Off-Map Hearts, page 3
“Did you know the world’s largest firecracker is right next door?” he asked Cole as he approached the Jeep.
“Did you know the most requested outfit at the brothel in the back is Princess Leia?” Cole shot back with a loose and easy grin.
Graden spun in place. The bright green building in the middle of nowhere—at the wrong side of the alien crash site—didn’t immediately strike him as somewhere for that kind of thing. But he wasn’t exactly a connoisseur.
Was Cole? He wondered but dismissed the thought.
“Is that so. I’m guessing Wookies is the next-most,” he deadpanned.
The vision of Cole in a version of the princess outfit—tanned, muscles rippling, high leg slit and flowy layers and a chest piece over oiled pecs—flashed in his imagination, and he blushed. Cole would probably think it was from prudishness, but that was better than realizing his sudden flush was from anything but.
Cole laughed. “I have no idea if it’s true. I read it online. Back in a jiff,” he said and trotted to the building to disappear inside.
Graden stayed standing until Cole returned. He reappeared but stopped immediately after exiting.
“Picture with the locals?” Cole yelled and pointed to a standup of aliens near the building.
Graden shook his head.
“Aw, c’mon. Let’s take one. Why not?” Cole went toward the cutouts and beckoned Graden over.
He didn’t have a good reason other than he didn’t have a reason to take a silly picture, meaning he could refuse again like a jerk, or go take the picture.
Graden rolled his eyes at Cole, who beamed as he started walking.
Cole stretched and yawned hugely, and a flash of toned abs Graden had just imagined showed as his shirts lifted. Graden managed to look away before Cole caught him.
The aliens were almost as tall as him, but Cole towered over them.
“You first with your phone, then me with mine, then we’ll get one together.” Cole was presumptive but familiar, as if they’d been on the road together for weeks after knowing each other all their lives.
Graden should mind it. He didn’t.
Cole pushed Graden along, so he dutifully handed over his phone and got into position between the figures.
“Say cheese.”
Graden managed a decent smile. He didn’t like having his picture taken, and Viv said it showed in every single one of them.
“Nice. My turn.”
He and Cole swapped places. Cole struck silly poses, and Graden snapped several pictures.
“Okay, let’s figure out a selfie,” Cole said, loud enough for a woman walking into the store with her family to hear.
“Can I help?” she asked.
“No, thanks,” Graden started to say.
Cole said over him, “Yes! Amazing timing. Thank you.” He came out from around the cutouts, handed her his phone, and showed her how to work it. “I bet you’re a pro, though, making your kids endure tourist photo ops and standing next to every sign at every entrance wherever you go.”
“It’s like you know me,” she laughed. She waited for the two of them to get between the cutouts. “Closer in.” She pushed her hands together to indicate the proximity she wanted.
She kept urging them closer in until Cole finally dropped an arm over Graden’s shoulder and pulled him in tight.
“Perfect. I’m going to take a few, at the count of three, okay? One, two, three….” She started tapping Cole’s phone.
The warm pavement and sand and bleaching, pale-yellow sun were nothing in comparison to Cole’s body heat suffusing all through him as they stood there. Instinctively he leaned closer, jamming one of his hands between them to soak in some of the warmth.
As someone who didn’t usually want to be touched, Graden found he didn’t mind that Cole was clearly a touchy, tactile person. It probably had a lot to do with Cole being so warm and Graden always being cold.
“Smile,” Cole murmured, tickling Graden’s neck. He pulled Graden in and rubbed his arm when Graden shivered. “You’re not smiling,” he whispered with a nudge.
Graden looked away from the camera and shook his head helplessly. Cole’s smile tightened as his gaze dropped to Graden’s mouth.
“Want to check these?” the woman asked.
Cole reared back, patted Graden’s side as he moved away, and went to take his phone back.
Graden hunched into himself and grumped as his chill crept back with Cole’s incredible warmth gone.
“I knew it—these are super. Thank you so much…?”
