In Another Country Read online

  Dec shook out his shoulders a little and went back to hanging onto Tupper. Maybe you could even call it clinging. Maybe Dec was becoming okay with clinging.

  And then, because he had never been a guy who could leave well enough alone, because he had to turn over every goddamn rock even when he knew he didn’t want to see what was under it, he said, “So how long was the extension for? I mean, when do you have to head back?”

  Tupper didn’t look up, didn’t look at Dec’s face, but the long relaxed sprawl of him over Dec’s chest and belly went tense and careful. “Thursday of next week. Eight days,” he said softly against Dec’s skin.

  “Oh.”

  They just lay there for a while, breathing together. Dec couldn’t think of anything to add to that “oh.” It kind of filled up the room.

  Finally he pushed some words out of his mouth, finally he managed to be brave and say, “Kind of lonely where you’re headed back to, huh? Long way from any interesting bars. Maybe you could use a visit every now and then.”

  And then Tupper showed him that that wasn’t brave at all, that was pissant, because while he was still lying rigidly on Dec Tupper said, “It wouldn’t be lonely if—I wouldn’t need to look for any bars if. There was a kindred spirit living there.”

  “Oh,” Dec said, which filled up the room as much as the previous oh did, but in a much happier way.

  He pulled Tupper up his chest, tucked Tupper’s face into his neck and squeezed him very, very tight, and eventually all the tension seeped out of Tupper’s body and Dec had an armful of warm, relaxed Mountie.

  Dec should have been terrified, that little voice inside of him that had shrieked “Hide!!!” since he was in junior high should have been screaming its head off. But it was...quiet. For the first time in decades, it was quiet.

  He scratched gently at Tupper’s scalp and said, “Sounds good.”

  Tupper picked his head up and gave him that blinding grin he’d only seen a few times, then it faded a little and he said, “There are complications. Visas. Work permits.”

  “We’ll work it out,” Dec said, and blinked at how easy that “we” was to say.

  “We will,” Tupper said, and put his head back down on Dec’s chest, and after a minute his breathing had slowed into that soft sleep singsong that Dec had thought he’d never get to hear again. Dec lay awake for a long time after that though, listening. And looking around the bedroom of what was never his home, and looking down at Tupper.

  Dec knew jack about Canada, so he couldn’t even guess whether that would ever feel like home. But… “I think you’re my home, buddy,” he whispered into Tupper’s hair.

  Tupper shifted and murmured something that sounded like “elk senator,” and Dec whispered, “Go back to sleep, goofball.”

  He did, and this time Dec joined him.

  The End

  Acknowledgements

  And lastly a million thanks to I and A and D, for their support; to Elaine and Q, for their cheerleading; and to Pete, always, for everything.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Kellum Jeffries is a bisexual Southern librarian with a fabulous dog. She knits socks, gives excellent shoulder rubs, and can touch her nose with her tongue. You can find her on Twitter @kellumjeffries, or on her website, kellumjeffries.com.

  If you enjoyed In Another Country, check out her paranormal f/f romance novelette, Spark & Change, here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H3FGTLQ/

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