Soft Flannel Hank by Eliza MacArthur

Author:Eliza MacArthur
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Eliza MacArthur

Esther trembled in Hank’s arms. She winced and clamped her eyes shut. The dark kitchen had been flooded with the harsh light of the overhead fluorescents, and Esther wasn’t alone in feeling shocked by the change. Hank breathed heavily as he studied her face. She just squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lips between her teeth.

Hank looked over his shoulder to where Nat was standing in the doorway.

“Can you give us a minute?”

“Yeah, buddy. Sure,” Nat said, ducking back into the mudroom. “Hi, Esther.”

Hank turned back to Esther. Her eyes were open now, and fat tears spilled over and slid down her freckled cheeks. Her eyes looked that unreal blue, like a neon sign in a shop window, glowing bright and volatile. She was staring at the center of his chest, but it was really like she was staring through him, through the walls of his house, and out into the wild world that had become so unsafe for her.

Hank felt his heart drop as she took a shuddering breath. He tucked his still-hard dick into his underwear and did up his jeans and belt. He pulled out the stupid ponytail holder and raked careless hands through his hair, gathering it behind his head and rewrapping the strands with the elastic. He couldn’t remember whether Esther had nearly pulled it out or if he had when she dropped to her knees on the linoleum and nearly made him lose his mind.

Once he’d put himself back together, he cupped her cheeks carefully in his hands. He knew how his hands felt. Calloused. Hard in some places. After chopping wood for hours, they wouldn’t have felt better. But Esther had never minded his hands before, had never told him they scratched her or edged away from his touch, and so he cradled her face softly in his rough hands.

“Esther, I’ll keep you safe,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

Esther leaned into him. She didn’t want to, he could tell, not at first, anyway, but she melted against him. Her phone rang again upstairs.

“You okay?”

She nodded, sniffling. “Are you?”

“Well, my balls are gonna be bluer than the Boise State football field, but I’ll live.”

She snorted. Like she’d snorted when Jory made her laugh. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’d offer to take care of that for you, but—”

“But your friend Nat is ten feet away with big news and you two horn dogs need to take five to hear it,” Nat called out from the mudroom.

“We’re presentable,” Hank called out.

Nat slid in through the doorway. “I’m sorry the timing is so shit, but you needed to know and you weren’t answering your phone, Hank.”

Hank grunted.

Her phone rang again upstairs.

“I should go get that. It’s Shannon,” she said.

Hank nodded, but when she tried to slide off the counter, he pressed into her, smelling the top of her head. She kissed the center of his chest and when she slid forward again, he let her. She disappeared around the corner and Hank listened to the boards creak as she climbed the stairs.

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