Foxe Hunt (2 page)

As soon as he closed the door, Sidney jabbed a finger in his direction. “Skyler. When are you going to
tell
her?”

“Not tonight, evidently.” He crossed back to his room to grab a belt.

Rodolfo was laughing.

“This is not funny,” she said to both of them. “Doesn’t she think I have better taste than this guy?”

“Hey!” said Rodolfo, his laughter stopping abruptly.

“By the way,” said Skyler, undoing another button on his shirt. “Mom says that she thinks Rodolfo’s gay, so don’t get too attached.”

She slapped his shoulder.

“Ouch!”

§ § §

A short time later they drove in Skyler’s white Bug to their local hangout, Trixx. When Sidney stepped out of the car and held the seat back for Rodolfo, he said to her, “You look very pretty tonight, Sidney.”

She smiled at him. “Sorry about that remark earlier.”

Rodolfo waived his hand at her. “Everyone gets nervous around mothers. But you really should tell her, Skyler.”

8 Haley Walsh

“Have you told
your
mother?”

“Can’t. She’s passed on.” He made the sign of the cross, kissed his fingers, and sent it skyward.

His friends were already at the bar: Jamie Ewing in blue hair and tight trousers, and Philip Price in square-framed glasses and his customary black T-shirt and jacket ensemble.

Rodolfo gave them a full grill smile. Philip still treated him with the usual indifference but Jamie gave him the works with squeal, hugs, and kisses. “I met Skyler’s mother tonight,” said Rodolfo.

Jamie giggled. “Oh man! How
was
that?”

Sidney, with margarita already in hand, gestured with her damp straw. “She thinks Rodolfo and I are dating, thanks to the Skyboy here.”

Jaime laughed and spilled his mojito. The beer mat soaked up some of it. “So where’s Hunk on a Stick?” he asked, looking around.

Skyler choked on his Grey Goose. “Who?” But he knew perfectly well who Jamie meant.

“You know! Your gorgeous boyfriend.”

“He’s not my boyfriend.” Keith Fletcher. Hunk on a Stick.

Walking Wet Dream. Any number of appellations that were apt to describe the sexy biology teacher and assistant football coach at James Polk High, the same school where Skyler taught English.

But boyfriend? Skyler had never had a boyfriend before and it didn’t seem likely he’d have one in the near future. They’d only kissed, after all. He supposed they were considering the merits of starting a relationship when they worked at the same place and were both in the closet. There was also something odd about Keith that made Skyler just a bit leery. Nothing he could put his finger on, but he supposed there was a dark side to Keith. Maybe it was something in his past. Maybe it was something else. Or maybe it was just Skyler’s imagination or insecurities.

“Skyler!”

Foxe hunt
9

“What?” He whipped his head toward Jamie. He had done it again. Zoned out. He did that a lot lately when thinking of Keith.

“He’s dreaming about his Hunka Hunka Burnin’ Love again,”

said Sidney.

“Am not,” he said weakly. Though it was tough getting Keith off his mind. Keith had promised that they would “get together”

soon. Skyler was hoping it would be
very
soon.

Sidney and Jamie moved to the crowded dance floor and began bumping and grinding to the beat of “I Love My Sex.”

Philip sidled up to Skyler and adjusted his glasses. Rodolfo leaned on his other side. Rodolfo and Philip couldn’t seem to get past their initial animosity for one another. Skyler hoped that they would get over themselves someday.

“Have you heard about Beat?” Philip shouted in his ear.

“What about it?” Skyler yelled back.

“Closed.”

“Oh no!” Beat was a gay dance club in San Bernardino. The biggest county in southern California and there was only one gay dance club. And now it was closed. Riverside County had the only other one and that was some seventy miles away. “I suppose all that illegal stuff with their books did it, huh?”

“It would appear so. I read about it on the Inland Empire Business Blog. The murder in their back alley didn’t help matters.”

“Shit.”

“You don’t mean you would have gone back there? Not after all the trouble you had with the angry bartender and the murder investigation…”

“It was the closest place,” Skyler whined.

Philip shook his head. “You sure are forgiving.”

“Where dancing is concerned.” He sighed and knocked back his drink and set it aside. “Dance with me and Rodolfo.”

“What? That Latin gigolo?”

10 Haley Walsh

Rodolfo shot a glare at Philip. “I’m standing right here, you know!”

