The Island - Chapter 3

My goodness, talk about flying by the seat of my pants!

In the last two weeks as I finished the first book in the Spencer Brothers trilogy and then wrote the extra short story I didn't have much time to do anything else.

Of course once you start publishing a serial you can't exactly go "soz my dears I'm skipping a few weeks because I was busy". Nope. And I hate letting people down so today I put my head down and wrote the next chapter.

Here it is our welcome to Sam.

Sam

I'd met Gabe twice with a combined total of twelve hours. But in that short time I knew he'd play a major role in my life.

In the same way I knew the moment I set my eyes on a camera that I wanted to be a photographer, or when I first found attraction to a boy, I knew I was gay.

My sister always said that my eyes didn't produce tears, they produced super glue, because if there was something that caught their attention, they never let go.

So as I walked towards Gabe's lonely figure at the edge of his garden overlooking the ocean I wanted to do many things. Run my hand down his back. Kiss his cheek. Take him in my arms and make sure he was really here, and this wasn't my imagination or my mind playing tricks.

None of those things would happen.

If life had taught me something at thirty was that I couldn't have everything I wanted because if I did, this reunion would be a lot different.

As if he could sense the presence behind him, Gabe turned around.

I stopped a few feet away from him, and even though Zak wasn't by my side, I knew he was right behind me. Gabe's wide eyes told me as much.

"Gabe. Welcome back," I said.

He smiled, his gaze moving down to the green grass at his feet. "Thanks." He looked up again, this time the clouds in his eyes were replaced with something resembling determination. "It's nice to be back. How have you been?"

"Is it? Nice to be back?"

"What do you mean?" his gaze shifted between me and Zak.

"There's no hidden meaning to my question, if you're wondering. You don't seem all that excited, standing here all on your own. Shouldn't you be inside being the center of attention?"

He smiled.

"You know that's not really my thing, no matter how much I try to fool people into thinking it is."

Ah, this was the Gabe I knew and loved. No one else at this party, his family included, had ever had an insight into who he really was.

My heart warmed at the memory of the night we spent together. Gabe had needed me and Zak. Not one or the other, but both. Let's face it, by then I'd only met him briefly, but it felt good to be needed by someone.

I took a step forward and pulled Gabe into my arms. He didn't resist my embrace. In fact, when Zak came up from behind me and joined us I felt Gabe relax in my hold.

Gabe was the first one to pull back, glancing at the house behind us. I was pretty sure no one saw us because everyone we'd passed had been in the living room.

"So how's Griffin? He must be so grown now," Gabe asked.

"Yeah, he's walking already and proving to be a handful of cuteness no one can resist. Right, uncle Zak?" I elbowed Zak.

He smiled but the hand that reached behind his neck to rub there told me I'd said something wrong.

"You two…" Gabe started.

"No!" Zak and I said at the same time, and then Zak continued. "We're just friends. We hang out sometimes, help his sister with Griffin, grab a drink. You know," he shrugged.

"I saw your exhibition," Gabe blurted out.

"You did? In New York?"

He rocked back on his heels, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "I saw the advert for it."

"I didn't see you there."

His face went a little red. "I…um…I asked if I could have a private viewing."

My mouth gaped in shock. "That was you?"

He nodded.

"You bought the most expensive photo in the gallery."

"It was the most beautiful one."

"Love in La Catarina." I said. The photo was a happy accident. I'd been on a hike in the mountains. As I wound back, the sun was setting and I caught the moment a man proposed to his girlfriend. Right next to them were two elderly men I then found out were the couple's grandparents who'd introduced them. The lighting was perfect. Their dark outlines in front of the setting sun. They were happy to let me keep the photo if I sent them a copy, which I did, in a beautiful frame.

"Why didn't you ask to see me?" I asked.

He shrugged again.

I wanted more from Gabe and I hated the shrugs. I wanted to know if the man I'd been with that night was still here or if he had transformed himself beyond recognition. His constant shrugs told me he was somewhere in between.

"I…" Gabe started. He looked at us and then at the house. "Um…nothing, nevermind."

"What is it?" Zak asked.

"Nothing. Honestly, I didn't even know what I was going to ask," Gabe replied. "Have you both had something to eat or drink? I'm heading inside."

"Actually, this is just a flying visit. I wanted to say hi, but I should go," I said.

