The Parting Glass by Josh Lanyon

Author:Josh Lanyon
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Gay & Lesbian, Gay Romance, Gay, Contemporary, Fiction, Romance, m/m contemporary fiction, Genre Fiction, Literature & Fiction
ISBN: 9781937909543
Publisher: JustJoshin Publishing, LLC
Published: 2013-09-28T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

“Tim! Tim, can you hear me? Timmy?”

Someone was yelling in my face. I pried open my eyes. I knew that face. I knew that voice. The note of fear was new…

“Hey,” I mumbled.

“Are you okay? What the hell happened to you?” Luke was still speaking with that tiresome urgency. His head bobbed over me like a face balloon. “How badly are you hurt?”

Hmm. Would I know if I was badly hurt? Was it like in the movies? Was it like Bugs Bunny clutching his furry chest and muttering about everything going dark? I considered this vaguely while Luke ran anxious and knowledgeable hands over me.

“No broken bones.” He sounded like he was talking to himself.

I didn’t think I was hurt. In fact, I couldn’t have been out for more than a minute or two. I didn’t even believe I’d completely lost consciousness, but somehow I seemed to be lying…where the hell was I? I uncertainly began to take stock. Chill, unforgiving pavement beneath me. Starless night above. I was lying in the street.

Yes, I was lying in the street. The gutter, to be exact.

Well, that was bound to happen sooner or later, but I had expected it before I dried out.

“Tim? Don’t go to sleep. Can you answer me?”

My head was thumping with sickening familiarity — or what used to be familiar. It had been a long time since I’d had a hangover. Wait.

Wait…

“Luke?” I said doubtfully. My last memory of Luke had seemed pretty final. He’d been walking out of my life for the last time. You didn’t argue with a pair of shoulders like that.

“How many fingers am I holding up?” Luke waved the peace sign in front of my nose.

I offered him a single digit in return and he gave a shaky laugh.

“Maybe you’re okay after all.”

“I’m fine…”

I sat up slowly, and he slipped a quick, supporting arm around my shoulders. “I don’t think you should try to get up. You’ve got a bump on your forehead.”

Nice to lean against him and close my eyes for a moment. To feel his strong arms around me, hear the concern in his voice reverberating in his chest. I had thought I’d never see him again and now he was holding me. My heart beat out the seconds in a slow, contented meter, a much slower pace than his own which was leaping and bounding along.

“Just take it slow, Tim…”

His chin was brushing the top of my head. He still wore the same herbal aftershave. That made me happy. Why?

“Did you see her?” I mumbled.

“Who?” Luke asked. His voice sounded gentle. I never thought I’d hear him sound gentle again. Never thought I’d hear him sound anything again.

“The woman with the gun.”

Silence.

I raised my head and he drew back. “I’m not drunk. I haven’t had a drink.”

“I didn’t say —”

“Yeah, you did. You just didn’t put it into words.”

“Tim, I don’t think you got drunk in the fifteen minutes since I left you. Okay?”

I eyed him narrowly, but his features, pallid in the lamplight, seemed sincere.

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