Trust in Me - Quinn Ward Page 0,6
up when he groaned. “You can do that for at least another hour before I complain. Thank you.”
“You deserve someone who will take care of you,” I said, thinking back to Doug’s statement earlier about how he worked too damn hard all the time. Sam shrugged. “Trust me, Sam. You do. And rubbing your shoulders is nothing in the grand scheme of things.”
“More than I’ve had in a long time.” His shoulders stiffened and he buried his face between his arms, muttering something I couldn’t make out. I was willing to bet his cheeks would have been pretty and pink if he looked up.
I shouldn’t have been so pleased to hear him admit he didn’t have anyone that people in the bar didn’t know about. I didn’t want a random someone taking care of him; I wanted to get to know him well enough to figure out if I was the person who could help him.
“That’s a damned shame.” I stood, moving behind him so I could use both hands. It didn’t take long before he relaxed enough that his shoulders wouldn’t be hitched up to his ears. I shifted to slowly rubbing his back, paying close attention to his reactions. His breathing steadied enough, I worried he’d fallen asleep at the bar.
As much as I would have loved to keep going until he gave in to his exhaustion, I had to respect that he was at work and there was still a bar full of customers surrounding us. When I sat on my stool, I allowed myself one last touch and reached out to stroke his messy, nearly black, curls. “Feel better now? Think you’ll be able to make it through the night?”
“Yeah, that helped.” His mouth fell open like he didn’t quite believe how he felt without the tension seizing him. “Thank you. Again.”
“You’re welcome again,” I teased. “If you need more, I’ll be here all night.”
“I’m sure I’ll be fine.” He sat up straight. “I should get back to work. I can’t exactly lecture anyone else for sitting around if I’m doing the same.” He slapped his hands on his thighs and blew out a deep breath. “Okay, time to check on John. He’s probably worried something happened to me since I haven’t worried too much about the back tonight.”
“John knows what he’s doing. I’m sure everything’s running smoothly back there.” I managed to keep myself from pointing out John wasn’t a fan of being micromanaged, or at least he hadn’t been when he was younger. Like so many others around here, he wasn’t a friend so much as someone I knew in passing. But he’d been working at The Lodge since it opened, and he was damned good at his job. He probably would have been running the place, but he was the type of guy who didn’t want the hassle that came along with being in management.
Eventually, I wandered back into the playroom. It wasn’t so bad now that some of the couples had taken off. That wasn’t surprising. After all, little boys still had bedtimes and it wasn’t good to keep them out too late. Now, it was a mix of single guys, those who were making tentative first meetings, and Daddies sitting in the lounge areas watching their boys have late-night playdates.
William noticed me and waved me over to where he was chatting with friends. I felt like the proverbial fifth wheel as they were all keeping an eye on their boys. “Hey, glad you were able to make it out tonight.”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” I said, because, really, I wouldn’t have. Jack was a good guy, and I wanted to support what he was doing for the community. Sam might not even fully understand why we needed a space like this so badly. “I wasn’t aware you’d found a boy.”
“Well, that’s sort of a work in progress,” William admitted.
“Never thought I’d see the day you settled down and found someone to call your own,” his friend, Levi, remarked as William gazed longingly at Corey.
“Too early to make that leap,” he argued.
“Give it a rest,” I scoffed. William was lucky as hell. Corey was another one I’d admired in the past. And, seeing him in his cute little shorts and tee tonight, I’d definitely seen him in a new light. But then he leaned so easily into William’s side and I knew that was another opportunity missed. “You look like a man who’s already half in love. That boy probably carries your balls around