Page 77 of The Ghost of Ellwood

I’d never seen him eat or drink before, so I watched, amazed, as he lifted the coffee to his lips and took a drink. He closed his eyes and softly sighed.

I got hard and shifted in my seat. “No, I don’t miss it. Moving here led me to you.”

“And to Carter,” he said, smiling. “You said he’s the best friend you’ve ever had.”

“He is,” I responded, shocked that he’d mentioned Carter but also pleased by it, especially since he no longer felt competition between them.

Since the book signing, I had gone over to Carter’s house a few times. I was happy to discover he no longer had a crush on me. We were finally settling into an easy friendship again without all the tension and awkwardness. He still couldn’t stop talking about the mystery man from the party. Poor guy was smitten.

“Does he have any exciting plans for tonight?” Theo asked.

“He asked if I wanted to go to a party this evening with some of his friends, but I told him I had other plans.”

Theo smiled and drank more coffee. He finished his before I was even halfway through mine. When the waitress came by to refill his cup, she stayed a little longer than necessary.

“Just let me know if there’sanythingelse I can get you,” she said.

I chuckled into my coffee as she walked away, and he shot me a glare.

“It’s not funny, Ben.”

“Oh. It really is.”

He snarled his upper lip, which only made me laugh harder.

If I thought it was sexy as hell watching Theo drink coffee, watching him eat far surpassed it. Thesoundshe made as he bit into a sausage link nearly had me dragging him to the bathroom and fucking him in one of the stalls. I was so hard under the table it was a miracle my cock didn’t burst through the wood.

After breakfast, we left the café and strolled past the other shops. Theo wanted to go into most of them, and I humored him. We walked through craft stores, an old music shop that sold records, and antique shops.

In one of the antique shops, Theo stopped beside a Victorian high back chair and stared at it. He smoothed his hand along the top before tracing the outer edge toward the arm.

“Do you like it?” I asked.

He nodded. “It would be a lovely reading chair, don’t you think?”

“Yeah. It would.”

He looked away, continuing down the aisle. While he was engrossed in a collection of old toys, I approached the man behind the counter.

“How much for the chair?”

“Two-fifty,” he answered, pushing his glasses further up his nose.

“Awesome. Do you take cards?”

“Yes, sir.”

I purchased the chair and told the man to have it delivered tomorrow. He agreed and thanked me before going back to his crossword puzzle. I found Theo playing with a wooden train, and when he caught me looking at him, he released it and went pink in the face.

The day with him was one of the best I’d ever had. His pleasure over the small things, like watching a kid play fetch with his dog in the park or seeing the Halloween decorations, warmed my heart. He also loved sitting and watching cars drive by.

“Where are we going now?” he asked with a smile so big it took my breath away.

God, he was so happy. And for a moment, I forgot he was dead. In his hoodie and skinny jeans and wearing the brightest smile I’d ever seen on his face, he looked like an ordinary guy. But it wasn’t just his appearance; it was his behavior.

Theo, who was normally so proper and gentlemanlike, was bouncing in place and grinning from ear to ear, excitedly pointing at everyday things like they were the greatest thing in the world.

“You’ll see,” I answered, placing a hand at the small of his back and guiding him across the street.