When Luke woke up they were still in each other’s arms. Luke looked at Noah and saw that he was still looking at him. Luke caressed his face

“I’m so sorry…”

“Stop that”

“But”

“No, Luke, really, it’s okay”

“It’s not okay, but it will be, right?”

“Sure”

Luke looked at him

“What…”

“I don’t want to be afraid everytime there’s something on your mind… I don’t want to think that you are going to leave me whenever things get rough… I am sorry about what happened, but I am still worried, Noah, scared shitless… you are pushing me away and…”

“Don’t start with that again, I am not pushing you away”

“Yes, you are… something’s eating you alive… How would you feel if it was the other way around, Noah? If you knew that I was hurting and I would keep on saying that I am fine…”

“I am not like you. I don’t need to talk about things. I just need to think, that’s all. I don’t want to tell you everything that goes through my head, I don’t think I have to”

“Of course you don’t have to, but if there’s a problem…”

“Shit…”

Noah sat down on the bed and started looking for his clothes

“Noah”

“I have something on my mind, okay? Something’s bugging me, but…”

“What is it?”

“If I tell you you’ll want to talk about it and it will be there all the time”

“You can’t avoid everything”

“ Damn”

He stood up wearing only boxers and walked around the room.

“Okay, let’s do something. If I tell you, will you promise to just listen and accept what I say?”

“Yes…”

Luke sat down on the bed and looked at Noah, who was now running his hands through his head.

“Next week is the trial…”

“Trial?”

“My father’s”

“There’s a trial? I don’t get it…”

“I sued him… last year, after he…”

“You never told me that you sued him…”

“Mary convinced me”

“So… you have to go to NY?”

“Branson”

“What?”

“The trial is in Branson, and no… I am not going”

“But you’ll have to testify, right?”

“I am not going to”

“You have to”

“You promised me you would just listen and accept what I had to say”

“Yes, but”

“I made up my mind, Luke, I am not going to Branson. That’s final”

“Don’t you want him to pay for what he did to you? He beat you up, Noah”

“He is no one… I don’t want to loose anymore time thinking about him or talking about him… he’s out of my life forever and that’s how I want it to be”

“Okay… if that’s what you want…”

“Yes”

“Come here”

“What?”

Luke smiled, that was his husband, the hotest man he’s ever seen and he didn’t know it

“I said come here now…”

Noah sat down on the bed and Luke kissed him

“I just had an idea”

“I hope it involves this bed, you and me”

Luke smiled and kissed him again

“I can call Dad, tell him everything is fine and ask him if he can take care of Aaron tonight… and we could stay here. Just us”

“Sounds like a plan”

Noah started kissing Luke’s chest

“Mmmmhhh… Noah… wait…”

Noah kissed his neck and Luke smiled

“Ahhh… you are… Noah, I have to call…”

Noah made him lay on the bed and sat down on top of him

“You can call later, can you? It’s still early”

He starting kissing him again

“Yes… we can talk to them later… ah… I love it when you do that…”

Noah smiled

“I know”

Chapter 5