“I
know
.”

“Guys, come on. Let’s all try to get along. Dance!” He grabbed both their hands and pulled them toward the tiny dance floor.

Both Philip and Rodolfo reluctantly allowed themselves to be dragged along.

Skyler draped his arms over their shoulders, drawing them all closer. “Love for the Weekend” cheered their spirits and Rodolfo was the first to let loose. Philip gave him an eye roll but started shifting into an energetic rhythm, and a smile even crept onto his face.

Much better. Skyler liked it when they got along, this loose association that Jamie teasingly called the Skyler Fuck Club, or S.F.C., since all his best friends used to be hook-ups. He closed his eyes and fell into the rhythm, swaying his hips and rolling his head on his neck. He was just getting into it when someone slammed into his shoulder, dislodging him from his friends and almost knocking him down.

“Oh shit! I’m sorry!” Hands reached for him and helped him up and he found himself looking into familiar soft brown eyes.

“Jeff?”

“Skyler?” The slender man looked around at Skyler’s friends but didn’t seem to recognize the faces of Philip or Rodolfo. Of course, he wouldn’t. Skyler had known Jeff before he met Philip or even Jamie, and certainly before Rodolfo, whom Skyler had only met himself a month ago.

“Jeff.” He looked the man over. Jeff Dwyer was even thinner than he remembered. He had that unhealthy look about him, drawn cheeks and skeletal arms, that made him wonder if Jeff didn’t have AIDS. He took Jeff into a hug to prove that it didn’t matter. “It’s good to see you,” he said to his cheek before pushing him back to look at him. He definitely didn’t look good.

“It’s been a long time, huh, Sky?” He glanced at Skyler’s friends again and lowered his face. Skyler nodded to his friends Foxe hunt
11

and took Jeff aside.

“A long time,” Skyler admitted. “What have you been doing with yourself?”

He gestured with hands that were each encumbered by full beer bottles. “Evan and I became officers and went overseas.”

“No shit! You’re kidding! You mean Iraq?”

Sweat sparkled off of Jeff ’s short hair when the lights caught it. “We sure did.” His voice had a defeated tone to it.

Skyler had a sinking feeling when he asked, “W-where’s Evan?”

“He’s outside. He won’t come in. Maybe if you talked to him.

He’d love to see you. But Skyler. Things didn’t go well in Iraq.

Evan—”

“Let me just say hello.” He signaled to his friends that he was going outside, and Jamie acknowledged with a wave. Anxiety squeezed his chest and he put his hand warmly on Jeff ’s back as he followed him out the door. Not only were these good friends of his, but they were also hook-ups at separate times in college, an early pre-cursor to the S.F.C. But they hadn’t stayed in touch.

He knew that Evan was quite the jock and very much into the military thing. He always suspected he’d join up, but he had hoped that Evan would be out of it when all this Middle East stuff started escalating.

All his fears were justified when they emerged and Skyler spotted the back of a guy in a wheelchair.
Please no
. But it
was
him.

Jeff scooted ahead and shoved the bottled beer forward.

“Evan, guess who I ran into inside?”

Evan took the proffered beer and turned. His dark eyes held little emotion at first, but then they focused on Skyler, who was trying to keep the horror from his face. A small smile played at the edges of the man’s mouth but got no further. “Skyler Foxe.

Mmm. Mmm. You are still a tasty-looking morsel.”

Skyler felt the vice grip on his heart ease somewhat. “Evan Fargo. You could always make me blush.”

12 Haley Walsh

“I made you squeal as I recall.”

Skyler’s ears flushed hot.

Evan’s face looked the same, though perhaps a little harder, and the fine lines at his eyes were etched a little deeper than he remembered. He had short brown hair, buzzed up the side, military style. But the significant difference was the pant leg folded up to the knee. Skyler grabbed one of the chairs from the outdoor tables and pulled it around in front of the wheelchair and sat. He tried not to look at the leg. “Jeff tells me you guys went to Iraq.”

Evan’s face clouded. “You mean it’s not obvious?” He gestured toward his leg with the beer bottle. He took a swig.

His arms were hairy and there was a nest of dark hair peeking out from the fatigue-green shirt collar. His uneven beard was unkempt and told of a certain disinterest in his looks, not at all like Keith Fletcher’s carefully cultivated jaw stubble.

