Prophet's Pass by Chapman Brown

Author:Chapman Brown [Brown, Chapman]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay romance
ISBN: 978-1-64080-779-2
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2018-09-27T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

IT SNOWED all night, and in the morning, Aiden awoke to find the desert frozen, ice covering the red rock of the canyon. It was otherworldly, like an image sent back from Mars. Powdery snow caught in the branches of the trees above the cliffs, brushing the evergreens with white, remaking the forest as a still, icy imitation of what it had been before. He opened the window with a creak and peered out, watching his breath mist in the morning. The snow was perfect and shining, like crushed glass. Here there’d be no salt or traffic or tramping feet to grind it into dirty mush. It was silent.

He looked out until his nose started to freeze. Pulling on an extra sweatshirt against the chill, he sat at Hunter Jensen’s little childhood desk and typed up his notes from yesterday’s sessions with the governor. He hadn’t seen Hunter again after their argument on the mountain. He’d been absent at dinner, down in the town with his brothers before they drove back home with their wives and kids. That would leave only the five of them in the house, six if you counted Stephanie’s boring husband, which no one seemed to. Aiden wondered how Hunter would keep avoiding him. Then again it was a big house, no matter how many people were in it. That image of him on the mountain, backlit by the winter sun, kept coming to his mind. The flesh of Aiden’s shoulder prickled at the memory of Hunter’s angry body pushing past him. If you’re staying, stay away from me.

Someone knocked on the door. For a second Aiden imagined it was Hunter, like his thoughts had manifested him into being.

“Aiden?” he heard Kayleigh call.

Of course it wasn’t Hunter. Twenty-four hours ago, Aiden had been convinced Hunter was about to push him off the mountain. He wouldn’t be sneaking in here for… well. Whatever he’d be sneaking in here for. Aiden told himself he was curious about him for curiosity’s sake, but that was probably a lie. The knowledge that Mormon Thor was under the same roof was a distraction to say the least.

“Hi,” he called. Kayleigh came in with a steaming mug, and for a wondrous second, Aiden imagined it was coffee. How much easier this would all be with coffee. Then he smelled it.

“Mom made Ovaltine for you.”

“Oh,” Aiden said.

She read his disappointment. “Sorry.”

“Ovaltine is great,” Aiden lied. She put it down in front of him. It looked a bit like chocolate protein shake. “What is it?”

“It’s made of malt. I don’t know what that is.”

“No caffeine’s a tough rule.”

“Actually, the Word of Wisdom doesn’t say anything about caffeine. Some people just take it that way. I’ve had Coke before.”

Aiden realized she meant the beverage, not the drug. Rebel without a cause. “No coffee’s a hard sell for me,” he confessed. He wouldn’t have been a very receptive customer of her missionary work, but then again there were other obstacles to that too. He sipped the Ovaltine and decided it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t coffee.

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