Aiden leaned on the small counter looking over the guest registry. He saw the sole name for the night. There were six rooms and most of the year he had at least four of them booked for any given night, but come January and February, it was difficult to book just one room.
Evelyn Harrison, 254 Ridgeway Drive, Franklin, TN.
She had checked in early that morning, less than an hour before the snow started. She had been friendly and seemed pleased with the accommodation. He replayed their conversation as he got her information and ran her credit card. She wanted to be an author and at forty-nine years old, retired from her job with an accounting firm in Atlanta, moved back to her hometown and decided to start writing. She admitted to struggling with getting her story underway. She thought there were too many distractions in her home, memories from the photographs of her childhood and the happy life with her parents and two siblings. Therefore, she was coming to his small lodge north of Weaverville, North Carolina to have a few days of no distractions. She had been thrilled by the snowfall beginning as she got her luggage from her car. It meant there would be few if any other guests that could disturb her.
Aiden looked out the window at the eight inches of snow that now covered the ground and clung to the trees. It really was beautiful and with the blanket of snow, the mountainside was quiet, so quiet it could be eerie to some, but to him it was comforting. Through the trees he got framed views of the open meadow below. In spring it was a riot of color, wildflowers covering most of it, but now it was a white plain, broken only by a narrow stream snaking through the middle of it.
It was surprising that Weaverville was only thirty minutes away, a small town with restaurants, grocery stores, and shops, but on the mountain, it was worlds away. Despite the interior warmth of the room, he could feel the cold of the mountain. The way it would make one feel invigorated when first going out. Every breath, pure and clean.
He turned and went back to work on his computer, checked future reservations and events to occur in Asheville, Blowing Rock and other areas within a half day’s drive. He knew guests that stayed more than three days would be looking for something to do during their stay. He checked his grocery list and went ahead and put an order to the nearest grocery store with a pickup time the next afternoon. He would go after lunch, making a note to check with Ms. Harrison whether she needed anything. He started to close his laptop but flipped to one of the news sites he checked from time to time. There were three he looked at: BBC News, The AP, and DW, the site from Germany. Anything but Fox and CNN, hating the former and feeling like the latter chased viewers too hard. He scanned the headlines and the feeling of being overwhelmed overtook him, so he closed the laptop shutting out the world. He looked out the window until feeling calm again.
He had laundry to do, and it never hurt to get the ingredients for a salad prepped. Maybe he would chop some of the pecans he had shipped from Georgia, and the mushrooms he got at the farmer’s market last weekend. He went through the door behind the check-in counter to his private quarters; a small living room with a television he rarely watched and bookshelves lining two walls, nearly full of the books that he used to fill his free time. He got to the small dining room, just a passage with a built-in table and bench seating to one side and a butler’s pantry on the other. The smallness made eating at the table feel quaint, cozy, for at the end of the niche was a window that overlooked the valley. He was about to enter the small kitchen when the bell attached to the front door rang out.
Who could it be, he wondered, looking back at the door to the front. Maybe it was the mailman needing a signature on a package or one of the neighbors, if someone a quarter of a mile away could be considered a neighbor. He headed to the front, coming out behind the counter where he froze. He looked at the man standing at the small table with brochures for area tourist attractions. The man turned to him and smiled.
“Hey, Aiden. How have you been?”
“What are you doing here?”
“You know I looked for you for three months after you left, then gave up.”
“What?”
“Then last month an aunt and uncle came back from their vacation talking about this small lodge north of Asheville. They went on and on about how the lodge was so remote you had to drive thirty minutes to get to the nearest town, how the owner prepared meals for the guests, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and during their praise of this lodge, they mentioned the owner’s name.”
“There were no Crawfords here.”
“Mother’s side of the family. The Gardner’s from Macon?”
“Oh…yeah, I remember them. But Shaun, why are you here?” said Aiden, as he looked at the person so familiar it made him feel breathless. He felt his heart race, and the welling up of those old feelings that took months to beat down. The hurt when Shaun had said ‘I’m sorry’ just before leaving. Shaun had left with his parents for Seattle, where they were relocating their small business, getting closer to their main suppliers.
“Aiden, when I came—”
“Stop. Shaun…I can’t do this; not now.”
“But Aiden, there is some misunderstanding. It doesn’t make sense that you would just up and leave and—”
“There was nothing in Atlanta left for me to keep me there.”
Aiden stared at Shaun, and he could see the search for what to say in the way the eyes didn’t focus on anything. He wondered why, after two years, Shaun was standing in front of him. Why come all this way from Seattle just to see him.
Shaun moved up the counter. “I’d like to check in for a few days.”
“What? No.”
“No?”
“I’m booked up.”
Shaun smiled, shaking his head. “Liar. You have one guest,” he said, pointing at Evelyn Harrison’s name.
