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“Okay.” Robby held up a hand. “Let’s take it down a notch. I’m glad you’re here, Meggie, and I’m even happier your home life is a good one. Anyone whowantsto be here is welcome. I think it’s just hard not to envy what you have.”
He sent a meaningful look toward Pete, who grunted and stepped back.
“For most of the people here, the center is the only safe space they have. At your age, I didn’t have one at all. I don’t think back on those years very much because…it hurts. And when I thought Chris wanted me to rehash it all, I freaked out.” He shrugged.
Meggie released the hold she had on her arms, allowing them to drop, then clasped her hands loosely in front of her. “I know how good I have it. It’s the reason I volunteer. It’s why I organized the clothing drive at my school. I wanted to give back. It feels good.” She shot a sour look in Pete’s direction. “Most of the time.”
“It feels good for me most of the time too.” Leave it to a sixteen-year-old girl to drill this whole experience down to its simplest terms. “I grew up happy. It was a small-town life…a little place called Sherman. And my mom, gosh, she loved us all so much. Thanked God for us every day. I heard her do it. I felt safe and secure and loved.”
“Until you came out.”
“Heh, well, I didn’t come out so much as get outed, kissing in the barn with one of my brother Travis’s friends. And my father kicked me out of the house and out of the family without even giving me the chance to pack a bag. Good old Ephraim Jordan, judge, jury, and executioner. But he was just a product of his environment. I thought Sherman was the problem, a tiny town stuck in the 1950s. So I came to the big city. It was different, all right.”
He hummed to fill the brief silence. “I fell asleep on a bench outside the library in Sherman once. Woke up, like, an hour later. No one bothered me. I was safe, and it never occurred to me it would be any other way. When I got here, I was so sure I would find this amazing melting pot and people who would understand and accept me, I never stopped to think about the more fundamental ways it would change my life. Change me.”
The rest of the room listened in respectful silence. No one so much as shuffled their feet as he talked.
“I wish I could forget it all. But if I can take what my experiences have taught me and use them to keep even one of you from sinking as low as I did, it’s worth it to remember.”
From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Chris moving his mic, leaning the long stick against the wall. “You were perfect, man. I’ve got everything I need.”
“Were you—filming me?” He hadn’t thought of the video at all once he started talking to Meggie.
“Mmm hmm. You can watch it back if you want. I won’t use anything you don’t feel right sharing, but the stuff you were saying right there…how your life called you to this place to help other people…powerful stuff.”
He didn’t need to think it over. “Use it. If you think it will help with the outreach, use it all.” As he stood, he felt at least a foot taller.
The crowd parted as he left the room, head held high. Maybe he made a difference for someone with the stories he shared. But the best thing that came from all this: he’d faced some of demons and came through to the other side.
The past couldn’t hurt him anymore. Only an amazing future stretched in front of him. Real friends, a chosen family, and an incredible man who just might give his hopeful heart a home.
He texted Matt to meet him at the apartment after his shift at the bar, and by the time Robby had showered and changed, the doorbell rang.
The man on the other side of the threshold took his breath away. A pair of black slacks hugged Matt’s lower half in all the right places, and a red, soft cotton button-down contrasted beautifully with his rich, dark skin. He held a bouquet of flowers in his hand.
Robby tugged him inside, heart beating a riot in his chest. This gorgeous, delicious man washis. And maybe he couldn’t keep him forever—no one stayed forever—but he would keep him as long as the good Lord let him.
“What are you grinning at?” Matt gave him the side eye. “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that look on your face before.”
“This face?” He spun his finger in a small circle around his mouth. “Thisface says I am looking at thefinestman I’ve ever contemplated kissing.”
Matt brushed the flowers over his cheek. “If you’re still thinking about it, I must be doing this wrong.”
An invitation if Robby ever heard one. He palmed both sides of Matt’s face and drew him forward until their mouths met.
The flowers fell to the floor.
Somehow, they skipped all the niceties, the soft, closed-mouth kisses, the tentative touch of tongues. No, this kiss shot from one to one hundred in less time than it took Matt to drop the bouquet. Their bodies locked together at the mouth in a wet, hot exploration, which shot Robby’s body temperature through the roof. And he welcomed the burn.
Sliding his hands down to grip Matt’s arms, he stepped backward, pulling them toward his bedroom. They didn’t break the kiss. It went on and on, growing bolder and more aggressive with each stroke.
“Clothes off.” He could barely grit out the words. His higher functions threatened to abandon him entirely as the back of his knees came in contact with the bed, and he yanked open Matt’s shirt before it was completely untucked from his pants. A half dozen buttons scattered across the floor.
Matt sucked in a breath, and it shuddered back out as Robby latched his mouth to one of his nipples. His fingers lightly pinched at the other, and both stiffened beneath the attention. With his other hand, he cupped the erection tenting Matt’s pants, and a groan rumbled from the perfect, muscled chest in front of him.
“Tell me.” He squeezed at the thick length in his hand. “Tell me you want this.”
“Yes.” Matt panted. “Give me everything. Show me how.”
