a flash of hurt at the word “boyfriend,” but Hank just nodded and said, “Thank you,” almost too softly for Lukas to hear. Taking a deep breath, Lukas opened the door and was unsurprised to find John standing ten feet away.
When the door opened, John had turned toward him and opened his mouth to ask something, but when Hank stepped out and paused just long enough to run his eyes over John before striding out of the office, John closed his mouth. He watched the other man leave, then turned to Lukas with raised brows.
Giving John a weak smile, he held up a finger and went back around the reception desk to finish what he needed to do before he could leave. He bumped into Dr. Mason and filled him in on one of the dogs that was coming in first thing the next day for a procedure, then finally grabbed his things and headed toward John. He was sitting in the corner of the waiting room, magazine with a Great Dane on the cover in his hands.
“I’m ready,” Lukas said softly.
John closed the magazine and tossed it aside, giving Lukas an unreadable look, then stood and started to bend forward but hesitated. Knowing what he wanted, Lukas raised up on his toes and pressed a kiss to John’s slight frown until the tension around his mouth eased.
“Let’s get out of here.” He grabbed John’s hand and led the way out the front door, tossing goodbyes to the others still there. Spotting John’s truck just to the right of the entrance, he headed straight for it and waited for John to unlock it and open the door for him—something John enjoyed doing, and since Lukas didn’t mind, he had no problem letting him.
He pecked John’s cheek before climbing in and buckling up. Once John had gotten behind the wheel and they started out of the parking lot, John tossed him a questioning look and Lukas grimaced.
“So, my ex-boyfriend Hank stopped by today,” Lukas said, giving his best innocent smile.
John laughed and reached over to squeeze Lukas’s thigh just below his groin, sending heat to his balls and nearly distracting him from what John said. “If he hadn’t looked upset when he left, I might have been a little jealous you were closed in a room together.”
“Yeah, no need for that,” Lukas said, laughing and rubbing at his eyes. He didn’t speak for several minutes, and John didn’t push him. They were almost to his house when he finally said, “So Hank has texted a couple of times, asking to talk to me, but I ignored him, thinking he’d get the message.”
“And he thought showing up at your work would convince you to talk to him?” John maneuvered his large truck next to Lukas’s car in his driveway, then threw it in park and shut off the engine. He reached for his door handle. “Did he threaten you or anything? Should we call the cops?”
Lukas opened his door and hopped down, moving around the front of the truck. “No, no. He was just… sad. Said he just wanted to explain something to me and then he’d leave me alone. I sort of… Um, so, I sort of told him he could meet us here and I’d give him two minutes.”
“Lukas—”
They both turned as a loud truck parked on the street right in front of Lukas’s house and watched as Hank got out slowly and trudged toward them. Hank stopped a half dozen feet away from them and shoved his hands in his jeans, clearing his throat awkwardly.
Feeling like he should say something, Lukas gestured to John. “Hank, this is John. John, Hank.”
Hank nodded at him but didn’t say anything or extend a hand. After a few more moments, John gave Lukas’s wrist a quick squeeze, then went to wait on his tiny porch, giving them a smidgen of privacy.
“Your two minutes have started, Hank,” he said softly.
Sighing, Hank scrubbed at his face before tugging at the end of his beard. It was longer than Lukas remembered, reaching the base of his throat now. “I’m sorry for how I… handled shit between us.”
Lukas sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I needed help and you laughed at me, Hank. That wasn’t okay.”
“I know, but that wasn’t my intention.”
“Okay?” He wasn’t sure what Hank meant by that. “But that doesn’t change how I felt or feel. We were never that serious, and that proved to me that we never would be, so