Dirty Laundry: A Tucker Springs Novel #3

Adam’s fingers dug into the wall as he thought of moving again, but he soothed himself with the knowledge that Denver would be there this time. “We should find somewhere new. Somewhere that’s just ours.” His shoulders rolled a little as he added, “I think it has to be a house, not an apartment. It’s too hard being in someone else’s space. I always worry someone’s going to start a fire in a nearby unit.”
    Denver nodded. “That’s another reason to go slow. We’d do well to build something in the development north of town, something we could control the construction on. Though I don’t know how that fits into your plans.” He looked a little grim as he added, “I mean, I guess you won’t want to stay here after you’ve finished your dissertation.”
    Adam wanted to laugh. “You know how hard it is for me to change my environment. I suppose it’s theoretical I might have to move to a new city, but I’ve been working hard ever since I arrived to keep myself at East Cent. I have a gentleman’s agreement with the department head that I could sign on as adjunct once I have my PhD, and I’d rather do that and wait for a tenured position to open than move.”
    Denver brightened a little. “You mean, you’d be okay with staying here?”
    Adam beamed. “I would love to stay here.”
    “Then we’ll build. You could tell the contractor how to set up the outlets and organize the cabinets and anything else you wanted. I’m definitely going to need to have my new job going for that, though Tiny did promise me a bonus for starting out.”
    “I have some money—”
    Denver held up a hand. “We can’t just use your money. It has to be our money. That way it’s ours . See?”
    Adam did, and it just made him love Denver all the more. “Yes. I do.”
    “I think we need to talk about this. A lot. We just got back together after what I guess you could call a fight. I want to make sure we’re all ironed out there. Maybe we can have Louisa help talk us through or something.”
    “I’m seeing a new therapist,” Adam offered, blushing and beaming as he added, “He’s kink-friendly. Louisa found him. I’m just getting started, but I like him and—well, maybe sometime you can come along? For me,” he added quickly, worried Denver would think Adam was insinuating he needed therapy.
    Denver closed the distance between them—carefully—and didn’t touch Adam, but he smiled. “Maybe for me too, okay?”
    Adam threw his arms around Denver and hugged him tight.

Denver had really been looking forward to taking on that fucker Brad, or at least scaring the living piss out of him, which was why when they showed up at the lab—picking up a steel-jawed Louisa on the steps outside on the way in—and found Brad whey-faced and babbling an apology, it really took the wind out of Denver’s sails.
    He didn’t like how easily Adam forgave him either, or the way Brad confessed he still loved Adam and wanted to be with him any way he could. From what Denver could tell, Louisa was equally displeased. But what could he say? Brad was practically weeping, and the rest of Adam’s “Bug Boys” were hovering and looking like they’d set this all up, making sure Brad showed up and did his mea culpa. To Denver it sounded like the usual abusive asshole bullshit: I was an ass, I won’t do it again, I’m such a jerk, you must hate me. All of it about Brad, none of it about Adam, who was the one who’d ended up in the Goddamned hospital. It was Denver’s dad and his ex all over again, and it made him want to shove his fist down the guy’s throat and show him what the insides of his testicles looked like.
    Louisa stayed him with a hand on his arm, though her fingernails dug in a little too.
    “I know,” she murmured, glaring daggers at Brad. “But I don’t think we get to beat him up just now, and threatening him will only inflate his sense of self-importance. Take some comfort, though, in the fact that Adam doesn’t seem to be engaging in Brad’s drama. He just wants it to go away.”
    That, Denver realized now that she’d redirected him, was true. He also noticed how Adam kept himself removed from the rest of his peers, aligning himself closer to Louisa and Denver than the others, though they were clearly also on his side. Adam was with a new group of friends, a group of his choosing, not just the set that was convenient. One where he never, ever had to worry about being himself. It was a group with