Earth and Sky

enthusiasm. “And I’m telling her myself. I told her I’d call her, and I’ll meet her somewhere private to tell her.” Izzie smiled. “If you want to get chummy with her afterwards and talk babies, that’s fine with me, but not before I talk to her.” Hunter put his arm around Izzie’s slender shoulders and squeezed, then noticed how beat Grant looked. He put his other hand on Grant’s knee and squeezed that too. “But first I’m going to put this one to bed, so he can rest.”

    Grant gave him a grateful smile.

    “I’ll bring up some food later,” Izzie suggested. She got up from the couch and sighed. “Guess I’ll need to help Mom in the kitchen, now Lisa’s gone.” Izzie pouted demonstratively to show she didn’t like that idea.

    “I’ll be down in a minute,” Hunter said after getting up from the couch. He reached out to help Grant rise and led him to the hallway.

    “Think you can make it up the stairs?” Hunter asked softly.

    Grant nodded and slowly inched up one step at a time. By the time he made it to the second floor, he was about ready to drop onto a bed and never get up again. Hunter directed him to a room near the end of the hall. When they entered, they saw the bed was unmade and clothes covered every surface.

    “Sorry about the mess.” Hunter started gathering his things and putting them all on one chair. Then he pulled on the sheets to straighten them, but Grant stopped him by sitting down on the bed and grabbing Hunter’s wrist.

    “Easy, Cowboy. I’m too tired to care and if I wasn’t… well, I’ve never been in your room before.”

    Hunter gave him a shy smile. “If I’d known….” He shrugged.

    “So you’re a slob. I can live with that. You might get annoyed with me tidying up all the time, though. I’m used to living out of my duffel bag in a cramped space, so it pays to keep everything organized.”

    Hunter stopped fussing and just looked at Grant. Had Grant just made plans for their future together? Hunter didn’t want to jinx it by pointing it out to Grant, so he simply sat down next to him, their shoulders rubbing together.

    “Do you need help? I can get you comfortable like I did last night.”

    Grant nodded. Hunter could tell he was too tired to put up a fight, even though he knew Grant was the independent type.

    “Let me get you a T-shirt and some boxers to sleep in.” Hunter got up and walked to his closet, which was almost in worse disarray than his room. He picked out a T-shirt and smelled it.

    “It’s clean,” he added, hoping it would reassure Grant.

    Grant smiled and watched Hunter as he moved in front of him. Hunter helped him pull his fleece jacket over his head and couldn’t resist gently running his hand over Grant’s bruised ribs. The skin was black and blue, and his face must have shown his compassion, because Grant lowered his hands and tried to cover them.

    “It hurts, doesn’t it? Let me get you your painkillers.”

    “Yeah,” Grant replied curtly. “Listen, I’ll be fine here. Why don’t you go talk to your mom, hey?”

    Hunter handed him the pills and a glass of water. “Just let me make sure you’re comfortable. Then I’ll go downstairs and get us something to eat.”

    Grant shook his head. “Talk to her, Hunter. You need to work this out with her.”

    Hunter nodded silently as he helped Grant into the T-shirt and out of his boots and jeans.

    “And take a shower,” Grant added teasingly. “You smell like you’ve been on the road for five days. She’ll think you’re doing it for me.”

    “Why would she?” Hunter stopped when he realized Grant was teasing him. “Fine,” Hunter conceded, secretly happy that they were secure enough to joke about something so intimate. He helped Grant to lie down and arranged the bedding so he was comfortable, even getting another pillow from the guestroom, before heading for the shower.

    When he returned less than ten minutes later, Grant was sound asleep, and even Hunter’s gentle caress of Grant’s short dark curls didn’t wake him.

    As he walked down the stairs in clean clothes, his hair still damp, Hunter felt his nerves rise again. He’d felt so calm in his room with Grant, but now he had to face his mother again. He was still puzzled about her strange reaction, or rather, her lack of reaction to all the news. As he walked into the living room, Izzie was setting the table. She didn’t say anything, simply gestured in the direction of the