“Judy. And you’re welcome. Safe travels!”
“Judy, nice to meet you. You and your family do the same.” Cole swiped a few things on his phone and nodded toward the Jeep. “Ready?”
Graden shoved his hands in his pockets and followed. As they got settled, Cole fiddled with the controls and upped the temperature on Graden’s side of the cab, then swung the Jeep onto the road and, hardly pausing, took a nearby turn onto a different road.
A half an hour later, Graden shifted in his seat. “I thought you said we were super close to wherever it is we’re going.”
“We are.” Cole considered that and added, “Okay, in terms of proximity versus you were already in Las Vegas versus at home in New York. Too close to pass up, as it were. But it’s not long now—for real.”
“Okay, well….” Graden watched the lengthening shadows and cool tones begin to creep across the desert. “The sun is going down.”
“We’ll be in time.”
Cole sped up and the Jeep responded without complaint along widely curving roads and down and down in elevation. They passed sparse landscape and no signs of humanity, but then rolled into a small town. Cole continued past it and onto a dirt road that took them into what Graden had discerned thanks to road signs and mileage information was Death Valley.
He tried not to see it as a portent of anything.
“C’mon, c’mon,” Cole encouraged as the sun slipped farther down and the road jostled their progress. At a widening, he stopped, wrenched his door open, said “c’mon” again louder to include Graden, and hurried to a rocky line in front of them.
Graden stomped toward Cole, and Cole snatched his elbow.
“Whoa there—look down.”
The wind whipped in a steady push, warmer than the surrounding air, and Graden’s eyes adjusted to make out that the dark rocky line was the edge of a cliff overlooking a desolately beautiful valley dropping far below them.
It stole his breath, as did the realization he’d almost walked right off into that chasm. He gently pried his elbow from Cole’s grip with a nod and stayed a careful distance from Cole. It would be too easy to lean into the heat he could sense from here, and it was weird that it would be easy, because they were strangers alone in the middle of nowhere who were reliant on one another to get home, and it was best to remember that.
The sunset wasn’t glorious. Banded lines hazy with dust mirrored the landscape, and everything seemed leeched of color, almost flattened. But then the sun met the horizon and flares of pink and orange burst into the sky, painting the valley in softer corals with intense purple shadows, and something stirred in Graden’s chest. He thought about what Cole had said—life-changing—and decided that wasn’t totally wrong.
Moments later the sun was gone, and the valley was cold and dark and stars began to pinprick the inky sky, and underneath the wind, the world was as quiet as Graden had ever heard.
“Okay, wow.” Graden swallowed. “That was worth it.”
“Wait until you see the rest tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” Graden’s pleasure in the sunset drained away, same as the color had from the sky. He turned to Cole. “Tomorrow as in we’re not starting back tonight, as in we’re stuck out here until then, as in what did ‘we’ll get here in time’ mean, and did you just decide that without asking me?”
“I misjudged a bit. I didn’t think it would get this dark so early, but look at it this way—we can snag a good night’s sleep and have an early start.”
“After we see”—Graden gestured roundly—“whatever you’re so insistent we see.”
“Exactly.”
Graden huffed. “And in the meantime?”
“I have my camping gear. We’re cool.”
“Camp?” Graden’s tone was thick with incredulity and lack of excitement. He wasn’t a camper. He didn’t even really like being outside for too long.
“It’s what I was doing before I hauled into Vegas to catch that flight. Lucky break, right?”
Graden narrowed his eyes. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you got Peregrine to tank just so you didn’t have to get on that plane and go take care of this business you don’t want to face in New York.”
Cole blinked and looked as though Graden had hit a raw nerve. He wasn’t sure where accusing Cole of not wanting to face something came from, but it felt right, and watching how it landed seemed to confirm that. Even if Cole recovered quickly.
