Heroes in Love by David C Dawson

Author:David C Dawson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay fiction, family and friends, contemporary gay romance, a touching love story, cambridge and london, heartbreak and redemption, learning to live your best life, modern life pressures, reuniting old lovers, seeing your life through the lens of someone else
Publisher: Boroughs Publishing Group

Chapter 17

“I still don’t understand. Why was Chuck so upset?”

At ten o’clock that evening, Billy was in Daniel’s garden with Daniel and Maggie. A gentle breeze rustled the leaves of the rhododendron bushes, but the heat of the day persisted. Billy and Daniel lounged on a large iron bench, the hardness of its seat made more forgiving by half a dozen ill-matched cushions. Maggie sat opposite on a canvas director’s chair. Above their heads, a string of flickering lanterns illuminated a wall of herbs alongside them. The heady scents of thyme, oregano, and curry mingled with the delicate smell of chamomile from the lawn at their feet. Instead of recorded birdsong, Daniel had opted to play the sound of crickets to mask London’s traffic. If Billy closed his eyes, the garden was transported to a mythical location, somewhere in the Mediterranean.

Maggie paused, a glass of wine halfway to her lips, and raised an eyebrow at Billy. “Chuck upset? Isn’t it his way, dear?” She took a sip from the glass.

“Up to a point,” Billy replied. “But, from what we could see from the punt, it looked like they were ready for a fight. I grant you Chuck can be a bit argumentative—”

“A bit.” Maggie almost choked on her mouthful of wine. “I’ve never met a more awkward, cussed, obtuse, ill-tempered, surly, cantankerous—”

“Hang on, hang on,” Daniel interrupted, before Billy could say anything in defense of his client. “I think that’s a bit harsh. Anyway. I thought you two were getting on like a house on fire when we left? In fact, that’s why we left. It seemed as if you might want some time alone together.”

“Me? With Chuck?” Maggie’s laugh was loud and long, halted only by a fit of coughing. She raised her wineglass once more and drained it. She held out the glass to Daniel and looked at him with her head tilted to one side. “Is the spare room available?” she asked. “I’m not going to be able to drive now. The events of today seem to have turned me to drink.”

Daniel took the glass from her and stood. “Darling Maggie,” he said. “I can’t think of a time when you weren’t turned to drink. All right. I’ll open another bottle. But don’t try to pretend you and Chuck didn’t give off signals this afternoon. Because you did.”

“Oh nonsense.” Maggie waved her hand. “There was a bit of harmless flirting, I grant you. But you seem to forget, young Daniel, that the male of the species no longer interests me. And, if I’m not mistaken,” she paused, and looked first to Daniel, and then Billy, “Chuck’s not interested in the female of the species either.”

“What?” Daniel sat down heavily on the bench beside Billy. “You’re not serious?”

Maggie sat back and smiled triumphantly, as though she had unmasked the killer in a game of wink murder. “He might conceal it quite well, I grant you,” she continued. “But, in my humble opinion, Chuck’s about as camp as a row of tents.

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