Mother Road by Belle Chapin & Bree Bennett

Author:Belle Chapin & Bree Bennett [Chapin, Belle & Bennett, Bree]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Danvers Writing and Publishing LLC
Published: 2023-09-25T16:00:00+00:00

When Eli returned, Nico was awake, blinking at the filtered sunlight and looking somewhat like a confused bear cub coming out of hibernation.

“Hey,” Eli said, unsure of the proper words to say when one has a phenomenally handsome guy laying platonically in one’s bed. Especially a phenomenally handsome guy who had refused to propose to him in the early morning hours.

“Hey.” Nico seemed so young at that moment, his dark hair a messy shadow among the frills and laces of the pillows. “Good morning.”

“I brought you some coffee,” said Eli, gesturing to the paper cups on the table. “And these.” He held up a pair of silver hair scissors.

“Thank you,” said Nico, reaching for the coffee. “I don’t know how to cut my own hair though.”

“No, but I do,” said Eli, ripping open the packaging.

“Really?”

“Yep,” said Eli, snapping the shears in the air. “I’m not Vidal Sassoon or anything, but I would shape my mom’s hair when it was growing back between treatments. And a couple of the guys at the garage found out I did my own hair, so I practiced on them.” His smile was devious. “Sometimes it turned out good.”

“Sometimes.” Nico blew out a breath. “Alright. Let me get dressed, and we can try it.” He smiled, but it was wary.

“Sounds good,” said Eli—and then he dropped the shears. He scrambled to pick them up, holding them up like Arthur with Excalibur. Nico took the shears, flipped them point-side down, and placed them back in Eli’s fingers.

After Nico was dressed, he sat on a chair in the middle of the carpet, a bath towel wrapped around his neck.

“I’m gonna take off some of the bulk with the shears,” murmured Eli, running his fingers through Nico’s scraggly beard. “And then use my clippers on the rest.”

Nico leaned his head back, baring his throat for Eli. Eli’s breath caught as he looked at the expanse of skin, the sinewy length of his neck. He wanted to bite him.

“What?” asked Nico, and Eli realized he’d said that last part aloud.

“I said, don’t fight me,” Eli corrected, and he tilted Nico’s head in a better position to hack away at the lumberjack-worthy facial hair. His neck still looked biteable, but not blatantly so.

“Talk to me,” said Nico in a strangled voice. “That’s what hairdressers do. Tell me about yourself.”

“What don’t you already know? I’m twenty-five, I’m an unemployed mechanic, and I’m recently dumped.”

“Nah, besides that. Just—” Nico swallowed as Eli leaned closer to snip near his jawline. “Tell me about you.”

So Eli did. He told him about growing up with a single mother in Los Angeles, since his dad had jetted out when he was a baby. He told him about how he liked hands-on work much more than academics, and how he and his mom would do model car kits together. He told him about the time he got to drive a 1974 Chevy Impala to his senior prom, and ended up ducking out on his date so that he could drive it around some more.

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