Aiden sighed heavily, then held out a pen for Shaun to put his information into the ledger. He watched the neat cursive handwriting, noting how that hadn’t changed either.
Shaun Crawford
784 Adair Ave NE
Atlanta, GA
“You…you…you’re back in Atlanta?”
“Aiden, I never left.”
“What?”
“After I get settled in, can we talk?”
Aiden stared at Shaun, unsure what was going on. Two years ago, Shaun came to him, said he had to go, that his parents were moving their business to Seattle, and that he was sorry. ‘I’m sorry,’ he had said as he went out the door. Didn’t that mean he was going to Seattle to live too. But he was still in Atlanta, and he looked up at Shaun confused.
“Aiden, we need to talk.”
“Okay,” Aiden uttered.
Aiden watched Shaun come back inside with a suitcase and a backpack. While pretending to be looking at something on his laptop, he cut his eyes up and watched him go up the stairs to the second floor where five of the guest rooms were located. Only one room was on the ground floor, and it was occupied by Evelyn Harrison, because she wanted the quietest room available. Only Shaun’s lower legs were visible when he stopped on the stairs.
“Aiden, I’ll be back down in a few minutes, and we can talk.”
“Dinner is at six and I need to get it prepared. Come down for dinner and we can talk afterward.”
“Okay, Aiden. After dinner.”
Aiden stared at the feet as they started moving again until they were out of sight.
Evelyn had excused herself leaving Aiden and Shaun at the table in the guest dining room, a room originally a large side porch, but now glassed in. It could be brutally cold in winter but with the wood heater blowing warm air across the room, it was cozy, making the snow-covered landscape outside seem surreal, a fantasy world that was just beyond the glass.
“You thought I was moving to Seattle with my parents,” said Shaun, not as a question but stated as fact.
Aiden nodded.
“I realize I wasn’t clear. I meant I was sorry for having to rush off. I knew I had to be gone for a month, and that was going to be for too long.”
Aiden looked up wondering how he had gotten it all wrong.
“Aiden, why didn’t you take my calls?”
“I thought you had just up and left without even discussing it with me.”
“You blocked me.”
“Yes.”
“I know your family sold your hotel and left within the month, and…where did you go? When I came back, you were gone, and I couldn’t find you.”
“Mom and dad always wanted to travel, and selling the hotel gave them the opportunity to retire and take off on a vacation.”
“And you went with them.”
“Yes.”
“Where did you go?” said Shaun, his tone different, more casual as if just a conversation between friends.
“Japan…Thailand, Australia, a week in New Zealand, then back to Mexico before returning.”
“How long were you gone?”
“Three months.”
“Three months…that is about the time I gave up and stopped looking for you.”
“When we returned, mom and dad moved to Blowing Rock and helped me get this place renovated as a lodge.”
“Was it a residence?”
“Yes. It belonged to a great aunt and uncle and one of dad’s cousins had inherited it. They used it for a vacation home for a few years until his wife decided it was too remote. Dad found out at a funeral for a relative they were going to sell it.”
“When was this?”
“Right after we got back. Everything happened fast when we returned. Mom and dad getting settled in Blowing Rock and me overseeing the renovation while living here.”
“You never went back to Atlanta.”
“Just to get my stuff that I had put in storage.”
Snow fell from a limb making it move up and down for a few seconds which caught their attention. Aiden stared out at the limb while seeing Shaun from the corner of his eye turn back to him.
“Aiden, can we talk about what we had?”
Aiden turned to him, wondering if they could go back. Was it possible to just erase all the misunderstandings and lost time. He had told himself he had moved on and would start dating again once he had the lodge settled down, knowing the lodge was set up for such personal service, he had no time for dating.
“Aiden?”
“Can we go back to what we had?”
“No, I don’t think so. But we can move forward with something new.”
“How? My life is here with the lodge and your life is back in Atlanta.”
“Aiden, I can work from anywhere. I don’t need to be in Atlanta.”
Aiden looked up, seeing the possibilities unfolding before him. Shaun smiled for the first time, then leaned forward, arms resting on the table.
“Aiden, I would move here for you. I just wish I was here with you when you went through the renovation and started the business. I wanted to be with you.”
Aiden sat silent for a long time, unsure what to say. What was there to say. He had misunderstood and Shaun had not been clear that his leaving was just for a month.
“I’m sorry,” whispered Aiden as tears trickled down his cheeks.
“Aiden don’t; it’s okay. We both messed up. Come on, don’t cry.”
“I’m not,” he uttered while trying to breathe normally as tears came faster.
Shaun got up and came around the table and hugged Aiden. “Please don’t cry.”
“Do you…really want to start over?”
“Yes.”