"It was nice seeing you," Gabe said, but I didn't believe him. Maybe I expected something more, even after two years, but seeing Gabe left me feeling just like I did back then. Like I'd been dragged into the eye of a cyclone and then spat back out.

"Are we still in for the weekend?" Zak asked.

I didn't miss how Gabe tensed.

"Yeah. Same place, ten o'clock?"

"Yeah."

I nodded and left towards the house. Each step forward was a challenge because I didn't want to go. I wanted to stay and ask Gabe how he really was. Why did he run? Why did he never come back? Did that night mean anything to him?

Griff stopped me on my way out. "Hey, I didn't know you were coming. Nice to see you. Back for good or flying visit?"

"I only stopped by to say hi to Gabe. I'm around for a few weeks but I may have something coming up soon, so who knows."

He squeezed my shoulder. "It's great living your dream job, isn't it? I'm not so keen on the traveling part but the rest? I'm all up for it. But you enjoy traveling or you wouldn't do so much of it, right?"

Griffin was a great person and a talented and successful romance author. He'd even gotten me hooked on his books. I knew he never liked being apart from his two husbands for long.

"Right. Yeah, I love traveling. New sights, new opportunities to capture the world with my camera."

"Well, don't be a stranger, okay?"

I nodded.

I wasn't stopped again until I was inside my car, but then it was my phone ringing.

"Hey dude," my friend said in his usual greeting.

"Marco. What's up?"

"My man, I have good news."

"Oh, yeah?"

I heard a shuffle on the other side of the call. He'd probably written something down on a piece of paper and had misplaced it already. That man was loyal to a fault, but he couldn't be organized to save his own life.

"Got it! Okay, so I heard from that gallery in London and they want to do a live exhibit with you."

"A live exhibit? What does that even mean?"

More shuffling. "Um…it means you start out with a set of photos in a room at the gallery. He guaranteed the one with the best light. And they'll pay you to capture your experience in London for six months. You get to rotate the photos, hence the live part. Everything paid. You just need to say yes."

I just needed to say yes. I repeated in my head. Like it was that easy.

Six months away from my family. Six months away from Zak when I'd just returned from four weeks in South America. And then there was Gabe…

"How long do I have to decide?"

"A month. The curator is getting married so he's taking time off and he wants to be the one to deal with this exhibit. He loves your work."

"Okay, thanks, man. I'll get back to you."

"Cool beans. Stay safe."

He disconnected the call, and I shook my head. I always wondered how much fun it would be to introduce Marco to an island like La Catarina. Despite us being friends for the best part of a decade, he never came to visit.

I smiled to myself. It would be like releasing a five-foot-five super excitable but scatty bunny on the island. Maybe it would be a good thing if he never came. I'm not sure the Catarinians would survive him.

The exhibition took my mind away from the brief visit to Gabe's party but as soon as I jumped in the shower when I got home, everything flooded right back.

No unsure eyes as Gabe looked at me for the first time, or his sad expression as he assumed there was something between me and Zak.

No. The blue eyes that flooded my mind were full of need and desire. Half lidded as he gave himself to us. Zak running his soapy hands all over his body, massaging each inch of skin while I held him from behind.

The tension that dissipated only when we were all in close proximity like we were made to be this way and any kind of separation was physically painful.

Gabe had cried in our arms. He'd shown his vulnerability even though he'd never told us what was making him hurt so much. Zak and I suspected it could have something to do with a past relationship he'd been in at college.

He'd mentioned Gabe had wanted to leave Harvard before requesting to transfer to Columbia University to finish his graduate studies and work on his post-grad.

But even though we didn't know each other that well, and we didn't know what made Gabe seek us out, we understood that somehow Gabe needed us both. We needed each other. And to a certain extent we also needed Gabe.

But it was all too complicated and short-lived. Gabe left and Zak and I decided we shouldn't start something.

It was left unsaid, but it was a decision that had hurt us both but I needed Zak as a friend more than I could afford the risk of losing him as a lover.

I turned the water off. The erection that was borderline painful when Gabe's desire-filled eyes crossed my mind, all but disappeared when everything else took its place.

And just like that night, there was no orgasm, no release.

Just the feeling in my gut that three was better than one. More specifically, me, Gabe and Zak together were better than apart.

Except I didn't know how to make that happen and was too afraid to break it trying.

At least I had this weekend to look forward to.

Maybe I'd breach the subject of London with Zak.