Page 6 of A Little Bit Naughty

“Um… getting to know you first? I… can we take a walk? I think better when I’m moving.” He hopped off the table in a leap, and then gave a few more bounces for good measure.

“Of course.” Remi stepped down with a wince. The discomfort in his back had been growing as he sat, and he got a wave of pain shooting down to his foot when he landed.

Isaac gave him that assessing look again, like he was analyzing the separate parts of his body instead of the whole. He didn’t say anything about whatever was in his head, just asked, “River path or cliff path?”

“Your choice. I want to do both while I’m here.” Hopefully with the adorable Isaac bouncing along beside him.

“Why are you smiling?”

“I was just thinking about watching my baby boy finding me pretty rocks along the trail. Or catching minnows together in the river. The map says there’s a little spot where people go wading.”

Isaac looked with longing toward the path that led down to the river and Remi cheered internally. He was hopefully already winning him over.

“OK, let’s go this way.” Isaac took off on the path that ran along the top of the cliff.

“Hmmmm… any particular reason?” Remi fell into step beside him.

“Well, if you become my temporary Daddy, I want to save the minnows as a treat.”

“Ahhh… Well, let me tell you, if you’re my boy, there would be many, many treats this weekend.”

Isaac’s mouth made the prettiest little O, like he was marveling over his good fortune. It made Remi want to spoil him something fierce.

But to get there, he first had to get the boy to trust him. “So, tell me about yourself. What’s your life like in Boston? What do you love to do?”

“Well, most of my life is getting my physical therapy degree. I’ve got another year left on my doctorate plus a year of clinical residency, though that could be somewhere else.”

Already, Remi was wondering if it could be Portland. Was that too soon? Surely that was too soon. This was just a weekend thing.

It did solve one mystery, though. “So that’s why you kept looking at me like that. Are you wondering if I’ve been doing my exercises?” he teased.

Isaac looked abashed. “Sorry about that. I can’t turn off that part of my brain sometimes. Um… you might not want to tell me anything more about your injury because I’ll be thinking about it all the time. And probably suggest things.”

Remi laughed. “If it’s that important to you, suggest away. I got into a car accident a few years ago. The car was totaled, but it seemed like everyone walked away unscathed. They checked me out and no concussion. A few days later, my back still hurt just as much. Turned out, I had two herniated discs.”

“In your lumbar spine?” Isaac asked, placing a hand on his own lower back to model. “That’s less typical.”

“Yep. I think it’s… L3.” He named the vertebra. “But there’s another one in my neck. C4.” Remi rubbed his neck automatically. Some days it seemed like everything hurt.

“You’re lucky it wasn’t higher. C1 or C2 can be really dangerous.”

“I know. And if you’re curious… I don’t do my exercises most days. I don’t have time.”

Isaac turned, crossing his arms across his chest in an adorable huff. “You have to make time!”

“Maybe you can help me remember,” Remi suggested playfully. He didn’t usually flirt this hard with anyone, but he was certain that Isaac was interested now. He just needed to be convinced that Remi was safe and that giving in to his needs was OK.

“Maybe…” Isaac had that hopeful look again. “I told you about myself, now tell me about you.”

Remi shrugged. “Not a whole lot to tell. I’m a chemical engineer at a university. I do a bit more research than teaching, but I love both of them. My research is in making car batteries more efficient.”

“Huh. For electric cars?”

“Right now, I’m working on hybrid fuel models, which is interesting because some batteries work best when run down completely and others when they’re constantly topped off.” This was the spiel he usually gave to non-scientists, and Isaac nodded along agreeably.

“Hybrids must top them off all the time, right?”

“In the city, yes. But not on long highway trips. The batteries need to be able to fuel up from either the energy run back through the motor while braking, more slowly by using the other fuel source directly, or through charging the cars up with a direct plug-in. Each one has its own efficiencies.”