to boil over into a fevered

rant on why the fuck he wanted
me
so badly, Wade began to softly

snore. I immediately began to theoretically kick each and every

fear I had in the ass. I attempted to push myself back against his

body, getting closer still, and he reacted by squeezing me tighter—

74 Ethan Day

as if it was something we’d been doing for so many years it was

now instinctual. I was ingrained into his muscle memory, a force

so strong I’d become a habit. And I wanted to be Wade’s habit.

I loved that his tired, get out of bed way too early ass had

done his best to stay awake for me. I lay there wondering if I’d be

able or willing to change anything about myself in order to make

him happier. How far would I need to bend to become the guy

he deserved? Or was I already enough for him—fresh out of the

box and completely compatible with his hard drive, so to speak?

I could hear Gabe lecturing at me in the back of my mind that

I’d best be hoping for the latter, since anything beyond plug and

play would be out of my skill set. I pictured myself poking Gabe

in the eyes and knocking him over a sofa a la
The Three Stooges
,

since I didn’t like what his imaginary, discombobulated voice in

my head had to say.

Eventually I allowed my own eyes to close. The heat from

Wade’s body had me slow baking from behind, and the fire, which

was still going, was warming me from the front. Like someone

switching off the lights, one by one, every last thought zipping

through my overactive brain was shut down. A final yawn was

the last thing I remembered before slipping into my very own

sleep haze.

I was thinking I would lose my mind, sitting in Del’s kitchen,

sucking down a beer like it might be my last. Jackie’s four

monsters had just torn through the room, screaming their heads

off in unison as Wade and Shep, Jackie’s husband, chased after

them. It was odd, seeing two grown ass men yelling “
Arg
,” as if

they were Captain Hook and cohorts chasing after the Lost Boys.

Jason Shepherd, or Shep as everyone called him, had been a

skier like Wade in his day. He was ruggedly handsome, with light

red hair, almost blond. He was shorter, thinner than Wade, but

as Wade’s gym buddy, very fit. He was about six years older than

Wade, and the guy favored to win gold for his third consecutive

Olympics, until Wade had knocked him off the podium to take

gold in their final event that year.

When I asked her how they’d started dating, Jackie had told

me that Shep only asked her out as a way to screw with Wade’s

head, though Shep denied it like a seasoned pro. But apparently

she screwed Shep instead and he liked it. They’d been together

ever since. Wade told me that Shep wound up taking over where

his father had left off by mentoring him, crediting him for

pushing Wade to next level.

The train of insanity whipped through the kitchen again,

the four red-headed minions all squealing in delighted horror as

Wade and Shep snarled and growled, chasing after them. Jackie’s

annoyance was like the icing on the stress cake as she screamed

to please keep the boys out of the kitchen.

I felt fairly certain her vehement objections were the main

reason they continued on a loop, returning over and over again.

Thankfully Shep decided to take things a step too far by slapping

Jackie on the ass, and calling her a silly wench before asking her

when the grub would be ready. It was definitely the fear of Jackie

finding a hatchet that finally had Wade, Shep and the Corn kids

vacating for good. Del and Uncle Pete were currently laughing at

76 Ethan Day

me, which told me I wasn’t doing a very good of a job at hiding

my horror over the lot of them.

“Boone looks practically nauseous!” Pete said, slapping his

leg.

“It’s what I’d always imagined a nut house would be like,” I

said.

“Why couldn’t I have had girls?” Jackie whined under her

breath.

“You’d have given birth to your very own Quad,” I said with

an evil grin.

“Never mind, that would be worse.”

“I heard that,” Del said, obviously irritated, standing there in

her hot pink apron that had
Mighty Kitchen Aphrodite
bedazzled

across the chest.

The three of them laughed as the boys all started yelling butt

boy off in the house somewhere. I joined in after hearing Shep

and Wade doing their best to shut them up.

“You need to whip those boys in line, young lady,” Pete said.

“It’s indecent, allowing them to talk that way,” Del added,

throwing in her two cents.

“Then why are the two of you laughing?” Jackie asked.

Pete and Del briefly glanced at one another as if they’d been

busted and found guilty under the new hypocrisy laws. They

straightened themselves up.

“I’m going to need more of these.” I wiggled my near empty

bottle in the air.

“I thought Wade said you couldn’t handle your liquor very

well?” Dell asked, causing me to choke on the last of my beer.

I decided to leave that topic alone despite Jackie and her

snickering. I held back my urge to walk over to her perfectly-

coiffed, white-spandexed snow bunny ensemble and sling the

tomato sauce she’d been steadily stirring on the stove all over

her. I was amazed how pulled together she always managed to

Life in fusion
77

be, with that bone straight, shiny black hair and never a wrinkle

to be found. I secretly suspected she had a cage she locked those

kids in during the day.

I surveyed the almost all-white kitchen. From the cabinets to

the subway tile that went halfway up the walls, it was white and

stainless steel as far as the eye could see. There was a glossy black

tile border along the top of the wall and another running along

the edge of the floor. I stepped out of the way as Del lifted the

large boiling pot of pasta off the stove and maneuvered it to the

sink, where she strained off the water.

“So where’s Sarah tonight?” I asked.

“Date,” Pete said, not appearing all that thrilled.

I’d already decided to leave the topic alone as Del breezed by

me, handing me a new beer and saying, “We don’t care for the

boy.”

I nodded. “Got it.” I was assuming that the “we” in her

statement meant I had to hate the mystery guy as well. They

seemed like an all for one, one for all kinda family.

I turned around and surveyed the large corkboard on the wall

behind me. It was covered with family pictures, cards from every

possible special occasion, along with multiple children’s drawings,

and it was about the only thing that kept the kitchen from feeling

cold and sterile—that and the warmth of the people currently

inhabiting it.

Uncle Pete, who I hadn’t seen since the unfortunate night I

ran out of his restaurant like a freak, was as relaxed in his home

environment as he had been at his business. There was an overall

sense about him that led me to believe he was now, and always

had been, extremely easygoing. He was also kind of a hottie, for

an older dude, dressed in jeans and a crisp red button down that

made his full head of white hair practically glow.

He was opening several bottles of wine while Jackie pulled

out a tray of hot garlic bread from the oven. She slid the pan

across the granite countertop before using her foot to kick the

oven door shut.

78 Ethan Day

It was like a ballet, which made me very conscious of the

fact that this was a family that had spent many years working in

confined spaces with one another. They instinctively knew where

to stand, when it was okay to move, taking a step or two in any

given direction when needed, and most of all when to stop and