Discovering Dalton(12)

“Okay.” Samuel slid onto his knee and kissed his cheek. “We’ll sort something out, honey. I know we will.”

Dalton buried his face into the long locks of Samuel’s sweet-smelling hair and sighed heavily. All through this he hadn’t broken down, but the damn cat just tipped him over the edge. Bloody cat.

When he’d calmed down and taken stock of himself, he pulled back and brushed the wetness from his face and looked into the warm blue of Samuel’s calming gaze. “How did you get here, and how did you get here so fast? It took you what? Fifteen minutes at the most.”

“I was having lunch with my friend from college. Both Milo and Daniel are working, so it’s one of those rare days where I’m alone. She drove me here. She should be in Formula One. I swear she’s faster than that Burton bloke Danny likes.” Samuel chuckled at the frown Dalton felt creeping onto his face.

“No speed limits broken, I hope?” Dalton teased Samuel with a smile on his face.

“No.” But obviously it was a lie.

“Yeah, sure.”

“I wanted to be with you.”

“Thank you. Erm, so did you eat lunch, or did I spoil it?”

“You didn’t spoil anything. We were going for a picnic, so I brought the food with me. No point in letting it go it waste. Besides, I just know you’ll love my sandwiches. I'm trying out a few… different ones to see how they go.”

“Oh, yeah. Now, by different… What do you mean exactly?”

“I’ll grab the basket and we can test them out on you.” Samuel jumped off his knee, giving him another soft kiss on his cheek before he left. “I brought wine too.”

“Oh, God. I love you even more for bringing me booze. Pass it over here so I can drown in it.”

Samuel shook his head, long waves of hair glowing in the sun as he smirked over his shoulder. Damn, Dalton blushed heavily thinking how beautiful he was. He was feminine, so it was cool to think like that. He nodded to himself as if to reiterate the thought. He remembered saying to Milo that Samuel would be prettier if he was a girl, but as things stood now, male or female, Samuel would always be stunningly beautiful. It didn’t matter really what was between his legs. The guy was a living angel, and Dalton cared for him a lot. Milo and Daniel were lucky fuckers to have found two people who loved them and who they loved in return.

It wasn’t too much to ask for just one person to love him, was it?

Samuel placed a glass of chilled white wine in front of him, a wicker basket in the other hand which he placed on the table and began pulling out carefully packed items. Dalton watched, sipping his wine as Samuel peeled back the foil and revealed the ingredients to his sandwiches.

“Okay, now, I don’t know if you have the same strange aversion to fish which Daniel does, but this is smoked mackerel—no bones—and I’ve glazed it in honey.” Samuel glanced at him, obviously waiting for some sort of protest, but Dalton just smiled.

Dalton snorted some of his wine up with his chuckle. Daniel had an aversion to fish. It may have been his dirty mind, but that made him laugh. Samuel appeared slightly confused, and just looked at him. “I don’t have any problems with fish, even if it has bones in it. I love it.”

“Oh, good.” Samuel placed a few pieces of what looked to be homemade bread on a plate, and then began opening up the plastic containers and spreading them out on the table.

Dalton looked in each one, noticing all of the bright colours and fresh smell. “Nice. This is going to be the world’s best sandwich.” His stomach agreed, and grumbled on cue, reminding Dalton he hadn’t eaten since the day before. “I'm starving.”

“I heard.” Samuel chuckled, pushing a plate toward him and sitting down with his own wine now in his delicate hold. “Tuck in. I like to see people enjoying my food more than eating it myself.”

“Oh, hey, you don’t have to tell me twice to eat.” Despite his healthier eating plan, Dalton still ate big portions, it was just less of the bad stuff and more of the good stuff. As long he got loads, he didn’t really mind. He groaned a little when he took the first bite. “Samuel,” Dalton moaned out his name and Samuel laughed loudly. “Oh, God. This is good.”

“There’s more than enough, so feel free to take more.”

In between the food and the wine, Samuel caught Dalton up on his college work, chatting about anything and everything except what had happened earlier in the day, and then when they’d finished and they were both overly full, they both fell silent, enjoying the afternoon breeze and the sun dipping lower in the sky. It took two hours after Samuel arrived for Dalton to approach the subject of Kelly leaving.

