Love In Slow Motion (Love Beyond Measure #2) - E.M. Lindsey Page 0,62
who simply rearranged the way he considered Fredric’s needs. And he’d take a thousand Johns if it meant one Ilan, and that thought made his stomach swoop.
“Teddy wasn’t the first good boyfriend I’ve ever had. But he was the one who got it right more times than everyone else.” She stopped, and he heard the blinker click, then the car slowed as she made the turn. “It feels like it took forever, but now that we’ve been together for six years, it feels like it took no time at all.”
“Are you saying I just need to be patient?”
She laughed again. “Now why would I say something that ridiculous?”
They made it to the supermarket not long after that, and Fredric let her take the lead, filling up the basket with all the basics he’d neglected the first time he’d ordered his groceries to be delivered. It would take forever to sort through them, and he’d probably have to beg Ilan’s help, but as the afternoon crept toward evening, he knew he was going to ask him for it anyway.
Hudson was going to find something for them to do, and Fredric wanted to be prepared. He wanted more than a cooking lesson—he wanted a guide into the world of casual conversation and easy flirting and all the things that seemed to come natural to Ilan. He wanted to lean in and touch him and absorb bits and pieces of what made it possible for Ilan to love—so casually, so kindly, so thoroughly.
He waited until Agatha helped him put all the bags in his kitchen, then she took Bas for a walk, and Fredric stood in front of his items—half of them abstract and unfamiliar to the touch. And maybe it was foolish to ask Ilan over to help, maybe he was playing with fire, but he couldn’t find it in him to care. Pressing his finger to Ilan’s contact, he held his breath and waited.
“Everything okay?” came his soft voice. He was speaking in deliberately low tones, so Fredric had the feeling he was interrupting something.
“It’s not an emergency. I just wanted to see if you were free tonight.”
“Well, I…” Ilan hesitated for a long moment. “Yes. Of course, I am.”
“You’re lying,” Fredric accused, because he knew the younger man’s tone better than his own. “What are you doing?”
“I was just grabbing food,” Ilan protested. “Seriously, it’s fine. What do you need?”
“Help,” Fredric said, resigned to the answer. “I went shopping with Agatha, and I don’t even know half the stuff I bought. I need to get it all recorded, and I need to know how to cook most of it without burning my house down before I go on this date.”
“Okay,” Ilan said, his voice a little tight. “I can be there in twenty. Just shove anything cold in the fridge or freezer, then we can get it all sorted. Is Agatha still there?”
“She took Bas for a walk, but she’s not staying.”
Ilan was quiet again. “Is this a first date or a second?”
“Second,” he admitted, and again, the words felt wrong on his tongue. “Hudson.”
“See you soon,” was all Ilan said after that, and then the line went dead.
Fredric busied himself doing what Ilan asked, and he had most of the cold stuff put aside by the time Agatha dropped Bas off. She didn’t stay for small talk, and Fredric took it as a blessing because he wanted a few minutes to compose himself before Ilan arrived. He offered Bas a chew stick, then stepped outside the back door and let his heartbeat match the rhythm of the waves crashing on the shore.
It was a calmer night, the wind still, the air crisp. He could feel the last vestiges of dusk fading into the distance, and he took a moment to wonder what this night sky—the one right above him—would sound like. Would the rises and falls of their atmosphere’s pitches form shape? Or would it always be as abstract as the idea of the horizon had become?
He let that thought carry him until he heard a car pull up into his drive, and he made his way inside just in time for Ilan to open the door. Fredric braced himself with a hand on his breakfast bar, and he heard Ilan let out a low whistle.
“Did you buy out the store?”
“I think Agatha went a little overboard,” Fredric said, his mouth lifting in a half-smile. “I didn’t stop her though.”