There's This Guy by Rhys Ford

Author:Rhys Ford [Ford, Rhys]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay romance
ISBN: 978-1-63533-499-9
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2017-03-16T16:00:00+00:00

WALKING THROUGH the sliding glass doors of the nursing home, Dallas realized he’d discovered the last place in the world he wanted to die in. Outside, the two-story building was depressing, a long narrow bit of gray-on-gray cinder block without even a hint of shrubbery to soften its hard lines. Inside was an equally flat muddle of space Dallas knew would drive him to madness if he had to live in its mushy-pea-and-shit-tinted drab walls for more than a few days.

The car ride over was tight with emotion, and more than once, he debated turning around and taking Jake back to the apartment or anywhere other than the nursing home where Jake’s father lay dying. They’d rounded a corner, Dallas taking the curve a bit too quickly, and Jake flushed green, clutching at the door until his knuckles bled white. When they’d arrived, Dallas sat quietly while Jake composed himself, reaching over to hold Jake’s cold, clammy hand when it looked like he was about to lose the bit of tea he’d choked down before they’d gotten into the car.

“It’ll be okay,” he’d promised, rubbing some warmth into Jake’s icy fingers. “I’m here. We’ll get through this.”

Standing on the lobby’s cracked tile floor, Dallas was having serious doubts they were even getting out alive.

The place smelled cleanish, an oversaturation of lemon cleanser and bleach, but there wasn’t enough chlorine in the world to mask the scent of incontinence and vomit. There was a round-faced woman sitting behind a curved nurses’ station placed directly in front of two hallways leading to the rear of the building. And from the sounds coming out of a pair of partially open doors to the right of the desk, residents were engaging in an exercise class being led by a celebrity workout DVD much too advanced for anyone without double joints and possibly a rubber spine.

From the far-left hallway, a cadaver-like male attendant shuffled next to a balding old woman with a walker, her too large pink housecoat dragging on the floor. The woman’s hair matched her loose-fitting Crocs, bright orange and patchy, but her grim, toothless smile and wink when she hobbled by the front desk made Dallas smile.

“You better get out of here while you have your good looks, dearie,” she rasped, coughing out a chuckle. “I was a Playboy Bunny before I got stuck in here.”

“You’re still gorgeous, Ruby,” the attendant mumbled. “Got all the boys in here chasing you.”

“That’s ’cause I’ve got all the good drugs.” Waving away the helper’s hand, she lifted the walker up a few inches, then put it down, leaning on it to support her next few steps. “Hurry the hell up, Henry. I need to get to the damned TV before Gladys or we’ll be watching some stupid gossip show with grinning idiots talking about some fat woman’s ass.”

“Down the right hall,” Jake murmured, waiting for the old woman to go by. “He’s… third door down and to the left.”

Dallas kept a hand on Jake’s back, hating the tremble running through the man’s body.

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.