Skyler reached for him, fingers resting on the arm he had known so well. “I’m sorry, Evan.”

“Everyone’s sorry. Everyone but our commanding officers.

Fags are immoral, didn’t you know? Like adulterers. It’s okay if we die or fucking lose our limbs fighting for freedom, but don’t love your fellow man
that
way. Fucking generals.” He took another long drink.

“We were in Fallujah,” said Jeff, rolling his broad shoulders.

The outside string of colored lights tinted the sharp planes of his high cheekbones. “And we were very good about not looking like we were together, you know? As far as anyone knew, we were just good buddies. We didn’t even sleep together over there. Not once.”

“Never touched, not even secretly,” echoed Evan.

“We were good soldiers. We were heroes. Especially Evan.”

He laid his hand on Evan’s shoulder, but Evan seemed to shrink from it. Jeff slowly withdrew his hand.

“Don’t ask, don’t tell…don’t show,” growled Evan. “And we didn’t. We didn’t deserve what they did to us. I gave my life to the Foxe hunt
13

army. I was an officer.”

“We both were.”

Skyler looked from one solemn face to the other. “What happened?”

“Shortly after Evan was wounded, I got leave to be with him at the Army hospital in Balad. That’s when…when it fell apart.” His long fingers wrapped around his beer bottle, moved restlessly, leaving smudges in the condensation.

“We were discreet. No one saw us. I know they didn’t.”

“Well someone did,” said Jeff wearily. “We were both courtmartialed. Evan got the better deal.”

Evan snorted. “They allowed me to continue getting care at the VA hospital since I kind of left my leg in Iraq. At least they acknowledged that.”

“They couldn’t take that away,” said Jeff. “Anyway, Evan got an honorable discharge. But I didn’t. The goddamned snitch who told his tales managed to get me a dishonorable.”

“Shit! Did you appeal?”

Jeff nodded. “Three times. No go. Do you know what a dishonorable does to your record? It’s a felony, Skyler. That shit cans any chance for me to get a decent job.”

Skyler didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t fair. The Army was all Evan had ever talked about, all he had wanted to do as long as Skyler had known him. It would be as bad as Skyler never being allowed to teach again.

“How long have you guys been out?”

“Three months,” said Evan. “We’ve been fighting with the Army to change Jeff ’s dishonorable to honorable but it’s all a pretty slow process. We contacted our Congressman and our lawyers keep telling us to wait. They were full of optimism when they took our first check. Of course
that
one didn’t bounce.”

“God, you guys. I’m so sorry.”

Evan scowled and thrust his empty beer bottle at Jeff. “I
14 Haley Walsh

could use another.”

Jeff took the empty and trudged back into the doorway.

Skyler followed with a quick farewell kiss on Evan’s cheek and a whispered goodbye. Evan gave him a brief smile. Once they got back inside Jeff put both bottles down on the first flat surface.

He covered his face with his hand. “He’s been like that ever since the leg and it’s only gotten worse when they kicked us out. I don’t know what to do about him anymore, Skyler. He’s so depressed all the time. I’m worried he’s going to do something.”

Skyler grabbed his shoulders. “Like what? He wouldn’t…

wouldn’t…”

Jeff shook his head. When he took his hand away his eyes were wet and red-rimmed. “I don’t know. He’s not like he was.

But the Army turning its back on him like that. That was worse than losing the leg. I love him dearly, Skyler. I really do. But I’m afraid what he might do.”

“What about you? You don’t look so well.”

“I’m all right. I’m just exhausted from this fight. I hold down two jobs so I don’t lose the house. They’re crap jobs but I’ve got them. And at least now we’ve got some pro bono lawyers from the LGBT center.”

“Listen. Here’s my number.” Skyler reached in his pocket and took out a business card. “Call me anytime. I don’t have much but I can bring over groceries or something—”

“Don’t be ridiculous. We can’t take your money. Just your friendship.”

“Of course. I mean it. Call me anytime.”

Jeff offered their number and Skyler took out his phone and entered it. After he stuffed the phone away in his pocket, they stood and looked at each other forlornly for a bit until Jeff patted Skyler’s arm. Skyler dragged him into a hug. The man sighed tiredly. He pushed Skyler back and offered a brave smile. “Look, I’ve kept you away from your friends long enough. You go back to them. Evan and I will be all right. I’m going to take him home.