The Beginning by Matthew J. Metzger

Author:Matthew J. Metzger [Metzger, Matthew J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LGBT Romance Fiction
Publisher: Totally Entwined Group
Published: 2020-08-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Gabriel had lied.

Sort of. He had been scheduled to work the weekend that Aled and Chris picked for house-shopping, but he’d wriggled out of it and swapped for the next one instead once he discovered Aled would be out of the house for the whole weekend.

And the reason why was already there when he coasted the bike into their street on Friday afternoon.

Kevin’s Kit ens and Bat rooms took up Aled’s usual parking spot, and while the van was locked up tight, the front door of their house gaped open and tools littered the hall. Dust coated the front garden and a saw whirred deep inside the house.

One of Kevin’s rules, after all, was that he always had a key to Gabriel’s home.

Once, it had been about making sure he was safe and not drinking himself into oblivion. There’d been evenings—long ago, now—where Kevin letting himself in had been the only thing standing between Gabriel and the bottle, or Gabriel and much worse than a drink. There were nights Kevin had sat up with him until dawn, just being there, just to stop the demons in Gabriel’s head.

But for nearly six years now, Kevin had only let himself in when Gabriel had fucked up and failed to get in touch, or when he’d been invited over in the first place.

And yes, Gabriel had invited him to help put down the new laminate in the kitchen. But with Aled out of town, he was hoping to borrow Kevin for just a little bit more, too.

“Hey!” he chirped, rapping his knuckles on the kitchen doorframe and sticking his head into the room to grin at the enormous tradesman on his hands and knees in the corner. “Do you want a cup of tea?”

“Already got one,” Kevin grunted around the pencil clenched between his teeth. “Fuck off and let me work.”

“Need anything else?”

“You to fuck off.”

“Okay, okay…”

Gabriel did a little tidying of the scattered tools, and rinsed off the plants in the front garden with the hose, but then beat a retreat and went for a shower and to don some scruffy clothes. If Kevin was going to be an antisocial grump until he was finished laying the new floor, Gabriel might as well get some of the other chores done.

By the time the sawing and hammering stopped, the bathroom was spotless, the bedsheets were changed in both the master and the spare, and he’d managed to just about—with a lot of swearing—hang the spare room door again. Once Kevin started whistling, Gabriel headed downstairs and made another brew, admiring the new floor while Kevin fiddled around with the skirting boards.

“It looks much nicer,” he said. “When did you even get here?”

“About half two. Judith’s taken the kids to her mum’s for the day, so I ferried them all over there and then headed down.”

“Well, thanks for coming,” Gabriel said, then made a pass at him. “How much do I owe you?”

To his surprise, Kevin sat back on his heels and chuckled, shaking his head.

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