“I have to see this as a good thing.”

Samuel nodded, taking a sip of his wine. “I think it’s a good way of looking at it. Everything happens for a reason.” He paused briefly, searching Dalton’s eyes for any sign of apprehension before he continued. “You said the last time we came around she’d been your first, I'm guessing your only too as you're so monogamous.”

“Yep,” Dalton spoke into his wine glass, taking another deep drink.

“It’ll do you good to get yourself out there and meet other people.”

“I'm not up for meeting anyone just yet.”

“I didn’t mean a relationship, just friendship. Meet some new friends, go to new places. Start again.”

“I don’t want to start again.” Dalton sulked as he looked down the garden, wondering how he would keep up to it now Kelly had gone. She was the gardener, not him.

“Well, not so much start again, more start fresh. I'm guessing you share friends and had your favourite restaurants and stuff. I'm thinking it would be hard to go back there, so I thought new places… you know, that sort of thing.”

“Yeah, I get it, I just… I'm just not ready to think about anything further than this moment right now. I know you're trying to help.” He reached over and took Samuel’s hand in his. “I appreciate it, I really do. The food, you coming round at the drop of a hat. You're a good friend and I need that, but I'm finding it hard to let go right now. Even though it wasn’t the best time recently, it was all I knew, she was all I knew, and I don’t know how I'm going to move on when I feel so…” Dalton searched for another word, but the only one which seemed to fit was the truth. “Scared.”

“It’s okay to be scared, Dalton. Your whole life just took a big turn down a path you weren’t expecting. Just try hard to think of it as a good thing, an exciting journey. And don’t forget you're not alone.” Samuel was so sweet natured, it warmed Dalton and he tightened the grip on his hand.

Samuel’s phone broke the comfortable lull in the conversation, and he reached in his pocket, smiling when he saw the name displayed on it. “Milo. He’s probably freaking out because I forgot to tell him I left. I won't be a second.” He took the call and Dalton went inside to freshen up, leaving him to talk in private.

Samuel joined him in the kitchen a few minutes later. “Hey, he’s picking up Daniel from the fire station then coming round here. He asked if you wanted to join us for a few drinks.”

Dalton didn’t want to stay in, but then he wasn’t sure he was up for company either.

“It’s just in town. It’s one of my friend’s birthdays and we’ve been invited to go along. We won't be out all night like they are. I'm sure Milo will appreciate the more adult conversation. Most of them are my age.” He grinned a little. “He’s kinda okay with me and a couple of friends, but a whole group of us… he finds it too much.”

“I can imagine.” Dalton chuckled. “As long as I won't be the fourth wheel in the group.” The last thing he wanted was to be tagging along with them three.

“You won't be.” Samuel laughed. “Honestly, it’s just a bit of fun. I don’t really drink a lot, so I'm never drunk. Milo’s the same.”

“I'm not.” Dalton smirked. “Neither is Danny. I’ve been out with him a few times.” Oh, the drunken memories of joining Danny on nights out with his station were legendary. “Okay, sounds like fun.”

“Great.” Samuel bounced a little on the spot, then grinned. “Go get changed. We’re going back to our place then catching a taxi.”

“Right. I’ll grab a quick shower and change. Just pop the TV on if you get bored.”

“Okay.” Samuel was already ignoring his suggestion and opting for sorting out the kitchen.

“Don’t do that. Just leave it.”

“It’s fine. Go get ready. You know what Milo’s like if he has to wait.”

Dalton did know what Milo was like, and he rushed upstairs, ditching his clothes on the bathroom floor and diving into the shower. Kelly would have whined about him leaving clothes on the floor, but Dalton felt a bit of rebellion run through him, and he decided to leave them there until the morning.

He dressed casually in some jeans he’d ordered on line years ago but never fit in them. He was shocked when they buttoned up and fit so well. He’d spotted a few things hidden away in the back of the wardrobe when Kelly had pulled all her stuff out. He was actually slimmer than when they'd met. He weighed more, but his body shape had changed, leaving him with a smaller waist but bigger thighs and shoulders. He looked over himself in the full length mirror, checking out the fit of his jeans on his arse and feeling excited by how good it looked.