Aiden buried his face into Shaun’s chest and cried.
Aiden sat on his bed watching Shaun come into the room. He watched him come to a place close enough he could reach out and touch him. He watched him unbutton his shirt, slip it from the shoulders, and allowed to fall to the floor. He watched the jeans unbuttoned, the zipper tugged down, then worked down the legs, the right foot, then the left freed. The jeans were tossed on the floor and Shaun stood in boxer briefs bulging with his arousal.
Aiden saw the familiar body. The lean muscular build from jogging and bicycling. The fair skin, the baby face, the nickel size nipples, the right one circled by a tattoo of a dragon, not of western myth but of the far East. He saw the confidence ebb away, Shaun suddenly hesitant, and he reached out and grazed his fingers along the stomach, along the top of the waistband, then over the cock straining at its confinement.
“Do you promise not to run away again?” whispered Shaun.
“Yes.”
“You’ll stay with me…forever.”
Aiden knew forever was impossible, but he knew what Shaun spoke of. “Yes,” as he grasped the front of the boxer briefs at the waistband and pulled Shaun to him. He leaned into the body, kissing the stomach as he tugged the boxer briefs down. He wanted Shaun naked. He wanted the cock free, the body fully exposed.
He wanted him until he was breathing hard.
“Aiden,” Shaun uttered as Aiden mouthed the cock, moving his lips along the growing length. He tongued and kissed it, then captured the head in his mouth and pushed forward. He closed his eyes and relished the feel of Shaun in his mouth. How the cock filled it and pushed into his throat. He moved on it, letting it slide over his tongue while rubbing one hand over the chest and across the hardening nipples. He used the other to fondle the sac, working the nuts around within it, then he tugged on it the way Shaun liked while getting sucked.
“Fuck,” Shaun uttered as he ran his hands through Aiden’s black hair.
The cock swelled to full hardness, thick and over eight inches long, and with every wet slick swipe over the head with his tongue, Shuan shivered and moaned. He held the waist and moved his mouth on it until Shaun was pumping with the hips, and he held still letting Shuan fuck his mouth. He knew Shaun was close, too close to hold back, and he held in place waiting for the first eruption.
He didn’t wait long.
Cum hit the back of his throat, then flooded his mouth. He closed his lips around the flexing cock, capturing every wad, swallowing it. Then he milked the last drop from the cock, licking it off the head.
Shaun pulled him to his feet and began to undress him. Almost frantic in the way buttons were worked free, and how the shirt was roughly pulled off his shoulders and down the arms. The khakis were loosened, worked down his legs and he held up one foot then the other letting Shaun pull them off. Shaun stayed stooped before him taking his boxers by the waist band and pulling them down. His cock flopped out, almost fully erect, and Shaun captured it in his mouth. Shaun stroked his cock while sucking the head, desperate for him to cum.
Aiden combed his fingers through the light brown hair, closed them into fists, and moved the head back and forth, feeling how the mouth moved on his cock. He pumped his cock over the tongue, into the throat, until he closed his eyes and thrust forward as his cock erupted, pumping wad after wad into the mouth.
Shaun knew Aiden would stay hard after coming just once. He knew Aiden, knew how his fuck would last a long time, until the two of them were sweaty and breathless. As Aiden stood, he moved around him to the bed. He lay back on it, ass right at the edge, and held up his legs.
Aiden moved to Shaun, took the legs behind the knees, pushing them back and apart. He rubbed his wet cock over the ass, pumped it alongside Shaun’s cock, then down over the ass. It rubbed over the tight opening and Aiden watched Shaun stare up at him, then close his eyes and lay back, and he knew Shaun was ready. He put his cock to the tight opening and breached its tightness. Slowly, gently, he worked the head of his cock into him, then inch after inch of his cock until halfway inside him. He held still, waiting. Shaun’s rapid breathing slowed, then the head rose as the eyes opened. Aiden saw the familiar look, one of longing and desire, and he began to work his hips. A slow tug outward, then a slow push inward. Over and over, working deeper and deeper, until his hips pressed against the ass.
“Aiden.”
A breathless utterance. A plea. Aiden knew what Shaun wanted.
He worked his hips faster and faster, until hips were smacking against the ass. He fucked, fucked hard, until he felt the tightening of his muscles. He pulled out.
“Move up on the bed.”
Aiden watched Shaun work his way up the bed then lay back, legs held up. He moved up to him, took each leg, and pushed them over and down. He pressed the thighs against the chest angling the ass up, perfect for his cock. He penetrated him again, all the way. He pressed against the ass then he began to fuck. He hammered the ass as he shoved cock into its depths. He held Shaun down and fucked until sweat rained down on him.
“Jesus…fuck me,” exclaimed Shaun.
