My Man Walter by J. S. Cook

Author:J. S. Cook [Cook, J. S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781634770309
Amazon: 1634770307
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2016-02-01T05:00:00+00:00

CHASE CONCEALED himself in the library with Walter, sequestered behind a locked door and a large stack of vintage jazz recordings. They listened to Billie Holiday and drank cold beer and talked about music and movies and books. Walter fell asleep in the middle of a Wynton Marsalis album, and Chase covered him with a blanket. He liked watching Walter sleep; he’d found this out during Walter’s lengthy convalescence. Chase had spent hours sitting at his side, sometimes reading or dozing himself, but often watching the play of emotions, thoughts, and dreams across Walter’s sleeping face.

What’s happening to me? He wheeled himself over to the fireplace and laid another log on the fire. It was a cold night, and the fire was a comfort to him, as fire usually was. There was, he thought, something primeval about it, about sitting close to the flames and warming oneself; in spite of cold or other privations—

Here Chase stopped, smiling to himself. What privation have you ever endured? He reached out with the poker and shifted a half-burned log to the back of the pile. Years ago, when he was a boy, he and his father would go on camping trips to the Poconos and pretend they were fearless explorers chasing some mythical monster. Once it was the elusive Sasquatch, but they also tracked Champ, the legendary lake monster and, some said, cousin to Scotland’s Loch Ness monster. He and Dad lay awake under the stars for ages, picking out the constellations and making up ridiculous stories about the monsters that lived in the sky.

As Chase got older, of course, the camping trips became less frequent, as he and his dad turned to sports events, football, and ice hockey. When Dad died, Chase’s interest in spectator sports vanished, and people who had known him and his dad began to drift away. Some of his old friends kept in touch, or tried to, but it was hard to socialize with someone who refused to leave his house. Chase Gordon was alone, and that was fine by him—rather, it always had been, until now.

He glanced back at Walter Godfrey, sleeping peacefully on the sofa. He was attracted to Walter; he knew this, and it frightened him. He couldn’t afford another heartbreak like he’d had with Aaron. That had very nearly killed him.

He’d fallen hard for the warm, handsome police captain, friend of his parents and frequent attendee at various charity functions. He didn’t care that Aaron was twenty years his senior. Chase loved him and wanted him, and when Aaron died, Chase thought he’d lose his mind. He very nearly had: an eight-month stint in an exclusive upstate psychiatric clinic had set him back on his feet, but only that.

He’d never been identified as the passenger in the car crash that killed Aaron. He’d always wondered about that. After the initial announcement, the story had died away, more quickly than was usual. Chase’s family was well-known. There were a lot of people who could identify him on sight.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.