The Lawyer Who Leapt by Frank W. Butterfield

Author:Frank W. Butterfield [Butterfield, Frank W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mystery, Daytona Beach, detective, courtroom, gay
ISBN: 1230003705032
Publisher: self-published
Published: 2018-11-14T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

761 S. Palmetto Avenue

Sunday, September 28, 1947

Half past 9 in the morning

Tom was feeling nervous and he couldn't quite understand why. As he made the bed in his bedroom and picked up the various articles of clothing that Ronnie had left scattered around, he thought maybe he wasn't really enjoying sharing the house with his best friend and lover as much as he thought he would.

He tried to imagine what Sarah would say about the arrangement. But, try as he might, he couldn't think of anything comparable that they had ever discussed. He hoped she didn't mind that Ronnie was sleeping on her side of the bed and leaving his socks on the top of the dresser. Tom wasn't fastidious, by any stretch, but the chair in the bedroom, to his mind, was where all of the previous day's clothes were supposed to rest overnight, to be collected the next morning. Until Ronnie had, more or less, moved in, Tom had tried to pick up the bedroom for when Alice came through to clean each weekday. On the weekends, he made his own bed and put things away. But Ronnie didn't seem to have any interest in doing the same.

Tom had never been over to see his room at Mabel Baum's. He assumed that, in such a small space, Ronnie would have kept things tidy. He also assumed that Mabel would have come through once a day or, maybe, once every other day and cleaned the room by changing the sheets on the bed and running the carpet sweeper or sweeping the room with a broom. He had no idea what the place looked like but, having seen Mabel Baum out and about, he felt certain she kept a tidy house and would have yelled at Ronnie for being a slob.

As he smoothed out the light blue chenille bedspread that Sarah had loved so much, he wondered if maybe he needed to sit down and talk to Ronnie about chores and all that entailed. Sighing to himself, he realized that would mean talking about the two of them living together for the long term.

Standing, Tom turned and looked out the window. The Spanish moss was swaying gently, and he realized that what had him so nervous was the fact that he wasn't sure about the two of them living together. The long term... That he was sure of. That he loved Ronnie Grisham and had always loved him since he ran into him that first day at Leon High... He was certain of that. He could easily see the two of them sitting in rocking chairs on a front porch somewhere, watching rocket ships take off in the distance for the Moon or wherever they would be headed. He knew that Ronnie was his future.

But, as fun as it might be to go to the Moon for a long weekend, Tom lived in the present. And, in the present, two grown men, particularly two tall grown men, living together

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