Be My Best Man by Con Riley

Author:Con Riley [Riley, Con]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Figment Ink
Published: 2017-09-06T23:00:00+00:00

There’s no one home when they get there, but the smell of stale smoke is strong when Jason opens the door. “Jesus!” He covers his nose. “That’s coming from the kitchen. Wait out here.”

Vanya hovers in the doorway, uncertain, until he hears a peal of Jason’s laughter, then he enters a hallway resembling something from a movie. The walls look medieval—a patchwork of dark wooden beams bisecting plaster—the floor covered by huge flagstones thousands of footsteps have left uneven. The ceiling is so low that he can touch an exposed beam. It’s the oldest building he’s ever set foot inside, and Vanya can’t help staring, even if it smells bad.

That smell only worsens when Jason opens a door. Light floods in from behind him, and Vanya spies a sunny kitchen, all of its windows thrown wide open.

Jason grins widely, for some reason. “Chantel burned our lunch to a crisp. She’s popped out to replace it.”

Surely that isn’t funny? But Jason laughs like he’s truly tickled. Then he says, “Come on. Let me give you the grand tour until she gets back.”

The sitting room he shows Vanya is cosy. Faded armchairs flank an old couch. They curve around a fireplace that is set into a deep recess. Vanya rests a hand on the huge beam that acts as a mantel. “Is very big fireplace.” Out of the corner of his eye, he catches Jason’s smile widening even further. “What is funny? Fireplace is wrong word?”

“Your English blows me away. It’s incredible.”

“Sure ‘incredible’ is right word? Certain you don’t mean terrible?”

“No. It is incredible to me.” He shakes his head. “I can’t get over how much better your English is since the first time we spoke. I know I couldn’t learn half as fast.”

“Could if had to.” Not having any choice was a huge motivator. “Building vocabulary is best plan.”

“Do you want to learn a new word right now?” Jason closes the scant distance between them; his hand is a firm weight at Vanya’s shoulder that slips down to his elbow, tugging until they stand chest-to-chest. “Get ready,” Jason warns, his words reverberating where their bodies connect. “Inglenook” is all that he says next.

Vanya tries to wrap his tongue around that word before narrowing his eyes in suspicion. “That is not real word.”

“It really is.” Jason tilts his head at the fireplace. “It’s what this kind of fireplace is called. It wasn’t here when I was a kid. Or rather it was, but it was hidden behind plasterboard. Uncovering it was my very first renovation project.” He looks down and drops a quick kiss on Vanya’s lips, absently, like he’s caught up in his reminiscing. “I had a class on architectural forensics during my first term at college and then came home and took a sledgehammer to it. Mum’s face was a picture.”

“Can imagine.”

“Look,” Jason says as they leave the snug sitting room behind them. “The ceiling beam in here runs all the way through the whole house.” He opens another door off the hallway into a bedroom that’s a repeat of exposed wood and plaster.

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