“I’ll admit I prefer this—I said as much at the airport. But none of this was on purpose.” Cole moved them back a few steps as twilight fell around them. “I am sorry, I should have checked with you instead of figuring you’d agree because we detoured here to see the good stuff.” He scratched the back of his neck but didn’t act nearly contrite enough to suit Graden.
“Are there no hotels? Motels?”
“There’s a few out here.” Cole pointed into the distance. “Near Furnace Creek. That’s the small enclave we passed through. We should decide—dusk won’t last much longer.”
“I’d check for room availability, but there’s no service. We lost it somewhere along this dirt road.”
Cole hummed thoughtfully. “Tell you what. We’ll head for the nearby campsite where there is some, and you can book a room. I’m sure they’re available this time of year. I’ll bunk out and then pick you up in the morning.”
“You’d rather camp than just get us a room?” Graden’s ears rang after he said it, and Cole’s eyebrows shot up. “I mean—you know.” He waved off Cole saying anything. “I’m sure it’s like being cooped up in an airplane versus driving, even if your idea of a simple drive is crossing multiple states over the course of several days.”
“Got it in one.” Cole tugged Graden from the overlook and kept hold, almost like he was afraid Graden would go the wrong way and actually hurtle off this time, and got them into the Jeep and rumbling down the road.
As soon as he had bars again, Graden searched and then secured a room at the fairly upscale historic resort he was surprised to find.
“Okay, I have a room, so we can head straight there.”
“That was fast.”
“You were right—plenty of open reservations.” Graden let the navigation app connect to the inn’s address, and Mavis started suggesting a route.
Cole followed her instructions. It wasn’t long and they were pulling into a complex of Spanish-style buildings adorned by palm trees and flowering plants.
A bellhop met them, and Graden nodded as he got out and headed to the back of the Jeep.
“Just this, thanks,” he said and handed over his laptop and overnight bags.
Cole joined him, and he shifted from foot to foot. “What time in the morning?”
“I’m an early riser, so there’s not any worry about being too early for me.”
“Five thirty?” Graden said, in no way wanting to get up early enough for that and having no idea why he chose it other than the vague desire to assert himself.
“Let’s make it six—the sun doesn’t come up until around six thirty. Okay?”
“Fine.”
Cole surveyed the gracious hotel setting and raised a hand from where it perched on his hip. It came to rest on Graden’s shoulder. “This looks nice. You know, in all the times I’ve been here, I’ve never been here.”
He seemed reluctant to leave. And Graden was reluctant to turn on his heel and go.
“I’ll have this inside for you, sir, all right?”
Graden remembered the bellhop. “Sure, thanks, that’s great,” he acknowledged, and then he half smiled at Cole. “Uh, good night.”
Cole leaned forward and then stopped. “Sleep well,” he murmured, squeezed Graden’s shoulder, and then he was in the Jeep and speeding away.
It took Graden a minute to get moving. He checked in, was shown to a plush room, ordered room service and splurged on dessert, and had a long, hot shower. He sent an email to work with a non-explanation about the flight getting canceled and deciding to take his vacation to get home, for once telling rather than asking permission. Then he shut his laptop and forcibly resisted sending a follow-up with more information and apologies if the changes upset anyone else’s plans or needs.
He sighed as he sank into the mattress, surrounded by heaps of pillows and in layers of blankets just like he liked, and then blinked at the ceiling in a room in the desert at the opposite end of the country from his home with a Jeep and a giant hunk as his way back.
At least he was in a room.
“What a day,” he muttered and curled onto his side.
Graden didn’t have a clue what went into camping, but he imagined Cole getting settled into a white pitched A-frame tent, with a perfect stacked log fire in front of it. He wondered how cold it’d get out there—and tried to ignore how he couldn’t get warm in here. He didn’t want to get out of bed and fiddle with the thermostat, so he wriggled farther under the blankets and let out a deep sigh. The room was muffled and dark, which was his preference.
His exhaustion should overtake him soon enough, and given he had no idea what tomorrow would bring, he needed to sleep. Instead he lay there, well fed and secure in this nice room, awake and unaccountably lonely.
