Breaking the Ice by Tali Spencer

Author:Tali Spencer [Spencer, Tali]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay romance
ISBN: 978-1-63533-414-2
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2017-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

“YOU LIKE me?”

Wasko sounded surprised. John was mortified. He hadn’t planned on that slipping out. What the hell was he supposed to say now? “Yeah. I mean, I want to, though I wasn’t so sure for a minute when freezing my balls off out there.”

“I thought about not answering, but I didn’t want to have to explain to the warden tomorrow morning why there was a corpse frozen solid on my doorstep.”

John had nothing to say to that. Nothing at all. He hoped Wasko was being sarcastic.

“Do you have any clue at all how much of a jerk you’ve been to me?”

“I was working with bad information.”

“Bad information—”

“The guys at work said you didn’t mind a little teasing. You have a Pride poster in your office—”

“Have you ever seen my office? It also has posters announcing the new plant Slinger Wire and Cable’s building just up the road here in Fond du Lac, and that we are a corporate partner of the Green Bay Packers. The Pride poster features our company as a sponsor of PrideFest in Milwaukee last summer. We sponsored—I landed—the Groove Puppies for that event. I’m a PR guy”—Wasko pointed to himself—“and posters are what I do.”

“I wasn’t thinking, okay?” There was no point at all in admitting what head he had been thinking with. In the soft light from the shanty’s one lantern, Wasko’s aggrieved expression was inescapable. “I was just trying to get you to notice me.”

“Oh, I noticed you.”

John swallowed hard. He had no doubt what kind of impression he’d made—and was double sure that driving his car into a sturgeon hole in the middle of the night hadn’t improved his standing. It was also clear that trying to persuade Wasko to hear his side of the story would be a mistake. The guy had good reasons to lay him out. Wasko must have been putting up with homophobic bullshit all his life—with John’s contributions as just the most recent insults. To argue otherwise would just be self-serving.

“Well, thanks for taking me in. Despite all that. This is nice,” he said again. He looked around the cabin. A wood-burning stove. Custom cabinets. Lots of gear and electronics, including a TV mounted on the wall. A warm, padded bunk topped by pillows and blankets. Window curtains. “It’s like a Tardis, isn’t it? Bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside.”

“Ice fishers have unlocked the secrets of the universe.”

“I guess so. I mean, you would know what to do, wouldn’t you, if this shack of yours blew away.”

Wasko’s trace of a smile did far more than blankets could to give John a reason to feel warm. “My happy home isn’t going anywhere unless it drags a log-cabin-sized block of ice with it.”

“See? That there is why I like you. You’re fearless. You never act or look scared, and—” He stopped himself.

“And what?”

“You don’t want to hear it.”

“Try me.”

He had nothing to lose, so why not? “And you’re cute as hell.”

“Cute?”

John could fit in

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