And Aiden fucked him. Fucked until gasping for breath and muscles burned from his exertions. He fucked until nothing registered but Shaun and how his cock felt buried in the ass. He pumped his cock in Shaun’s depths until he could not hold back. He shoved deeply into the ass and came.
Aiden rolled to his back and scooted over next to Shaun. He moved against him, pushing his still hard cock against the hip. Shaun twisted his hips and held up his left leg spreading his ass. Aiden put his cock to the cum slick ass and penetrated it again. He slow fucked Shaun, working his hips as he kissed the neck, tugged the earlobe, and hugged the body against his own.
Shaun took his own cock and began to stroke it, slowly, smearing its slick along the hard shaft. As Aiden fucked his ass, he stroked his cock with the same slow rhythm. He came first, aroused by how Aiden had fucked him; was still fucking him. He shuddered and threw his head back as his cock swelled within his fist, then erupted, shooting a rope of cum across his chest, then rained it over his stomach.
“Fuck…Shaun,” exclaimed Aiden as he pushed all the way into the ass and came again. He knew it wasn’t much, but the feel of his cock erupting in the ass was still just as overpowering.
Shaun guided Aiden under the shower. He had soaped him from head to toe, even shampooing the hair, and now he moved him under the spray to rinse the suds away. He kissed Aiden, then handed him the soap.
Aiden soaped up the familiar body, ran hands over every inch of it, then guided Shaun under the spray.
“Do you promise?” said Aiden.
“What?”
“You’ll stay with me.”
“I promise.”
“How long will it take for you to move here?”
Shaun smiled.
“What?”
“I have my clothes and some personal things in my 4Runner. As to the rest, I just need to call mom and dad in the morning, and they’ll head out with it.”
“You already have your stuff packed?”
“And I sold all of my furniture and television. I kept my computer figuring it best we do not try to share that.”
“You’re joking.”
“No, I’m serious.”
“What…what if I…”
“I don’t know.”
Aiden stared at Shaun; not sure he believed him. But he knew him to be impulsive at times, going after whatever he was aiming for.
“Aiden?” Shaun whispered.
“Yeah?”
“If I don’t use my room, can I get a refund?”
Aiden stared at him, then he smiled seeing Shaun do the same. They began to laugh, then kiss, and utter silly affections. Shaun pushed Aiden against the wall and pressed against him as they kissed. When Shaun pulled back, he stared into the grey eyes.
“So, I should call my folks in the morning?”
“It’s not too late, call them tonight.”
“I’ll do that.”
7 Months Later
The air was dry and cool, and the skies were vivid blue, a perfect fall day in the mountains. Shaun and Aiden sat in the Adirondack chairs in the only lawn at the lodge, a small circle of grass below the entrance. They watched four of their guests heading down the drive to the trail head, knowing they were heading to the rock outcropping near the ridgeline. It was the best place to overlook the valley because it gave a stunning view of it. It was mid-October, and the leaves were in full color. It was the busiest time of year and the lodge was fully booked.
When the guests were out of sight, they leaned back and looked through the trees to the open meadow below. The grasses were brown and gold, all framed by the reds, oranges, and yellows of the surrounding trees.
“The leaves are really beautiful this year,” said Shaun.
“Yes, they are.”
“Do you think the contractor will be done before winter sets in?”
“He has three dried in and will have the other cabin done next week.”
Aiden had been planning an expansion since moving to the mountain, and when Shaun moved in, ready to contribute, he got a contractor on board, contract worked out and had them underway by the middle of the summer. There would be four cabins that were two rental units in each, then above the lodge halfway to the ridgeline, two treehouses, both finished and rented out. It allowed them to hire help, a couple from nearby. The husband would keep the grounds cleaned up and help with building maintenance and the wife would over see the two people hired to clean rooms and the common areas and help at the check-in counter. But the most important thing to Aiden and Shuan, it would let them take vacations without interrupting the operation.
“I can’t wait until February,” said Shaun.
“It’ll be nice to take a vacation.”
“And celebrate our anniversary.”
Aiden smiled.
“Mom said we would love Rio de Janeiro,” said Shaun.
“A week in Rio,” Aiden uttered with satisfaction.
“And a week in Mexico.”
For a moment they were silent, listening the breeze rustle through the trees.
“We need to decide on where we want to go. I still say San Miguel de Allende,” said Shaun, saying the name of the city with a flourish.
“Puerto Vallarta looks nice too.”
“Maybe we should add a week and stay in both.”
Aiden chuckled, then sighed. “Two weeks will be a stretch. We can do Puerto Vallarta another time.”
“Should we go in and start lunch?”
Aiden lay back and closed his eyes. He felt the warmth of the sun on his face and the coolness of the air. “Let’s sit for a few more minutes.”