Chapter Two
COLE had breakfast and was packed by five thirty. He tidied the campsite and refilled his water at the comfort station and then boosted into the back of the Jeep to watch for desert critters heading to hunker in for the coming day.
He ran hot, especially in sleep, so he sat in short sleeves cooling down in the dry, gusting wind. In a few months the wind would be steady and oven-baked, even into the middle of the night and well before dawn.
The inn was ten minutes away, and he wasn’t usually impatient or fussy about a schedule, but he found himself drumming his fingers and checking the time again and again. And again and again one minute would have passed, and then another. Finally he huffed, set a timer, and tossed his phone in the direction of the passenger seat.
He hoped Graden had slept well. That Graden wasn’t a morning grouch. Although, picturing Graden as a morning grouch made him grin and had a light flutter rising in his chest. He rubbed it absently and tried to sketch a plan for the day, but decided that should be up to Graden. He owed Graden that much after last night—and spending the night here instead of pushing well into Colorado by now.
Cole had known without knowing when they set out from Vegas they’d have to spend the night. He hadn’t hidden that or meant anything nefarious, because to him it made sense. That was how he lived—not aimless or dodging every responsibility, but without need for strict routines. What was another several hours or a few days to get to their destination compared to winding up somewhere amazing and restorative along the way?
For Graden, maybe a lot.
But he took heart in Graden’s reaction to last night’s sunset. Cole was optimistic today’s adventure would go well. He hoped for that too—he’d enjoyed watching the sunset through Graden’s intelligent gray eyes. The warm colors on Graden’s pale, sharp cheeks that seemed quick to blush, light hair turned pink and dark eyebrows that had arched at him sardonically. Graden’s continual shivers made him want to haul Graden in and keep them both warm—and maybe cop a feel of that shapely ass under such tempting, narrow hips.
He knew exactly how Graden’s lean body would fit against his, that Graden’s head could tuck under his chin, the way their limbs would stagger and match and comfortably entwine. Graden’s wide-eyed wonder at the sunset had made Cole want to shake him and ask, “Haven’t you ever done this?” And then pull him into a tight hug. Graden’s stilted goodbye and the peek of Graden’s tongue at the corner of that pink mouth last night had made him want to pull them into a kiss.
Ridiculous.
Also, more than the basis for some of his one-night stands—back when he easily indulged in them.
Of course, this wasn’t a one-night stand. This was a prickly cutie he had to spend several days in the car trying to get along with before they went their separate ways.
It was more than that, but whatever else free-floating he couldn’t quite define, he put down to nerves.
Cole grunted, scrubbed his face with both hands, and jumped to his feet. He hadn’t been drawn to anyone as immediately and viscerally as Graden in years—but he could keep on not reacting. The last thing he needed was any extra complications. He was headed into enough not of his own making as it was.
He slammed the hatch shut, got in the car, and drove to the inn.
Graden sat on a bench outside the entrance, and Cole laughed.
“Morning,” he called and walked over to grab Graden’s stuff.
He couldn’t tell if Graden was grumpy or not. But he did notice Graden’s fine shivers and the bad job a dress shirt tucked into jeans did at staving off the morning chill.
“C’mere,” he said and hauled Graden to stand at the back of the Jeep.
He rummaged in his bag and made a pile of clothing that would be way better and more comfortable, efficiently unbuttoned and stripped Graden’s shirt, and then popped Graden into a T-shirt, long-sleeved running shirt, and then swaddled and zipped him into a hoodie.
“You’re welcome,” he said to Graden’s continued silence, giving the hood a final tug to shelter Graden’s now messy hair and blushing cheeks, a husky note in his voice he didn’t intend seeping through. He briskly rubbed up and down Graden’s arms and then cleared his throat. “I’ll leave you to pack your shirt—I’ll just mess up the folding.”
Cole rolled his shoulders, climbed into the driver’s seat, and resisted thumping his forehead on the steering wheel.
